The Hobbit (M4 Book Edit) (Released) — Page 10

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This sounds great, could I please have a link? Thanks very much

This edit has been updated. We’re now on…revision 20-or something, latest release is June 2024. Feel free to PM or leave a comment if you would like a link (still same as before)

The story with this update is I re-watched all source footage in the films and all the Appendices footage to give it one last go to see if I had missed anything or if I could improve anything, some scenes in my edit were constructed all the way back in 2020. Not that my previous releases were bad, but I think one last go through everything was deserved and now I can rest easy again knowing that I left no stone unturned. While my changelist is very lengthy, ultimately the new tweaks are extremely minor and the runtime is still the same in the end, and I didn’t end up overhauling anything except for the Last Light scene.

If there is some major breakthrough discovery or vfx creation that could be shared with my project, I will of course consider coming back for another revision, but likely this will not happen.

Full Changelist

• Replaced MGM lion sound effect with a higher quality version from the official Hobbit Blu-rays and tweaked color grading on logo to be more goldish
• Very slightly tweaked color grading on shots of Bilbo early in the morning to make it seem closer to sunrise
• Very slightly tweaked saturation of part 1 to be an additional percent lower after the company leaves Bag End
• Very slightly tweaked color grading for entire edit to further reduce green levels in most area by about 1 percent
• Very slightly tweaked color grading in BOTFA section by reducing excessive highlights which contributed to the bright/bloom look
• Seamlessly cut 2 Troll lines of dialogue, one of which was about boogers, just more silly stuff not needed–we have plenty of jokes still and all of the dialogue that references the book
• Added subtitle translation for the meaning of “Mithrandir” (“Grey Pilgrim”) when Gandalf enters Rivendell, the first chronological time we hear it
• Inserted VFX shot of the Wargs showing up to hunt the company after the Goblin caves with Azog digitally removed (originally by /u/thechaptereditor), this helps the flow from relaxing outside to being attacked and also the flow from day to
  night.
• Slightly retimed Thorin’s 2nd line of added dialogue about an Orc pack and slightly tweaked frames to make a longer pause when they ask how Bilbo got past the goblins, in the book Bilbo purposefully noted that he was going to withhold the news about finding a ring for now so I wanted to pay homage to a little moment where we see him think that
• Inserted a closeup shot of Bilbo on his Eagle. Digitally adjusted background to remove tree and flipped shot to fit the angle/progression of surrounding shots. This is to give us one close up of Bilbo on an Eagle because he’s supposed to be the character POV we are following.
• Adjusted Eagle montage music transition outro to flow more smoothly by adding some reverb
• Used AI to clean up center channel of Beorn turning back into man form
• 1 trim, removed a couple shots before entering Mirkwood to reduce the focus of the Orcs to be a bit closer to the book, now Dwalin’s line is just background dialogue and we don’t outright say it’s “luck” that saved them (it was Beorn)
• 1 trim, cut a few seconds of Mirkwood company confused and dazed. Also, moved the theatrical cut “we’ve lost the path” audio to a few seconds later for smoother placement, plus with better reverb/panning effects
• Swapped shot of Filí’s “having lots of blades joke” when the Elves are searching him with one that fits better
• 2 trims, saved a couple seconds during the Girion flashback, also helping to hide shots that revealed Smaug too much
• 1 trim, removed a couple shots of Bard pondering over the “prophecy,” this dragged on a bit too long given that it’s repeated information
• 2 trims, less pause when Alfrid is questioning the Dwarves
• Added a closeup of Bilbo as the Dwarves depart from Lake-town in the boat, again to remind us we are in Bilbo’s POV
• Inserted extra shots of bored Dwarves imprisoned in Woodland Realm, including an unused shot from the Appendices (Part 9)
• Inserted quick “I am sorry I’ve doubted you” from Thorin to Bilbo when escaping, paying homage to how in the book this is the point where Thorin started to think highly of him. Now Thorin does 3 nice things to Bilbo in Woodland Realm, and the later “Bilbo vouching” scene now feels very earned
• Redid Last Light secret door sequence to better show that the Dwarves didn’t fully disappear (we have close ups of Thorin both standing/reacting to the thrush) and that Bilbo was the one to discover the riddle, this is also cool because we get the symbolic shot of Thorin standing in front of his Grandfather’s statue
• Readded Smaug scene dialogue about “you are being used,” paying homage to Smaug’s deception in the book and helping show why Bilbo might want to withhold the Arkenstone, but it’s never outright specified it’s still up to our interpetation
• Added back Smaug line referencing: “A fourteenth share, I suppose, or something like it…?”
• Added back Smaug line referencing: “No blade can pierce me.”
• Added back Bilbo line referencing: “Truly there can nowhere be found the equal of Lord Smaug…”
• Added back Extended Edition sequence of Bard nearly getting killed by Smaug
• For book accuracy, we see the Master trying to leave on a boat while Bard stays fighting. Digitally removed Alfrid from background. This also clears up how the Master dies when we see his boat crushed by Smaug
• A few more/longer miscellaneous shots of Smaug/Bard/civilian chaos, including an extra couple seconds of Bard looking at the burning town with emotional music to give more weight
• A couple more shots of Bard fighting Smaug, including one other arrow shot that was previously cut (now all are used)
• 1 trim, removed one redundant closeup of Lakemen crying on the beach in the aftermath of Smaug
• 1 trim, less of Bilbo walking around pondering at the front gate, all we need to know is that he is conflicted/struggling inside, the reason we used to focus so much was because this was a segue into flashbacks, which we don’t have here, so the scene is much simpler
