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The Hobbit (M4 Book Edit) (Released)

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 (Edited)

Hello, about 4 months ago I finished this edit, which I worked on for about a year. I’ve been constantly updating it and working it with new feedback, but now I think I am done [edit: 2 years later].

Now you’re probably thinking what makes this edit special, why did I do this, there’s already so many edits, well, the simple answer is: There are actually very few one-movie book themed edits. The large majority of edits remove silliness, but keep the made-up sideplots and characters, even if inaccurate. This usually results in cutting 3 movies into 2, usually around 5-6 hours total, or even keeping the 3 film structure. Then there’s the opposite end, I have seen numerous edits that reduce the entire trilogy into just one regular length 2-3.5 hour film, often cutting out book material or keeping moments that weren’t pivotal to exploring Bilbo’s adventure (i.e. losing out on Beorn, keeping Dol Guldur, or an type of combination that wasn’t quite matching the structure of the text).

Instead, I really enjoy the middle ground, which is keeping it long enough to tell the full story of Bilbo, but not too long, and not too short. I have been able to turn the extended editions of the Hobbit trilogy into one long, accurate & enjoyable Middle Earth film that sits better with the LOTR Extended Editions.

Now of course, there are probably two or three other solid fan edits that have taken this same middle ground approach, so I’m not saying mine is the first of its kind - but rather, it’s still an approach that has plenty of room for more interpretation. Personally, none of the other edits I saw were quite what I was envisioning, either trying to be too accurate (skip the entire end of the battle, missing out on character moments) or too inaccurate (missing out on extended Beorn, Mirkwood, an accurate portrayal of Smaug, etc.), so I set out to make my own. The final runtime ended up being 4 hours (excluding credits), so when compared to the extended LOTR trilogy, it fits in pretty well:

The Hobbit – 255 Mins
Fellowship of the Ring – 228 Mins
Two Towers – 235 Mins
Return of the King – 263 Mins

Goals & philosophy when editing:

  1. Be more faithful to The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien while still being under Peter Jackson’s vision. Includes making the story focus on the main quest & also decreasing the numerous references to LOTR, allowing both stories to stand on their own.

  2. Consistent tone as the story progresses from its lighthearted beginning to serious ending. With this, a convincing atmosphere displaying more realistic combat and physics is present throughout.

  3. Maintain professional film editing techniques, specifically with making smooth audio transitions, maintaining a surround sound mix with new edits, and good pacing.

  4. Stay in Middle Earth as long as possible with our beloved characters, never cut anything “good” or from the book purely for the sake of runtime.

  5. Appeal to all Middle Earth & movie fans, regardless of what their prior knowledge is with any of the books or original films.

With these goals in mind, you can see it’s not just about strict book accuracy, but also making sure the movie is still “good” and works as an enjoyable fantasy adventure film.

Summary of Changes:

  • First off I want to address the “big transition” between AUJ into DoS. I decided to make my edit 2 parts with a split right at the end of AUJ with an intermission right after. This gives the audience a break until moving into part 2 where there has been a small timejump into the start of DoS. The digital version is one movie file while the disc version is actually two separate files. There are now 4 Middle Earth movies with 2 discs each if you watch the Blu-ray ISO version. I really like having AUJ be part 1 and then DoS/BotFA all together in part 2, both for pacing and tonal reasons, in addition to the transition I needed to cover up.

  • The color grading has been adjusted to look a little more real and closer to LOTR. Less saturation, no green tint, and a slight 35mm film grain added.

  • Extended Editions were used as a base. Also, this is just a summary, I have done too many changes to list on this thread so definitely feel free to message me if you want me to send you the full cutlist!

  • There are many new professionally created digital effects made by eric1894, including turning gold-Smaug into looking normal/red, removing arrows from barrels sitting in the background as there was no fight, adding premade Orc tunnels as wereworms were removed, and more!

