Fan Edits Discussion - Beorhtnoths Unexpected Party Edit

[Alatar]

Hey guys, so its been a while since we did one of these. Funnily enough I feel like The Hobbit Movies have far more opportunity to make a successful fan edit as they are quite bloated and contain too much, rather than missing details.

Once again, the usual rules apply. You must own a copy of the original movies to take part and the files are not to be redistributed outside of this group. Beorhtnoth will provide a link by Private Message for anyone interested.

Bëor, would you like to give us an introduction for the first movie?

[Jude]

Is this something we can download somewhere?

[Alatar]

Beorhtnoth will provide a link by Private Message for anyone interested.

[Beorhtnoth]

Hey guys, so its been a while since we did one of these. Funnily enough I feel like The Hobbit Movies have far more opportunity to make a successful fan edit as they are quite bloated and contain too much, rather than missing details.

Once again, the usual rules apply. You must own a copy of the original movies to take part and the files are not to be redistributed outside of this group. Beorhtnoth will provide a link by Private Message for anyone interested.

Bëor, would you like to give us an introduction for the first movie?

Well, this was unexpected!

Thank you, Alatar.

I’ve never edited video before, but I had the urge after seeing the Hobbit films. I really disliked the whole approach, turning a relatively slight children’s book into “The Lord of the Rings: The Prequels”. I understand Tolkien himself toyed with the idea of a rewrite, wisely abandoning the venture, and there is the Erebor material from Unfinished Tales, but I think this was an error from Peter Jackson. I’m not going to “bash” Jackson et al; every person working on the productions gave their all. That it didn’t work for me is no great influence on the wider picture.

I thought there was the nucleus of a “good film” in the epic, so armed with an old copy of Sony Vegas given to me by a friend, I set about trying to make that “good film”… and learn Sony Vegas at the same time. I am not confident I mastered either task fully, but the end result, my “An Unexpected Journey”, confirmed my belief something I would enjoy could be rescued from the “bloat”.

I used the extended edition, removing scenes not in the book that I felt were unnecessary for the central (simple) plot. Scenes from the book that I thought were badly executed also received the chop. My edit has a runtime of 1 hour 5 minutes...

The end product is much more to my taste. I would be very interested to know which of my edits viewers agree with, and which they object to. I will try to explain my choices, if anyone is interested.

PM me for a link.

B

[Jude]

I finally got a chance to watch An Unexpected Journey. I like the idea of skipping all the backstory and going straight to Bilbo in his comfortable home life, just as the book does. Like Bilbo, we are blissfully unaware of the scary world outside of The Shire, and experience it with him.

I'm not sure how much detail I should give, since others may want to see it as well without spoilers...

[Beorhtnoth]

I finally got a chance to watch An Unexpected Journey. I like the idea of skipping all the backstory and going straight to Bilbo in his comfortable home life, just as the book does. Like Bilbo, we are blissfully unaware of the scary world outside of The Shire, and experience it with him.

My major criticism of the Peter Jackson films was the apparent aim to create "Lord of the Rings 2 - The Prequels" rather than the Hobbit. I wanted to try and present the first stage of the journey with as much knowledge as the reader of the book. One of the pleasures of LotR is how it opens up the narrow world of Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit. To introduce backstory to the Hobbit undermines the process of gradual illumination that unfurls in LotR.
I think the Hobbit films have a similar corrosive effect as the Star Wars prequels. Watched in chronological order rather than year of production erodes the experience of the "later" films.
Well, that was more spiel than I intended!

I'm not sure how much detail I should give, since others may want to see it as well without spoilers...

I wouldn't worry. I haven't exactly had to batten down the hatches against the inrush of downloaders...

[Jude]

Just out of curiosity, why did you leave out the capture by the trolls? It's been a while since I watched it, but I seem to remember that scene being pretty well done.

[Beorhtnoth]

Just out of curiosity, why did you leave out the capture by the trolls? It's been a while since I watched it, but I seem to remember that scene being pretty well done.

I hated it. Bilbo's dialogue with the trolls after capture, the fight, the stupid resolution of the fight (all the dwarves drop arms to be eaten because Bilbo is threatened?). It made me cringe. Better to expunge the whole sorry mess.

I hope that explains my motive.

[Jude]

Fair enough. It's been ages since I saw it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I hated it too. I would have made the same choice.

[Beorhtnoth]

I hated it too. I would have made the same choice.

My overriding imperative was to be as close to the written word as possible. The trolls scene deviated far beyond my tolerance level. I understand film and the written word are very different beasts, but I fail to see how Peter Jackson improved on the source material. On the contrary, I find nearly all film changes, whether The Hobbit or LotR, detract from the tales.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There are a very few examples where I might disagree with that (though honestly none are popping into my tired mind right now), but generally speaking I agree. Where Jackson adhered to the spirit of Tolkien's work (and as much as possible the letter as well) he could border on genius. When he tried to impose his own stamp on the material, it almost always deviated from what I would have wanted to see.

[Beorhtnoth]

There are a very few examples where I might disagree with that (though honestly none are popping into my tired mind right now), but generally speaking I agree. Where Jackson adhered to the spirit of Tolkien's work (and as much as possible the letter as well) he could border on genius. When he tried to impose his own stamp on the material, it almost always deviated from what I would have wanted to see.

The only improvement I can think of is the collapsing stairway in Khazâd Dum.

[N.E. Brigand]

I like the idea of skipping all the backstory and going straight to Bilbo in his comfortable home life, just as the book does. Like Bilbo, we are blissfully unaware of the scary world outside of The Shire, and experience it with him.

I like that idea too, but I think it applies as well to The Lord of the Rings.

[Alatar]

There are a few LotR Fan-edits that take that exact approach. If its not in the books, its not in the movie.