vranir

Love seeing you getting back on track!

That does look impressive. Since I’m running a Mac, I’m going to hold off until they release the requirements snd framerates for the Mac version of Starlight Mini. (So far it’s Windows only, but they’re working on Mac and Linux.)

I’d love to try it out on my standard go-to scene, the opening of One Little Ship, to see how it handles the com badges, grey uniform piping, and console text. I do like what I can see of the piping in your Nemesis screen caps.

Do you find that Starlight produces a markedly better result than other models like Proteus?

I used a combination of Artemis and Proteus to upscale all of DS9 and VOY for myself last year. I don’t have an active Topaz subscription (and can’t get Starlight because of that) but it is something I’d be willing to consider. My MacBook Pro has 32GB RAM so it should be able to handle it.

I kind of like the 3-part option if only because it would result in 6 total films / 2 trilogies, which is the traditional Star Wars organization.

Any new updates or thoughts on this? I’m really excited to see what you do with Season 2.

Super excited for movies 5 and 6!

(Links sent, as requested, via PM)

And since it’s been a few months, I was wondering if anyone has any feedback (especially on Pt 2).

I’m taking a break from RoP for a bit after taking my own crack at season 2 - after all I think we have to wait a couple of years again for the next batch of material - but I’d love to take a look at these sometime in the next few months. Your original Workprint was a huge inspiration for me.

Agreed with all the above.

I’ve mostly been working on Rings of Power myself, alongside a couple of other editors here. We’ve each taken a different, but overlapping approach - one breaks each storyline into its own movie, one tries to compress as much as possible to focus on only the main events, and I’ve tried to balance everything and it trim into a series of cohesive Jackson-style films (so far about 2.5 films pending season 3 in 2026.

I do expect to revisit the original trilogy in 2030 when all is said and done, if only to blend in some Rings of Power flashback footage and Bear McCreary’s excellent music for cohesion. But that’s a long way off.

A couple of lingering questions, which maybe you could work into or work around in the edit:

• What happened to the captain of the Onyx Cinder after he crashed on At-Atan? Maybe he also confronted the Supervisor AI and got killed by it when his true agenda was discovered? Maybe the AI could drop a line that implies this?

• If the Onyx Cinder was originally a native At-Atan ship and that’s why it was allowed through the barrier, who was its captain and what was its purpose? Was the original pirate captain from At-Atan in the first place, or maybe he captured the actual envoy who was supposed to use the ship to travel back and forth? Maybe that’s why the AI recognized Jod as an envoy.

• And again, as has been brought up multiple times now, why does Jod tell the pirates to attack? Wouldn’t a better tactic have been to simply replace the Supervisor and send shipments of credits out to his crew every few months? Could you somehow imply that this was his original plan but that it had been blocked by something, maybe the kids blowing the cover on him or his ship’s actual identity? That way, just like with the kids, he would start out trying to be a friend, but if needed, he would change angles and use fear to get what he wants.

I did appreciate the involvement of the parents in helping during the finale.

I wasn’t a fan of Jod letting the pirates just attack instead of quietly taking over; it seemed dumb and needlessly bloody for a character who had mostly tried to avoid killing random people.

I did appreciate Jod’s slight smile when the good kids defeated him.

Above all, I appreciated that they actually kept it all self-contained, a fun normal story in a shared universe.

Initial post updated for the release of Part 2: “Udun.”

Happy Holidays, everyone!

The new film covers the forging of the three Elven rings and most of the season 2 side-plots.

Major changes from the show are as follows:

• Galadriel experiences a vision from Sauron immediately after the eruption, pointing her to Eregion
• Halbrand surrenders to Adar before we know who he is to heighten mystery and possible heroism
• Bronwyn is presumed dead after the eruption; her pyre is moved to the camp the night Theo arrives
• The Stoors are more welcoming of the Harfoots and they seem to pass more time together
• There is no sea-serpent trial for the queen; after the shrine incident, all Faithful are rounded up
• The arrival of the riders at the Stoors’ village leads directly into the dialogue of the wizards
• Elrond does not jump off a cliff; he takes the rings straight to Cirdan

Special thanks to Anjohan for his idea of splitting Galadriel’s vision between the eruption and her confrontation with Suaron.

UPDATE: I’ve made a number of small changes and adjustments, as well as attempting to add a 5.1 audio output track and getting Poppy to leave with Nori and the Stranger (thanks for the prototype there Anjohan!).

The other issue I struggled with for season 2 compatibility was whether or not to show Bronwyn looking recovered at the party just before the eruption. Ultimately, I decided that I had to keep it because too much is needed from that scene to simply cut it (we see Galadriel and Halbrand back at the village, and we get Halbrand introduced and hailed as king, wrapping up his initial storyline). I do plan for Bronwyn to be dead when Theo and Galadriel arrive at the camp in the second movie.

I’m going to do a few final watch-throughs before releasing the “final” version and moving on to the second movie. I want to take one more look at streamlining and transitions, as well as double-check both the stereo and 5.1 audio tracks for quality and consistency.