An Unexpected Party

  • The movie begins like the book with the hole in the ground dialogue, and we skip the huge prologue. This sequence is not needed, because leaving the audience in the shadow allows for them to learn and discover more about the story as we progress, it also makes it even more special when we finally see the lonely mountain/Erebor. The special features included on the disc version actually do include this flashback, along with 2 others, as three “history shorts” which you can read more about on my website.

  • New 2 minute opening with old Bilbo as he introduces himself and his story. Frodo cameo reduced to 30 seconds, no dialogue.

  • After this quick intro of Old Bilbo, we move into the past and the main story. The whole Shire sequence is the same as the original except for a few minor trims for tone.

  • Blunt the Knives song is kept because it was in the book! But I have removed one stanza and all of the ridiculous plate tricks, so we still get to enjoy Tolkien’s song, while watching Dwarves clean up and toss plates instead of doing a circus act

  • We are out of Bag End in 30 minutes as compared to the original 45

Roast Mutton

  • Removed Moria flashback, there is no Azog sideplot/overarching villain. Each sequence of the movie is its own threat and adventure, like the book. Azog shows up marching to the lonely Mountain at the same time as Gandalf warning the others about Orcs. It is explained that they just want to take over the mountain, like the other armies. Azog is still their leader, but is unnamed (so we can assume he’s Bolg), similar to the role of Gothmog or Lurtz, they are all just the “bad guys” that our heroes needs to kill to win. So until that final act, there are no references, hints, or mentions to Azog at all in my edit.

  • Removed Radagast, in fact, he’s gone from the entire movie along with Dol Guldur.

  • Toned down some of the Troll silliness. I also removed a few parts of the fight, including Ori using a slingshot. I might as well say, any future instance of Dwarves doing idiotic tricks or moves, dodging arrows with a sword, spinning tricks, hitting Orcs without seeing them, etc. are all removed throughout the entire edit.

  • Dwarves do not disagree with Bilbo saying they are infected, to delay the Trolls, so the company appears a little smarter now. Throughout this project I have tried to portray the Dwarves as just a little more competent even though they are still comedic sometimes and in the books they were silly too.

  • The Dwarves explore the Troll cave and then we naturally transition to a new hiking montage of them entering Rivendell, without a warg chase

A Short Rest

  • Removed some excessive silliness, including the dancing on top of the table at dinner and the Dwarves swimming in the fountain

  • Removed all of the White Council and references to them, instead, Elrond and Gandalf discuss the quest, Thorin overhears them and gets upset, so he takes the company out of Rivendell first thing in the morning.

Over Hill and Under Hill

  • No more rock giants, because these were overdone. Instead, the company faces a dangerous thunderstorm and avalanche, so they go inside the cave

  • Goblin caves color corrected to appear less bright & orange.

  • Kept the song, like the book, but removed all cringey footage of the Goblin King, so the song is also a tad bit shorter

  • I still have the Dwarf escape fight later, because the audience needs some more action by now, but as I have said earlier, I’ve removed all silly Dwarf fighting tricks. Overall the escape is much more quicker, skipping the worst parts, down from 4 minutes of fighting to just 1.

Riddles in the Dark

  • Scene is slightly darker

  • Bilbo doesn’t see Gollum drop the ring, instead, he just finds the ring on the ground

  • The audience doesn’t see Gollum’s face close up until he drops in front of Bilbo

  • The ring falls on Bilbo’s hand like what happened with Frodo in FotR, and it doesn’t spin around so long on his finger

Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

  • Scene is slightly darker

  • Other than the moments around Bilbo picking up the ring, and the moment we transition from Hobbit to FotR, there are no excessive LOTR music cues, hints, petting the ring, making him angrier because of the ring, etc. like killing the baby spiders. In The Hobbit the ring didn’t really have it’s full power/effect so it wasn’t doing much to Bilbo. No one knows, not even Gandalf, that the ring is extremely dangerous. It is only in FotR when Gandalf/the audience discovers the true power of it, and it starts effecting Bilbo’s personality more.

