Smudger9's Andor Movie Series [EP1 & EP2 Released: 4K; 5.1 Audio] [EP3 & EP4 WIP] — Page 8

Thanks for all the input in the thread. It seems many are keen for one 2:45 movie and two 2-ish hour movies.

I’ve spent that last week taking a deep dive into the second half of the season to see how the two scenarios play out against my core aims for the edits.

Overall neither option offers a perfect solution, but my feeling is that the two-movie option works best. There really isn’t enough material in those last two arcs to produce two movies, particularly the final arc, which is mostly setup for Rogue One.

I have done a rough cut of the last two arcs and it comes in at 2h46…. Almost identical to my cut of the first two arcs and it works really well. There will be some decisions that people don’t agree with, but in order to give Andor the cinematic climax it deserves, some good material will need to go.

The second movie will have a 4-act structure:

1. Gorman Massacre
2. Mothma Extraction
3. Luthen’s Death
4. Kleya Rescue & Rogue One setup

In order to hit the ground running like a Star Wars Movie should, we open on Yavin to show that the state of the Rebellion, but I’ve very much streamlined the pre-massacre stuff to get to the action as quickly as possible. A lot of episode 7 has been removed.

The massacre plays out with some tightening of the story, so most of episode 8 is retained.

The start of episode 9 is rearranged, to move Cassian’s scenes back slightly…… he needs time to get from Gorman to Coruscant.

The opening scenes of episode 10
are intercut with the last few scenes of episode 9 to hide the time skip. I’ve also removed any direct and indirect references to time including editing K2’s interactions with Mekshi and Cassian.

The Kleya/Luthen flashbacks have been removed. They are great scenes, but ultimately uneccessary and very much kill the pacing.

Episodes 11 and 12 play out in order. I have trimmed and removed quite a lot from the final scenes on Yavin to keep focus on the main characters and the lead in to Rogue One.

arabian said:

Well, this way R1 is the 3rd movie.

5th! 😉

STF78 said:

I think even including the first Kleya/Luthen flashback would be useful as gives the viewer some idea of how long they’ve been together and illustrates Luthen’s breaking point with the Empire- which starts a long chain of events that eventually leads to its downfall

I may well do that. At the moment it’s just a first cut, and a pretty rough one at that…… more of a proof of concept to check that a single movie was possible in terms of time and dealing with the time skip.

With that plan finalised I’m now going back to finish episode 3, which is about 95% done.

TooKean said:

Found Ep1 and loved your take on the season. Any chance of still getting access to Ep2? Can’t wait for your take on season 2.
Thanks!
Hi Smudger9 - not here to hassle you. I can’t PM you and I don’t have a reddit account with enough karma to message you. Any chance at a reply?

I tend to put scenes into 3 categories…. Not needed, nice to see, need to see. Having only done a very rough cut of episode 4 the Naboo scene is very much a “nice to see”. However, that may change when I see how the Kleya infiltration flows. It may play out better with a brief Naboo clip before Kleya detonates the explosives.

As for episode 3…… it’s now complete. I’m currently upgrading it to 4K, then the only thing left is the opening crawl.

So, the next episode is complete. I now just need a to render and sort the poster out and it will release… by the end of next week. Here is the info:

Andor EP3: The Conspiracy

The Numbers:
This is an edit of episodes 1 to 6.
Total material is 262 minutes.
Edit Runtime is 167 minutes.
Cut material is 95 minutes.
72 minutes are from arc 1 (episodes 1 to 3)
95 minutes are from arc 2 (episodes 4 to 6)

Headline Changes
I have stuck with my non-classical opening text with the Andor logo and score. I have had requests to change to the classical Star Wars opening, but it doesn’t fit with the tone of Andor, particularly the main Star Wars theme.
The Wedding scenes have been edited down, but provide the chronological reference for the first part of the edit (Niamos remains in all its glory!)
The first story arc acts more like the opening act, with the second arc being acts 2 and 3.
Yavin 4 plot has been removed.
The Saw Garrera Plot has been removed.
The sexual assault scene, along with other more adult elements like profanity, has been removed.
The time skip has been hidden by cutting together the first 4 Gorman scenes into an 8-minute sequence immediately after the wedding.
Significant scene re-ordering to help pacing and plot focus (with meticulous attention to audio and music transitions).

