With the first three episodes now released, the first act of the series is pretty much set in stone and in all the disarray, confusion and online hate I see a lot of potential as well.

I’m definitely not on the bandwagon of trashtalking the show down and beyond - which is the norm these days for attention, togetherness and views and clicks, but I’m definitely agreeing on a lot of the constructive criticism of the show.

I’m not going to beat around the bush on this edit, so I’ll just go straight to it:

The Major beats of my changes:

-> Film/series color graded slightly (too remove a tad bit too much of children-fantasy-look at certain scenes) and a slight grain (nothing too noticeable) added.
-> Removal of dialogue too on the nose, way too Hollywood (keyword: predictable structuring of dialogue or “suspense lines”)
-> Characters will show up when important to the plot, and grow organically and steadily into the show - even with it’s very thin plot (up until Ep 3 at least). This way, it won’t feel as slow-paced and characters that are not yet of importance won’t waste your time on the screen.
-> Harfoots/Hobbits plotline is sharpened and structured. Ep 1-2’s storyline and introduction of (so far) many unimportant characters is extremely tiresome and will annoy most “attuned-to-cinema” viewers.
-> Galadriel has an intruiging backstory and actress imo, but her way too strong introduction and at times very tiresome dialogue (all mostly issues from the first 2 episodes, episode 3 way better here) is doomed to set a lot of audiences into shock and cringe mode. Therefore, Galadriel’s way too IM A STRONG FEMALE introduction is finely tuned into something more of a “IM A STRONG CHARACTER” introduction. This way, she can grow organically into the story and not come across as a character with too strong a skillset and personality for the viewer to understand that she - as all other good characters in a good story - will grow and learn as one.
-> CGI Wolf from Ep 3 is gone. I was surprised at how bad the CGI was here when everything else has been beautiful, and also the logistics of the “action” scene were disappointing and insulting.

… and then loads more.

LOTR being my favorite trilogy of all time, this is an edit more for me than anything I’ve ever edited before. I think there’s things to salvage here. And Ep 3 was a vast improvement in character development.

It’s 8-episodes-a-season, so 40 hours.

I found a satisfactory way to cut Game of Thrones seasons into films - and GoT does a far better job than this one thus far imo - so I’m fairly confident one movie per Rings of Power season shall be conclusive enough. There’s way too much filler in the first two episodes alone that I’d say they have 50-55 minutes worth of content combined.

However, I like shaping things along the way and who knows - perhaps we’ll realize that there are tons of things to completely remove (or keep) further down the line.

And perhaps you are right in that one season will need two or three films. But, at least my goal will be 1-film-a-season (if plausible). Three episodes in, and I only really like the Harfoot girl, Elrond, the Nùmenôr Captain and possibly Galadriel’s human raft bud. Galadriel is a must to keep obviously, but I think the main chess players are on the board now and a structure based on those characters along with a hard focus on the (very thin) plot I think will make for one very strong movie in the end. But for now, yes, that’s just a guess.

I tried with a different take on it to see how it would work, in where I had the prologue cut before Galadriel and her companions enter Morgoth/Sauron’s old leir, and then her waking up on the ship to Numènor. It kind of worked, up until I realized that most of her character development came from the first episode, and then it kinda goes into a stall.

Therefore, I reverted back to my linear structure.

The Harfoots don’t show up before the meteor crashes, the Southlands is introduced after Galadriel and Elrond’s conversation ends on “I want to hear more about your heroic tale” (or something of that ilk), and then intercutting the story threads up until a Act I climax when the Galadriel jumps into the ocean, the meteor crashes and the “Elf guy” is reunited with his old friends in the Orc Camp/Caves.

So far, I have a very film-like structure of the first 3 episodes ending at the 1 hour and 40 min mark, with the possibility of further cutting material depending on what the future episodes provide of character development and plot.

The Harfoots now provide the heart of the movie (thus far), the Galadriel storyline the Numènor (and human) plotline and “The elf guy” the main plotline. It all comes very obvious across that way, and makes the thin plot easier to follow and the overall structure of the series way more interesting in my honest opinion.

vranir said:

I’m pretty sure that the episode 5 Numenor content could be almost entirely cut without missing a beat. Just imply that there were always three ships going and show the characters in armor boarding them.