  • Wargs and some Orcs come to chase them down, but Azog is not present, as I have described earlier, he only shows up in the final battle. This means no Thorin charge, no Bilbo saving the day, etc. They escape by Eagle, and have a rest on Carrock. Just like the book.

Intermission/insert next disc

Queer Lodgings

  • Time jump, it is now nighttime and they have progressed a little. But by now, the wargs have almost caught up to them, and Bilbo discovers Beorn. With no choice, Gandalf leads the company out of the forest into Beorn’s house. No random shots of the running across a plain.

  • Removed all of the Sauron/Azog related talk that starts with Beorn/Gandalf and continues throughout. We are still focused on the company & Bilbo.

  • Gandalf leaves to investigate the marking he found at the entrance of Mirkwood, and it is explained later that he discovers an Orc army marching towards the mountain. That means there is no more need for the huge Dol Guldur sideplot.

Flies and Spiders

  • Removed Bilbo going crazy on the baby spider

  • Removed the Legolas stunt, reduced his character to 60 second cameo. Tauriel has about 60 seconds of screentime as well.

  • Removed Gimli reference, too on the nose.

Barrels Out of Bond

  • Follows the book very close, they escape, and we cut the entire river battle with a nice transition

A Warm Welcome

  • Alfrid reduced to background character with only 1 line. Master removed, except for his part in the town square with Thorin

  • Removed Bard sideplot, instead, there is just a conflict between him and the master on whether or not the Dwarves should go. No crazy spies, no prophecy, no climbing through toilets, etc. Follows the book here.

  • All Dwarves leave together to the mountain, no one left behind

On the Doorstep

  • Dwarves do not give up instantly when it hits night, Bilbo (visually) discovers that there’s still a chance, and luckily, the company didn’t leave so they all gaze upon the key hole and enter together.

Inside Information/Not at Home

  • Dwarves never enter Erebor, until Smaug leaves

  • Restructured some of the dialogue with Bilbo/Smaug so it basically mirrors the book (This was really neat)

  • Smaug breaks out of Erebor, jump cut to the Dwarves hearing a loud crashing sound (That my friend, was a dragon), then we cut to the people of laketown starting to panic because they heard it too, then we cut back to Smaug flying, NO COVERED IN GOLD PART

Fire and Water

  • Bard doesn’t have to escape jail, he just grabs his bow and gets ready to kill the dragon

  • Bard kills the dragon without the help of his son

  • Removed the Master trying to sneak away with all the gold

The Gathering of the Clouds

  • So many minor cuts, but it flows really well, just like the book, in terms of Bard/Thorin’s dialogue, the aftermath of Laketown, etc. As always, still removing Alfrid/Dol Guldur/Azog

  • As the Elves, Men, and Dwarves are preparing for battle, we get a brief introduction to the Orcs also coming to attack, they have heard about Smaug’s death (Balin: Word will spread, soon everyone in Middle Earth will know, the dragon is dead - foreshadowing)

A Thief in the Night

  • Shortened extended scene with Thranduil and Gandalf to appear less harsh towards attacking the Dwarves

  • As always, removed Alfrid

The Clouds Burst

  • The dialogue/scene outside the front gate is just like the book, or as close as possible, there’s no references to selling the Arkenstone to Gondor, or Thorin crazily yelling he’ll kill everyone. Dragon sickness is removed in my edit, it’s just a metaphorical thing, relating to greed, mentioned once.

  • Thorin deals with excessive greed and pride, which he overcomes later. By toning down his craziness/sickness, we don’t have to explain it as a literal “dragon sickness” that runs in his family, because the audience will buy it that he hit his lows but came around in the end.

  • Here we cut to the Theatrical version of Dain’s arrival, right before they start fighting, they hear a horn sound off, and suddenly Orcs are charging out of tunnels in the mountain and Azog announces his presence.

  • The BOTFA is extremely restructured, it would be way too much to write about here, in summary/off the top of my head: No goats, no legolas/alfrid/dragon sickness craze/troll catapults. They fight, start losing, Thorin charges out, Bilbo gets knocked out, Thorin/Fili/Kili try to kill the orc leader, but all end up dying, Bilbo wakes up, and we move on.

