My episode seven is now rendered and uploaded, ready for your download.
My episode five (of eight), ‘The Lonely Mountain’, is rendering now.
There’s not much to say about this episode - this one’s not got any changes in it beyond AdamDens’ original cuts. (I’m reproducing these episodes in order of complexity, the more interesting cuts will come later.)
Episode five features the arrival at Laketown, (with minimal Alfrid and the Master, and no warg attack or appearance of Tauriel or Legolas), the journey on to and arrival at The Lonely Mountain, and the White Council rescuing Gandalf and believing they have defeated Sauron. This is the final episode where we follow the Necromancer sub-plot, believing it to be wrapped up here, with the hint that Saruman may be hiding something.
I end this episode on Saruman declaring ‘leave Sauron to me’, so the end credits score I’ve chosen is The Treason of Isengard from Fellowship, hinting further at his future betrayal.
You can see that episode ending here, and let me know if the moment feels like it hits right. https://vimeo.com/441024992
I reveal the episode’s title over a wide establishing shot of the Master’s mansion on Laketown - the highest point in the city. I like the visual pun of this hated figure, sitting unloved on his own wealth and power in his ramshackle mansion - his own ‘Lonely Mountain’. It’s a cheeky joke but I think it’s cute.
Episode six, ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, is also complete and uploaded.
This is the final episode where I don’t deviate from AdamDens’ cuts at all, so again, not much to talk about.
It begins with Bilbo encountering Smaug, then essentially gives us a full half hour of the engagement with Smaug (with none of the forge nonsense) up to Smaug’s death, then a little of the fallout - refugees, dwarves regrouping, etc. It ends on the moment where the dwarves realise that the refugees are flooding towards them.
This is a nice place to end the episode because previously we’ve been operating under the assumption that the plot is simply ‘kill the dragon’, but at this point we realise that the situation is more complicated than we initially thought. For its credits, I extended the existing track, The Ruins of Dale, allowing the moment to sit for longer in the audience’s mind, to the sound of an ominous, military-sounding track.
You can see that episode ending here, and let me know if the moment feels like it hits right. https://vimeo.com/441030864
Technically ‘The Desolation of Smaug’ is a place, not an action, and they arrive at that place (and name it) in the prior episode. But hey, it can be an action too, and this is the Smaug episode. Besides, a dragon can cause more than one desolation, and it certainly desolates Laketown.
I reveal the episode title at the moment Bilbo starts wandering onto Smaug’s gold pile.
Next up: Episode 8, with improvements to the final battle.