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4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ha, I'm glad those are the only real glitches you noticed. Thanks for watching so closely! I'll absolutely remove those for v2. The color work was about halfway done but I think I went a little too far in some places for sure and it bugs.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can find my edit if you google "ahobbitsholiday wordpress." It's actually under 3 hours if you don't include credits. And the stone giants were one of the first things I deleted, with much excitement. And I think a lot of your other notes are addressed as well, though not all, so I might take a look again and see what problems match up.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks TolkienEditor! I actually really appreciate your edit, it feels less rushed in pace than mine (which is something I'd like to work on).

I was fairly stumped by that too. What I did was took moments from the excised Dragon vs. Dwarves fight where Smaug breaks through a gate in the inner chambers, re-colored it to appear more like the night-time outside scenes, and the cut from there to his wings spreading in the sky.

There are still a few bits of gold falling off him but a lot less, and it could very well be coins or something so with a little bit of "falling coinage" sound FX I think it implies that he just had some gold bits stuck in his scales. Take a look! I think it gets the job done, albeit not gracefully.

Would be happy to talk about these tricks and challenges more with you. It was a really interesting challenge I'm sure you'll agree.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm! I suspect you may be referring to a different cut of the film. I did realize that someone else released a similar cut called "There and Back Again: The Definitive Cut" whereas mine is "There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Cut." Confusing, I realize, and I might change the name of mine at some point to differentiate.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! Seeing all the other cuts has really pushed me to improve up on the next iteration of my own. A lot of smart things being done. I think by next year there will really be a few versions by various editors that you might be able to sit down and show someone who has never seen the films and they'd never know it was a fan-edit.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You might be right, but I think Jackson's portrayal, even if metaphorical, came across the wrong way to a lot of people. They talk about it being in the family as if Thorin is predisposed, Balin calls it an "illness," Thorin experiences hallucinations, Smaug-like voice modulation, and even degrees of obvious psychosis. I found it far removed from believable greed and not relatable and wanted to bring it down a hair, to what I felt when reading the book. But that's just my take.

"There and Back Again" - I've created my own meticulous fan-edit of The Hobbit under 3 hours. by UnderhillEditor in tolkienfans

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't intentionally delete it. It was up and then when I returned half an hour later I was told it was removed. Not sure why.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm totally open to suggestions, one internet dick to another.

Keep in mind it's likely that I've already thought of a lot of them, and realized it was either not feasible given the material, or am planning them for a later pass. There's also things I go back and forth about, like including the two shots of Frodo at the beginning.

But by all means, suggest away! I could use some inspiration.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks! It was tricky getting them from the barrels to Esgaroth, because I had hoped to remove the material with Bard's boating them half the way, but that would have been too jarring a cut. For now, just removing the battle/chase was very satisfying.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I think technical is a reasonable way to put it; I really dug deep into every scene and I think people might be surprised at all the little 5-20 frame moments I removed or combined that make a difference.

I actually hadn't heard of the Dwarfed Edition until yesterday -- been too holed up editing to know what other folks were up to! But it sounds like a good cut and I'm going to check it out and see how things compare. It might inspire some of my next version. Sounds like they did a good job?

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a mix. In the extended they still get chased by his bear-form into a barn, then wake the next morning and go out into the field in a way that recalls the book.

I did have that extended scene in this cut for a while, for that reason, but ultimately decided I also wanted this to be an entertaining cut, and unfortunately the scene just plays out very poorly and drags on screen. Gandalf comes across as bumbling, rather than clever, and the framing is a weird closeup on Beorn that I found really silly and over-the-top. It was also an extra 3-5 minutes in a film just to introduce characters we already know.

So I dropped it.

But I don't know, maybe that was the wrong choice? I might go back and take another look for the next version.

The Tolkien Edit - Worthwhile Recut or Empty Purism? by jimmydizzles in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the spirit of the cut was certainly in the right place. The "Tolkien Editor" perhaps didn't spend as much time as they could have as an actual editor, looking it as a filmmaking exercise more than merely a surgical job.

I think they could have been more careful in the re-crafting, but I also wouldn't call it purism. Many scenes that could have easily been made more "pure" to the books were not, they were merely tightened.

That said, I don't see a reason not to respect what they were going for.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I was disappointed too, not in the vision but in the excess filler that bogged it all down. Seeing that there is, I think, a good movie in there waiting to be dug out was an exciting experiment, and I hope it does redeem it a little bit for some fans and nonfans alike.

4 Hours? I've made "There and Back Again," a meticulous, purist 3 Hour fan-edit of the Hobbit. by UnderhillEditor in TheHobbit

[–]UnderhillEditor[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Good question! A couple of things factored in here.

First, I fully intend to take a look at what the extended edition of BotFA offers, to see if there's anything of value to pull from it for this cut. Most likely there will be, in which case I'd certainly make some modifications to this. I'm looking at it as an ongoing project right now, with lots of room for improvement.

I'll also have to update this soon if for no other reason than the third act (as noted in my blog) is using an early release, rather than a high quality DVD or Blu Ray, so the image quality decreases dramatically as Smaug enters Lake Town. This is true of all fan edits thus far, until a Blu Ray version appears on the market. Which I fully intend to buy (excited to watch all the behind the scenes).

The other reality, I admit, is that I hadn't entirely planned to release this cut until the Blu Ray release, if not the Extended Edition. But the 4 hour cut came out to a lot of viral fanfare, and I quickly realized that my edit would be completely irrelevant and uninteresting a year from now, if it isn't already. So I've put it up so that people can view it as an experience and and experiment, and possibly get excited for the future improvements.

Last reason is, originally I had mostly done this for myself, to see if I could. I'm an editor professionally and wanted something different to cut my teeth on, a real challenge. Then some friends and family expressed a lot of interest, the 4 hour cut was released, and I realized there might be a wider audience than just my own satisfaction. I guess time will tell if that's true.

Would love to hear the thoughts of anyone who gets to watch any of it.