- Time
- (Edited)
- Post link
A project over the last week continuing my latest venture reconfiguring old works in a way that decreases file size while hopefully having no corresponding drop-off in smoothness or quality.
This was one of the first projects I wanted to go back into and reconsolidate because the exports were always very large at ~20GB EACH with how big the original M4 source file was on my first venture with this back in mid-‘22. [https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Hobbit-M4-Book-Edit-Augment/id/114711/page/1#1577234]
.
.
.
Luckily, I found an updated version of the M4 edit that was dated this year. It was noticeably smaller than the previous ~24GB source version from 2021, but around 50 seconds longer – totalling at 4hrs 18mins. When I looked into how this was different and why it was longer, it was simply some scenes here and there having some extra frames to help things flow better from one shot to the next – so that wasn’t an issue at all.
I essentially rebuilt both of my original films – “A Long Journey” and “There and Back Again” – from scratch and followed the same formula for both of what to include, what to bring back from the studio films, and where to cut the M4 edit in half and why. I also used more recent audio blending techniques I taught myself to ease the transition between studio segments and M4 segments, hopefully creating a smoother experience.
.
.
.
Part 01. A Long Journey – formerly 19.90GB/2hrs 33mins 30secs, now 13.7GB/2hrs 34mins 15secs
.
Still opens with a mix of the theatrical and extended Erebor opening. Film’s title notice overlaying the scene with Bilbo meeting Gandalf is shortened slightly. Still continues with the M4 edit until Bilbo and the Dwarves are camping at night by the fire. The Moria flashback to put a face to a name with Azog for character development’s sake and bridge things to the LoTR films for overall cohesion is still there.
.
The M4 edit continues on until the intermission section where I made my only other change – before, in the gap between the end of AUJ and TDoS, I had a simple black screen for a few seconds to show the passage of time from day to evening – now there’s an annotation card explaining it is actually 6 hours later, as it is in the story, which feels better than a plain black screen of silent nothingness.
.
The M4 edit carries on as normal again until the Dwarves are captured by the Elves like my previous version, the gates to the Mirkwood realm heavily swing shut and it fades to black on a cliffhanger and the extended AUJ credits play as before.
.
.
.
Part 02. There and Back Again – formerly 18.00GB/2hrs 10mins 1sec, now 13.1GB/2hrs 9mins 57secs
.
Still opens with the TDoS opening, title card is slightly shortened from before, as above.
.
M4 edit plays out as normal right until the end credits from the extended cut of TBotFA.
.
.
.
Total differences are: old versions 37.90GB together with a 4hr 43mins 22secs runtime – and new versions are at 26.8GB together with a 4hr 44min 12secs runtime. So definitely a noticeable chunk missing from the file sizes, but with hopefully no proportionate loss in quality. I checked multiple frames across the different versions in the editor at granular detail and saw extremely little changes all the way through – so hopefully when viewed on a TV across the room, it’s all but invisible. Like wearing a certain piece of gold jewellery, very ironically.
.
.
.
.
Footnote: I am merely a self-taught editor and VFX artist here, as such, some areas might be visibly mostly good – as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it, of course. If you do have any particular notes and feedback, feel free to give me your thoughts, but please be constructive and don’t be an ass about it.