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The Lord of the Rings MiniSeries

almightycutie

almightycutie

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LOTR0.jpg

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The AlmightyCutie Fanedit
Art by ArtisDead

I've had this idea for a while now and was recently inspired again to work on it after seeing a post from Stromboli Bones about his own miniseries edit. I think I prefer these as movies still, but this was a fun experiment and a nice choice to have if I don't have a ton of time to commit to the movies. Also, my favorite edit of the Hobbit is Stromboli's 5 part edit, and having the Lord of the Rings available in similar length episodes makes watching the whole series like this more cohesive. The episode format works better than I expected too with each part having a solid story arc rather than feeling like a chopped up movie.

My sources for the movies are Dwalin's color corrected Fellowship of the Ring from OriginalTrilogy forums, and then the blurays for both The Two Towers and Return of the King. I also took one small change from TriggeredPuppy's Less Extended Edition for adding a quick shot of Martin Freeman's Bilbo for the intro of FOTR.

The vast majority of each movie is retained, though I changed a handful of things that I thought weren't so well done in the movies (Bridge collapse leaning, Frodo and Sam "rock" cloak at the Black Gate, etc). I cut a few other scenes that were from the extended editions that I felt did not add to the movies at all (extra Gimli humor, Merry and Pippin drinking water to get taller, etc). And lastly, I rearranged some scenes to help the pacing of each episode. With the new format this was needed, mainly in the Return of the King. I added chapter titles to every episode appearing within the first 10 minutes matching how the original movies did it, I kept the short 45 second intro credits and "Lord of the Rings" Title sequence for each episode, and then added a shortened 60 second credit sequence for each episode.

This edit is now finished. Please PM me if interested!

Episode lengths, super quick summaries to show the story arcs, and change lists:

Fellowship of the Ring
E1 - A Long-Expected Party - 66min
The introductions to the Hobbits and Gandalf, the start of Frodo's journey up to getting saved by Aragorn, and then departing with him.
  • Used the Hobbit Bilbo footage to replace the original footage of the flashback to him finding the ring (Credit to TriggeredPuppy)
  • Heavily shortened the awkward wizard fight
  • Trimmed the Black Rider chase sequence so he never gets crazy close to Frodo right before they make it to the ferry
  • End as the Hobbits leave with Aragorn with a long zoom out shot
E2 - A Knife in the Dark - 59min
Frodo's attack by the Nazgul, to the forming of the fellowship, up to entering Moria.
  • Rearranged a couple shots so the transition from the Hobbits getting their swords to them getting attacked by wraiths does not happen immediately. This cut one small scene of Gandalf on top of Saruman's tower, but the transition works better now
  • Cut Aragorn throwing the torch into a Nazgul's face. I don't think the effects worked well in this shot
  • Trimmed Arwen's escape with Frodo so the Nazgul never get too close to them and almost grab Frodo
  • Trimmed the magic water horses so that they hit the Nazgul quicker and they don't look like they are just waiting to get hit
  • End just after they enter Moria on another long zoom out shot that I slightly extended
E3 - The Bridge of Khazad-dûm - 75min
Escaping Moria, then meeting Galadriel, and finally escaping the orcs and the Fellowship splitting.
  • Cut nearly all scenes of the Hobbits killing orcs. They still have moments of bravery but are not competent fighters
  • Trimmed the bridge collapse sequence so Frodo and Aragorn don't lean and make the tower move with them
  • Cut Sam's song for Gandalf, and Legolas awkward line saying how his grief is too much. Partly to shorten this movie, but also I don't think the scene fits the tone very well
  • Cut the orc running montage as they travel down the river. This didn't really add anything to the movie
  • Cut all instances of Merry and Pippin knocking down orcs with rocks. It makes the orcs look really weak
  • Cut the shot of Legolas shooting an orc after it tripped and was already falling down
  • End on the original Fellowship ending. Extended credits trimmed to just include the song "In Dreams"
The Two Towers
E4 - The Passage of the Marshes - 65min
Aragorn's group chases after Merry and Pippin, meeting the Rohirrim. They continue until they find Gandalf and know the Hobbits are okay with Treebeard.
Frodo's group captures Gollum and travel to their original goal of the black gate.
  • Cut Gimli's "Just keep breathing" joke as they chase the orcs
  • Cut both Gimli's jokes about the trees
  • Cut entire sequence with Treebeard reciting poems to the Hobbits. Took a later scene of Treebeard talking about the Entwives and placed it here instead
  • Cut Sam and Frodo becoming a rock at the black gate. I'd say this is the only fully noticeable edit since you don't see Sam running down the hill with Frodo. But better than the rock cloak.
  • End as the black gate shuts
E5 - The King of Rohan - 61min
Aragorn's group goes to Rohan and saves Theoden. They travel with him to Helm's Deep and Gandalf departs.
Treebeard's group travels to the gathering of the Ents, and sees Saruman's army marching.
Frodo's group head to Gollum's new location until they get captured by Faramir.
  • Cut Gimli burping bit
  • Cut the mad horse scene with Aragorn
  • End on Galadriel's speech to Elrond
E6 - Helm's Deep - 80min
Aragorn's group prepares for battle and then protects Helm's Deep.
Treebeard's group has the struggle whether to fight or not until they end up attacking Saruman's tower.
Frodo's group goes with Faramir to Osgiliath but then gets released after seeing the influence of the ring.
  • Moved the scene of Faramir capturing Gollum out a bit later to spread out the Sam/Frodo scenes more evenly throughout the episode
  • Trimmed and merged the two Treebeard scenes with him saying they said hello to each other and then the group deciding the Hobbits are not orcs.
  • Cut Gimli joke with him not fitting the chainmail
  • Cut Legolas surfing
  • Cut all shots of Merry and Pippin throwing rocks again
  • Cut scene with Gimli's axe in the warg
  • Cut scene with Merry and Pippin comparing heights and then smoking
  • End on the original Two Towers ending. Extended credits trimmed to just include the song "Gollum's Song"
The Return of the King
E7 - Minas Tirith - 60min
Aragorn's group finishes Saruman and then splits apart. Aragorn stays with the Rohirrim while Gandalf and Pippin go to Minas Tirith.
Frodo's group makes it to the stairs and the orc army marches out.
  • Cut Saruman's fireball right before his staff breaks
  • Cropped the flashback of Boromir getting hit with arrows so you don't see the Hobbits holding stones
  • End at the start of the stair climb on a long shot of them with the orc army below that I slighty extended
E8 - Shelob's Lair - 67min
Aragorn's group rides to the aid of Minas Tirith, then split from them to go enlist the Dead Army.
Frodo's group climbs the stairs and escapes Shelob, up to the point where Sam realizes that Frodo is still alive.
  • Rearranged the scene with Gandalf telling Pippin to light to fire so that the episode starts with the orcs silently crossing the water
  • Moved the shot of Sam threatening Gollum to just after Gandalf asks Faramir to tell him what happened with Sam and Frodo. This transitions nicely and helps space out the Frodo/Sam scenes more evenly
  • Pulled the scenes of Frodo and Sam fighting Shelob to be earlier so that this ends the episode, and then I pushed the gathering of the Rohirrim and Orc armies to the next episode for pacing
  • End on Sam realizing that Frodo isn't dead
E9 - The Ride of the Rohirrim - 59min
Aragorn's group talks to the Dead Army before going to help win the fight at Minas Tirith
Frodo's group reunites and continues on into Mordor
  • Cut the shot of the Dead king saying he'll fight for Aragorn and them attacking the ship so it's a surprise
  • Moved the scenes of the two armies getting ready for the battle up to this point
  • Darkened a transition scene of the Rohan army so it looks later in the day so the timelines match better
  • Cut a small set of shots of Merry killing a bunch of orcs. He only helps kill the Witch King now
  • End as Aragorn says that Sauron will take the bait just before he goes to use the palantir
E10 - Mount Doom - 77min
Aragorn's group goes to battle at the gate to give Frodo time
Frodo's group continues on to destroy the ring.
  • Rearranged a few scenes in the beginning so this episodes starts with Frodo and Sam and follows them up until they get away from the orcs and see the mountain. From there it goes back to Aragorn holding the palantir and plays out as normal
  • Trimmed Frodo flapping his arms out as he falls when the eye is looking at him. Also cut one extra scene of the eye looking at Frodo as he is laying on the ground
  • Cut another tiny set of shots of the hobbits killing orcs in the final battle
  • Trimmed the reunion scene so there is less laughing, bed jumping, and awkward looks
  • End on the original ending with full extended credits
 
Last edited:
I'm actually in the process of making this. Might be interested to compare. Yours seems to cut out more things than mine. I found it funny how we are both going to add Bilbo finding the ring from The Hobbit into the edit.
 