I’m still unclear how much content will make it into the second movie, but I’m currently hoping for it to focus on the aftermath of the eruption and the forging of the three. The season 2 plotlines for Numenor and the Stranger are also things I’d like to fully include, while I plan to hold back the Dwarf and siege plotlines for a third film, hopefully going alongside the rest of the Stranger’s confrontation with the Dark Wizard and tying that off in a trilogy. The only complication I’m dreading is the possibility that Sauron tries to give rings to the men of Rhun, causing those stories to overlap at moment that doesn’t work for me. I’m also not looking forward to another two-year wait in order to move forward!

Definitely. I just finalized my season 2 footage today, so I’ll be ready to start working with it soon.

I’m planning a round of updates. Any specific feedback is welcome as I prepare my potential change list.

In light of season 2, I’m hoping to follow Anjohan’s lead by having Poppy leave directly with Nori and the Stranger. I’m also looking at having Bronwyn die sooner instead of recover over and over only to die suddenly offscreen.

The streaming quality (both Netflix and P+) for DS9 and VOY is worse than the DVDs in my experience and is the primary reason why I started trying to mess around with my copy to begin with. It was almost unwatchable, especially when compared to TNG remastered or the newer shows. I wanted a version that I could share with my kids.

If you wanted to compress the Harfoot story, you could have either the Stranger leave alone right after he is discovered at the party, or you could have the Stranger, Nori, and Poppy leave together at that point.

The downside of speeding that up all the way to the three leaving would be that the Stranger suddenly becomes more verbal without the confrontation vs the mystics to explain that.

Once more, I’d also caution against the complete divorce of the Harfoot story from the other threads because it seems to be one of the only counterpoints of hope while everything else gets darker and darker. Hope is a big deal in Tolkien, and I strongly suspect that this plotline was invented by the writers to keep that going while the Southlands, Eregion, Kazad-Dum, and Númenor are all falling.

I’ve been talking a little with Anjohan about this, but most of the ideas I’ve had so far are about possibly shortening the Stranger/Harfoot storyline, and I’m not sure I want to actually do that, since they’re kind of the hopeful counterbalance to a lot of the other darker plot threads. I do think that I need for Poppy to somehow leave with Nori and the Stranger since she immediately rejoins them in the desert.

More of my thinking has been about what to focus on in a second film. My idea has always been to do the forging of the three, but I also think that I’m going to add in Numenor and the Stranger/Harfoots in Rhun.

Then for a third film, we’d have the crisis with the Dwarves, Annatar, and the fall of Eregion, but all that would likely need to wait for season 3 so that we’d have something lighter to juxtapose from the continuing Harfoot adventures, unless there ends up being a clear way to split their story from season 2 in half.

The result would be an opening trilogy that covers the forging of all but the One ring.

FYI - My own upscale project just got into s4 and there’s a noticeable scaling shift that actually required me to add a slight zoom (.025) to get the same final dimensions.

Yes, in my own upscaling attempt I was shocked by how bad Dax was. I thought for sure that I must have done something wrong when I saw how blurred the end credits were.

Time to resurrect this thread for 8 new episodes.

Thank you so much for continuing this very long project!

One question based on an initial skim though: is the volume range the same for all of these? It sounds to me like Order of the Phoenix is significantly louder at all times than Sorcerer’s Stone (not sure about the others).

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.

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.

These 2 3-hour 45-minute edits cover the events of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 and 2. (Part 1 is the story up through the eruption of Mount Doom, while Part 2 is the forging of the three Elven rings alongside most of the season 2 side-plots.)

The edit is available upon request in 1920x800 resolution, mp4 format, 13-14 GB file size. I believe that I succeeded in creating two audio tracks - stereo and 5.1 surround sound, but I have no way to test the 5.1 version myself.

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

• Single-movie format with brief intermission
• Day/Night cycles synched throughout each film (roughly 9 days for each, 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 each 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 first film/season ends with the eruption
• Saddoc is shown alive in the final Harfoot scenes
• Poppy departs with Nori and the Stranger at the end of Part 1
• Galadriel experiences a vision from Sauron immediately after the eruption, pointing her to Eregion
• Halbrand surrenders to Adar before we know who he is to heighten mystery and possible heroism
• Bronwyn is presumed dead after the eruption; her pyre is moved to the camp the night Theo arrives
• The Stoors are more welcoming of the Harfoots and they seem to pass more time together
• There is no sea-serpent trial for the queen; after the shrine incident, all Faithful are rounded up
• The arrival of the riders at the Stoors’ village leads directly into the dialogue of the wizards
• Elrond does not jump off a cliff; he takes the rings straight to Cirdan

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)
• Poppy leaves with Nori and the Stranger (Anjohan)
• Galdriel’s vision is split between the eruption and her confrontation with Sauron (Anjohan)

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

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

What about the rest of Season 2? I’ve got over half a movie already from the main plot thread about the Dwarves and the siege of Eregion, but I need to wrap up the plotline about the Dark Wizard and maybe add a bit more about the Southlands refugees, so it’s got to wait for season 3. I’m expecting Numenor to take a back seat in Part 3, much like the Dwarves did in Part 2.

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.