The Hobbit Fan Edit – ‚a art of the story which he did not yet know cae in‘ – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

THERE IS A GLITCH AROUND 2:10!!!

My edit of the White Council has been very decisive among my viewers, and indeed myself. The White Council has gone through countless alteration, tweaks and revisions since I began this project around 7 years ago now. Eventually I settled on a much more stripped back and incredibly lore faithful take on the scene, where Gandalf is already aware of Sauron’s identity and growing presence in Dol Guldur having ventured there many years ago. I even managed to construct a flashback sequence depicting Gandalf’s investigation which I was very pleased with. However, the fault was in the scene’s tone and lack of focus on the titular character, Bilbo.

Another problem I face is that Bilbo seeing the Shards of Narsil and painting of Sauron has been moved to the end of my edit during the Return Journey chapter, due to having no extra footage of Bilbo to use during this moment, and also allowing the darker tone and lead in to The Lord of the Rings to feel more natural at the end of the film. I am honestly completely divided on which I prefer more as they both have their pros and cons.

The pros of this scene is that it gets the relevant information across in a timely fashion, whilst keeping the focus on Bilbo and alleviating any potential continuity problems based on Bilbo’s outfit and brass buttons (which makes no sense when the scene is moved to the end of the film). The cons involve losing Gandalf’s flashback at Dol Guldur which was a moment I really enjoyed seeing in isolation, but I acknowledge its tonal discrepancies in this moment. I have also thrown some good old sound effects from The Lord of the Rings for good measure which some of you hardcore LOTR fans might catch if you have a good ear!

The cons of losing the Shards of Narsil scene from the end of the film mean that Bilbo has no final moments in Rivendell during the Return Journey and his absence is evident. Also the fact that The Lord of the Rings tone potentially comes too early at this point.

I also think this scene now has a problem when it comes to abrupt cuts back to Bilbo and a lack of establishing shots. It almost makes it feel like he is in an adjacent room to the White Council based on the sound of the voice over, which of course he isn’t. I am not sure if this is a case that I am so used to how the footage was before, or if this is a legitimate problem.

I am honestly completely split down the middle on this choice so hopefully my dedicated viewers can help shed further light on this and compare and constrast to my previous edit of this scene (which can be found in my previous videos).

Overall I think I warm to this one slightly more. I appreciate it’s stripped back approach whilst still detailing all of the relevant information we need as well as cutting back to Bilbo to keep the focus on him. The tone doesn’t become overly dark and feels more in keeping with the established tone of the film and doesn’t feel as random to a newcomer. Unlike the book, the Necromancer hasn’t been set up earlier in the narrative (like when Gandalf explains to Thorin about finding his father in the dungeons of the Necromancer). That is also a scene I have been considering editing into Bag End and showing a brief clip of Gandalf and Thrain from the extended edition of Desolation of Smaug, but that too might have the same issues I had with my previous version of the White Council in that the tone will come across as too dark from the beginning of the film. I believe with The Hobbit film that the darker tone should naturally grow over the course of the film; building and building until we hit the second half of the film with Smaug and the Battle of the Five Armies.

Any feedback is always appreciated!