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A project from June ’22 that was mercifully very straightforward next to my others, as almost all the work is from other projects.
The main bulk of the project is the 258 minute “The Hobbit M4 Book Edit”, which makes up at least 95% of the whole thing and is widely considered to be the most book-accurate take on the trilogy done by a fan. So, obviously the editor ‘M4’ deserves a huge chunk of credit, and I freely acknowledge my edit would probably not be at the level it is without their very hard work.
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To get more into specifics on what I’VE done with this and why, I split it into two parts – as was the original plan of the studio – and re-inserted parts of the theatrical or extended releases that, while maybe not strictly novel-faithful, do still add something.
Luckily it’s quite sparing, and happens for what I would consider a good reason – logically, narratively or to more evenly balance the respective runtimes between these new two halves.
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Part 1: A Long Journey – 2hrs 33mins.
This starts off with the Erebor introduction from the extended edition of “An Unexpected Journey” (so Thranduil and the white gems are seen properly, since it’s important at the climax later). It’s not included in the novel, but it does set the stage of everything very well and works very well as a very ‘cinematic’ introduction – and since this is a film of the book, and not the book itself, it feels good to put it back in.
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It then transitions seamlessly into the M4 edit where it continues for half an hour, going from Old Bilbo writing in the Red Book of Westmarch to the reminiscence of his younger days, meeting Gandalf and everything until their first night camping.
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Then it’s the full campfire scene from the extended edition of AUJ which includes the Moria flashback – only 6.5 minutes total. Including this creates a solid link to the LoTR stories, exposits Thorin’s namesake, and it gives a name to a face with the Pale Orc, who doesn’t appear in the M4 edit as much as the original films (as they added a lot of padding there that wasn’t in the book), but he’s still the commander and main villain towards the end.
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Next it goes back to the M4 Edit for 68 minutes, until the ‘interlude’ that was put into the original 4hrs 18mins edit project. There’s a slow fade to black, a pause for a few seconds and then a slow fade back to the next part of the M4 Edit after the interlude: the beginning of the ‘Desolation of Smaug’ film story. The M4 Edit continues for another 26 minutes, going through Beorn’s house and Mirkwood forest until I decided to put the end of the first film in. It ends with the Dwarves captured by the Elves, Legolas checks the bridge at the gate again as Bilbo slips in, the door to the Mirkwood realm heavily closes and the screen fades to black on a cliffhanger ending.
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It ends with the credits sequence from AUJ – the soundtrack is better and there’s only a tiny bit of the DoS story included by now, so going out of the way to include those credits just for a handful of new characters feels redundant.
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Part 2: There and Back Again – 2hrs 10mins.
This film begins with the opening titles from ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, since the music for it seems more suited to the cliffhanger situation we’re now picking up from. This motif has the ominous twinge of both TDoS and TBoTFA, but not as much as the latter, which makes more sense since this is now only halfway through the story. So while the party is in a bind (pun not intended) they still haven’t faced a huge evil through Smaug, Thorin’s change or the armies converging on Erebor, the overall stakes are lower at the moment, so the softer ominous music works better.
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The main bulk of the film is the M4 Edit for almost all of it – uninterrupted from Mirkwood to Laketown to Erebor to Smaug to the Battle to the Funeral to the Shire.
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Finally, I ended it with the credits from ‘The Battle of The Five Armies’, as it was a shame to lose them and it’s another consistent link to the LoTR stories.
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Why not use the original ending point? Good question!
The original plan for ‘An Unexpected Journey’ had it end after the Dwarves escape from Mirkwood, with the barrel ride being the climax of the film and the final shot being Bard and his bow standing ominously over the Dwarves on the rocky shore.
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There were two reasons: Firstly, having a sweeping establishing shot that naturally ended up at the riverside didn’t seem to be available, so I’m guessing they maybe just didn’t film it when they restructured it from two films to three in the first place. The same goes with a way of opening the scene with Bard and the Dwarves before it goes right into their sharply-cut conflict that’s over as soon as it begins.
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But, mostly, it would make the runtimes of each film more disproportionate than they already are. It’s another 10 minutes from walking into Mirkwood and meeting Bard, so that original structure would lead to a film that’s 2hrs 40 followed by one that’s 2hrs 0 – the gap is definitely wider.
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It’s a Mega link like everything else.
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Because of the size of the massive original source file and the usual 1080p quality I work and export in, both halves of this edit are very large in their own rights; around 20GB(!) each.
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Footnote: I am in no capacity a professional editor or VFX artist, so some areas are visibly mostly good as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it. 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.