The Return Journey

  • Thorin’s funeral has the deleted Gandalf speech perfectly re-inserted

The Last Stage

  • Removed Bilbo lying to Gandalf about the ring, they part ways as good friends

  • Redid credits to reflect my edit, any characters reduced from starring list/removed entirely. New music that fits well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ymgFyzbDo

Video: h264, high bitrate
Audio: 5.1 DTS
Subtitles: Many different languages

This post was all just a summary as I said earlier, so for full project specs, the download, and the cutlist, feel free to message me or comment below!

TLDR: Mine is similar to the Maple Edit for those of you who don’t want to read the whole thing, but what makes my edit stand out is that I have an entirely different vision with new techniques start to finish never done before, even if our goals were similar. My edit takes an approach with minimal Azog, even more accurate to the book (No river battle, we spend more time in Mirkwood, more faithful Smaug sequence), subtle character changes (I don’t have dragon sickness/Bilbo lying to Gandalf/Bilbo’s personality changing from ring), I have my own way of transitioning from movie 1 -> movie 2, instead of cutting from Troll caves -> to Rivendell I now have a natural hiking montage in between, I’ve reduced master/Alfrid even more, I removed Bard’s son helping him kill Smaug, and definitely many more big & small choices that I’ve done to create the best version of The Hobbit that I could for myself. While a lot of people edit under the theme of being a “book edit,” it still leaves so much room for our unique interpretation, opinions, and techniques - which is great, meaning there will never be an “definitive” Hobbit edit; so mine is yet another to the list, with enough of my own creative decisions that I felt like sharing it.

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I’d be very interested in checking out your edit. I’ve done several different versions of the Hobbit for my own use, but I always enjoy checking out other people’s work. I like how much attention to detail you have in regards to making it the truest book cut it can be.

Can’t wait to see it!

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I have finally got around to viewing your fanedit. Excellent overall, however, I have some minor notes for you to consider if you ever wish to update again.

For Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire, you attempted to remove the orcs, but then decided not to hide them. My only suggestion here is if you are no longer hiding the orcs, maybe 1 or 2 addition orc closeups are warranted? One whom may have viewed this edit without reviewing your updates may assume that you meant to remove to orcs entirely but accidentally left in a few seconds of orc footage by mistake. Dispersing a couple more orc shots throughout the scene would leave little doubt.

I can’t recall how it was exactly in the official version, but in Mirkwood the transition between the company’s battle with the spiders and being ambushed by the elves was quite abrupt. I was actually momentarily distracted during that cut having looked off screen for about 5 seconds, going from the fight to the ambush struck me oddly and kinda caught me off balance, lol. If you could manage to maybe throw in an additional shot of the company fleeing the spider’s den the flow of the cut would become alot smoother.

The transition between Barrels Out of Bond and A Warm Welcome lends itself a bit to the obviousness of cut footage. Partially in the somewhat quick cut from the company trying to keep afloat on raging waters to drifting on calm in the next shot. Not much can be done about that I imagine, given you can only work with so much footage available to you. But the thing I noticed most of all is the music transition with the orchestral track seeming to ramp up into something, yet fading away as the next chapter begins. You probably been over this yourself, but again, if you can find a way to smooth this transition, the editing seam here might be made invisible to those who may have never seen the originals.

The battle sequence around the 3:27:10-25 mark is oddly quiet. Quiet as in, there is a huge battle raging in the scene, yet the only sound we hear is of things in the shots that are obvious. This may be how the sound was in the official version, but the shots feel off because of this. I feel that these shots (and maybe a few others shots in the chapter overall, to a lesser degree) would benefit having additional battle sounds (the clang of steel, orc shrieks, etc) added to the sound mix to add to the fullness of the battle.

To restate, I thought the edit was overall excellent. If you somehow patched up some of these seams (some of which you may have already attempted to do previously) I would say that this edit could conceivable be found in an official studio home video release. Also overall, I to prefer this edit to the previous Hobbit edit I have seen, so great work!

