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The Hobbit: The Last Light & Battle for the Lonely Mountain

Belgarath

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So, first thing first: I'm aware it's probably the 100th and something edit of the Hobbit. Therefore, I'll explain what this edit is all about:

My edit is inspired by Kerr's "Arkenstone edition" and Masirimso17's "Fire and Water". Especially, I liked that Masirimso17 ended his edit with Smaug's death and used the Orc army march from Dol Guldur as final scene. That worked well. And so, it made me question how the third movie might look like with the above in mind. I used the Extended Edition of "The Battle of the Five Armies" as the source.

Here's the list of changes:

- Color corrected entire movie to remove a little of a blue tint, resulting in a more vivid less pale look.

- Alternative music for opening credits and new beginning (No Smaug attack on Laketown as it already happened)

- No Alfrid in this movie, at all.

- No close up on Radagast praying.

- Trimmed  Removed scenes between Tauriel and Kili and later between Tauriel and Thranduil to make the relationship between Kili and Tauriel feel more like a well established friendship, rather than an all-out love story. No cringe worthy dialogue about love. Tauriel is determined to save her [recently wounded new] friend.

- Legolas and Thranduil do not share screen together. For some reason, in the scenes between them, Thranduil grimaces like he really ought to go number two. Of course, this means no random mention of a certain unknown ranger.

- Legolas does not fly with bats. Does not ride a troll by controlling it with sword through brains. Does not perform gravity defying stunts. He has one new stunt in this edit.

- Bard doesn’t ride a cart through the streets of Dale.

- Bofur doesn't ride a troll.

- No Were-worms. Orc army appearance scene re-imagined.

- Ride to Ravenhill trimmed and shortened.

- Thorin doesn't have a vision of himself drowning in gold.

- No scene of Dain was removed. He's too bloody awesome.

- Bifur and Bombur don't speak. Bifur loses his ax off screen.

- Restored Gandalf's complete eulogy at Thorin's funeral.

- Various other cuts and trims throughout the film.

- Used alternative music from all three soundtracks for some scenes.

Run time:  127 122 min. 

Format available: 720p MP4
 

ThrowgnCpr

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The fanedit forum is for approved editors. Did you officially submit to the Academy? If so, we can put this in the pending approval section
 

Belgarath

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ThrowgnCpr said:
The fanedit forum is for approved editors. Did you officially submit to the Academy? If so, we can put this in the pending approval section

Yeah, I've contacted DominicCobb. Waiting for guidance through the submission process.
 

kellenpure

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I'm interested in seeing all Hobbit/LOTR edits, as long as there is some effort to include a number of unique cuts and fills, which it sounds like you are doing. Though the cuts have to include removal of the most ridiculous stuff that I can't even watch.
 

Belgarath

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kellenpure said:
I'm interested in seeing all Hobbit/LOTR edits, as long as there is some effort to include a number of unique cuts and fills, which it sounds like you are doing. Though the cuts have to include removal of the most ridiculous stuff that I can't even watch.

That's indeed what I was aiming for. Though, I don't know what exactly is ridiculous in your eyes, I'm pretty sure most of it is gone.
 

Belgarath

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Some art I've made for the edit:

L4Pa4YE.jpg
 

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They Are Mortal - Tauriel confronts Thranduil video clip


Password: fanedit
 

Masirimso17

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Belgarath said:
They Are Mortal - Tauriel confronts Thranduil video clip


Password: fanedit

No offence, but the transition is atrocious. Fade out and fade in is very unprofessional and amateur editing. You need to work on your editing a bit, which I'm very sure will develop over time with experience ;) Which software are you using?
 

Belgarath

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Masirimso17 said:
No offence, but the transition is atrocious. Fade out and fade in is very unprofessional and amateur editing. You need to work on your editing a bit, which I'm very sure will develop over time with experience ;) Which software are you using?

None taken. I had a version without a fade out and I felt in this scene it works better when it's there. Overall, I tried not to overuse fade out-fade in transitions but I do have several of those. 

I use Adobe Premiere Pro
 

Masirimso17

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Belgarath said:
None taken. I had a version without a fade out and I felt in this scene it works better when it's there. Overall, I tried not to overuse fade out-fade in transitions but I do have several of those. 

I use Adobe Premiere Pro

I use Premiere as well. I recommend that you use no fade-out/fade-in transitions at all and instead just stick to the jump cuts with audio transitioning below (referring to the editing bar), or if you really need to transition in a different way, for example if you are moving us from a long distance, you could use the dissolve effect, like I did in Fire and Water when transitioning from Azog to Dol Guldur. But don't overuse this one either.  ;)
 

TM2YC

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This has been submitted to the Academy for review. Please be patient as their is backlog, we'll get to previewing it as soon as possible. Thread moved to "pending". Thanks.
 

Belgarath

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After taking a long break from all things Hobbit, I've decided to revisit my edit: fixed some transitions and reordered few scenes. 
I believe I won't do anymore changes. At least, not until the academy review.

