You know it’s serious when the director himself is doing the content.

For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, The Lord of the Rings films (including The Hobbit trilogy) got a 4K remaster on December 1, 2020. To celebrate this, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment have released a short video detailing the whole remastering process. Even better, Peter Jackson himself narrates it.

Basically, Peter Jackson delves into the entire process of remastering The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy in 4K glory. Well, strictly speaking, it’s not the entire process. The video is only six minutes long, after all. You’d need a heck of a lot longer video to talk about everything. Jackson does however, touch base with the most important aspects.

It’s Peter Jackson Time!

Gandalf on the left, and Peter Jackson on the right.
Two wizards, but only one of them is Peter Jackson.

Peter Jackson mentions that all of The Lord of the Rings films were shot on 35mm movie film. However, he mentions that the color timing The Fellowship of the Ring was done using an old-fashioned mechanical way. The Two Towers and The Return of the King used digital color timing. While this made the later two films look much better, it also made the first film look a bit…off, in comparison.

Even worse, The Hobbit trilogy was actually shot using a digital camera instead of 35mm film. Peter Jackson even mentions that the color timing method for that trilogy was something entirely different from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This creates a big problem where all six films tell a continuous story, but they don’t share the same look among them.

Basically, Peter Jackson says that the goal of the 4K remaster is to make all six films look consistent. From An Unexpected Journey all the way to The Return of the King, the remaster would make them all look like one long film shot over a single timeframe. Jackson adds though that they didn’t upgrade or enhance any of the visuals from any of the special effects though. They’re exactly the same as they were back then. The only difference is that they look as though the films were made in 2020, rather than in the early 2000’s and the mid-2010’s. So if that disappoints you, you’re out of luck. On the other hand, if this excites you, then rejoice!

Conclusion

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment have released a short video about the 4K remaster of The Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit films (all based on J.R.R. Tolkien‘s books), narrated by the great Peter Jackson himself. Both trilogies launched on December 1, 2020. Both the LotR trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy are available on Amazon now, so if you want them, you may pass here. You might even be hyped for the Amazon series currently in development too.

Source: YouTube