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To be clear regarding the river barrel riding sequence, the visual transition isn’t an issue for me. In fact, it was only something I thought of after thinking back on it and generally dismissed it in that such a transition would and could be found in any official studio edit. The only issue I have here is the audio transition with the fading score.

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LeperMessiah117 said:

I have finally got around to viewing your fanedit. Excellent overall, however, I have some minor notes for you to consider if you ever wish to update again.

For Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire, you attempted to remove the orcs, but then decided not to hide them. My only suggestion here is if you are no longer hiding the orcs, maybe 1 or 2 addition orc closeups are warranted? One whom may have viewed this edit without reviewing your updates may assume that you meant to remove to orcs entirely but accidentally left in a few seconds of orc footage by mistake. Dispersing a couple more orc shots throughout the scene would leave little doubt.

I can’t recall how it was exactly in the official version, but in Mirkwood the transition between the company’s battle with the spiders and being ambushed by the elves was quite abrupt. I was actually momentarily distracted during that cut having looked off screen for about 5 seconds, going from the fight to the ambush struck me oddly and kinda caught me off balance, lol. If you could manage to maybe throw in an additional shot of the company fleeing the spider’s den the flow of the cut would become alot smoother.

The transition between Barrels Out of Bond and A Warm Welcome lends itself a bit to the obviousness of cut footage. Partially in the somewhat quick cut from the company trying to keep afloat on raging waters to drifting on calm in the next shot. Not much can be done about that I imagine, given you can only work with so much footage available to you. But the thing I noticed most of all is the music transition with the orchestral track seeming to ramp up into something, yet fading away as the next chapter begins. You probably been over this yourself, but again, if you can find a way to smooth this transition, the editing seam here might be made invisible to those who may have never seen the originals.

The battle sequence around the 3:27:10-25 mark is oddly quiet. Quiet as in, there is a huge battle raging in the scene, yet the only sound we hear is of things in the shots that are obvious. This may be how the sound was in the official version, but the shots feel off because of this. I feel that these shots (and maybe a few others shots in the chapter overall, to a lesser degree) would benefit having additional battle sounds (the clang of steel, orc shrieks, etc) added to the sound mix to add to the fullness of the battle.

To restate, I thought the edit was overall excellent. If you somehow patched up some of these seams (some of which you may have already attempted to do previously) I would say that this edit could conceivable be found in an official studio home video release. Also overall, I to prefer this edit to the previous Hobbit edit I have seen, so great work!

Thank you so much for watching and giving feedback. That means a ton. I’m just gonna go through it and reply, might as well:

-Out of the frying pan:
Yes! I 100% agree. I updated this and must have done it after you downloaded haha. I thought to myself that, since the Warg pack is re-occuring at the start of part 2, and Thorin calls it an “Orc pack”, then I shouldnt actually remove every single Orc and try to hide them. Sure in the books it was only wolves, but it’s perfectly acceptable in a PJ adaptation to throw a few Orcs in, maybe they are just “herding” the wargs. So if you download the update, there are a few more shots of Orcs, and one main close-up reaction shot of an Orc’s face when they start the fire

-Mirkwood:
In the original film, the Dwarves were fighting, then it cut to Bilbo fighting a baby spider and going rage-mode (because he dropped the ring next to it), then we cut back to Thorin saying “it’s clear” and get this Legolas stunt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_sVsU0m0IQ So yeah mine is trimmed down to remove the Bilbo part because it’s out of character and trying too hard to be like lotr, but there’s nothing else that goes there showing the Dwarves. I think if you didnt get distracted it wouldve flowed fine, because you see Kili killing off a spider, then we cut to Thorin with a few other Dwarves, who say “we’re clear” because they got rid of their spiders, and so it works fine IMO, because the audience can assume just as Kili stabbed that spider it was one of the last ones, then suddenly the hidden elves pop and boom the rest plays out.

