Yeah…four years too late.
LOL. I’m still around, and I read here. I get notifications of PMs.
I’m willing to bet a lot of the editors here are like that. They don’t produce new stuff on a regular basis, but they’re around.
Point me to them!
Did these ever get to the point where you’d consider releasing them? This is a take on the films I’ve been dying to see.
That last video is gorgeous. I think the series desperately needs this take.
I did some proof of concept color correcting on Goblet of Fire, and the effect was amazing. The musical work is so desperately needed, but the technical work involved boggles me.
Is this is completed effort or in progress?
I’d love to take a stab at a Lighter and Brighter Edition, which tries to draw out the joy of childhood in a magical boarding school.
That’s what exactly what I hope to accomplish.
Oh, hey. Not to steal your thunder then! Maybe I can be helpful.
😄 😄
Don’t know what you’re talking about.
Yes yes!
Adding saturation is a trickier thing than removing it, but I’m discovering that I can get a lot of results without such a huge change that it looks artificial, at least in HP4 where I was experimenting. Add just a bit more saturation and white adjustment to the Great Hall scene, for example, and suddenly the Beauxbatons students actually wear blue dresses! It’s pretty amazing.
I’m a baby at this, though, so much exploration to be done.
I enjoy the Revisited series of the HP movies, but the goal of those edits is draw the earlier movies closer in line with the darkness of the later films. I’d love to take a stab at a Lighter and Brighter Edition, which tries to draw out the joy of childhood in a magical boarding school. That is what really drew me into the book series to begin with. That would have to involve scene edits, color correction, and a lot of soundtrack work, since often it’s the soundtrack more than anything else that sets the tone. The goal wouldn’t be to make it goofy or anything, just start from a more lighthearted place and slow the descent into darkness as one progresses through the series.
Big project, though. Much learning to be done.
I’ve actually been doing some preliminary work on color-correcting the films. The massive desaturation drives me nuts. They’re fantasy adventures, not horror films, and thematically not exactly the darkest stuff out there even at their darkest. The first video in that series calls out the color problem too.
I love the idea of drawing the soundtrack together, though I’m quite the baby at rescoring.
Yeah, the trolls in The Hobbit are kind of jarring when compared to LotR, but I consider them their own thing. Though it isn’t identical, the dialogue is pretty close in spirit to what’s in the book, and I think the book scene is pretty funny. I found the scene as released in the film to be horrifying – the butt-scratching and egregious snot just made me cringe. Without it, and accepting that these are just not LotR trolls, I personally think some funny was recovered.
It seems like it might be possible to make a cut where our heroes stumble upon the trolls already turned to stone and still raid their stash to get the swords. More aggressively, one might be able to cut the scenes with Elrond analyzing the swords and the goblins freaking out at Orcrist. That leaves Sting, which is Sting – cuttable, but a great loss. One might be able to trim the scene of Gandalf giving it to Bilbo to make the context obscure. Maybe he just happened to have it lying around in his wizard stash.
That’s not this edit though.
Added a second demo clip with the troll scene involving less gross body humor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7gLn8p8jYo
Seriously, the dialogue is what makes that scene funny. Stretching strands of snot less so, at least to my taste 😃. And closeups on butt-scratching are right out. But I have to say, “Look what come out of me hooter!” does make me laugh, so the nose blowing isn’t all for naught.
Done! Thanks for checking it out!
Please send me a link!
Thanks!
This is going to be a work of art when you’re done. Very distinctive feel.
Assume you realize there’s a shot of the crescent moon brightened like the sun in that clip. Is this because the sun and the moon are in the sky together? In reality, which doesn’t necessarily apply to Middle Earth of course, the moon would be pretty dim in the sky with the sun.
Clip uploaded to YouTube! Here is the simplified Durin’s Day scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWT1Y2yXII
I have set the clip as “unlisted.” How do you folks usually handle permissions?
I have also discovered that I misspelled “FekketCantenel” in my credit screen at the end headdesk. So I’ll be doing a new version to fix that soon.
ETA: Hmm. The clip doesn’t watch as high-quality as it does on my desktop. I don’t know much about YouTube. I’ve seen some pretty high-quality clips there. At any rate, that’s a demo of the way it’s cut, not the quality of the end result 😕.
