Hobbit FAQ's
Ok, what the heck is a “fan edit?”
According to the almighty Wikipedia, a fan edit is a version of a film modified by a viewer that removes, reorders, or adds material in order to create a new interpretation of the source material. This includes the removal of scenes or dialogue, replacement of audio and/or visual elements, and adding material from sources such as deleted scenes or even other films.
What’s this particular fan edit all about?
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is a re-edited version of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Many people didn’t like the fact that PJ stretched a relatively short children’s fantasy novel into three long films. So, over the last two and a half years, I have been gradually re-editing the trilogy into a single 4-hour epic that is more faithful to Tolkien’s book.
What sort of nerdy loser would spend over two years of their life re-editing The Hobbit?
Me.
Who are you and what is this place?
My name is Dustin and I’m a video editor/filmmaker from Cleveland, OH. This is my website. Not only does it contain all things related to my Hobbit fan edit, but you can also find many of my own short films here too. The name of my production company is Maple Films. Like us on Facebook! Or offer us a multi-picture Hollywood deal. That would be cool too.
I’m intrigued. What exactly have you cut from the Hobbit films?
I have cut over half of the cumulative running time of the films. What was once a bloated, 532-minute trilogy is now a more digestible 245-minute epic. For specific cuts and changes, hover over the HOBBIT FAN EDIT link to read edits from each of the three Hobbit films. In general, I’ve tried to keep the spirit of the book intact by removing unnecessary subplots, characters, ridiculous action scenes, and so on.
I’m not ready to invest four hours of my time to watch your fan edit just yet. Do you have some short clips or a trailer I can watch first, to get an idea?
Sure, you can once again hover over the HOBBIT FAN EDIT link above and click on VIDEO CLIPS. Or you can visit my Vimeo channel to see the same clips. Either way the links all go to the same place.
Ok, so those clips look decent. Where can I actually watch J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?
Once again, hover over the HOBBIT FAN EDIT link above and click on DOWNLOADS. From there you can choose to download a digital copy via MEGA or a torrent link. Or if you’re really dedicated, you can download DVD or Bluray ISO files and burn them onto respective discs at your own leisure and cost. Just make sure you own all three Hobbit films already before you decide to download anything!
Why do I need to own all three Hobbit films before watching your fan edit?
I didn’t make the Hobbit; I’m only re-editing it from existing footage that I had no part in creating myself. This project wouldn’t exist without the hard work of the copyright holders, so please support them first.
Are fan edits even legal?
According to Fanedit.org, fan edits have no right to exist and no law to really forbid them. It's a grey zone of legality. It is not the same thing as downloading an original movie (which is just stealing). There is the "fair use" argument that allows one to be creative with copyrighted material within limits. And there is "no money involved", which is the main reason for no criminal offenses. Fan editors do not intend to earn money or to replace the original work. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, if you download my fan edit without owning the original Hobbit films, you are technically replacing the originals without ever having paid for them, which is wrong. So that’s why I ask that you own them first! At the end of the day though, no one has ever been arrested for creating a fan edit or for having one in his or her collection.
So I really want to have a nice Bluray of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but I’m either technically challenged or too lazy to go through the trouble of downloading the ISO files, burning them onto discs, printing box art and disc labels, blah blah blah. Can’t you just make physical copies available?
No. First off, I’m not giving physical copies away because it costs money to print DVDs and Blurays. Second, if I started charging to do such a thing I would definitely open myself up for serious lawsuits from WB/New Line. Third, I’ve spent well over two years working on this edit…you can spend a couple days downloading/burning/printing all this material that I’m providing you for free!
Fine. What do I need to do to make a DVD or Bluray of your fan edit then? What is an ISO by the way?
An ISO is essentially the content that an optical disc like DVD/Bluray reads from when you put it in your player. It’s not just the movie itself…it’s the menus, the chapter selections, everything. Since this will be a two-disc set, there will be two ISO files for you to download- one for each disc. Once you’ve downloaded them, you will need to burn them to dual-layer DVDs/Blurays…this film will not fit on regular single layer discs. Here is a very helpful WikiHow tutorial on how to burn an ISO to blank discs. http://www.wikihow.com/Burn-ISO-Files-to-DVD. The directions for burning a Bluray ISO are identical to the DVD process, except you will of course need a Bluray disc burner to do so.
Now that you’re done with the Hobbit, can you make a fan edit of (insert random film or TV show)?
No. This was too time consuming as it is and I’d like to focus more on making my own films now!
You’re awesome. Can I make a donation to support your future films?
