Wrapped up production today! Finishing the exports and uploads, and links will go out tomorrow.
Book 4: The Way update changelog:
- Extended a couple of shots on Corvus for better scene transitions
- Added more to Mando’s walk through the village so he meets a downtrodden villager
Then, in your Book 4, you could introduce “I’ve placed a tracker” and that subplot just after Mando leaves the planet with that ex-Imperial warlord. We know she’s got ties to Thrawn, and thus the Shadow Council, so it’s absolutely feasible that an Imperial spy could be operating there to report back to Gideon. The dialogue there would reinforce that Gideon wants Grogu - and then he’d strike immediately, on the very next planet, where Din finally meets Boba and the Imperials show up to kidnap Grogu.
- As the tracker scene moved out of the last movie, it’s now placed in Book 4 after Din’s “You’re special” talk with Grogu as they leave Corvus.
- Extended scene of Fennec getting surrounded by stormtroopers on Tython before Din saves her (man the choreography is so unfixably bad here, but I made some edits to make it seem more chaotic and it’s tolerable). Previously I had cut too much to cover up the crappy directing but it didn’t give enough context for the viewer to fully process the sequence of events.
- Cut “The little green guy?” back and forth between Mayfeld and Cara. I thought it worked to leave it in because I assumed people would take it as Mayfeld simply repeating what Cara said and not showing familiarity, but there were numerous comments of people saying Mayfeld shouldn’t know about Grogu so obviously something about the tone of his voice was still communicating recognition, so it’s all cut now.
- Rescored the TIE fighter saving Din and Mayfeld scene. Lots of comments from people who didn’t like Disney’s overly happy-sounding score here so I gave it more of a menacing imperial vibe while still trying to communicate the “victorious irony” of them being saved by the people trying to kill them. Hope it communicates a different feeling than the original.
- Took a new approach to the Imperial officer scene this time around. This segment has been the biggest challenge for every version of the film to get right. From the beginning, I have hated Din taking his helmet off here, especially in movie format as it really, really cheapens when he does it for Grogu in the climax. Since I hid the previous face reveal before, having that moment be the first time we see Din’s face is incredible. My wife watched this story for the first time through my edits and it was such a cool moment seeing her reaction, as she didn’t even know who Din’s actor was and his face was not at all what she imagined. She said, “I thought he was going to look like a badass, but he just looks like any average dad,” which I think is a perfect summation of Din’s character arc in general. Anyways, this officer scene is amazingly well directed, one of the best scenes in the whole show. So I’ve always had the struggle of trying save a great face reveal by trying to keep as much as possible of a great scene that ruins the face reveal. My previous attempt was a little janky, and most people noticed there were some unnatural cuts around here. I’ve done my best to extend the scene as much as possible now with some new shots and voice modulation on Din’s lines, an AI line for the imperial officer, and some new scene ordering. I’ve tried to get it to play out so Din is about to be caught (still wearing the helmet) for giving crappy answers, but then Mayfeld jumps in and the Imperial Officer immediately recognizes him and wants to get him a drink. So Din stays at the terminal while Mayfeld and his old commander catch up, leading to the shootout. Hope this one is at least an improvement over the last version! I’ve tried everything here short of hiring a 3d artist to CGI that helmet and put it on Din lol (and I did look online to see if any were already made… no luck). Overall, I do think this update is my best solution yet and that the scene works now.
- Fixed a couple of a/v transitions and added some new sfx throughout the film (better explosions, blaster shots, ship noises, etc)
Poster!
Thanks for watching my edits, Book 4 links tomorrow, and Book 5 next week!