I agree. The more episodes we see, the more it moves towards a single movie. Annoyingly I think it will end up being sat between one and two movies. CrossVader is correct in that episodes 4/5 work as either an ESB-style ending or a middle act of a single movie, but its doubtful that episodes 6 to 8 will be enough for one movie.
I don’t like the idea of a really harsh cut of the first 2 episodes, because I love the introduction of the characters and there is some essential exposition in there, particularly if you haven’t seen Rebels.
I’m currently working with a faster paced edit of the first 2 episodes with the Correlia scenes cut. Sabine examines the droid head and reveals that it came from Seatos. This gets us to Seatos after 55mins. The next challenge is really tightening up episodes 3 to 5 which I think could be condensed down to about 45min, leaving an hour for the last 3 episodes… might be doable!
It’s your project and of course you will edit it the way you feel works best for you, but, I’m really surprised that you prefer to cut heavily eps 3-5 (especially that she far eps 4 and 5 seem to be the best ones of the 5 released eps) instead of the episode 1 and 2.
I think that even if you cut 90% of those first two eps, you can still have the introduction of Baylon and Shin. Regarding the introduction of the Rebels crew and the dynamics between Ahsoka and Sabine, I really believe that the episode 3 have it all. In my opinion, those who already know Rebels, won’t be confused at all, they know too well who’s who. And those who never watched Rebels - well, I think that they will feel they missed something anyway (in whatever format they choose to watch “Ahsoka”).
But again, your previous edits proved that you know what you’re doing 😉
Also, luckily, there s a lot of useless material that can be easily cut from the episode 5 ( we don’t really need those long and slow scenes with Jacen and Hera). One short scene with Jacen sensing Ahsoka would be enough. I think that this episode can be cut to 25-30min without a problem.
Then, if you decided to do a more “harsh” cut of the first two episodes, and considering some necessary cuts and trims for eps 3 and 4, you’d probably have a nice 60-70min I act (/1st half) of the movie. Then, there would be less to cut from eps 6-8 which will probably be the most crucial ones (I imagine that the creme de la creme will be those 3 last episodes).
Anyway, I ll be happy to check this edit anyway once it comes out as the show itself is not really rewatchable for me so far 😉
I just feel that as far as a movie structure is concerned, the first one and a half episodes give us a perfect first act, which I’ve edited down to 60mins.
- Intro to the villains
- Step-wise introduction to our three main heroes (Ahsoka, Hera & Sabine) with crucial backstory.
- References to Thrawn and Ezra who will (presumably) be the centre of act 3.
- Our first Villain-Hero confrontation where the villain wins.
- Sabine and Ahsoka reuniting in a call to action.
Episodes 3, 4 and 5 don’t actually do much legwork in terms of the story, the pace is really slow and there is a lot of scene repetition. A slower-paced second act is what I always aim for, but not quite this slow. In those 3 episodes all that needs to happen is:
- A short Jedi training sequence.
- Our heroes discover the villains’ plan (hyperdrive).
- Thay fail in their attempt to retrieve the map and prevent the villains from using the hyperdrive.
- The Villains escape.
- Ahsoka has an epiphany.
It really isnt much and should occupy no more than 45mins of screentime, unfortunately the episodes are constructed in a way that makes cutting out the required material very difficult. Ashoka’s costume change in EP3 is a big annoyance.
I have uploaded a first cut of act 1 if anyone is interested in a viewing and offering feedback. All welcome.