The Rings of Power 1 - The Shadow of the Past

This 3-hour 45-minute edit covers the events of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 (up through the eruption of Mount Doom, along with the conclusion of the Harfoot and Stranger story).

The edit is available upon request in 1920x800 resolution, mp4 format, 14.23 GB file size.

There are countless edits throughout this film, intended to streamline the story, reduce running time, avoid lore issues, and enhance characterization. That said, the major distinctives of this edit are as follows:

• Single-movie format with brief intermission
• Day/Night cycles synched throughout the film (roughly 9 days with some implied time-lapses)
• Almost daily check-ins with each of the major plotlines so that none get forgotten
• Harfoots get a prominent role as the emotional heart of the film
• Finrod’s advice to “Touch the darkness” is linked to the Elven fall/decision to leave Valinor
• The Orcs take no prisoners; the tunnels are only for invading the villages
• The wolf attack takes place in the Harfoot’s starting location (color matching used)
• Theo is implied to have gone back to the village to get the hilt, as well as food
• Mithril is derived from an Elven soul, not a Silmaril
• Adar is captured in the battle, with no additional horse chase
• Durin decides to mine with Elrond after talking about their friendship, not after seeing a leaf get healed
• The hilt magically erupts the volcano; there is no mechanical contraption involved
• The film/season ends with the eruption, leaving the aftermath and forging for a second film, which I hope to spread out using hypothetical season 2 story elements
• Saddoc is shown alive in the final Harfoot scenes

For anyone who has seen my workprint, all footage has been redone to take advantage of higher quality sources. Because of this, all transitions were also redone and several scenes were recut for greater efficiency.

In addition, new VFX have been created in DaVinci Resolve Studio for the following:

• “The Lord of the Rings” removed from the title card, as it wasn’t part of the title for “The Hobbit”
• Color grading for dawn and dusk in several scenes
• Color grading to re-set the wolf attack in a forest that looks more like the original Harfoot location
• Reduced/recolored shots to reduce the presence of burned plants/ground in the Grove (again to make it look more like the original Harfoot location)
• Basic compositing to replace the Mystic footprint in the mud with a wolf pawprint
• New burned-in titles and subtitles, where appropriate, using a more thematic font

Special thanks and inspiration for the following sequences/aspects of the edit:

• Abbreviated prologue (Crossvader and Anjohan)
• Raft without refugees (Crossvader)
• Less argumentative Galadriel throughout (Anjohan)
• Abbreviated star-chart theft (Stiepan90)
• Mithril reveal montage with resonating (Anjohan)
• Gore toned down in Southlands battle (Crossvader)
• Southlands battle transition (Crossvader)
• Only Nori and Poppy confront the Mystics (Crossvader)
• The Harfoots never migrate until their final scene (Crossvader)

Additional thanks for the following for their series analysis, which informed my editorial choices:

• Nerd of the Rings
• The Broken Sword
• The Prancing Pony Podcast
• Rings and Realms

What about the rest of Season 1 you ask? Well, I’m hoping to integrate it into the first half of Season 2 in order to slow down the pace of those events. Based on this edit, I’m hoping to have a full trilogy of films by the time Season 2 is done, but that will obviously depend upon the content we receive.

Thank you again to everyone in this community who has edited or thrown around ideas for this series. It’s been a joy to work on this project, and I hope that (like me) you can now more easily find a place for the Rings of Power alongside the Jackson films.

Well the biggest cut is the entire eruption aftermath, forging of the three, and Sauron reveal - all of which I held back for a second movie.

The other biggest cut is that I skipped the entire chain gang story with Arondir and the orcs and baby warg. Instead, he gets captured and taken straight to Adar. They talk, and he gets sent back with Adar’s ultimatum.

A lot of the delay plotline in Numemor is cut, so things with Elendil’s daughter and Pharazon’s son, Isildor and his friends, the loss of the fourth boat, Halbrand going back and forth about whether or not he’ll go along. Most of this was done just to trim fat in the story and runtime.

The only other really noticeable cuts are in the battle for the Southlands. I ended up entirely removing Arondir’s fight with the eye-spike orc. I had first tried to reduce the amount of gore in that sequence but found too many inconsistencies between the shots that were left. After fiddling with several versions, I realized that the mid-stage of the battle could wrap up a lot more quickly without it and still make sense since it’s a fake out. I also removed the reveal that they were mostly fighting fellow Southlanders (since that wasn’t consistently true anyway) and the Bronwyn surgery sequence due to the focus on gore again.

I’ll send you a PM.

