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The Hobbit: Into The Fire (A Purist Edition of Desolation of Smaug)

Updated changes:
1. Title moved over fade-out
2. "Darkness is coming" and orc march cut (Works better with this out--keeps tension in the scene)
3. Moved "Should we go into mountain?" dwarf conversation later (to after fire-breathing and just before Smaug tells Bilbo he's leaving for Lake town)
 
Exactly (nice thrush quip)! Even if Smaug did know about the workings of Sauron, like all dragons he's completely self-centered and wouldn't throw out taunts about other bad guys.

I like the Gandalf/Sauron scene where it ends now. Middle movies of three (in my opinion) should be like Empire Strikes Back - evil gets the upper hand, and you're left hanging to see what happens to your heroes.
 
Totally agree. As it stands now I like the cliffhanger ending with Gandalf pinned by sauron, it's enough, and does not interfere with the Bilbo/smaug faceoff at all. The sequence feels unadulterated (although in reality it had to be significantly adulterated to get there lol). Final cut will be up as soon as I get the ability to upload to ifdb :)
 
fabulous work! the workprint is entertaining stuff, and it now feels like a proper installment of the middle earth series.

i'm more than halfway through the viewing, and my two critical cents so far: the gandalf vs. sauron bit remains somewhat long. a hint of sauron gathering his powers should be tighter than the repetitive visualizations that jackson favored. and why should l'esprit de sauron adhere so to needily to the form of the armor he wore in FotR's prologue? because the audience would mnemonically perish without the clue?

but that's my only criticism. great work otherwise, ranger 613 in the line of numenor.

edit: another thing that i noticed about the recurring sauron silhouette: it's pretty static, as if sauron were posing stiffly for a human resources photo. a being fucking with gandalf from the shadow world should assume a much more menacing pose, methinks. another of jackson's buggery indulgences. . . .
 
Thank you for the kind words [MENTION=10624]ssj[/MENTION], I truly appreciate it :) Definitely agree with you about the Sauron GIF, if you will. Honestly I wouldn't even have kept it in but I thought about it and when I decided to end the whole confrontation at that scene and not show Gandalf in a cage, I decided keeping the repeating Gif (which is a torture to watch) leaves a greater sense of Gandalf being similarly mentally assaulted.

But that aside, I agree with you in that I would not have shot it like that. I would never even have included the eye (which is the form I always thought he assumed only once at barad dur). Adding the scene here takes away the novelty of seeing it in FOTR. Yes too many visual cues linking the prequels to lotr. But that is the common bane of prequels I feel-- its fine as long as the prequels are meant to be watched following the original. But when the director wants you too watch the prequels before the original (see George Lucas), it is very easy to dilute the novelty of the originals by saturating the prequels with references that people watching in chronological order will not get anyway. I digress.

Again I appreciate the comments, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the film! The final cut changes a few things as I mention above.

Cheers! :)
 
Final cut update: Will be released later today or tomorrow. One last change made involves the dragon sequence. Now you can only see the Dragon for several seconds encased in gold and color corrected. Insert shots of the dwarves looking up as well as in bard and his children reacting to the dragon leaving the mountain are used to disguise the golden sprinkle. This is as close to a purist vision I can achieve without compromising the image quality. I hope you enjoy the final cut. Cheers!
 
No worries, man. A minor quibble on my part, but overall your edit is a vast improvement over the nearly unwatchable original.

imagine the millions of dollars of CGI that could have been saved if jackson didn't render the scenes you discarded.
 
Wow, this looks terrific, Ranger! I believed from the start that this movie could be cut to 90-ish minutes, and I'm impressed you made it happen. It's very, very close to what I had in mind as editing goals. I see people touching on exactly the problem spots I anticipated, like the gold-shake, and it sounds as if you've worked out some of the best solutions available.

I've been waiting until the extended edition came out to touch the second movie, and while I probably still will experiment with a few ideas that are distinct, it looks as if you've already accomplished both of the major two alternatives that those seeking a fanedit would want (at least until making a single movie out of all three becomes a feasible option). I'm looking forward to watching it soon.
 
Menbailee said:
Wow, this looks terrific, Ranger! I believed from the start that this movie could be cut to 90-ish minutes, and I'm impressed you made it happen. It's very, very close to what I had in mind as editing goals. I see people touching on exactly the problem spots I anticipated, like the gold-shake, and it sounds as if you've worked out some of the best solutions available.

I've been waiting until the extended edition came out to touch the second movie, and while I probably still will experiment with a few ideas that are distinct, it looks as if you've already accomplished both of the major two alternatives that those seeking a fanedit would want (at least until making a single movie out of all three becomes a feasible option). I'm looking forward to watching it soon.
Click to expand...
[MENTION=11329]Menbailee[/MENTION], thank you very much for the support. Your Unexpected Journey cut really set the bar for the Hobbit in my opinion, and I hope you will like my edits. I'm going to try to get them up soon, and can't wait to hear back from you. Thanks very much for your hard work in putting together that inspired the rest of us my friend! :)

I hope that Fire of the Dragon or Into the Fire will be a worthy "sequel" to your cut.
 
ssj said:
No worries, man. A minor quibble on my part, but overall your edit is a vast improvement over the nearly unwatchable original.

imagine the millions of dollars of CGI that could have been saved if jackson didn't render the scenes you discarded.
Click to expand...

