• Most new users don't bother reading our rules. Here's the one that is ignored almost immediately upon signup: DO NOT ASK FOR FANEDIT LINKS PUBLICLY. First, read the FAQ. Seriously. What you want is there. You can also send a message to the editor. If that doesn't work THEN post in the Trade & Request forum. Anywhere else and it will be deleted and an infraction will be issued.
  • If this is your first time here please read our FAQ and Rules pages. They have some useful information that will get us all off on the right foot, especially our Own the Source rule. If you do not understand any of these rules send a private message to one of our staff for further details.
  • Please read our Rules & Guidelines

    Read BEFORE posting Trades & Request

Hobbit: The Desolation of Superfluous Narrative by Lord_Elrond_St.Hubbins

Lord_Elrond, if you're going to cut out all the orcs and elves, I'd just cut from right after they get in the barrels and float out of the cave in the river , to after the waterfall when they're floating downstream after the whole fight. No gate, no waterfall, while adding background score for continuity. There will be a continuity error tho as to how kili got such a severe wound but the "lads hurt" line should help. That should work just fine without any false suspense.
 
I'm good with the leg injury happening during the ride, don't need further explanation. I think if you were watching the very first time you really would not question it - the barrel ride was pretty rough! TM2YC, you made that look pretty easy!
 
TM2YC said:
I bought the EE of Smaug yesterday and had a little go at cutting the Barrel sequence so I could understand the problems with editing it. It's fairly tricky for sure if you want to remove all the Orcs, as they are in about 80% of the footage. On the plus side it happens that most of the shots from the useable 20% have little or no music making rescoring the sequence "relatively" easy. Here is my VERY rough attempt...


(Password: fanedit.org)

All the visual cuts are working nicely I feel but perfecting the audio would require waaay more work than I could be bothered to do for a quick test. There are a number of points where a few additional SoundFX are needed and the lead up the gate needs all the foley work redone to work. Also I've got the music far too loud, to drown out a couple of bits of the original soundtrack that need properly fixing. But hopefully you get the idea of what I was going for. I've rescored it with 'Barrels out of Bond' (Track 9 from the OST) by the way. I'm sure there is probably a better choice of music as it's the same piece playing twice.

Also moved a couple of pieces of dialogue around in the before-and-after bits just for fun and to remove talk of the Orcs.
Click to expand...
This works great.
 
Lord_Elrond_St.Hubbins said:
hmm I can't see how it is significantly worse. It's different, definitely, but worse? worse how exactly? (looking for your reasoning)

it cuts out the problematic weapons and gate, adds a new music element which is very nice and gives the reaction shots some meaning. it's rediculous to have niagara falls maybe, and yeah it stands out, but hey, this is a fan edit, why not do something silly? it flows very well with the music.


it all depends on what your goals are I guess.
Click to expand...

My reasons are right there: "the waterfall (with comic yell) and swirly colours added make the scene *significantly* worse"
Everything else was fine.
But the waterfall and colour additions were a bit of a Jar-Jar Binks moment for me....
 
I agree with dangermouse. Whoo-hoo-hoo-hooey was stupid, and the colors felt completely out of place.
 
What we're seeing here is that creative license is encouraged, but you will still have a hard time winning everyone over with abstract art.
 
One reason I tend to go in that direction, and enjoy it, is that I am actually, an abstract artist working in various mediums. For me, making this one scene so ridiculous is almost a tongue in cheek send-up to the act that we are all participating in here. I took out the ridiculous elements only to add in my own. It's humorous. Maybe just to me I guess, I thought other people here would see the irony.
 
Hey Lord_Elrond, I think its nice work, as its something new and interesting that I have not seen before. I always say at the end of the day this is your edit, and you should make the edit you want, which satisfies You first and foremost. Make something that makes You happy, its pointless making something that is "commercially" pleasing to the public but artistically dissatisfying to you (studios today do that already). There were hobbit edits before yours (including your own) and there will be more smaug edits after yours, guaranteed.

Feedback is useful, but you shouldn't let yourself feel pressured or uncomfortable with your own work.
It's a hobby man, you're not getting a paycheck. Just be yourself. If its accepted or appreciated, good. If not, fuck it, at least you didn't compromise. Keep an open mind and stay happy ;-)

For my own edits, some of the folk giving you feedback here like Aztek, hasmak, kellenpure, Moe_Syzlak and ssj were a huge part of why I really enjoyed the end product of my own edits, because the changes they suggested worked in line with what I wanted Smaug to be-- which is different from what you want it to be. They made my edits what they are. So certainly Listen to and be receptive to all the feedback, but ultimately, You're the one making decisions to make changes you feel will benefit Your vision. Cheers
 
ranger613 said:
Hey Lord_Elrond, I think its nice work, as its something new and interesting that I have not seen before. I always say at the end of the day this is your edit, and you should make the edit you want, which satisfies You first and foremost. Make something that makes You happy, its pointless making something that is "commercially" pleasing to the public but artistically dissatisfying to you (studios today do that already). There were hobbit edits before yours (including your own) and there will be more smaug edits after yours, guaranteed.

Feedback is useful, but you shouldn't let yourself feel pressured or uncomfortable with your own work.
It's a hobby man, you're not getting a paycheck. Just be yourself. If its accepted or appreciated, good. If not, fuck it, at least you didn't compromise. Keep an open mind and stay happy ;-)

For my own edits, some of the folk giving you feedback here like Aztek, hasmak, kellenpure, Moe_Syzlak and ssj were a huge part of why I really enjoyed the end product of my own edits, because the changes they suggested worked in line with what I wanted Smaug to be-- which is different from what you want it to be. They made my edits what they are. So certainly Listen to and be receptive to all the feedback, but ultimately, You're the one making decisions to make changes you feel will benefit Your vision. Cheers
Click to expand...

