I love making videos based on Tolkien’s stories and poems. Here are the ones I made so far! Sadly, there is a lot of work involved, so there haven’t been too many of them yet. I am still pondering on a few ideas, though, so I hope to make more.
First, though: What is Honey Oat Biscuit Movies, you may ask? It is just the tagline I add to all my videos these days, sort of representing the hobbity video production company I (don’t really) run. I love honey oat biscuits, I like making movies, so there yer go.
Far Over Misty Mountains Cold (2012)
My first Tolkien-based video comes in two versions: The original instrumental one based on in-game instruments, and a revised one with vocals added (courtesy of Floradine). I had a lot of fun working on this video, not least trying to represent the destruction of Dale in-game with a small fluttering bat…
In retrospect, the sound mix leaves a bit to be desired (basically, I piled up things with volumes way beyond distortion and muddiness near the end). The video will always have a soft spot in my heart, though.
Blog posts:
Far Over Misty Mountains Cold – Original instrumental version Far Over Misty Mountains Cold – Vocals versionSong of Durin’s Awakening (2013)
My second video was set to Song of Durin’s Awakening, using the song performed by The Lonely Mountain Band. I started getting a bit more adventurous in editing the video, playing around with colours and different visual effects. I also went for the epic route again, not least in the first introductionary minutes where I try to describe the birth of Durin 1…
By the way, the less said about the dead orc lying in the water in a world supposedly devoid of life near the beginning, the better. I am not sure anyone else ever noticed it, but it has bugged me ever since I hit “publish”.
A spinoff of the work was a kinship trailer I made for the dwarves in Durin’s Folk, who helped as actors. In some ways it is a better video than Song of Durin’s Awakening: More slam-bang and to the point. I like them both, though!
Blog posts:
Song of Durin’s Awakening Durin’s FolkGil-Galad Was an Elven King (2013)
Elven roleplaying has always eluded me – how on earth do you roleplay immortal beings? (hint: Not by heading into Bree and drinking yourself to a stupor at the Prancing Pony every day). Tolkien wrote much lovely poetry about elves, though, not least the tale of Gil-Galad.
A sad and mellow poem if there ever was one, I tried to strengthen that sense of loss and sadness by using slow, lingering shots, intersped with fast-moving skies to underline the transition towards the dark ending. Also, given that I started this video just after a lot of work on the Durin one, I wanted to make something simpler this time. I couldn’t help myself from adding some trickery near the end, though… Additionally, I wanted things to be slightly more hopeful than the original poem, hence the final addition.
For this video, I also played around with adding instrument effects to the midi I used for music.
Blog posts:
Gil-Galad was an Elven KingThe Bath Song (2014)
A more light-hearted tale than the other poems, I finally made a hobbit-centric video. The aim was to make a sort of “hobbit water ballet”, with lots of dancing and playing around in water. Just getting that lovely, summery and merry vibe going. The less we speak about some Laurelin hobbit roleplayers truly loathing baths in-game (due to much hide scrubbing when little), the better…
Music-wise, I had no midi to work from, so I spent some time searching for a pre-recorded song that could help sell the lyrics. The melody line of the chosen tune fit rather well with the poem, although I needed to do some minor adjustments to the text here and there.
Editing-wise, I started playing around more with camera movements to get that dynamic feel. The video is also an example of me starting to go overboard with the end credits, turning those into a more visual experience than just scrolling text.
Blog posts:
The Bath SongWhat next?
So there yer go – all the Tolkien music videos from Honey Oat Biscuit Movies so far. Thank yer for watching!
What next, though? Do you have suggestions? Are there stories or poems you’d love to see a video of? Then please let me know, just add a comment below!
Really like what you’re doing with the Burrow, Lina!
Thank you, glad yer like it! The place had gotten a bit dusty, so I figured a proper spring cleaning was in order.