Yup, totally agree. ❤️

The Southland introduction is fine on paper, but I tried it in execution and by the time that plotline start to evolve I’m bored out of my mind because Galadriel is not a strong and interesting enough of a character to carry the first 60 minutes on her shoulders.

The same goes for the Dwarf storyline, although I completely understand you.

If I remove the emotional weight of Elrond and Durin’s storyline, along with too heavy a focus on Galadriel for the First Act, the film just crumbles into boredom and then, later on, confusion, as suddenly Galadriel is sidelined for 30-40 minutes (to make her travel from Numenor to Middle-Earth plausible within my movie canon, as I put weight on travel).

And the last episode was PATHETIC! I’ve given this show so much love and patience, and then this half-assed finale… blergh.

Now I need to figure out how to end it on a high, as the First and Second Act I find to work.

You mentioned having characters only show up when it’s relevant to the plot - I had a similar thought. I wasn’t necessarily looking to cut much, but I felt like the season would have been better paced if it didn’t do as much darting around between plotlines, which caused some episodes to feel as if they were just spinning their wheels. Perhaps they’re running parallel until they intersect rather than true chronological order, which I don’t think is problematic.

I considered pacing it as follows:

Arc/Movie 1:

• Focus on the Galadriel/Numenor plotline from episodes 1-5.
• End on Numenorians sailing to Middle-Earth
• Halbrand, Isildur, etc all in focus.
• No dwarves or harfoots
• This arc’s fairly strong, at least for introducing charaters, though gives little payoff.

Arc/Movie 2:

• Focus on Arondir/Southlands plotline from episodes 1-6, and some of the Elrond/Durin plotline
• End on the eruption of Mount Doom
• No Numenor (until they show up at the end) or harfoots
• The weaker parts of the early Southlands plot could balance nicely with the stronger Khazad-Dum B-plot.

Arc/Movie 3:

• Focus on harfoots/Stranger plotline from the whole show, and the remaining other content
• Start with the harfoots, balanced by the stronger wrap-up of other plotlines, until handing over to the original conclusion to the season

Interested in your thoughts!

You are the man! I was debating who was going to do this first among the great editors. I somehow knew ot would be you! If you need art, I’m on it already!

ArtisDead said:

You are the man! I was debating who was going to do this first among the great editors. I somehow knew ot would be you! If you need art, I’m on it already!

My friend, I would be honored once again! And thank you. That is a great compliment, from a good friend. ❤️

EddieDean said:

[…]

Interested in your thoughts!

Not bad structures at all, but not befitted to this project. I want the Rings of Power seasons to become Feature Films that fit alongside Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, with a similiar movie structure.

If you create these kind of “Book I” -> “Book II” type films for the series, It could be a great and interesting edit for the people who want to delve deep into every plotline, without the bad aspects of the series.

The edit is soon to be released.

I know. What?, right. Well, I’ve been editing about 4 hours a day since the premiere, and have had the structure ready for a long time, in anticipation for the grand finale. I think I’ve found a perfect beginning, middle and end to this story, and now have found it immensely enjoyable.

The film hits the 3 hours and 15 minute mark, which I think is impressive, due to the simple fact that it’s still shorter than RotK (which was important to me, to keep it shorter than the grand finale to the entire franchise) and since all the major plotlines are intact.

I’ve been following this thread from day one and I’ve been reading all of your interesting ideas.

Since the first episode of the show I knew that this show could turn into a great fanedit and I am so happy that your vision is coming to a completion.

So excited to watch it and ready to discuss.

Thank you to both. I appreciate it a lot! ❤️

@Vranir: Yeah, a good computer is crucial to a massive editing project.

samultra said:

[…]

The length of the edit is to strike the perfect balance between pacing, story and depth. Nothing else. 3 hours and 15 minutes is my perfect balance for this edit, after having edited it for countless hours. A lot of pacing has been done to create a fulfilling adventure.

All the major plotlines are in there, with the necessary character development (imo).