Opening Crawl & Logos: 1 min

Episode 1 [45mins cut to 25mins]
Cut opening shot of Nia checking the TIE fighter.
Opening shot of the movie is the exterior shot of Seinar with the location label, we then cut to Cassian.
Cut a lot of dialogue between Nia and Cassian including Nia seeing Cassian’s face, the reference to flirting and Nia being nervous.
Cut other imperial technician “hello pilot” and “I’ll see you tomorrow”.
Cut Nia “you’ve done this before” and “You must have thought about it”.
Cut Nia “I need a 12 minute head start”. We never find out what for and Cassian doesn’t give her a 12 minute head start.
Trim TIE fighter start up sequence.
Cut Cassian saying “shit”
Cut delay before Cassian fires at the stormtroopers.
Trim time Cassian spends looking at the hole in the door before blowing an escape hole.
Bix’s dream sequence has been moved to later in the movie.
Wipe transition from Cassian fleeing in his TIE to the external shot of the Matheen Divide. Score added using Imperial theme section from “Krennic’s Aspirations” (Rogue one Soundrtack).
J-cut Krennic dialogie “Gorman is of great importance to the Empire”.
I have combined the first 3 Imperial briefing scenes into a single sequence and removed some elements including the “tightest of close circles” section, the Gorman propaganda film and the “you’ve been personally selected” section.
All the Yavin 4 scenes have been removed.
We transition from Krennic to Chandrilla.
Cut the first section of Mon meeting relatives and talking about parking problems.
Cut from Chandrilla to Bix and Brasso on Mina Rau.
Rescore end of Mina-Rau scene using a second Imperial theme cue from Krennic’s Aspriations. The theme begins as Bix sees the Imperial craft and it continues into the next scene, which is the final Imperial briefing.
Wipe transition to Second Chandrilla sequence. Cut Perrin-Sculden conversation. Mothma-Colma conversation brought forward to give space for Luthen to enter the building.

Episode 2 [36min to 16mins]
All Yavin scenes have been cut
I have moved the first EP3 scene of Cassian in the TIE fighter to here. It keeps us in touch with Cassian and lets us know why Kleya hasn’t had contact with him.
Then we transition to the Bix dream sequence from Episode 1. It makes more sense to have the scene after Bix sees the imperial shuttle to provide a trigger for her dream and also so that the audience doesn’t know whether it is a dream or not…. There are now Imperials on the planet.
Cut Mon and Perrin’s chat about Colma - I have removed the Mon-Colma potential romance plot.
Cut Cyril’s scene at the Bureau of Standards.
Cut Whil and his girlfriend in the field.
Cut first scene of the imperials arriving at the shop and the sergeant’s interaction with Bix.
Cut the wedding walk into the mountains.
Slight trimming to the Mon/Colma scene to speed up the pacing and get to the point quicker… Colma’s reference to the Rebels.
Cut Mon’s reference to Perrin during her conversation with Luthen.
Trim Perrin’s speech.

Episode 3 [47 to 31mins]
Transition from Perrin talking about rare moments of joy to the outside banquet on Mina Rau - a nice link across 2 episodes.
Cassian making contact with Kleya has been moved forward to this point to better space out Cassian’s few scenes in the first act.
Cut Mon waiting for Leida and Leida’s walk to meet Mon.
Cut Mon “this room, right here, just like this”, “money, embarrassment” and “it will be seen as an act of bravery, I promise”.
Trimmed the wedding ceremony to a minimum.
The first and second scene of Cyril, Dedra and his mum have been combined into a single sequence.
Cut Cyril and Debra getting ready for his mother’s arrival. There is a hard cut from the hair cutting of the wedding ceremony to Dedra waiting for Cyril’s mother to arrive. Source music has been removed.
Cut Cyril’s mother “do you want to know what I thought you’d look like”.
I have split the last Cyril/Dedra/Mum scene in half and intercut it with the Chandi Merle scene to allow a believable time passage for Cyril to fall asleep.
Removed the awkward pause between Mon and Colma.
Removed the newly weds’ first dance.
Removed the Imperials’ second visit to the shop.
Removed the sexual assault scene.
The Imperials on Mina-Rau are portrayed as a largely unseen enemy slowly encroaching on our heroes.
The Mina-Rau finale has been greatly simplified to transform it into a minor action sequence in the middle of a movie, rather than an arc finale.
Removed Mon turning around and looking (almost) at the camera. Feels too much like a 4th wall break.
The final scene of Mon Mothma dancing has been converted from score to source music with party noise - this allows a better audio transition to the next scene, making the time skip less obvious.