• 1 trim, a few seconds less of Bard & men walking into Dale. Also, swapped out unnecessary close up of Alfrid walking with instead a shot of generic townsfolk
• 1 trim, Thorin building stone wall and mocking Lakemen. Cut his last two lines which allows his initial point to feel more valid and empathic, he’s still being stubborn, but not “crazy”
• 1 trim, removed closeup of Gandalf riding horse–fixes continuity as his face wasn’t bloodied in the shot but next time we see him he looks wounded. Also, by teasing him and not showing his face, it makes the audience build more suspense/anticipation for his return
• 1 trim, redundant dialogue of Thranduil/Bard talking about reasoning with the Dwarves. These two lines were quite “in your face” and didn’t give us anything new as they didn’t build on any characterization that we didn’t already know
• 1 trim, Bofur still visually shows he knows Bilbo is not telling the truth, but he no longer rolls his eyes
• 2 trims, less delay when Thorin questions why he should buy back the Arkenstone
• 1 trim, removed just a couple seconds of Gandalf cleaning his pipe, it went on for way too long, don’t worry we still have plenty of silence and emotion in this scene it really was just a couple seconds I cut that you won’t even notice
• Added more rumbling footstep sound effects as Azog arrives to help mask the rocks crunching (which are still played off as 'the Orcs charging out of the tunnel sound)
• Swapped a shot of Bofur reacting to the Orcs with Bilbo reacting, as again, to remind us about Bilbo’s POV as much as we can
• Removed 1 of the 2 close ups of Thranduil killing Orcs on his mount, it was redundant and because we’re making the overall battle shorter, the individual closeups of action can also be shorter
• Added a few more seconds of Thranduil and Dain slashing Orcs before sad montage
• Added a better introduction to the sad montage with a few more shots of Dale being overrun
• 3 trims, Dwalin/Thorin throneroom shot at start, long pause, and removed the part in brackets “we must move {THE GOLD} further underground to safety.” Obviously there is no way a few Dwarves could move the gold further underground, so when we frame it as Thorin wanting to just hide, it both 1) makes him less crazy 2) refocuses his change of heart from mostly letting go of treasure, to now letting go of treasure AND cowardice–so we include more real human characteristics that trace back to Thorin’s own actions: cowardice, something he never used to have, not just an obsession with gold which is more surface level. Obviously his obsession with the treasure is still present, but it was overdone with dragon sickness and this is one very minor change that I think makes a big difference.
• Added a cut Dwalin line taken from the BOTFA trailer, “Bilbo was right,” referencing our little Hobbit is always nice, it also reminds us that the Dwarves are still thinking about him/his impact, and finally it highlights that Bilbo’s actions are part of the reason that Thorin returned and ultimately changed the course of the battle (once again, the trend of small actions by everyday folk that cause significant impact)
• Redid Misty Mountains montage to remove the 2 random shots of fighting and smooth out Gandalf’s intercuts, this helps us stay focused on our mission and feels more natural
• Removed cartoon sound effect when Bombur falls on an Orc
• Added back 1 shot of Thorin looking concerned before Filí is captured which helps it feel less sudden
• Added back 1 shot of Filí after he is killed to extend the moment as long as possible
• Redid intercutting of Thorin & Kíli fighting Orcs to use soundtrack and transitions closer to the Shore’s actual OST
• Added back 1 shot of Kíli fighting Orcs to help balance with how much we see Thorin fighting
• Redid Thorin getting knocked onto the ice so you can’t tell his sword was originally broken, added sound effects implying he killed the Orc, and removed Azog’s dialogue (we didn’t need the classic villain telling his minions to “go in for the kill” which we know won’t work + Thorin isn’t ambushed here)
• Added back 1 shot of Thorin on his knee at his lowest point after Kíli dies, but digitally removed Orcrist from the shot to help hide the weapon change as much as possible
• Added a second brief “sad montage” right after Orc reinforcements arrive to remind us that the other heroes are still fighting (it’s not all just about Thorin, now we are now losing again, war is not glorious, also helps us come to a low point before the Eagles show up like the book)
• Removed the duel on ice, instead we skip to the Eagles showing up after our sad montage and then intercut a brief rescored fight between Thorin/Azog during the Eagles/Beorn montage (saves runtime, less focus on weapon continuity errors, battle doesn’t drag on, less ‘video game boss’ like)
• Redid Thorin’s knockdown with a close up of ice as we hear Thorin get knocked down in the background and a cut to a wide shot of him on his back where I digitally removed most of the flying ice shards (before then returning to the close up of him on the ground)
• A few small trims during the final moments of Azog/Thorin duel to move through it quicker by just a few seconds
• Used AI to cleanup on of Bilbo’s rescored lines during goodbye to Gandalf scene
• (Special Features) Removed PJ cameo in Bree, it was too similar to LOTR and we already got a cameo in the Erebor flashback that comes right before
• (Special Features) Added back dialogue in the Bree scene about the last Dwarvish ring, as this is referenced in the Quest for Erebor text and serves as a nice segue into the White Council scene, where Gandalf mentions it
• (Special Features) Removed extra dialogue in Bree about Thráin “still living” so it is left as more of a subtle point rather than something really important (because we never pay it off in my version, here we assume Gandalf already found Thráin dead in Dol Guldur like the book)
• (Special Features) Removed mention in the White Council of the bearer of the last Dwarvish ring vanishing, as in this version we assume Gandalf already had found Thráin and he just learned in Bree that Thráin would have had it (but clearly didn’t when Gandalf found him)
• (Special Features) Added back dialogue about the Ring of Power into the Dol Guldur post-credit scene to help tie in The Hobbit with LOTR
• (Special Features) Redid trailer entirely to be mostly realistic to what a real single-film trailer could have been like, without spoilers

