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Post #1509487

Author
Acbagel
Parent topic
(The Mandalorian+BoBF) The Way of Mandalore | A New Mandalore Movie Saga (Final Update in Progress)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1509487/action/topic#1509487
Date created
27-Oct-2022, 4:12 PM

Sent to everyone above & all films are now officially released! Post here or DM me if interested.

EddieDean said:

Just watched your first movie (v3) and absolutely loved it. The opening half in particular is fantastic, with the worldbuilding being extremely strong in terms of the way the user is fed information. The narrative really works, it’s gripping, and it flows really well. I enjoyed this so much I’m going to watch through the corresponding original episodes, in order to challenge it as deeply as I can and give detailed feedback. I’ll do that for all five movies, if you’re interested.

Wow, thanks, thank would be incredible. When I say the films are “final”, I don’t mean to infer I’m never going to update them again or that they are beyond critique/improvements. I only mean that I consider them to be in a final presentable state now where everything should work and flow and be free of bugs. Certainly could have missed things or find need for additional changes, or if someone suggests something brilliant I might try to integrate etc.

But for now, key points:

  • I completely agree with your approach. This edit attempts to preserve as much content as possible, which does mean that they’re not quite structured as modern hollywood movies are, so they feel a little more like very long (but well-paced and narratively satisfying) episodes in a series. To me, that’s completely welcome and exactly how I’d do it.
  • I think the parts you did cut were exactly right. Extended opening, Jawas, wetlands planet fight, many trims. While it did slightly feel like a ‘series of events’ in the second half, it hung together, and again, it’s totally worth it from my perspective. This is definitive for me.

Glad a lot of this landed well. As I’ve mentioned before on this project, the goal wasn’t necessarily to make traditional movies out of the show, but to simply tell a well-paced story with sensible decisions and character arcs intact. I’m actually glad it retains that “TV show pacing” more than feeling like a standard hollywood film structure. Long form comics and novels are my go-to inspiration, so if we get that sort of drawn out pacing while still moving the main story forward rather than feeling like pointless filler episodes, that’s nailing exactly what I was attempting with the re-edit.

  • I think you could get away with cutting a bit more from the wetlands planet, keeping it even tighter on the idea that they attempt to settle (emphasising wannebe-girlfriend and Yoda with the kids) but then realise they’re going to get pursued, forcing them to take the prison break job which concludes the movie. Gina Carrano’s character we know isn’t going to be major to Mando, so she can be pretty heavily minimised - you might even be able to cut the fist fight with her, perhaps going straight from ‘who’s she?’ to their conversation, via some transition or intermediate scene.

Did you find yourself wanting this planet to go by faster? Was it dragging on too long to where it was boring/not developing a character enough? There were a few extra things I could have cut out like you mentioned, but as it was already the shortest “act” in the film, I tried to keep as much as possible that wasn’t directly related to the village defense.

  • I had another idea for this section, though I’m not sure how this’d work technically. As I mentioned earlier, your flow of information to the viewer was great - but you could possibly get the flashbacks to Mando as a kid to happen as part of the conversation with the wetlands wannabe-girlfriend character, at the point where she inquires. It would make the wetlands planet a bit more purposeful as a carrier of more worldbuilding. That said, those scenes are quite technically intercut with the forging scenes, so I don’t know quite how easily extracted they can be. (You possibly don’t need to have both forging scenes play out in full either - maybe just a hammer blow for the pauldron, then the full scene later for the full suit.)

I actually really, really like this idea. As you said though, the technical aspects might really restrict the delivery here since the flashbacks are so interwoven into the armor construction scene with clangs and white flashes. However, I could potentially re-cut up the final flashbacks from S01E08 (07?) where Mando tells the full story since those are presented as a whole rather than snippets. But I do love the idea of giving the wetlands world a bit more purpose with that character backstory. Note taken and it’s worth experimenting on.

  • I thought it might be nice to have something immediately before the wetlands planet, and between the wetlands planet and the prison break, to pace those transitions, allow time to pass, and show what’s going on with their pursuers/the galaxy. Ideally that second one would be a little more of Greef, or the Imperials, if such content exists. But failing that, before wetlands it could be the Kuiil recovering IG scene, and perhaps the IG repair between wetlands/prison break.

Another good idea I think, however there is a surprising lack of content without Din in Season 1. The only options of “other stuff going on” scenes are the IG repair like you mentioned (which I already did repurpose as a “passage of time” sequence for Din traveling back to Nevarro) and the wetlands village getting wrecked by raiders. So unless I want to show that whole village getting massacred immediately after Din leaves… Haha, that would be freakin dark. I don’t see any other options for content unless there’s something I’m forgetting in Season 2 I could bring back here for.

  • I slightly missed the conclusion to the prison break - perhaps a post-credits scene showing the imprisoned teammates would be suitable?

I liked to cut that jail scene of the teammates for 2 reasons.

  1. It leaves their fate ambiguous. Did Din kill them, knock them out, lock them up? We don’t fully know what kind of person Din is yet, and I think the mystery benefits his persona at this time.
  2. With that mysetery intact, it is much more of a surprise when we see Mayfeld brought back into the story later on in the series. With that jail scene included, you definitely have an expectation that all of them will return. But now it’s more of a shocker to learn that Din didn’t kill Mayfeld (and others, presumably).

Thanks for the comment, that is great content!