Absolutely!
 
[MENTION=27411]kellenpure[/MENTION], [MENTION=13347]Moe_Syzlak[/MENTION], [MENTION=8922]njvc[/MENTION], [MENTION=4575]Aztek463[/MENTION], [MENTION=10624]ssj[/MENTION]

Hi guys,

My first fanedit "Fire of the Dragon" has just been officially released on IFDB, with links on INFO. I just want to thank you all for the ton of support and pointers you guys gave me to make this a successful edit. I owe it all to you, and am very happy that you enjoyed watching this. The final cut is available on INFO, so please feel free to leave a review on IFDB if you want to support the edit.

A further note, Into the Fire (the true "purist" cut) will be officially released the first week of July--reason being I'm trying to space out my edits as much as possible as I'll be releasing one a week. However, I'll PM you the final cut links in advance if you'd like to see it before then.

Once again, thanks so much for your help, and have a good one :)
 
Congratulations on making it to the site man, you're incredibly skilled and I think you're just going to grow and grow here, I'll see if I can watch this edit sometime this week:)
 
Zarius said:
Congratulations on making it to the site man, you're incredibly skilled and I think you're just going to grow and grow here, I'll see if I can watch this edit sometime this week:)
Click to expand...

Thanks my friend :)
 
Before the final cut is released, I still have to fix the dragon's gold color. I'll post clips on here for you guys to review-- appreciate any feedback. I want to get this right thanks!!
 
it's not released? then pare down the sauron scenes, please! (i jest only halfly.)
 
wow, ranger. . . you're under zero obligation to take my feedback into consideration, but your willingness to do so says you're a cool dude. that's the kind of collaborative spirit that makes this such a great site, man.

after reviewing the scene, i'll have some specific ideas to throw on the operating table. cheers!
 
recommendations:

i would cut 1:07:05 to 1:07:22. this allows sauron's incarnation to remain fairly abstract. no need to hear gandalf spell it out for us by saying "sauron." no need to see sauron's armor do the '60s psychedelic thing.

the preceding bubble battle is cool, but a bit repetitive. that particular scene is composed of two main parts: close-ups of gandalf holding up his staff and the more interesting, wide shots. the way the scene was arranged, with the two parts alternating several times, makes it difficult to cut a few of the close-ups, but this might work: consider quick trims of gandalf's face from 1:06:17 to 1:06:18 (up to the 19th or 20th frame of 1:06:18) and 1:06:28 to 1:06:29. the audio would need some smoothing out after such cuts.

whether you use these or not, i'm looking forward to the final product, ranger. will roll some d20s in anticipation!
 
ssj said:
recommendations:

i would cut 1:07:05 to 1:07:22. this allows sauron's incarnation to remain fairly abstract. no need to hear gandalf spell it out for us by saying "sauron." no need to see sauron's armor do the '60s psychedelic thing.
Click to expand...

Hi [MENTION=10624]ssj[/MENTION], thank you very much for the feedback! For the first rec, here I tried cutting this out to see what it'd look like--2 problems, without the fiery armor transition, the cut to the eye just looks too abrupt. Second, as much as I personally would not have done it that way, I think Gandalf's "Saurooonn..." is still needed because ths is technically the first time in the prequels/LOTR that "The Enemy" is named. Its omission may make it confusing for sequential viewers who 'Sauron' is.
Finally, right after "Saurooon.." the repeating eye flash will be trimmed, likely 1:07:18 or 19 to 1:07:22

ssj said:
recommendations:

the preceding bubble battle is cool, but a bit repetitive. that particular scene is composed of two main parts: close-ups of gandalf holding up his staff and the more interesting, wide shots. the way the scene was arranged, with the two parts alternating several times, makes it difficult to cut a few of the close-ups, but this might work: consider quick trims of gandalf's face from 1:06:17 to 1:06:18 (up to the 19th or 20th frame of 1:06:18) and 1:06:28 to 1:06:29. the audio would need some smoothing out after such cuts.
Click to expand...

Definitely agree. 1:06:17 to 18 will be cut like you suggest, because this moment is not 100% needed and slows the action.

Thanks a lot my friend for the recs. :)
 
ranger613 said:
ssj, yes I'll trim down the gif-- what would suggest? I was going to just cut the end bit slightly with the repeating eye. Also, with
kellenpure and Moe_Syzlak [MENTION=4575]Aztek463[/MENTION], what are your thughts on this dragon clip A?

https://rangerkris613.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F89928132863

Regraded the whole thing-- the sheen could be moonlight?
Thanks
Click to expand...
I admire your desire to get this just exactly right! I do think this looks better. I'd be curious to see the reaction of anyone who saw this that didn't know about the gold in the theatrical cut. The shininess is a bit weird but I'm not sure anyone not looking for it would be bothered by it.
 
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