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

[Belgarath]

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

03.13 - The music seemed to switch quite suddenly here

If you are referring to the scene where we transition from the bats to Tauriel noticing Kili on the tower, then I kinda like the music change here - I think it works well with the image on screen. I did try other options. This one feels the best to me. You don't find it smooth enough?

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

OK, interesting idea. I'll do that.

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 scene at 06.09 suggests that Legolas looks aside and notices Thorin is about to get stabbed by the Orc. I see if I can edit it better. There's not enough good footage, unfortunately :/

...the rest sounds good .

Awesome. Thanks.
How do you like my change to the previous video [with the title fade]?

 

[Belgarath]

Another small scene from my edit:

Password: Fanedit

 

[Belgarath]

I thought about providing some info about my Hobbit edits:

By doing these edits I've attempted to get rid of the "in-your-face" connection with the LOTR trilogy, to get rid of the love triangle since the scenes that made it matter did not end up in the final cut of the films. Also, I wanted to get rid of the scenes I found ridiculous and over the top and focus on Bilbo as much as possible, while maintaining Gandalf's side adventures.

The Hobbit - The Last Light


Cut list:

Reveal message

Heavily influenced by Masirimso17's "Fire and Water" edit. But, with more cuts and some alternative footage.

Resources: 
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" extended edition
"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" extended edition
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" soundtrack

- Color corrected to get rid of the green tint
- Cut Dwarves struggling too much with the door at Beorn's house
- Cut Bilbo being tempted by the ring at Beorn's house
- Cut Bilbo being tempted by the ring outside the Elven gate and scene suggesting a connection between the eye of Sauron and the ring
- Cut Bilbo trying to tell Gandalf he found the ring in the Goblin tunnels
- Cut Bilbo losing the ring and fighting little spider creature for it
- Shortened Dwarves vs spiders fight: Dwarves don't pull spider by the legs, Dwalin doesn't punch spider in the face.
- Cut Tauriel fighting spiders
- Cut mention of Gimli (I like it to be subtle - we, the audience, know we are looking at picture of Gimli. No need for it to be said out loud)
- Cut Kili suggesting Tauriel should check his trousers
- Cut Legolas asking Tauriel why Kili is staring at her
- Cut part of conversation between Thranduil and Tauriel where they discuss Legolas being fond of Tauriel. This change comes with a cost:
1. Without this scene, if I'm not mistaken, we don't get to know Legolas' name, which is fine because I don't mind him to be annonymous for this edit. We get his name in the next chapter.
2. We don't get to know about "Lowly Silvan Elves", which is a nice insight into the world of the Elves of the Woodland realm.
3. Most importantly, we don't get to know the relationship between Thranduil and Legolas. Without this piece of conversation we don't know they are father and son. So, we have to assume it.
- Cut Bolg suggesting alternative entrance to the Woodland realm.
- Cut Legolas watching Tauriel conversing with Kili
- Trimmed the barrel ride sequence. Orcs attack the Woodland realm - yes. Cut Bombur and Legolas acrobatics.
- Cut Radagast having a bird's nest on his head
- Cut mention of Morgul arrow. Kili is shot by a regular arrow.
- Cut Tauriel going to hunt Orcs against Thraduil's orders. And cut Legolas going after her. Unfortunately, we lose a nice scene between the two where Tauriel asks him: "Are we not part of this world?"
- The next change might raise some eyebrows: Orcs lose the Dwarves at the lake and do not proceed with the hunt. In my edit, they are not aware of Laketown. Instead, they regroup with the main army in Dol Guldur. Thus, Bolg is seen with the Orc army at the start of the next edit.
- Cut Alfrid at the gate of Laketown
- Cut scenes between the master of Laketown and Alfrid. The two are introduced when the Dwarves are presented to them.
- Cut fight with guards and Dwarves sneaking into Bard's house
- Cut tapestry, prophecy and the old tales references.
- Dwarves left behind at Laketown - Yes. Kili is wounded. However, he is not getting worse and is not dying.
- Applied alternative music for the scene where Dwarves are on the move towards Erebor. The original music in this sequence is kinda dull. The music I put is from the "Desolation of Smaug" soundtrack and it is the music we hear in the original movie when Bard examines the tapestry.
- Cut Thrain's Wilhelm scream.
- Scenes between Bilbo and Smaug are presented in one continuous sequence.
- Cut scene suggesting connection between the ring and the eye of Sauron when Smaug says 'precious'.
- "The darkness is coming. It will spread to every corner of the land" is now simply "the darkness is coming". And to those who ask how does Smaug know about it, here's the answer:
Bilbo did not wake up Smaug from his long sleep. Smaug was simply napping when Bilbo went into the mountain to search for the Arkenstone. Sauron was the one who woke up Smaug. That is why we see Smaug being awake at the end of "An unexpected journey".  This also connects to an earlier scene where Thrain tells Gandalf: "They are in league. The dragon and the one". And this is how Smaug knows the name Thorin Oakenshield because Thorin got that name during the battle of Moria which was after Smaug's assault on Erebor. Peter Jackson actually shot (or intended to shoot) a scene where Saruman finds the Palantir in Dol Guldur which was used by Sauron to communicate with Smaug.
- No forges fight.
- Orcs do not attack Laketown. Tauriel and Legolas do not come to Laketown to aid the Dwarves.
- Bard is not getting knocked out by the master and is not getting arrested.
- Bard kills Smaug with a regular arrow.
- Orc army march from Dol Guldur as final scene.  