Also, here's the titles clip:
Pass: Erebor

Would be glad to know some opinions..
 

TM2YC

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I've previewed the first half-hour of 'Battle for the Lonely Mountain' by @"Belgarath" for the Academy.

As I've already discussed via PM, sadly the image quality alone prevents this from being approved at this time. With the advice I already gave, reading up on some of the tech threads and asking questions in the forum, I'm sure you can resolve that. A 720p mp4 of 2-hours and 5.7gb should look damn near perfect.

Here is an example of the image quality I'm talking about. I've compared a frame from your fanedit, with that same frame ripped and compressed by myself into a 720p mp4 of comparable size (obviously with the original grade)...

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/193591

^ You can drag the mouse across and see the detail wiped on and off. Notice how the arrows in the distance almost disapear in your fanedit's version. Everything is a blur and compression blockiness is evident.

Also, here are specific problems I found in the first 30 minutes. They are almost all down to abrupt music changes, so it'd be a good idea to revisit all edits that involve loud music to check they are fading in/out smoothly (throughout the edit). Perhaps mixing in a little of the CD Soundtrack to cover and smooth removals.


00.00.00 - Is the intro music a little too loud? (It's borderline)
00.01.01 - The soaring piece of music ends very quickly. You should fade it out more gradually, or remix it at least. It's the very first audio edit, so it starts things off on the wrong foot
00.06.15 - Galadriel is suddenly unconscious on the floor. I can't quite remember what material is missing that explains this but something is.  Either add back the missing bit, or remove all the shots of her unconcious perhaps?
00.09.34 - The audio edit feels rushed into the battle shot and there is a very fast cut to Radagast before the scene change. You should cut on Gandalf's closeup or perhaps transition on Gandalf's line about battle and leave out the whole staff bit. It wasn't in the theatrical cut I think?
00.09.47 - The new title doesn't look right, as it's horizontally squashed. Plus IMO it would look better/more-professional if it was smaller and centered on the screen
00.11.47 - Did you add music here over Tauriel and Kili's scene? It's very nice but I'm struggling to hear the dialogue as the music is loud in the mix. Especially Kili's "Keep it" line, it's drowned out almost totally
00.12.46 - The music change here is very abrupt. Also did you rescore the Bard scene becuase that seemed quite loud before the cut?
00.18.08 - The music just ends on the scene cut
00.19.33 - The music just ends on the scene cut
00.21.05 - There is a strange and loud click sound as Balin says "That look". I checked, it's not in the original movie


The actual story clips along at a good pace (with no narrative gaps I could detect) and what I can see of the regrading looks nice and colourful. So I'm sure this can be a fine edit once the issues are dealt with. I'll be happy to watch the next version of this edit once the audio has been worked on some more and the image quality improved.

Good luck! :)

(Thread moved back to in-the-works for now. Just PM me or another Academy member when the new version is ready. No need to re-submit... or to rush ;) )
 

Belgarath

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TM2YC said:
I've previewed the first half-hour of 'Battle for the Lonely Mountain' by @"Belgarath" for the Academy.

As I've already discussed via PM, sadly the image quality alone prevents this from being approved at this time. With the advice I already gave, reading up on some of the tech threads and asking questions in the forum, I'm sure you can resolve that. A 720p mp4 of 2-hours and 5.7gb should look damn near perfect.

Here is an example of the image quality I'm talking about. I've compared a frame from your fanedit, with that same frame ripped and compressed by myself into a 720p mp4 of comparable size (obviously with the original grade)...

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/193591

^ You can drag the mouse across and see the detail wiped on and off. Notice how the arrows in the distance almost disapear in your fanedit's version. Everything is a blur and compression blockiness is evident.

Also, here are specific problems I found in the first 30 minutes. They are almost all down to abrupt music changes, so it'd be a good idea to revisit all edits that involve loud music to check they are fading in/out smoothly (throughout the edit). Perhaps mixing in a little of the CD Soundtrack to cover and smooth removals.


00.00.00 - Is the intro music a little too loud? (It's borderline)
00.01.01 - The soaring piece of music ends very quickly. You should fade it out more gradually, or remix it at least. It's the very first audio edit, so it starts things off on the wrong foot
00.06.15 - Galadriel is suddenly unconscious on the floor. I can't quite remember what material is missing that explains this but something is.  Either add back the missing bit, or remove all the shots of her unconcious perhaps?
00.09.34 - The audio edit feels rushed into the battle shot and there is a very fast cut to Radagast before the scene change. You should cut on Gandalf's closeup or perhaps transition on Gandalf's line about battle and leave out the whole staff bit. It wasn't in the theatrical cut I think?
00.09.47 - The new title doesn't look right, as it's horizontally squashed. Plus IMO it would look better/more-professional if it was smaller and centered on the screen
00.11.47 - Did you add music here over Tauriel and Kili's scene? It's very nice but I'm struggling to hear the dialogue as the music is loud in the mix. Especially Kili's "Keep it" line, it's drowned out almost totally
00.12.46 - The music change here is very abrupt. Also did you rescore the Bard scene becuase that seemed quite loud before the cut?
00.18.08 - The music just ends on the scene cut
00.19.33 - The music just ends on the scene cut
00.21.05 - There is a strange and loud click sound as Balin says "That look". I checked, it's not in the original movie