Yeah that'd be cool. Do you have a thread going anywhere? Outside of cutting some of the extended edition scenes, most of my cuts were really tiny and won't really be noticeable. Would be great to see what your plans are.

I liked having a small link to the Hobbit movies in here to make it all feel a little more connected. I assume a lot of purist LOTR fans will hate it though :confused:
 
Absolutely love how you cut this into pertinent sections.
 
Thanks! I hope it feels that way throughout. I've seen a few other people attempt to make LOTR into a series and there always seems to be some issues with episode pacing and focus.
 
Thank you Art for the wonderful design work! I haven't mentioned it yet on this thread :)

A minor update, I'm going through my edit looking for anything that needs updating. I didn't find anything to change on the first episode, but on the second I made two changes -
  • I felt that the transition from where the Hobbits get their swords and Aragorn goes to look around, and then they get attacked by the wraiths happens too quickly. I thought it could do with a bit of breathing room, so I split up the shots just before of the orcs tearing down trees and Gandalf looking down from the top of the tower, and intercut it here so it breaks everything up a bit. I think it makes it feel a little better, but it does end up having both scenes of the orcs ending with a zoom out shot of Gandalf on the tower which feels slightly repetitive. I'll look at this again with fresh eyes later.
  • The ending shot of this episode is a long zoom out shot of them just after they enter into Moria. I thought it could hold just a bit longer so I took that shot and slowed it down 20% with optical flow. Much better final shot now.
 
Another minor update - On the third episode I lengthened the intro music over the first scene so it blended better. Was a pain messing with the audio to make it work, but I finally got it working.
 
almightycutie said:
Another minor update - On the third episode I lengthened the intro music over the first scene so it blended better. Was a pain messing with the audio to make it work, but I finally got it working.
Click to expand...
I can preview the edit and look for mistakes, if you want
 
Small update to episode 5. Made the audio transition from the logo to the first shot a little smoother. And then I fixed a shot where Sarumon is telling an orc to call the wargs. The orc looks like he starts talking but he isn't saying anything so I cut back a few frames to fix that.
 
I think that kind of edit should use end credits of ROTK (with characters drawings) as opening credits.
 
Gieferg said:
I think that kind of edit should use end credits of ROTK (with characters drawings) as opening credits.
Click to expand...
I'll consider doing that in place of the studio logos that I currently have there. That's a fantastic idea.
 
It would a bit long, but in the style of some openings of older shows, like for example "North & South":


You may also speed it up a little.
just choose some fitting music for it :)
 
Last edited:
Gieferg said:
It would a bit long, but in the style of some openings of older shows, like for example "North & South":


You may also speed it up a little.
just choose some fitting music for it :)
Click to expand...
If AC could pull it off, that would be cool!
 
I have another fairly small update.

1st, I loved the idea of putting the ROTK end credits character drawings as part of the intro credits sequence, but I ended up unsatisfied. It looks okay, but it just feels out of place and kind of cheesy to me. I think I prefer the simple, dark studio text that I originally had. Any thoughts?

Original

ROTK credits version

2nd, I just went through episode 7 and made a couple changes -
  • I took the really quick flashback of Boromir getting hit with arrows and the Hobbit reactions and cropped it just a bit so you don't see the Hobbits holding stones as I had previously cut that out.
  • The ending shot was too abrupt for me. I ended up taking the shot where Sam Frodo and Gollum start climbing the stairs, slowed it down almost 50%, and then faded it out to be the final shot of the episode. The cut sequence of Sam warning Gollum not to do anything to them was moved to the next episode just after Faramir tells the others that he saw Frodo just a couple days before. It fits perfectly there.
  • Because of where I ended this episode there was another tiny shot just before the Sam and Gollum one from above that had to get cut. It is a really short shot of Gandalf saying that the board is set and the pieces are moving. It is like 5 seconds long and doesn't fit anywhere else so I cut it.
 
I actually like the idea of using the credits sequence for the beginning. I would let it play through up until the story begins. That would mean restoring the main title but you should title them by book and chapter, as well, anyway. If you don't know already...the font is Ringbearer.
 
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