Rop edit

First of all, I want to say well done man. This definitely flows very very well, and it is a GREAT watch. I do think I enjoyed it more than anjohans tbh. In fact it really might have the potential to be a default replacer for me. So with all of that said, here are all of my thoughts. To be clear, they are VERY nitpicking, just as things that I think could make a good project even better. So here ya go

The flashback voices of Galadriel and her brother during the boat scene were a little confusing to me. I may have just missed the point: What was the flow of thought to them? If the idea is tying her motivation to her brother, maybe consider just a flashback to the opening scene of him looking at her by the tree? I think there might be too much un-introduced information going on there. Maybe just a flashback showing her standing over her dead brother and leave out the voices?

The transition from Celebrimbor and Elrond to Galadriel swimming was a little abrupt. Consider starting the cross fade of the musical score a little earlier if possible so that the tone of the next scene is already clearly established and few seconds before the end of celebrimbor scene, and then do a clean cut to the next scene of Galadriel in the sea.

I love that you removed the whole sea monster scene. If possible, cut from the shot of halbrand staring at her with his row, to her climbing onto the raft. The momentary distrustful stare that they share with one another doesn’t make any sense if this is their first meeting. Though I guess it does reveal that she is an elf?

In The scene with nori and the stranger, you seem to skip something and there’s a pretty noticeable change in the flow of the musical score — skipping him eating the snail shells I presume? I understand the thought, but it might not be worth it if there’s not a cleaner way to transition the music. Just my opinion though.

First off, if im honest, Cutting from the moon to the stranger laying into the fire, and then into Galadriels flashback dream was a little too much happening at once and T was confusing. Maybe just go from the moon into the dream. And here are my thoughts on the dream

Thoughts on Galadriel’s flashback dream:
First off, consider using a slightly different color gradient, like a bit of grey scale or something, so that the watcher knows something is different. When it comes to the dream itself, I’ve got two thought paths

1. Rather than starting the flashback in the northern snow lands, just start it at Galadriels brothers tree, when she is sheathing her knife. I think the use of the northern land scenes just make things sorta confusing, kinda like a story line we aren’t privy to. And then I wouldn’t use the shot of her diving in the water. Instead After the line “without it what am I to be” I would just merge into the crashing wave sound and have her wake up.
2. Dont have the dream. It doesn’t really accomplish anything or add to the story. Just cut from the stranger looking at the moon, into the crashing wave sound and Galadriel waking up.

Elrond’s entry into the dwarf kingdom: consider extending the big, elegant musical score a little further into the scene cut of them riding the lift, letting it fade out slower until the view closes in on the lift. It felt rushed.

The transition from the ‘chess game’ to the next shot is pretty noticeable. Perhaps transition to Bronwyn a little earlier in the town scene with a cross fade of the audios.

Sick cow scene: this was one of the hardest areas to edit for Anjohan as well. I think since you have left out the opening bar scene in the south lands where they talk about things being poisoned, you need to include the cow squirting out gross black milk. Otherwise, there’s no logical reason for Arrondir to grow so concerned so quickly.

Galadriel asking the queen to form an alliance: the transition from “nevertheless numenor has chose another path” transitioned to banishing Galadriel being forced to her boat is a bit rough sound-wise. Consider crossfading the audios a bit more before the cut. Or finding a different place to drop in.

The transitions from the mithril reveal to the dwarf king scene could use a touch more crossfading in the audio.

The Transition from elendil saying “nothing would make me prouder” into the triumphant departure felt a little rushed and strange. Maybe consider making the transition take place right before elendil says the line, giving the impression that he is thoughtfully reconsidering Isildurs commitment.

The Transition from Theo talking to creepy bartender guy to the stranger and Nori is a bit noticeable. Maybe consider trying to work the transition right after the line “have you heard of Sauron” when Theo pulls his hand away, the music dies while they stare at each other for a second — that could be a much easier transition into the next scene musically ……… OR transition right after Theo peaks at the sword, and skip the conversation with creepy guy altogether.

I know you probably were trying to cut time at this point, but I personally think it’s worth including the conversation between Theo and arrondir about destroying the sword hilt. It sets up the Mordor moment better. Plus, the music change from celebrating King Halbrandt going straight into the sinister music of the morder scene is a bit odd. Maybe consider this?…:

1. Use Full king halbrandt scene, including conversation with arrondir and Galadriel, and arrondir and Theo. Once it goes to the sword scene, Dont cut the scene until the sword twists and clicks down… the music dies out and you can transition to isuldur much smoother.

As far as the ending Harfoot storyline, I think you did a great job with the editing. My only concerns are 1) the logic behind why Nori and Poppi are there in the first place? The last interaction with nori we got was her saying ‘I’m only a harfoot. It’s all I’ll ever be’ and kinda giving up. So it’s a bit of a push in plot for them to just randomly be there without them setting off to look for the stranger. 2) because of that edit, you’ve kept Sadoc alive in the ending shots since he ‘didnt die’ in your edit. (Which is quite in impressive actually) but I wonder if that could make continuity difficult for you moving forward? Just a thought.

All in all, a very fine work. You should be proud. Definitely keeping it. Thanks for sharing man!