Eating up more of your comment thread: I think the idea of a smash cut in the troll scene is fabulous. I really would like to see how that flows. The scene as written is such a Hollywood trope – thirteen seasoned warriors (ok, some of them are seasoned warriors) surrender to save the life of their companion… so that all 14 of them can then be dinner. A smash cut is both entertaining and sidesteps the entire question of how they were captured in the first place.
If you can do anything to solve the thrush problem, I would love to see that!
You commented that you uploaded a scene of them arriving to the mountain? Did I miss a link to that?
Haha. Yeah, I can see from browsing here and fanedit.org that having some kind of subtitle for one’s work is a whole lot more than just vanity.
This looks really interesting.
This is fascinating. I guess work is still being done on The Hobbit after all 😃. It’s kind of amazing opportunity because there’s SO MUCH FOOTAGE that you can make many very different films with it.
One ignorant question – what constitutes roadshow format?
I’m fascinated to see this.
Done! Thanks for checking it out!
It is with some nervousness that I present another fanedit of what I think is the most fanedited franchise after Star Wars.
After years of watching all the single-movie Hobbit edits I could find, looking for the match to my personal taste, I eventually fell down the rabbithole of making my own. This edit has been an on-and-off, year-long journey of discovery for me. I have caught the fanediting bug and am casting about for a new project now that I have done everything to The Hobbit that I can think of. I thought the community might be interested in the result.
Now with demo clip: Durin’s Day, simplified: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWT1Y2yXII
Also 70% Troll Snot Reduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7gLn8p8jYo
Clocking in at just under 2:35 this is the second-shortest single-movie Hobbit edit that I’ve come across, second only to FekketCantenel’s 2-Hour Hobbit Edit, which was definitely an inspiration. My goal was to create a single movie within the runtime of a theater release that would tell a dang good story from Tolkien’s work.
To that end, my priories in order have been:
Regarding secondary threads, I’ve tried to answer questions such as:
- What is Elvenking Thranduil’s problem anyway?
- What is Dale and why does it matter? Aren’t the Men living in Laketown?
- Bard is who again? A smuggler? Wait, now someone’s calling him ‘sire’? I tried to give Bard in particular a full character arc and a final sendoff.
Thematically, I consider The Hobbit to be an action-adventure buddy movie. The evolving relationship between Bilbo and Thorin is drawn to the forefront wherever possible.
One feature of this edit that I haven’t seen in other edits is a detailed “copy-editing” pass that targets pregnant pauses, meaningful glances, repeated lines, beating a point to death, excessive foreshadowing, and gags stepping on their own punchline. I think the bloat is particularly hard on comedic timing, though there are some places where tightening really helps dramatic timing as well.
Of note: I have usurped FekketCantenel’s brilliant musical flashback. Once I saw the backstory presented this way, I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. That is her work and the work of Clamavi di Profundis (music and music video) except for the Elven lords verse, which I reworked.
I don’t actually know how to post a clip to YouTube. I’ll look into that. Scenes I am particularly proud of are:
The opening of the door into the mountain. I’ve removed all the artificial tension running around (i.e. confusion over moonlight vs. sunlight, despair, dropping and losing the key) and turned it into a triumphant moment where the sun sets, the thrush knocks, the keyhole is revealed, and the Dwarves line up in silent emotion. We don’t need tension and confusion here. We’re about to go visit a dragon. Audio on this scene gave me fits.
Bard vs. Smaug. This is cut as a solo man vs. monster moment. There is no special arrow, no son appearing, and no broken bow. It is just Bard against the dragon in a flaming town, and Bard is down to his last arrow. I think this is plenty nail-biting on its own.
The Unexpected Party got a lot of attention. I tried to keep it from dragging while milking as much lightheartedness from it as I could.
There is 70% snot reduction in the Troll scene.
Other bits that are not unique: All plots have been cut except the journey to and battle for the Lonely Mountain. Azog has been removed until the Battle of Five Armies, where he goes unnamed except for one spot I couldn’t figure out how to remove.
So, that’s the long description. I will send download link on request. That’s the official way this is done, right?
It’s a 6.5G 1080p mp4.
I’m also seeking links to HP 1 and 2 revisited. Help much appreciated!