Runtime: 138 minutes including credits

The Hobbit - Battle for the Lonely Mountain

Cut list:

Reveal message

Resources:

"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" extended edition
"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" soundtrack

- Applied color correction to get rid of the blue tint
- New beginning (as Smaug's death was at the end of my previous edit) including new opening song.
- Alfrid cut entirely.
- Legolas and Tauriel appear only towards the end to warn about the second Orc army.
- Bard doesn't ride carriage through the streets of Dale
- Thorin doesn't have vision of himself drowning in gold
- Legolas doesn't fly with bats and doesn't ride on a Troll.
- Ride to Ravenhill shortened - no trolls.
- Legolas doesn't fight Bolg
- Alternative Ravenhill fight scenes
- Fight between Thorin and Azog is without interruptions
- Thranduil doesn't share scenes with either Tauriel or Legolas
- Cut scene of Bifur losing his axe.
- Restored Gandalf's eulogy at Thorin's funeral.

Runtime: 122 minutes including credits

The edits will be available soon. Hopefully.

 

[Belgarath]

[img=400x570]

https://imgur.com/4OrpDvc

  [img=400x570]

https://imgur.com/2UfeSFw

 

[Belgarath]

Just sharing some art:

[img=400x570]

https://imgur.com/4OrpDvc

   [img=400x570]

https://imgur.com/2UfeSFw

Both "The Last Light" and "Battle for the Lonely Mountain" are ready.
Currently awaiting for the academy to preview and approve/decline the submission.
PM me if you wish to watch the edits. Feedback is always welcome.

 

[TM2YC]

I've previewed a second version of this edit today. Sorry it took me a while to find the time but things have been busy recently.

The image quality was much improved and the overall execution of the audio and visual editing was excellent, so I watched the whole thing through this time. A really solid and enjoyable two-hour edit of BOTFA. Things I liked...

- The death of Kili and Tauriel's reaction to it was nicely underplayed. Less is more.
- The grade was an improvement over the original.
- The new titlecard at 11.46 looked great and the inter-cutting of Gandalf and the Orc army was well done.
- I liked the new establishing shot of Dol Guldur you added to the beginning.

However, it's still not quite approved because one issue I mentioned last time is still not working (It might even be marginally worse?)...

00.01.08 - Music starts building from 00.54 but then fades out quite sharply and to silence, which sounds very odd. The dialogue doesn't tart 'til 01.34, so the music could go on for a while longer. Alternatively end it earlier over the Hobbit logo before it builds, or even use another shorter piece of music.

All the other edits for the following 2-hours are sounding perfect now but having the very first edit be really bad doesn't make a good impression on the viewer a minute into watching your edit.

Have a go at remixing that first edit and post a test clip on youtube and link to it here... rather than rendering the whole thing again.

To try and help I've had a go at remixing the first scene myself. An app on my iPhone told me that the piece of music you are using is from the BOTFA soundtrack and called "Guardians Of The Three". So I synced the track up to where it starts in your edit but instead of rapidly fading it out at 01.08, while the orchestra is in full flow. I played it all the way through the Orc beating Gandalf and faded it out at the natural point when the score is very quiet (Between 01.56 and 02.06). By the time it's gone, Galadriel's music has come in and the two pieces blend seamlessly together with no audible join IMO. I also like how the music builds to a crescendo just before the Orc steps into frame.

Here is my attempt and your mix afterwards for comparison...

...and the timeline showing where the edits are...

I'm not saying this how you have to do it but it's a possible option. Hope it helps anyway.

So just this one bit to fix and the edit is ready to go .

