Mando EP3: A New Path (A Book of Boba Fett Edit) [RELEASED] — Page 7

May I have a link to this? Sounds cool

Wow wow wow. Smudger you are amazing at this. I had a blast watching this, honestly the 3 hour flew past. Actually seeing how the Mandalorian arc can be weaved through the entire movie gives me great hope for the edit. I feel all the small choices you made on what scenes to cut were very effective too. I personally enjoy the softer side of Boba Fett from the show (others disagree), but you created a real middle ground that comes to a head when his ‘angle’ is called out by Cad Bane; its really neat. The choice to move Mandos encouter with Ashoka and Grogu’s choice to the end of the film was perfect, it feels a lot more rewarding as the epilogue to the main story (instead of it being squeezed in during act 2). The cut between Grogu in the temple to being in the ship was also pretty fun, very creative stuff.

Since I understand this is a workprint I have a few pointers for the fianl cut 😃

Part 1:
. I would recommend colour correcting the opening shot of the film so it will blend better with the starfield (I can imagine opening shots are a pain in the arse)
. at 1:12 the aspect ratio changes a few times between the Wookie with a hard-to-spell name and Boba Fett
. In my opinion, there were too many shots of Boba Fett’s face during the flashback scenes (e.g. when Fennec was introduced). I understand there was a time jump but the white flash does the job.

Part 2:
. When Mando first flys the N1, the final shot of the fighter is jarring when it transitions into it landing (since there are two shots of a ship back to back, flying in different directions). The shot of Mando in the cockpit works well when transtioning in the landing shot.
. At 21:30, I reccomend cutting the droids line before the explosion, maybe even him holding it up in the first place. It comes off too comical for the tone it needs. I may even reccomend moving the Cade Bane scene in between the explosion and when Boba arrives to see the wreckage, so it works better timing wise.
. At 25:41 there is no audio transition
. At 1:13:30 you accidentally left the previous shot of Mando before the transition.

But apart from that and I think a few flickers of frames from removed scenes, this was edited beautifully. I do however, echo the sentiments of WitchDR ans STF78. With the completed story peaced together the way it is, the flashbacks don’t feel like they have a place anymore. Not your fault at all, you effectively chose the scenes that would best enchace Boba’s story. The problem with the flashabacks was that they felt fan-editty before they were even touched by you. I reckon the one flashback of Boba crawling out of the Sarlaac would be enough; it shows us why Boba needed the Bacta for healing and it’s the fan service moment the EU fans wanted to see in live action.

Overall, amazing stuff, we get lots of good Star Wars content pulled from this structurely confusing show and its thanks to your talents. I am planning to do a Smudger Mando marathon on May 4th along with the Depsecialized trilogy, but I couldn’t help watching this early and giving my thoughts 😉

I also would like to show off a custom opening inspired from your edit. I always thought the idea of using some of the concept art along with a crawl like yours would be a neat alternative. I hope you like it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S_fx_OOy-dPgDKMhhaPj0ZOHsuNYFG2o/view?usp=sharing

WitchDR said:

Alright here’s a couple of things after watching through your work print!

You’ve done a wonderful job of blending in Din’s plotline throughout. While I found the show to be pretty meh, the Din parts were great. So them being more sprinkled throughout the whole thing definitely improves it.

Din telling the Armorer he got the Beskar Spear from a Jedi creates a plot hole with your second movie edit. You removed Ashoka giving it to him, so now we have to imply that she did that off screen, or Din ran into another Jedi before going to Tython or before he met Ashoka… which obviously doesn’t work. While this isn’t a huge thing, I think removing the line of receiving it from a Jedi is the best option. I could see this causing confusion for someone going in blind and just watching these edits.

I do feel like too much of the Fett flashbacks are cut. We get too little of his life with the Tusken’s to make his connection to them feel real. No build up to the “biker gang” attacking the village also makes it come out of nowhere and makes it feel like we are missing stuff. I’m still on the side of thinking the Fett flashbacks would fit better being in chronological order as a “B” plot in the Mando movies, since I feel they just bog the pacing down of the current plotlines… even in a massively trimmed fashion like this. This would also allow for less “Bacta Boba” scenes sprinkled throughout, which just push that weak Boba Fett angle that the show suffers from.

The cut from Din trying out his new ship is a little rough. I know you have to remove the New Republic X-wing pilots, since you removed most of their plot in your second movie. I’d have to re-look at the original scene… but maybe keep a little bit of Din hovering above the planet, or just cut him climbing the atmosphere all together.

The Cad Bane “Fennec Shand” line is great way to have him acknowledge her which was a problem I had with the edit I posted a few pages back. Glad you decided to make Boba Fett the one to come to the conclusion to not fight instead of Fennec.

I love that you removed the Majordomo negotiation scene all together. Also so happy to see the chase scene gone, I didn’t even notice its absence in the watch trough lol!

Thanks for the feedback. Some great points there.

1. The Beskar spear… Yes this is a pattern I’m noticing with Filoni that has carried on from Rebels. A scene that can be easily cut when creating a movie, suddenly becomes important! It was a difficult decision to cut the Ahsoka/Mando battle scene, and I have a feeling the Ahsoka/Thrawn subplot will be referenced in the Ahsoka series, so I’ll make a V2 of Search for the Jedi with those scenes put back in.

2. The flashbacks… This is the thing I’ve found most difficult with the edit. I’ve tied to put in as little as I needed because I dont like a lot of the flashbacks and I don’t want them to distract from the main plot. I’ll have another ponder over whether I can put some of the flashback content into V2 of Search for the Jedi and V3 of A Vergence in the Force.