Episode 4 [47mins to 28mins]
Opening scene is the Gorman introduction. Re-scored using Cyril Suite from Andor season 1 soundtrack.
The first 4 Gorman scenes have been cut into a single 8-minute sequence. This helps bridge the time gap between episodes 3 and 4, giving our other characters time to move to their new locations off screen. It also quickly sets up the Gorman plot.
Virtually all the other scenes have been re-ordered to adjust for the Gorman scenes being moved forwards.
Trim Cyril’s conversation with his mother.
Cut the Gorman front discussing recruiting Cyril. We see Cyril’s recruitment through his eyes.
Trim Cyril’s journey to the safe room.
Cut Cyril asking Dedra to brief Partagaz. This retains a little mystery as to who authorised Cyril’s mission.
Transition wipe to Cassian and Bix walking to the Coruscant food store.
Cut Bix saying they’ve been there for a month.
Cut vendor saying “I haven’t seen you for a while”.
Cut Bix/Cassian cooking in the apartment scene.
Trim ISB briefing to remove long silences.
Gorman Front meeting moved forward to better space out the Gorman scenes.
Trimmed the Gorman Front meeting debate.
Cut the joke about Cyril being an Imperial spy.
Trim Cyril’s conversation with Rylanz to focus on the armoury.
Remove Bix “mission after mission” and “I love you and I regret every second we dont spend together”.
Cut the Saw/Whil plot - no relevance to the core story.
Cut Bix/Cassian kissing scene.

Episode 5 [46mins to 31mins]
I have removed first scene of Kleya discovering the artifact forgery. The opening audio of her cycling through the different bug locations is added to the second scene.
Cut Cassian walking through Coruscant listening to his brief. We see him collect his outfit from the pick up point and then he appears on Gorman. This implies that the cover story and character comes from Cassian himself, rather than him being told what to do.
Cut Cyril telling his office staff about the listening device.
Cut Saw/Whil scenes
Trim some of the Dialogue between Cassian and the Bell Boy.
Cut Cyril walking through the building on Coruscant.
Move Mon Mothma’s senate scene from Episode 6 into this section, otherwise she is absent from the plot for too long.
Cut Cyril and Dedra talking about the ISB watching Eadie’s appartment.
Cut Cyril actually turning off the lights.
Cut the Cyril and Eadie in her apartment.
Cut scene of a stoned Bix watching daytime TV.
Cut discussion about weapons between Cassian and the Gorman Front.
Cut Cyril saying it’s the greatest day of his life.
Cut Conversation in the bar between Cassian and Rylanz.

Episode 6 [ 41mins to 36mins]
Cut Luthen and Cassian talking about his disguise.
Cut Segment of Bix/Cassian’s conversation about Luthen, including “pissed off”.
Cut Vel and Cinta talking about Cinta’s hair.
Cut Cinta talking about her accident.
Trim the Gorman front briefing Vel & Cinta on their plan.
Cut Vel-Cinta kissing scene.
Cut Cleya chatting to Skulden’s assistant.
Cut Heert asking Lagret about his buddy.
Cut Krennic “what a festive evening this has become”.
Cut Vel “dont rush, smooth is faster”.
Cut the old lady approaching the ambush site.
Cut one of the shots of Kleya trying to pull the bug out of the artefact - that part of the finale is too slow.
Cut Vel lecturing Samm - she now grieves silently.
Remove black screen from the death of Gorst sequence.