 

[Belgarath]

Cool. Thanks for the review @"TM2YC" . And thanks for the effort of making the comparison. Much appreciated.
I actually never thought about playing the music all the way up to that point. My idea was to convey a sense of isolation, so I made it fade faster and let the sound of the wind become dominant. However, now that I saw the option you presented, it kinda works. I'll play with it a little and post a video of what I have come up with.

 

[Belgarath]

OK. Tried several options. I so much agree with the following statement:

I also like how the music builds to a crescendo just before the Orc steps into frame.

So, here's my end result:

Password: fanedit.org

I played with the volume a bit of both the music and the sounds. I think it turned out pretty good.

 

[TM2YC]

^ Sounds like a good improvement on my version (with Leo the Lion back ). It's mixed lower under the Orc right? Nice touch.

Please send me the final version of the edit when you are ready. No rush.

By the way, I forgot to mention it before but if you remove the black bars at the top and the bottom of your mp4 as you render it, you'll be able to get a smaller filesize and the same quality, or better quality for the same filesize (depending on what you want). It's surprising how much data is needed to reproduce black areas of nothing. I don't know what program you are using to make your mp4s but Handbrake (which I often use) can auto crop out the black area.

 

[Belgarath]

^ Sounds like a good improvement on my version (with Leo the Lion back ). It's mixed lower under the Orc right? Nice touch.

Yeah, the Orc and some of the Gandalf mumbling/praying right before the Orc appears.

By the way, I forgot to mention it before but if you remove the black bars at the top and the bottom of your mp4 as you render it, you'll be able to get a smaller filesize and the same quality, or better quality for the same filesize (depending on what you want). It's surprising how much data is needed to reproduce black areas of nothing. I don't know what program you are using to make your mp4s but Handbrake (which I often use) can auto crop out the black area.

Oh, that's good to know. I'll take this into consideration for my next edits.

I'll PM you the link once ready.

 

[TM2YC]

@"Belgarath" sent me the latest version with the above intro improvement and a nice little tweak to the fanedit titlecard (it looks very professional now), so I'm happy to say this edit is now approved.

With the blackbars now cropped out to make a 2.35:1 encode, the filesize has been reduced by nearly a half from the 16:9 version I last watched (It's now 2.85GB, 720p). Which is great for distribution but I think it could afford to be closer to just under 4GB and squeeze in a little more detail (especially with all the fast moving battle scenes). It's fine to release as it is but it could be just that little bit better with a slightly higher bitrate.

Congratulations, this a fine 2-hour edit of the 'Battle of the Five Armies'. Thread moved.

 

[Belgarath]

@"Belgarath" sent me the latest version with the above intro improvement and a nice little tweak to the fanedit titlecard (it looks very professional now), so I'm happy to say this edit is now approved.

Cooool!!!! 
I like my name in green 
Thanks so much @"TM2YC"

With the blackbars now cropped out to make a 2.35:1 encode, the filesize has been reduced by nearly a half from the 16:9 version I last watched (It's now 2.85GB, 720p). Which is great for distribution but I think it could afford to be closer to just under 4GB and squeeze in a little more detail (especially with all the fast moving battle scenes). It's fine to release as it is but it could be just that little bit better with a slightly higher bitrate.

Congratulations, this a fine 2-hour edit of the 'Battle of the Five Armies'. Thread moved.

^About this: I used constant quality RF to encode the movie. In this case, I don't have control over the bitrate. Hence, no control on the file size. However, I've made comparison with my ~6GB file from previous version and found the quality to be quite similar. Anyway, I will dig dipper into the whole encoding process (any insights regarding this would be appreciated) and most likely am going to produce a larger file size.  

A small request: can the thread be renamed "The Hobbit: The Last Light & Battle for the Lonely Mountain"? I'm releasing both simultaneously and I don't see a reason to create a new thread for already completed edit.

 

[Captain Khajiit]

I used constant quality RF to encode the movie.

As indeed you should have done!  What CRF did you use?  Try lowering it a bit.  For example, if you used 20, use 19.

 

[Belgarath]

I used constant quality RF to encode the movie.

As indeed you should have done!  What CRF did you use?  Try lowering it a bit.  For example, if you used 20, use 19.

I used 19. Slow preset. High Profile. 3.1 Level - This is part of the HQ 720p preset in HandBrake.
I think I'll try 17 with slower preset.

 

[Captain Khajiit]

Good idea!  The result should look very nice indeed.

 

[TM2YC]

A small request: can the thread be renamed "The Hobbit: The Last Light & Battle for the Lonely Mountain"?

If you edit your first post in the thread (using the "full edit" option), you'll be able to adjust the title to what you want.

 

[Belgarath]

^Thanks.

OK!... file size is now 3.55GB. I think I'll keep it at that.