Sure. Visit our Donate Page here!
According to the almighty Wikipedia, a fan edit is a version of a film modified by a viewer that removes, reorders, or adds material in order to create a new interpretation of the source material. This includes the removal of scenes or dialogue, replacement of audio and/or visual elements, and adding material from sources such as deleted scenes or even other films.
What’s this particular fan edit all about?
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is a re-edited version of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Many people didn’t like the fact that PJ stretched a relatively short children’s fantasy novel into three long films. So, over the last two and a half years, I have been gradually re-editing the trilogy into a single 4-hour epic that is more faithful to Tolkien’s book.
What sort of nerdy loser would spend over two years of their life re-editing The Hobbit?
Me.
Who are you and what is this place?
My name is Dustin and I’m a video editor/filmmaker from Cleveland, OH. This is my website. Not only does it contain all things related to my Hobbit fan edit, but you can also find many of my own short films here too. The name of my production company is Maple Films. Like us on Facebook! Or offer us a multi-picture Hollywood deal. That would be cool too.
I’m intrigued. What exactly have you cut from the Hobbit films?
I have cut over half of the cumulative running time of the films. What was once a bloated, 532-minute trilogy is now a more digestible 245-minute epic. For specific cuts and changes, hover over the HOBBIT FAN EDIT link to read edits from each of the three Hobbit films. In general, I’ve tried to keep the spirit of the book intact by removing unnecessary subplots, characters, ridiculous action scenes, and so on.
I’m not ready to invest four hours of my time to watch your fan edit just yet. Do you have some short clips or a trailer I can watch first, to get an idea?
Sure, you can once again hover over the HOBBIT FAN EDIT link above and click on VIDEO CLIPS. Or you can visit my Vimeo channel to see the same clips. Either way the links all go to the same place.
Ok, so those clips look decent. Where can I actually watch J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?
Once again, hover over the HOBBIT FAN EDIT link above and click on DOWNLOADS. From there you can choose to download a digital copy via MEGA or a torrent link. Or if you’re really dedicated, you can download DVD or Bluray ISO files and burn them onto respective discs at your own leisure and cost. Just make sure you own all three Hobbit films already before you decide to download anything!
Why do I need to own all three Hobbit films before watching your fan edit?
I didn’t make the Hobbit; I’m only re-editing it from existing footage that I had no part in creating myself. This project wouldn’t exist without the hard work of the copyright holders, so please support them first.
Are fan edits even legal?
According to Fanedit.org, fan edits have no right to exist and no law to really forbid them. It's a grey zone of legality. It is not the same thing as downloading an original movie (which is just stealing). There is the "fair use" argument that allows one to be creative with copyrighted material within limits. And there is "no money involved", which is the main reason for no criminal offenses. Fan editors do not intend to earn money or to replace the original work. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, if you download my fan edit without owning the original Hobbit films, you are technically replacing the originals without ever having paid for them, which is wrong. So that’s why I ask that you own them first! At the end of the day though, no one has ever been arrested for creating a fan edit or for having one in his or her collection.
So I really want to have a nice Bluray of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but I’m either technically challenged or too lazy to go through the trouble of downloading the ISO files, burning them onto discs, printing box art and disc labels, blah blah blah. Can’t you just make physical copies available?
No. First off, I’m not giving physical copies away because it costs money to print DVDs and Blurays. Second, if I started charging to do such a thing I would definitely open myself up for serious lawsuits from WB/New Line. Third, I’ve spent well over two years working on this edit…you can spend a couple days downloading/burning/printing all this material that I’m providing you for free!
Fine. What do I need to do to make a DVD or Bluray of your fan edit then? What is an ISO by the way?
An ISO is essentially the content that an optical disc like DVD/Bluray reads from when you put it in your player. It’s not just the movie itself…it’s the menus, the chapter selections, everything. Since this will be a two-disc set, there will be two ISO files for you to download- one for each disc. Once you’ve downloaded them, you will need to burn them to dual-layer DVDs/Blurays…this film will not fit on regular single layer discs. Here is a very helpful WikiHow tutorial on how to burn an ISO to blank discs. http://www.wikihow.com/Burn-ISO-Files-to-DVD. The directions for burning a Bluray ISO are identical to the DVD process, except you will of course need a Bluray disc burner to do so.
Now that you’re done with the Hobbit, can you make a fan edit of (insert random film or TV show)?
No. This was too time consuming as it is and I’d like to focus more on making my own films now!
You’re awesome. Can I make a donation to support your future films?
Sure. Visit our Donate Page here!