-Barrels Out of Bond:
Yeah I agree I’m not as happy with this transition as it could be (musically speaking).
Its supposed to be a “a lot of time has passed we now went from harsh fast waters to soft calm river” type cut but the soundtrack makes it difficult. I’ll try to revamp it if I can.

-The battle sequence:
I’ve actually updated mine with minor things so the time stamp you have is not what I have on my screen, could you let me know visually which part it is? Is it after the dwarves charge out? Is it the “sad montage” (because I didnt touch that part’s audio, I can sorta see what you mean where theres not a ton of sound, I think its a stylistic choice)?

Thanks again for watching!

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Hmmmm, could be I do have an outdated version, though I obtained it the day the final update turned green… The part I’m referring to is the part right after Bilbo puts on the ring to escape the fighting in Dale transitioning to Thranduil and Dain fighting orcs upon their respective mounts.

Also, I’m not ruling out the possibility that some of these transitions I am only finding abrupt because I have watched the originals.

EDIT: And yes, there was one other scene in the battle where I was going to make a similar complaint about the battle noise, but then I heard the music swell and let it go.

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LeperMessiah117 said:

Hmmmm, could be I do have an outdated version, though I obtained it the day the final update turned green… The part I’m referring to is the part right after Bilbo puts on the ring to escape the fighting in Dale transitioning to Thranduil and Dain fighting orcs upon their respective mounts.

Also, I’m not ruling out the possibility that some of these transitions I am only finding abrupt because I have watched the originals.

What I mean is that I deleted the version you have so the only version of the edit I have is the one in my editing software, which has different timestamps (I added like 30 seconds of footage back into the edit not exactly sure the exact length).

So it’s not your fault at all, you definitely got the right one that I posted, I just like to save space on my PC and remove the exported versions if I have done any changes.

But yeah, I just checked it out, that’s really weird, for some reason the audio clip was -5dB lol so I just fixed that. You’re the first person to catch that, so now the volume is back to normal & a bit louder. Should be fine. Thanks for finding that!

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LeperMessiah117 said:

To be clear regarding the river barrel riding sequence, the visual transition isn’t an issue for me. In fact, it was only something I thought of after thinking back on it and generally dismissed it in that such a transition would and could be found in any official studio edit. The only issue I have here is the audio transition with the fading score.

Just did a little test for an alternate transition

Version 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilqoro4rv9w

Version 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQEDFJPCcdc

Both identical except for one shot, I mentioned it in the description of version 2

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LeperMessiah117 said:

I think this works alot better, nice!

Thanks! Just touched it up a bit more yesterday from what you see in the YouTube version, but it flows nice. Since I got some feedback (including yours) definitely gonna go with it.

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Just wanted to chime in and say this sounds great! Would love to check it out. Also, I definitely think Version 2 of the barrel transition works better! Great job with that.

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In the works for over a year & an early version was released this summer, but now the final version is out. Download is available on my website with built in togglable English subtitles, chapter markers, and a DTS HD High-Resolution audio track.

The Hobbit (Extended Edition)
-4 hour runtime
-A re-edit that is extremely book accurate
-Much closer to the tone and universe established in the LOTR trilogy, specifically in relation to the action scenes/combat.
-Made sure to keep some of the movie lighthearted, specifically the parts that pay homage to the text, this isn’t a LOTR epic, but it isn’t a childish joke of a story either

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Watched this. It’s much better than the released trilogy, which bloated full of junk IMO. Love the fact that it’s much tighter to the book, and the pace is much better now. This is the only Hobbit I need now, will probably give the trilogy away to someone. Superb, well done.

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chrisvilla said:

Watched this. It’s much better than the released trilogy, which bloated full of junk IMO. Love the fact that it’s much tighter to the book, and the pace is much better now. This is the only Hobbit I need now, will probably give the trilogy away to someone. Superb, well done.

You can’t give it away as the site says you have to own the official release of any fan edit or preservation.

Edit: not trying to mod just giving helpful advice.

I’m just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe.

Star Wars has 3 eras: The eras are 1977-1983(pre Expanded Universe), (1983-2014) expanded universe, or (2014- now) Disney-bought version. Each are valid.