The actual story clips along at a good pace (with no narrative gaps I could detect) and what I can see of the regrading looks nice and colourful. So I'm sure this can be a fine edit once the issues are dealt with. I'll be happy to watch the next version of this edit once the audio has been worked on some more and the image quality improved.

Good luck! :)

(Thread moved back to in-the-works for now. Just PM me or another Academy member when the new version is ready. No need to re-submit... or to rush ;) )

That screenshot comparison thing is very useful. I didn't even pay attention at how bad the quality is. Fortunately, I think I know now what caused it and how to avoid that.
 

Belgarath

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Few updates:

* I'm working on two Hobbit edits: one is an edit of the second film, which will mostly draw inspiration from Masirimso17's "Fire and Water", but will reduce the barrel ride and Laketown scenes, including: trimming the master and Alfrid, Bard's arrest, Orcs attack and more. The other is a new edit for the third film.
* Working title for the second film is: The Hobbit - The Last Light
* Title for the third film remains: The Hobbit - Battle for the Lonely Mountain
* The edit for the third film will be complete before the second one. For the second one I have a draft, but I'm still considering some stuff. I will submit both edits together when done.

Here's a clip from the beginning of the "Battle for the Lonely Mountain" right after the fight in Dol Guldur which opens the movie:
Password: Erebor

EDIT: video updated with below remarks from TM2YC

Please share your thoughts and opinions.

If anyone wishes to check the edits once ready and give me feedback before I submit to the academy; And also, if anyone wishes to assist me with color correction or give tips about color correcting in Adobe Premiere Pro - I will be very grateful  :)
 

TM2YC

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^ That transition is much slicker, than the one I saw before. How about adding the sound of the marching Orcs slowly building under Gandalf's speech (From 00.14???). Now we start to hear them suddenly at 00.17, a second after the visual cut at 00.16... but if we heard the noise building before the visual cut it would be even smoother IMO. So the listener is hearing the next scene before you cut to it, if you see what I mean.

It's difficult to tell past the Vimeo compression but the image quality looks better.

I like the new title placement and the look of it too but it begins to fade at 02.37 but you cut away in the middle of the fade. Either complete the fade before the cut away, or just cut away and cut the logo at the same frame with no fade. Doing half a fade and a cut looks wrong.
 

Belgarath

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TM2YC said:
^ That transition is much slicker, than the one I saw before. How about adding the sound of the marching Orcs slowly building under Gandalf's speech (From 00.14???). Now we start to hear them suddenly at 00.17, a second after the visual cut at 00.16... but if we heard the noise building before the visual cut it would be even smoother IMO. So the listener is hearing the next scene before you cut to it, if you see what I mean.

It's difficult to tell past the Vimeo compression but the image quality looks better.

I like the new title placement and the look of it too but it begins to fade at 02.37 but you cut away in the middle of the fade. Either complete the fade before the cut away, or just cut away and cut the logo at the same frame with no fade. Doing half a fade and a cut looks wrong.

The image quality is better because I've listened to your suggestion about super high quality MP4. So, thanks for that  ;)
I thought about the Orcs march sound - I'll play with the audio transition in that scene a bit more.
Yeah, I now notice what you say about the title fade - I'll work to fix that.
 

Belgarath

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Here's my version of the Ravenhill sequence (most of it) [also, applied color-correction to make it feel warmer]:

Password: Erebor

EDIT: video updated with suggestions and remarks of @"TM2YC" in mind:
- Enhanced the sound of Kili getting stabbed
- Enhanced the sound of Tauriel hit the wall
- Added scenes to make things clearer. Considerably..
 

TM2YC

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There are three points in that clip I noticed...

03.13 - The music seemed to switch quite suddenly here
05.53 - The moment Killi is impaled felt a bit quiet (I know it's like that in the movie audio) the way you cut it together. If you can boost the sound of the actual stab impact a bit it'll sound better I think
06.10 - It got a little strange around this point visually. Legolas seems to be looking at Tauriel ready to leap to her defence, then we see Thorin and suddenly Orcrist comes from nowhere. Perhaps you could rearrange things so it's clear Legolas is looking at Thorin and not Tauriel just before the sword is thrown, or add some Legolas footage back. If you show Tauriel, then Legolas looking at something the audience is going to think he's looking at Tauriel, even if the next cut is to Thorin, if you see what I mean.

...the rest sounds good :) .
 
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