Hi Lord_E
I think Ranger has summed up the whole discussion. It is your edit, and we have only seen one clip of it, who knows what the complete edit will turn out to be?
For me, I can't wait to see the completed edit, I am sure that I'll enjoy it, maybe more or maybe less than other edits, but I will enjoy it. There will be parts that are brilliant and maybe parts that are not, but that does not matter, if you enjoy it and like it then have fun and go for it.
All the best
Cheers
 
Lord_Elrond_St.Hubbins said:
One reason I tend to go in that direction, and enjoy it, is that I am actually, an abstract artist working in various mediums. For me, making this one scene so ridiculous is almost a tongue in cheek send-up to the act that we are all participating in here. I took out the ridiculous elements only to add in my own. It's humorous. Maybe just to me I guess, I thought other people here would see the irony.
Click to expand...

No reason you can't create an abstract Fanmix, but having one abstract scene in an otherwise simple Fanfix, would not be a good idea. For example: We all love Frink's "ridiculous" takes on the Star Wars PT, and we have all enjoyed serious attempts to fix those films by people like HAL9000 and seciors. But I think few would enjoy a Fanfix of the 'Attack of the Clones' that suddenly had Tommy Wiseau voicing Jango Fett in one scene and Temuera Morrison voicing him in all the others.

Also, I for one wasn't sure if the multi-coloured thing was a glitch on the encode. I get the impression that everyone else wasn't sure either.
 
Lord_Elrond_St.Hubbins said:
The title, is subjest to change and is something of a joke at this point, but the idea for the fanedit will be to get rid of all the baloney in The Desolation of Smaug, all the gold dragon nonsense, all the unnecessary emotional and story tie ins to lord of the rings, and the orc bullshit I can, and just make it an awesome movie overall. I will make this fit with my previous fanedit as much as possible "The Expected cut of an Unexpected Journey", which got pretty good reviews.
Click to expand...
Based on your intro I thought you were going for a serious trim type cut, but it sounds like it will be more experimental than that. Now that I know, I can provide better feedback.
 
Ah.yes. Your right in pointing that out. It was the original intention, but it may have evolved a bit. As it stands it's about 95% serious trim cut and 5% experimental. I have another scene which actually has a bit of this experimental nature as well that I haven't mentioned to anyone and will remain a secret. The inclusion of that bit was really looked well upon bat the screening I had for some friends.

I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do with this barrel scene in the final cut. I could at this point boost the strange factor up another 5% to make my intention less confusing, but I also kinda like leaving it at these two bits.
 
So, it's finished and currently making it's way to the domains of the interwebs. I made a few last minute changes the other day. I took out a few mildly problematic lines, and also reinstated Smaugs blast through the front doors of Erebor. I decided after viewing the latest trailer for 5 armies that it would be good to keep it in, albeit in a way that doesn't have Smaug obviously covered in gold. oh, and i redid the barrel scene a bit making it more obvious that it's supposed to be what it is.

All I have to do is make a poster, and you can tell judging by my last half hearted attempt with the "Expected Cut" that it's not something that I really care to put too much effort into, but I hope to come up with something a little more enticing this time.
 
Excellent
Let us know when it is up and running;-)
cheers
 
Lord_Elrond_St.Hubbins said:
All I have to do is make a poster, and you can tell judging by my last half hearted attempt with the "Expected Cut" that it's not something that I really care to put too much effort into, but I hope to come up with something a little more enticing this time.
Click to expand...

Can we see them?
 
sure! I have a few attempts:

MS6X1CA.jpg


9Y7ON8p.jpg


LIp4TR0.jpg
 
Just finished watching your cut of the film. I applaud the hard work that went in to it.

It's much better than the jackson original. In fact, it's the best I've seen. It may have bothered some, but we all got a kick out of the Master's speech. Very funny!

However, any chance you're working on cutting a few more scenes for a purist cut as well?

The changes would be very minimal, as your edit is already quite good.
The scene with Gandalf vs the dwarf vs the "necromancer" has no purpose and really hurts the feel and flow. Why jackson saw fit to make Gandalf (the badass that took on a Balrog single-handedly) into a weakling boggles my mind.

The other four minor scenes that could be lost entirely would be the orc interrogation, when Legolas goes after Tauriel, when he later catches up with her, and when Beiorn and Gandolf talk about the "necromancer".

In all, that would make this the "ideal" version. Desolation of jackson's Nonsense.

As it stands, very well done. Just personally wish you'd been a bit less careful with the knife in the cutting room. :-D
 
Hey thanks for checking it out and the comments!

I'm glad you liked the masters speech, such a ridiculous moment that I feel really brings back the lighthearted nature of the movie.

I have thought about cutting more to make a single movie of all three when that time comes. As it is, I made this before I saw the 5 armies movie and wanted to make sure I could have decent continuity between the three edits, so some things that could have been potentially cut I kept in.

i agree with your additional cuts in another version if iIcan manage to cut Legolas and Tauriel completely out of 5 armies, which would be my goal. I think it might be possible and if so, I would definitely cut some more elf stuff from Smaug and leave Tauriel and Legolas as cameo moments only

I think in a later version, if I kept the dol guldur scenes I would cut Thrain, because his inclusion has seemed to just confuse viewers, no one realizes who he is, and I wouldnt show gandalf getting smacked around it would be a jump cut kind of thing that goes from him wandering, to him seeing something, to then being locked up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom