The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring vs The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Shot length, color & pacing compared
Both films are directed by Peter Jackson, 13 years apart. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies cut at almost the same pace: 3.6s and 3.5s per shot on average.
Each stripe is the average color of a slice of the film, from the first frame (left) to the last (right).
By the numbers
Metric
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Average shot length
3.6s
3.5s
Total shots
3,776
2,794
Cuts per minute
16.5
17.0
Runtime analyzed
228 min
164 min
Close-ups or tighter
81%
65%
Setup: avg shot
3.3s
3.2s
Middle act: avg shot
3.2s
3.0s
Final act: avg shot
5.4s
5.8s
Shot scale mix
Extreme close-up
14%
5%
Close-up
34%
21%
Medium close-up
32%
39%
Medium shot
10%
16%
Long shot
9%
18%
Extreme long shot
0%
1%
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
What the data shows
01The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has 3,776 shots (16.5 cuts a minute); The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has 2,794 (17.0 a minute).
02The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring frames faces more tightly: 81% of its shots are close-ups or tighter, against 65% for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
03The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring relies most on the close-up; The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies on the medium close-up.
04The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the brighter film overall: its average frame brightness is 49% higher than The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring's.
05The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring cuts fastest in its middle act (3.2s per shot) and slowest in its final act (5.4s).
06The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies cuts fastest in its middle act (3.0s per shot) and slowest in its final act (5.8s).