Thank you for the extensive notes. While some of them are things that I’ve never thought about, some were deliberate choices that I’ll try to explain below.

1. Galadriel and the flashback to her brother on the boat:

The audio and sequence were lifted straight from the show. The only thing I changed were the visuals that went with the flashback, and the reason I did that is that Finrod’s advice seemed a very odd thing to say in paradise before anything bad had happened. In many ways, it embodied the Elvish mindset after Morgoth destroyed the trees and stole the Silmarils, the mindset that drove them from Valinor to Middle Earth the first time and the same mindset that was now driving Galadriel to make the same choice again.

2 and 3) about the transitions and the look between Halbrand and Galadriel. Good points. I’ll consider those.

4. The Stranger with the Snails:

Yes, this was a very tricky scene because it was originally intercut with Nori’s father breaking his ankle, which was a plotline I cut entirely. It could probably use some further polishing, maybe using the soundtrack to smooth over some of those transitions.

5. Galadriel’s dream sequence:

Honestly, this was mostly done in order to include that Elrond and Galadriel night scene (which I rather liked for better insight into her motivations) without stretching the beginning of the story out further. I can certainly re-evaluate how much of a purpose it really serves though.

Also, I did apply the same slight vignette effect that I applied during the prologue and also during all other flashbacks.

6. and 7) On extending music further over transitions - sure, I’ll take a look at those.

7. The cow:

I understand what you are saying, but the black goo really took me out of the story when I was watching it. I do agree that, without it, Arondir seems a bit paranoid, but that’s also kind of how his character starts out even in the original bar scene.

9. and 10) More music transitions - I’ll look into it.

10. The Elendil and Isildor transition - This was really tricky since I wanted to cut the rest of their conversation. You make an interesting suggestion about leaving it unresolved until we see Isildor aboard the ship.

11. The Theo to Stranger and Nori transition - Again, this was tricky to pull off. I tried to overlay the Sauron theme in order to strengthen the implication that the Stranger might be Sauron, but it cuts off very abruptly. Maybe I need a different soundtrack sample of the Sauron music in order to smooth the transition.

12. Theo and Arondir and the Hilt:

This was a really painful scene for me to cut, because I love it. That said, I needed to get rid of it because my edit has no fake hilt. It always struck me as odd that nobody noticed how basic the thing wrapped up was until that moment, but I suppose I could consider re-integrating it and still imply that it was captured off screen.

14. Nori and Poppy vs the Mystics:

Yes, it’s less developed than in the original, but what I hope is communicated is that Nori sees the Mystics tracking the Stranger at night and decides to get Poppy and follow them in order to help him/see what is going on, in spite of everything that happened earlier.

15. Saddoc:

I don’t expect that we will see much of the Harfoots beyond Nori and maybe Poppy until maybe the end of the series when I expect we’ll get some type of founding of the Shire thing. If there is a considerable time before we see them again, it should be easy enough to imply that Saddoc died during the interrum.

Again, thank you for all the notes. I got some from one other reviewer as well, and after a week or so, I plan to go through all the feedback to see what I can improve. Around then, season 2 will also start, and I’ll be able to see if anything needs to change in order to fit that content.

Hi there, I watched your workprint of this edit about a year ago, and I’d love to revisit the full release! Would it be possible to get a link?

ps. regarding the discussion above I have to say I do agree with ianrilofneither about keeping the black ick from the cow, which adds urgency and impact to Arondir’s choice to investigate. It sounds like the second season of ROP is rated 18 (and in truth Tolkien’s text does get gruesome at times) so I don’t think there’s any need to shy away from a little gore.

Thanks for the replies! You seriously did a great job. Bout to make my wife watch it to get ready for Season 2!

Again, some of these were very nitpicking… so altogether very well done

A few concluding thoughts.

1. Galadriels dream
   Yes. I loved the tree scene as well. I think perhaps fading more gently from the moon into the dream would suffice, using only that scene before Galadriel awakes.

2. The cow
   Yeah I get it. The goo is weird. But I genuinely had to go back to the originals to investigate if there was any other reasoning he had to be paranoid. Having not watched them recently, the logical flow presents a normal, but sick cow causes frantic music to match arrondirs panic. And it just sorta doesn’t make sense. Obviously Your call, but I think it’s worth it.

3. Theo /creepy guy/ stranger / nori
   Yeah. After re-watching a few times, I feel like theos conversation with what’s his face is dispensable. I can barely understand what the dude says anyway.

4. Fake Hilt
   I don’t think it would be a problem to utilize the fake hilt. We’ve already been ‘prepped’ that something sinister is brewing by Adars conversation with Galadriel. So I think the watcher would connect the dots and say “oh he hoodwinked them”. And then you can go from that scene into the sword moment, extend your cut to include the twisting and locking of the sword… allowing the music to die so you can more readily transition to Isildur and the horse.