I'm thinking of marathoning the Middle-Earth films with the girl I like and I want to show them to her the best way possible. I more or less know what I want to do with the Hobbit (like maintaining Tauriel/Kili/Legolas as much as possible as I think the elves and the romance would be the thing that would hook her in the most, plus I really like it anyway) and when it comes to tone/heaviness transition etc. I think starting with the Hobbit is the best bet for us.
As for The Lord of the Rings I don't own them on Blu-Ray like I do the Hobbit (only the PAL Theatrical DVDs) and I can't get both the theatrical and extended box sets on Blu-Ray because A) They're expensive and 2) At this time and situation I can't get them delivered anyway. So I think I'm just going to buy the collections from iTunes (the extended collection is also available on the Turkish store so with that being only around 5 dollars I would have to pay 25 dollars in total
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But when it comes to LotR I'm not sure what to do for several reasons. I'm pretty sure I want to edit hybrid cuts of them that stay faithful to the pace/flow of the award winning theatrical versions, but adding the best scenes from the Extended Edition.
I've heard the theatrical editions of Lord of the Rings have terrible quality and the Extended Editions have terrible color grading. For my edits, as EE has better quality apparently, would it be better for me to use EE video with an LUT and TE audio (with color corrected TE video filling in the blanks?) or just TE audio and video (with an LUT) with EE scenes added? Asking because maybe the in between theatrical video might be distracting or a different reason? Although @"TM2YC" reconstructed the Amadeus theatrical edition with low quality DVD footage and it still wasn't too distracting, so probably the first option is better. Which way is more efficient for optimal video quality?
Furthermore, I'm not nearly as familiar with Two Towers and Return of the King as I am with The Hobbit (and Fellowship of the Ring to an extent), so I need help for deciding which scenes to include. I know I'm definitely going to include Saruman's death, mouth of Sauron, Boromir & Faramir flashback, etc. But I need thoughts and recommendations. Which EE scenes amplify the story and make the movies better without too much of it ruining the pace of a theatrical release? For example I'm tempted to include the Wood Elves leaving Middle Earth but that might not be necessary and could affect the flow negatively. I was also thinking of keeping Theodred's funeral as again it is a beautiful scene but I also love the cut from "Where's Theodred?" to him already buried with Theoden holding the Simbelmyne, revealing to the audience (via Gandalf) that his son is dead. (Or was that from the EE as well? If so should I include it?)
I found this article on Screen Rant,
https://screenrant.com/lord-of-the-rings-best-deleted-scenes-extended-edition/ but it's not very helpful as most aren't taken from a cinematic perspective but "that was a cool scene I wish they included"
Also apparently there is a romance between Faramir and Eowyn I can't remember, is this worth including?
@"TM2YC" I think your input would be extremely helpful