Petty's Purist LotR Edits

the only thing about golden is that it could end up being too similar to Rivendell, but if you get the colours right, the golden and the silver grey, it'll turn out perfect the green is better than blue

Gold is a very hard colour to get with rgb sliders!!!! Green is so much easier. It wold be nicce for the Golden Wood to be Golden. Just not sure it works.
But I have had a go, best I can so far and I am not sure at all so I am courting opinion.

Maybe if you choose a more redly(warmer) yellowcolour but not oransje and make it a bit more sublte so that Galadriel don't turn out all yellow. I understand it is hard, but somehow it is still a bit too cold and yellow is a much more dramatic colour and a colour which u find more disturbing when put onto people than a comfy green tone as there is in forests.

I can't go any more red in it Norc, otherwise in the deeper shades it tends to hint towrads the red eye of Sauron filter and thats an association I want to completely avoid.
Theres also a problem with other aspects too of a more technical nature- without gettinginto too much detail, the green filter works not by adding green but reducing red and blue so the natural greens already there are dominant.
I cant get gold that way so the gold is more like a colour imposed on top of all the others. So its not so easy to manipulate for different scenes- the eye bit in the mirror is proving very difficult for example as obviously it doent work gold/yellowy.

I think I am going to have to stick with green.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I can't go any more red in it Norc, otherwise in the deeper shades it tends to hint towrads the red eye of Sauron filter and thats an association I want to completely avoid.
Theres also a problem with other aspects too of a more technical nature- without gettinginto too much detail, the green filter works not by adding green but reducing red and blue so the natural greens already there are dominant.
I cant get gold that way so the gold is more like a colour imposed on top of all the others. So its not so easy to manipulate for different scenes- the eye bit in the mirror is proving very difficult for example as obviously it doent work gold/yellowy.

I think I am going to have to stick with green.

I think that is wisely if one can't get exacly the feeling and atmosphere one's lookin for, stick with what works best. The green looks more natural and not too much if you know what I mean. If one should have made the golden roof and so on, one should have done something with the props and scenary in the first place
nice to see a purist not going for the purist answer but wisely done I have to say

Well its still more purist than blue. Sam comments in the chapter to Frodo "I thought elves were all for moonlight and starlight, but this is more elvish than anything I imagined. Its like being inside a song." or words to that affect. So if you were to do go out of your way to do the opposite of the book you'd do what PJ did and make it all star and moonlight. The green filter at least makes it feel green and living in a sort of faery pagan way.

And the filters in my edit are not just for atmosphere, although they do that too, they are part of the narrative I am telling, a visual narrative.
The red filter represents Saurons will and presence, it is temporarly destroyed when the Ring is cut from him and it is broken again by the light of the phial of Galadriel and by Gandalf's staff during the retreat from Osgiliath. The idea is for the viewer to be aware it is not a natural light. And that it can be broken.

Lothloriens green light in my narrative is a result of the will of Galadriel, as expressed through the Ring she wears. Lothlorien is bathed in it, and when she does her cgi freak out, unlike PJ's where it's just for show, it now has the subtext of revealing to the viewer, and Frodo, the source of the unnatural green light of Lothlorien, the hidden power of Galadriel and a glimpse of what it might be like if she were to have the One Ring- not an oppressive red world but a green lit world, beautiful but terrible and unearthly.
Well, that's the idea anyway....

I like your idea

as for another idea, I've always thought that LOTR would be great as a cartoon. The Bakshi (hihi, probably wrong spelled and all) version has great scenary and the characters move very cute and well.. it looks great, but it has some faults. Like Sam is ugly and pathetic and the ringwraith scene at the river is too long and confusing (and the movies wasn't finished). I'm thinking a mix of that version and Studio Ghibli (allthough, they tend to stray of the main story, ponyo is example, and they are feminists... so.. Galadriel and Eowyn and Arwen may play a bigger part. Maybe they shouls co-operate with u ) would've been great. what do you think? it's just a though

I am afraid I don't know the work of Studio Ghibli and have never heard of ponyo.
I think Bakshi did a lot that was good under the circumstances (have you read my comparison between him and PJ in the LotR's section?) as well as a lot that was less good.
I'd love to script LotR the tv serial though.

On the green/gold issue, might it work best to have a more golden tint for the outside shots (such as the first long-distance view of Caras Galadhon) and then use the green tint within the forest? I realize there's only so much that can be done after the fact with the equipment available so I'm trying not to be too ambitious in my suggestions, but I think that might work well. PJ's original "exterior" shots of the forest we're already a little more gold, if I recall correctly. I don't know how this would work but I thought I'd mention it. It looks good either way though.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I am afraid I don't know the work of Studio Ghibli and have never heard of ponyo.
I think Bakshi did a lot that was good under the circumstances (have you read my comparison between him and PJ in the LotR's section?) as well as a lot that was less good.
I'd love to script LotR the tv serial though.

google up Studio Ghibli, they make great movies. non digital animation and the scenary is astonishing.
Yes Bakshi did some stuff like the storyline, that was good, but some of the technology and the costume designs were terrible. I think if one did the same today, we could end up with a ver good and pleasent to watch LOTR
here's a taste of studio Ghibli, they're newest movie. The characters are maybe a bit simple (but they do make children's movies) but I think they stand in a nice contrast to the backround. what do you think? they are just sooo great at making the story come alive. You'll know what I mean if u see one of they're movies. I recomend "Spirited away". Japanees filmmaking at its best.