Can I have a link please. I’m sure I used to but I can’t find it now.

I’d love a link please, sounds like some great tweaks and improvements on this latest version!

Can I have a link please. Thank you

sidshady12 said:

• Inserted quick “I am sorry I’ve doubted you” from Thorin to Bilbo when escaping, paying homage to how in the book this is the point where Thorin started to think highly of him. Now Thorin does 3 nice things to Bilbo in Woodland Realm, and the later “Bilbo vouching” scene now feels very earned

• 3 trims, Dwalin/Thorin throneroom shot at start, long pause, and removed the part in brackets “we must move {THE GOLD} further underground to safety.” Obviously there is no way a few Dwarves could move the gold further underground, so when we frame it as Thorin wanting to just hide, it both 1) makes him less crazy 2) refocuses his change of heart from mostly letting go of treasure, to now letting go of treasure AND cowardice–so we include more real human characteristics that trace back to Thorin’s own actions: cowardice, something he never used to have, not just an obsession with gold which is more surface level. Obviously his obsession with the treasure is still present, but it was overdone with dragon sickness and this is one very minor change that I think makes a big difference.
• Added a cut Dwalin line taken from the BOTFA trailer, “Bilbo was right,” referencing our little Hobbit is always nice, it also reminds us that the Dwarves are still thinking about him/his impact, and finally it highlights that Bilbo’s actions are part of the reason that Thorin returned and ultimately changed the course of the battle (once again, the trend of small actions by everyday folk that cause significant impact)

These are good and important changes! - already downloaded the latest version

Hi, could I have a link please? Thanks!!! (:

I finally watched the new updated version. I never thought it was possible, but you really surpassed your already perfect work. This is 100% the definitive way to see the Hobbit.

