Have yer ever wanted to go by boat on the Shire rivers? Now’s yer chance! Here is a video travel of the rivers from Little Delving to the Brandywine!
As harebrained video projects come, this is way up there on me own list. Inspired by slow tv concepts, among which the 134-hour long real-time journey with the Norwegian Coastal Express surely takes the biscuit, this is an attempt to recreate a journey by boat through the Shire in Lord of the Rings Online.
Following the waterways from Little Delving to Rushock Bog, then down The Water towards The Brandywine and south towards Southfarthing, the “real-time” journey takes about 40 minutes in the game. I have sped up the video, though, in order to match the trip with Bedřich Smetana’s fantastic piece of music Vltava (The Moldau). I have used the Musopen public domain recording of the piece.
Else, this was a fun, albeit time-consuming video project. Having to make the journey a few times in order to add some side-view shots of the lands I passed sure took a bit of time, and since there are no usable boats in-game, I had to swim the entire way. Several times. So this is a very wet and cold hobbit writing this. Also, since there has been a lot of rain in the game lately, I had ter wait through several day cycles in order to match the lighting conditions of the main and side-view videos.
In addition, many of the bridges in the Shire are quite low. While I wanted a seamless shot through the journey, there are some minor edits when travelling under the bridges, where I had ter run around and start the swim anew.
A few snags and jerky mouse movements aside, I am quite pleased with the end results meself. I hope yer like it too! Let me know what yer think in them comments below.
I also consider:
- Editing together the 40-minute real-time version of the journey (that will likely be too large for YouTube, though)
- Make more journeys in the game. Do say if yer have some suggestions!
For now, though, come take a walk on the wet side! Turn up the music, enable high-quality full-screen video and enjoy!
The Shire, as seen from the riverYer can see more of me videos here.
Loved the trip, t’was a very nice song as well. It’s wonderful how the shire is magical and real. I could bet that those swimming re-runs were not as fatigating as one could imagine! =)
Oh, thank yer, most kind! It took a bit of work, but it was quite fun to do it too.
I am currently tinkering on the real-time version of the trip. That’ll mostly be with in-game sound effects (splashing of water, blowing wind, chirping birds), but perhaps intercut with some songs along the journey. Hopefully I can also add in a bit more trivia about the villages and sights on the riverbanks.