Important voice tool:
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1472151/action/topic#1472151

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JackNapier said:

chrisvilla said:

Watched this. It’s much better than the released trilogy, which bloated full of junk IMO. Love the fact that it’s much tighter to the book, and the pace is much better now. This is the only Hobbit I need now, will probably give the trilogy away to someone. Superb, well done.

You can’t give it away as the site says you have to own the official release of any fan edit or preservation.

Edit: not trying to mod just giving helpful advice.

Yeah, it would be best to hold on to those, at least symbolically. I purchased and still possess a blu-ray of Dune that I still haven’t watched just because I wanted to watch a fanedit of the film.

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 (Edited)

chrisvilla said:

Watched this. It’s much better than the released trilogy, which bloated full of junk IMO. Love the fact that it’s much tighter to the book, and the pace is much better now. This is the only Hobbit I need now, will probably give the trilogy away to someone. Superb, well done.

Thank you! This means a lot, glad you enjoyed. The blu-ray version will be coming this month, with final tweaks, full menus and everything.

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link please

“You can’t polish a turd. But you can shape it to look like candy.”

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PMed

Also quick update, I was able to fix one very minor error in the Bard vs Smaug scene but no one will probably notice, and I was also able to make a trim so when the ring falls onto Bilbo’s hand it’s much more natural and similar to the Frodo scene in FOTR, I’ll quietly update the link sometime this month or next month, since these are extremely minor things.

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id really be interested in checking this edit out, i have been looking for an edit like this since the Hobbit movies were released. so as well as a request id like to say a huge thank you for all the time and work you’ve put into the project.

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PMed

Surprised you haven’t already found an edit you like before mine - there’s been dozens since 2014! But I can see what you mean, mine is one of the few 4-hour book accurate ones. Most people make 3 movies to 2 movies edits, or 3 movies to one short 2-3 hour movie, but there’s a nice middle ground in my opinion.

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Can I please get a link to this edit.

also does it have a 5.1 track?

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sidshady12 said:

PMed

Surprised you haven’t already found an edit you like before mine - there’s been dozens since 2014! But I can see what you mean, mine is one of the few 4-hour book accurate ones. Most people make 3 movies to 2 movies edits, or 3 movies to one short 2-3 hour movie, but there’s a nice middle ground in my opinion.

to be fairly honest, I saw the Tolkien edit back when it was pushed out, and just due to its state of release and some of the edits made, it felt like it could’ve been a lot more, and I dropped my search for a while after that due to nothing really catching my eye and the finding of Harmy’s Despecialized SW Trilogy lol. and to be perfectly honest, I really enjoyed this as a single movie. I finished it at 4am and I have to say I absolutely love it! its definitely my go to for a book accurate film. its what I was hoping and expecting the Tolkien Edit to be, and so much more. thank you again for all your hard work because you did a fantastic job. 😃

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Thank you man! That’s awesome.

Also, UPDATE: recently my man eric1894 has done some amazing digital alterations, which I will be including in the next update. (Again, this doesnt change the story, these updates I’m doing are mostly just to refine what’s already been edited. If you’ve seen my edit already and liked it as-is, then that’s great)

First up, deep fake work to reduce Thorin’s injuries here: https://i.imgur.com/A9IJ5vY.png
In my edit, Thorin never duels Azog here so he shouldn’t be extremely wounded, now, he appears just a little cut up and bruised but nothing too bad.

Second, Eric was able to replace Bard’s kid with a piece of wood to get this shot back in: https://i.imgur.com/f11cYvX.png (I believe this is just his first version of it, not sure, but I think it’s awesome as is-you also have to remember these are very quick and fast shots, so you aren’t supposed to really pause and be able to analyze)
Previously in my edit, Bard shoots the arrow off-screen which “worked” but obviously it’s much cooler to see him actually release the arrow.

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Ahh, very cool! The edit is sounding better all the time, guess I’ll be getting a third version whenever the update comes.