Also, ever since the 2023 update, I’ve been revisiting the italian subtitles and I made sure they match with the italian dub (aside from a few cases where there were some transaltion mistakes in the dub itself, which I rectified). If you’re interested, I could send you my .srt file, in case you want to add it as an optional download in your MEGA folder.

Speaking of which, I was actually trying (for my own fun) to make subtitles for the extra stuff but I’m a little confused with the Dol Guldur scene. Is it Gandalf or Saruman the one who’s chanting in the background at the beginning? Also, which lenguage is it, elvish?

DMed all.

And thanks! Glad you enjoy the update. Please send me the new Italian subs on discord or email (see my website), and I’d be happy to put them in the Mega folder and bundled in the MKV. Will probably reupload mkv in a couple months so I can give time for anyone else to tweak foreign subtitles if they notice any issues.

Also, Gandalf is saying a spell in Elvish at the beginning, but keeping in line with the other subtitles you don’t have to transcribe in-universe languages unless they have been translated on screen (like Azog dialogue), even english speakers don’t know what he’s saying. The only exception is for closed captions which will have something like (SPEAKING ELVISH)

Thanks. I’ll send the subtitles soon as I can, though maybe I’ll try to test them one last time. I knew Gandalf’s incantation in the post-credit was not translated by chocie but I still wanted to be sure (also, is it always Gandalf? For some reason I thought it was Saruman at the beginning). Thing is, the subtitles file I made is like a mix between nromal and closed captions: I removed every instance of subtitles “explaining the noises” but I kept the ones about characters speaking another language, so at least viewers have some sort of context even if the dalogue is not translated. For the same reason, I also made sure to keep every intance of subtitles mentioning who is speaking off-screen. EDIT: Subtitles sent.

Would love a link for your amazing edit. 😊

Pm sent!

Is it possible to get the link sent?

Hi I also wish I could have a link. Thanks.

Hi, could you give me a link please? Thank you and have a wonderful day!

Hey! I first watched your edit a couple of years back and I absolutely loved it. I am extremely grateful for the passion and hard work you have put into this, and to see you have continued tweaking and editing until recently is astonishing. Would it be possible to receive a link to the most recent version? It would be great to watch it with a friend of mine who has only just recently discovered Middle-Earth.

Thanks again!

PMed all. Thanks for the support

Still happy with the cut, no plans for further tweaks

Just to be sure, have you recieved the updated italian subtitles I sent you? I realzied it’s been a while since I sent them and I don’t recall ever hearing from you after that.

Magnificent! Could you also send me a link to the edit, please?

PaulSimonBarCarloson said:

Just to be sure, have you recieved the updated italian subtitles I sent you? I realzied it’s been a while since I sent them and I don’t recall ever hearing from you after that.

Hey Paul, sorry for the late reply. After releasing the update decided to take a much needed break. I received them, I’ll try to add them to the download folder soon as an alternate version. I think I noticed that you integrated some of the closed caption format such as the character names and other descriptions, so I still want to keep the old Italian version for those that want just the translations. Thanks for your efforts!

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Can i have a link please as well, thank you for the edit.

sidshady12 said:

PaulSimonBarCarloson said:

Just to be sure, have you recieved the updated italian subtitles I sent you? I realzied it’s been a while since I sent them and I don’t recall ever hearing from you after that.

Hey Paul, sorry for the late reply. After releasing the update decided to take a much needed break. I received them, I’ll try to add them to the download folder soon as an alternate version. I think I noticed that you integrated some of the closed caption format such as the character names and other descriptions, so I still want to keep the old Italian version for those that want just the translations. Thanks for your efforts!

It’s up to you how you want to implement them. I added the closed captions only when it came to the names of the characters talking off-screen, or for characters speaking another lenguage (on those few moments dwarvish and elvish aren’t subtitles). Just as a heads up: I realized I completely missed two lines that were left in english. One is “Let them all go?” during the troll sequence (should be line #609) which in italian is “Li lasciamo andare?”. The other is “The bear is unpredictable…” (around line #1206 about Beorn) which is “L’orso è imprevedibile…”. Let me know if I should send them again, or if you could edit those two lines on your own. Thanks for taking my offer into consideration.

I noticed that the video sources are the original Blu-Rays, and not the remastered Blu-Rays. It would be nice if a new version of this edit was made with them. Here’s where to find them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Middle-Earth-6-Film-Collection-Remastered-Extended-Edition-Set-Blu-ray/dp/B09HCLCQN7

What does M4 think of the remastered picture?