Spirited Away is absolutely spectacular, the first Ghibli/Miyazaki movie I ever saw and a true classic. But I slightly prefer Princess Mononoke, which tells more of a high fantasy story. It also does it by maintaining sympathy and a measure of decency on all sides and by balancing the fighting and quiet scenes very well.



Great stuff and great fantasy.

Ahh I've seen Spirted Away- channel 4 here ran a series of their films a while back- it was superb. I just don't know who had made them.
Don't think I'd be a fan of saucer eyed hobbits and pubescent elves though!

-book2 is uploading very slowly but it is getting there- hopefully by tomorrow evening (01/01) that will be fotr all up at least and you can make your own minds up about the green filter (amongst other changes).

Pettytyrant101 wrote:
And the filters in my edit are not just for atmosphere, although they do that too, they are part of the narrative I am telling, a visual narrative.
The red filter represents Saurons will and presence, it is temporarly destroyed when the Ring is cut from him and it is broken again by the light of the phial of Galadriel and by Gandalf's staff during the retreat from Osgiliath. The idea is for the viewer to be aware it is not a natural light. And that it can be broken.

Lothloriens green light in my narrative is a result of the will of Galadriel, as expressed through the Ring she wears. Lothlorien is bathed in it, and when she does her cgi freak out, unlike PJ's where it's just for show, it now has the subtext of revealing to the viewer, and Frodo, the source of the unnatural green light of Lothlorien, the hidden power of Galadriel and a glimpse of what it might be like if she were to have the One Ring- not an oppressive red world but a green lit world, beautiful but terrible and unearthly.
Well, that's the idea anyway....

I like that! I'm curious if you've tried to add comparable cues for the 9, or for when Gandalf draws on the power of Narya.

I'm hoping to get a chance to download part I this weekend. [crossing fingers for luck]

There isn't a filter for the Nine- I dont think that would be workable becasue of the scenes they are in.
Narya and the phial of Galadriel sort of a have a filter, or to be more precise a lack of one- when Gandalf uses it to ward of the Nazgul at the retreat it 'breaks' the light of Sauron, as does the phial when Frodo uses it in Shelobs-and th elighting is the same as in PJ's original, so from a viewing point of view they clearly have a visual power.

Having all sorts of upload troubles- every time I go to work or leave it to upload overnight I ocome back to find it uploaded a few then frozen- pain in the sporran it is. But plodding on.

Hope you manage to get Book 1 ok David, looking forward to your views on it.

Easier to show how the filter works rather than explain it David, so I uploaded an example to youtube- its not in HD to keep the file and upload time small (got enough uploading already!)



Looks overly dark if you watch it small- better fullscreen- but still darker in places than the HD because all the dark bits splodge together at this resolution.

Had pc trouble-been on a laptop, couldnt log in here and couldnt access my own pc to upload stuff- so sorry for book2 not being up yet- all going well resume shortly.

I'm sorry, it looked too dark, couldn't see what was really going on and it annoyed me. Maybe better HQ and full screen, but naaah... I doubt it, sorry I know it says pitch dark in the book, which gives it all a terrible claustrophobic feeling, but some things work in the book but doesn't on film.

I'd advise watching it full screen Norc, the small view makes it way too dark. Its not as dark as that, and less so in HD.

Watched it full-screen on my (relatively small) PC screen and I thought it looked pretty good. I'm sure it'd be even better on a big screen TV. It's definitely better in fullscreen than in the regular YouTube viewer.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Had pc trouble-been on a laptop, couldnt log in here and couldnt access my own pc to upload stuff- so sorry for book2 not being up yet- all going well resume shortly.

I can sympathize. Today I was only able to successfully download the first 12 parts of the 52 in book 1. This may take a while....

"Watched it full-screen on my (relatively small) PC screen and I thought it looked pretty good."- Eldo

Thanks Eldo- I was starting to worry there it was tooo dark still! Have you started the ardous task of downloading book1 yet?


"but naaah... I doubt it, sorry"- Norc

Don't dismiss so readily Norc- if you watch in full screen you can dispense with outmoded primitive thinking like belief and doubt and judge with your own eyes!


"I was only able to successfully download the first 12 parts of the 52 in book 1. This may take a while...."- David H

I wish there was an easier way, I really do- its even less fun uploading. But its either big files or non HD quality. Hopefully you will plod on through it David and think it worth it when you finally get there.

Nope, I've had other stuff taking up my attention and I still haven't gotten a new computer yet. I'll let you know when I download it though. I do want to see it, it's just that now is not the best time.

I have choosen to read your response Eldo as "I can't wait to begin downloading but I am currently too busy watching Doctor Who!"

Pettytyrant101 wrote:
Hopefully you will plod on through it David and think it worth it when you finally get there.

I'll press on, never fear! I loved your first edit for storytelling, now I've gotta see how you've polished it. It's just that I may eventually have to resort to a trip to town to visit a friendly geek with a faster box.

Always good to know a friendly geek- in my case its often me!