Hey, folks! I’m back after some time traveling for work, you’ve all been popping off with the feedback! Thanks, there’s so much to respond to, I won’t be able to address it all at once but you’ve given me quite a bit to ponder.
Thank you both for the kind words. It’s been a privilege working with Acbagel, who has impeccable technical skill and a real eye for the fine detail of making each scene feel great.
Acbagel, I really think it’s worth considering making two films. Your early intercutting sounds great, I think you really could close out that sequence with the pirate king content, as it’s such a punctual high that changes the status quo and feels earned.
And while Pershing’s content isn’t massively linked to the main plot, it IS at least foreshadowing for the reveal of Gideon’s clones. I think it could intercut with the remainder of the season to create a fantastic second movie focused purely on the return to Mandalore and Gideon’s role in it. And plus, it would pad the time nicely between the pirate king stuff (we found a home on Nevarro!) with the following stuff (actually, we’d prefer a home on Mandalore!)
I really feel like if you got a rough cut of that together it’d give you the sense that the season really works nicely as two films.
I strongly urge you to consider this!
I will indeed consider a 2-movie format for my ending. I am getting closer to working with that content, but still currently in Book 5 material. I haven’t had much time the last few days, but I’ve been trying to sort out which Luke/Grogu scenes to place in Book 5 vs 6. Definitely making progress on some new structure.
Check out this mandalorian fan edit trailer! https://youtu.be/kQUiHTCTSi0
Is this your work? You should probably make your own thread for this and share your ideas with this community. I’d love to follow your progress and watch your vision of this story one day.
OK, I watched Book 1 and I haz notes.
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Arabian, I really appreciate you writing out all of these detailed notes for the first 3 films! That’s some good stuff. I will return to these posts in the near future to consider integrating some of your ideas in a future 4k release. In general though:
Book 1: I will consider altering the ending of this film. The ball into hyperspace scene is just so classic and punchy, it felt like too “easy” of an ending for me haha. That’s why I went with a softer, more peaceful approach with the Sorgan landing. But I’m not 100% sold on it and it is probably best for the first film in a saga to end traditionally like you suggested. And the Kuiil/IG-11 rebuild placement has always given me trouble. It felt unnatural to place it anywhere… Maybe that just means it’s not needed at all in either Book 1 or 2?
Book 2: Regarding the balance of the the Boba screen time vs Din screen time in Act 1. I really don’t know how to entirely solve that as the two need to cross paths chronologically in Act 2. Boba simply has 2x-3x more content to show before they reach this point though. EddieDean and I tried 3 or 4 different iterations of this opening storyline, even experimented with giving Din the full Sorgan raider plot (this just made the movie drag on WAY too long). However, your suggestion about Book 1’s new ending would give me more Din time to play with in Book 2, and some of your notes on the “connective tissue” between scenes might help with this too. I think it’s worth another shot in the future to try to address some of this. Either way though, the Boba v Din screen time balance flips the other way in Act 3 as they didn’t film content in BoBF that takes place here. So right now it’s like Act 1 = Boba heavy, Act 2 = Even Boba/Din, Act 3 = Din heavy. I thought that overall balance of the entire film worked at least.
Book 3:
I finished Books 3 & 4 and love these film edits! Reading @arabian’s comments, I thought I may echo some things. Note, I haven’t watched the Mandalorian show at all, and this is my first time watching the show (via your film edits)!
- I was a little confused at Boba aiming at Mando in the desert and then him walking away but I think that was from the show. Yes? No?
I too was quite confused by this scene. Mando fights a bunch of raiders after being shot by Boba, but then Boba just walks off? Perhaps removing Boba from this scene completely would suffice. Mando gets shot by raiders, and fights them off.
First of all, hello Deagan! What an interesting perspective you bring in watching this content for the first time in my edit. That’s quite an honor for me, and I really appreciate you sharing your views after that unique experience.
To address that quoted scene above, that you and Arabian both mentioned, perhaps I trusted super-nerd knowledge too much here. Boba Fett is the one who fires that shot at Din. You see him aiming the Tusken Cycler rifle from up high in the rocks, and then you hear the iconic crack! that only that type of rifle makes, followed by the signature orange blaster bolt coming from the top left angle that Boba just fired from. He is the one who shoots Din, followed by the raiders then coming in to do the dirty work on the ground. But perhaps if that isn’t clear enough to a first time viewer, I can add another scene of a close up on Boba firing the shot with a muzzle flash so we can actually see it happen. I was wanting to go for an element of surprise, but confusion should never be the end result. So actually, in the original show, Boba just watches Din fight the Krayt Dragon and then walks away. He never intervenes. I wanted to give him some more individual agency and show how he is pursuing his armor which is why I created this new ambush sequence.
- Oooh, I loved how you went from Boba telling Fennic “don’t touch my buttons” at the Sarlac pit to Mando trying to get Grogu to "touch his buttons’ and fix the Razorcrest and failing miserably. Beautiful connective tissue between those two scenes!
Thanks, Arabian, these are instances that I should try and focus more on finding to connect other transitions, especially in Book 2.
Another thing I noticed for this part, is that Boba says “I can’t see a thing!” entering the Sarlac pit, then immediately turns on the light of their ship. This felt a bit redundant and out-of-character, wouldn’t Boba the brooding and intelligent bounty hunter just turn on the light quietly?
“OMG, it’s so dark inside of this monster rnrn, omg!” turns on flashlight
Haha that’s a great point deagan. It does really feel like the script writer is force feeding Boba a line to say rather than something natural to actually deliver here. I can cut that!
I too was a bit confused by this character. Pel says “With my life.” then the film cuts to a conversation with a similar fish-person talking to Gideon about tracking Mando. Was the fish-person that Pel trusted telling the Empire of their location, or was it just coincidence that they were talking to a similar fish-person? If this fish lady did have more scenes, it may be good to add them to the film, to show that she can indeed be trusted alone with Grogu. When Mando gave Grogu to her, I thought she was a traitor, but Grogu just plays with their fish lizard baby thingy, safe and sound.
Oh, very interesting! So these are actually two distinct characters of completely different species. The good frog-lady is a new species, but the Imperial spy is a different species that has been in a decent amount of other Star Wars content. Now, you do have a good excuse here as we only see this spy through that hologram shot so it’s not as clear, but I think on reviewing the appearance of the two characters you can see that they aren’t really alike? Other than changing scene order of this spy scene, I’m not sure how else I could make it more clear, but I don’t think it should be a problem? Is it less confusing after seeing these images though?
Thanks again all, I will get back to some of the other comments at a later date. I want to keep making progress on Book 5 for you!