eldusto84

Ok, I thought I might jump back in this thread after watching "Tolkieneditor's" fanedit of the Hobbit. It looks like we made several similar editing choices along with several dissimilar ones. However the biggest drawback to his version is the poor video quality. Perhaps the 6GB will look nicer but he's still working off a DVD rip of the first two films and a bootleg copy of the third.

That being said, I've gone and made a page on my website dedicated to my fanedit version: JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. The idea is the same- cut all three films into one long epic that is more faithful to the book. My source media are the 1080p Blurays, so I won't be able to edit the third film until it is released (legitimately) this spring.

Here is the link to my fanedit info page:

http://www.maple-films.com/the-hobbit-fanedit

I'm also going to start a new thread on the topic here.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/JRR-Tolkiens-The-Hobbit-turning-a-mediocre-trilogy-into-one-really-good-film/topic/17418/

So I thought I might jump back into the fray after watching “Tolkieneditor’s” fanedit of the Hobbit. It looks like we made several similar editing choices along with several dissimilar ones. However the biggest drawback to his version is the poor video quality. Perhaps the 6GB will look nicer but he’s still working off a DVD rip of the first two films and a bootleg copy of the third. His version also contains a bit more CGI silliness that I thought should be removed.

That being said, I’ve gone and made a page on my website dedicated to my fanedit version: JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The idea is the same- cut all three films into one long epic that is more faithful to the book. My source media are the 1080p Blurays, so I won’t be able to edit the third film until it is released (legitimately) this spring.

Here is the link to my fanedit info page:

http://www.maple-films.com/the-hobbit-fanedit

I think we can still show Kili being hit with an arrow without mentioning that it is a Morgul shaft. To be honest, I missed that reference completely when I first saw the film, so it probably wouldn't be too hard to remove. That way he can still recover in Laketown, but yes I agree we can cut the whole Tauriel/Legolas in Laketown fighting orcs and healing dwarves with kingsfoil. Silly.

Yeah, that is another challenge but there are pros and cons to the Laketown situation. Having a few dwarves remain in Laketown will make Smaug's attack in the 3rd movie more involving, since we have already invested time into the characters as opposed to Bard and the others who are still relatively new. I actually like that Jackson decided to split the company up in this regard. It will also be nice to still have something to cut back and forth between Laketown and Bilbo.

Still, we need to establish the reason why the four dwarves remain in Laketown, which is because Kili is shot and wounded. Therefore, at least part of the barrel chase must remain. I can easily remove the ridiculous CGI acrobatics of Legolas though. The way he is portrayed in the Hobbit makes you wonder why he couldn't have defeated the army of Mordor singlehandedly. 

The "good morning" scene is very close to how it was written in the book, plus it's necessary to get things rolling!

Yes, Tauriel and Legolas may be difficult to edit around until we see the 3rd movie. However I do think many of the elf scenes can be trimmed regardless. Peter Jackson is trying very hard to make these films into LOTR-level epics but the core story is just not on that level. Focusing on Bilbo and the dwarf company should be the priority.

The trouble I'm noticing with removing Azog completely is that he may be too integrated into the Battle of Five Armies by the 3rd movie. It's obvious that he was a late addition to the production, so I'm hoping it won't be too hard to remove him. The Bolg character in the 2nd movie may have to stay because his character introduction is made THROUGH Azog. So we're kind of screwed there.

The whole tree chase/eagle rescue sequence, I feel, is an all-or-nothing kind of thing because you have to show Thorin get hurt, and then when the eagles drop the company off on that mountain the film is clearly building to a conclusion when we really want it to be a continuation into the next scene. With the way I have it set up at the moment, the orcs & wargs begin chasing the dwarves and it will then merge with them running to Beorn's house. No eagles, no pointless anti-climatic showdown between Thorin and Azog. I know the eagles were a part of the book but let's face it, they are a deus ex machina that I think we can all agree get kind of annoying.

Hello everyone, this is my first post on these boards but I have been following this site for a while now.

I have begun working on a "purist" version of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, with the goal of creating a new version that is as faithful to the original book as possible. I have read about a number of other editors making their own versions and I'm sure my edit will be one of several floating around by the time the 3rd film is on video. However, many of the versions being worked on now still plan to include scenes/characters/elements that were not in the book. I'm going to be a bit more judicious with what stays in!

Right now I am planning to compress the trilogy into ONE MOVIE. I am sure that this will make for a long film, but let's not forget that Return of the King Extended Edition was 240 minutes long! My target running time is 200 minutes for JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit (that's the new version title I'm going with).

Anyways, I'm already 90% finished with An Unexpected Journey. Working off a nice Bluray rip with 5.1 audio. The original 170-minute long film has been cut down to about 95 minutes, and that number could change depending on how the other two films cut with this one. After seeing Desolation of Smaug in theaters, I am confident that I can get that film down to an hour. Here are a few things I have changed from An Unexpected Journey:

-No Dale/Erebor prologue

-Bilbo's opening lines remain, but Frodo is removed

-Some dwarf silliness is gone from the Bag End sequence (just a few shots)

-No Radagast or Dol Guldur scenes

-Azanulbizar flashback remains for now, it gives Thorin much-needed depth

-Azog for the most part is gone

-Troll scene is cut down, some silliness is removed

-Daylight Orc chase is gone

-No White Council/Galadriel/Saruman

-Stone Giants stays for now, I may remove it for time later

-All scenes with Gollum are untouched!

-Goblintown escape is cut down drastically, removed CGI silliness

-I have chosen to remove the tree fight/eagle rescue because the scene is too drawn out and Jackson obviously beefed it up late in production in order to have some sort of action climax.

-Film ends with Bilbo meeting back up with the dwarves outside Goblintown, and he still gives his nice little speech. Orcs suddenly show up and the party begins to run...however the beginning of the chase will hopefully segue into the beginning of Desolation of Smaug where they are chased into Beorn's house.

-PLANNED EDITS for Desolation of Smaug:

-No prologue at the Prancing Pony

-No Dol Guldur/Necromancer subplot

-No Radagast

-I will TRY to cut Legolas/Tauriel down but they are fairly integrated into the plot now. Same goes for the Kili romance subplot.

-Barrel chase is too cartoonish, I'll try cutting that down

-Laketown scenes will be shortened

-Smaug playing hide and seek with the dwarves is a bit long

-The whole furnace stoking/molten gold statue is silly, that will go away

-Many more cuts to come, I am sure!

If any of you have ideas/comments/questions, I will happily field them!