3. I’ll look at the Naboo Straighter scene again to see if I can make it better.

4. Glad you didn’t notice the speeder chase was missing… took a lot of work to get that removed!

STF78 said:

You’ve done a great job restructuring the show and making the Mando and Boba storylines interweave. Overall I enjoyed it and I know there are still a few bits & pieces you’re still working on, but it does feel a little like there is too much packed in. The main issue in that respect is probably the flashbacks, so the dilemma is whether to remove them (except the initial sarlacc escape) and any subsequent references to who killed the Tuscans. My preference would be their removal, along with a few of the present day scenes such as the emotional rancor stuff with Danny Trejo, perhaps trim Luke/Grogu with the floating frogs and the scenes in the hangar when he gets the Naboo fighter (like the rodent thing they chase & shoot). I think that would allow for a tighter viewing experience. Beyond that, there seemed to be a strange shot of Mando’s helmet just before the scene cuts to Luke & Grogu in the Jedi Temple that get out of place, and the wipe transition after the bombing felt a little quick. Overall, for the quality of what you had to work with, you’ve excelled yet again!

There is a lot to pack in and its been a struggle to condense it into one movie. The flashbacks are the main issue but unfortunately they do provide a lot of context for Boba and without at least some of them, its difficult to understand his motivations.
The Danny Trejo scene really needs to stay, otherwise it makes Boba arriving on the Rancor seem completely out of the blue.
The shot of Mando’s helmet has been fixed.

Kanemedhurst said:

Wow wow wow. Smudger you are amazing at this. I had a blast watching this, honestly the 3 hour flew past. Actually seeing how the Mandalorian arc can be weaved through the entire movie gives me great hope for the edit. I feel all the small choices you made on what scenes to cut were very effective too. I personally enjoy the softer side of Boba Fett from the show (others disagree), but you created a real middle ground that comes to a head when his ‘angle’ is called out by Cad Bane; its really neat. The choice to move Mandos encouter with Ashoka and Grogu’s choice to the end of the film was perfect, it feels a lot more rewarding as the epilogue to the main story (instead of it being squeezed in during act 2). The cut between Grogu in the temple to being in the ship was also pretty fun, very creative stuff.

Since I understand this is a workprint I have a few pointers for the fianl cut 😃

Part 1:
. I would recommend colour correcting the opening shot of the film so it will blend better with the starfield (I can imagine opening shots are a pain in the arse)
. at 1:12 the aspect ratio changes a few times between the Wookie with a hard-to-spell name and Boba Fett
. In my opinion, there were too many shots of Boba Fett’s face during the flashback scenes (e.g. when Fennec was introduced). I understand there was a time jump but the white flash does the job.

Part 2:
. When Mando first flys the N1, the final shot of the fighter is jarring when it transitions into it landing (since there are two shots of a ship back to back, flying in different directions). The shot of Mando in the cockpit works well when transtioning in the landing shot.
. At 21:30, I reccomend cutting the droids line before the explosion, maybe even him holding it up in the first place. It comes off too comical for the tone it needs. I may even reccomend moving the Cade Bane scene in between the explosion and when Boba arrives to see the wreckage, so it works better timing wise.
. At 25:41 there is no audio transition
. At 1:13:30 you accidentally left the previous shot of Mando before the transition.

But apart from that and I think a few flickers of frames from removed scenes, this was edited beautifully. I do however, echo the sentiments of WitchDR ans STF78. With the completed story peaced together the way it is, the flashbacks don’t feel like they have a place anymore. Not your fault at all, you effectively chose the scenes that would best enchace Boba’s story. The problem with the flashabacks was that they felt fan-editty before they were even touched by you. I reckon the one flashback of Boba crawling out of the Sarlaac would be enough; it shows us why Boba needed the Bacta for healing and it’s the fan service moment the EU fans wanted to see in live action.

Overall, amazing stuff, we get lots of good Star Wars content pulled from this structurely confusing show and its thanks to your talents. I am planning to do a Smudger Mando marathon on May 4th along with the Depsecialized trilogy, but I couldn’t help watching this early and giving my thoughts 😉

I also would like to show off a custom opening inspired from your edit. I always thought the idea of using some of the concept art along with a crawl like yours would be a neat alternative. I hope you like it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S_fx_OOy-dPgDKMhhaPj0ZOHsuNYFG2o/view?usp=sharing

Thanks

1. The opening pan is still a rough cut.

2. I’ll hunt down those aspect ratio anomalies.

3. You’re not the first to comment on the N1 scene!

4. Quite a few of the audio transitions haven’t been finished yet.

5. The aspect ratio issue is because I’ve used a few zoomed shots to cut out peripheral elements. That will be corrected.

6. The shot of Mando at 1:30 needs trimming to remove Ahsoka. It is to show than Mando is actually still on the planet and is watching Grogu.

7. The damn flashbacks!!!

8. Loved your opening, particlarly the way you produced a custom concept image of the ring world and cross dissolved it to the real thing!

So, I’ve finally watched your work print of this edit (thank you for sharing btw).

As always, you did a great job with restructuring the show into a movie format.

In this case, you made the show that sucked an enjoyable movie experience. What I liked most was trimming the flashbacks, trimming the motorbike gang, the finale and the scene with Cad Bane, Boba and Fennec. You cut a lot of bad content which is great 😉 and I’m so happy you cut the Sarlacc flashback (when they were looking for the armor).

When it comes to what I’d personally change/improve:
-I still think there are things that could be cut. For ex: the scene where Boba and Fennec steal the ship, I think it could be just ommited. The same for Krrasantan attacking Boba. It could be cut and left ambiguous (like something that happened off screen, this way we avoid the ridiculous scenario where a big wookie just enters the palace and gets straight to the Boba’s chamber). I’d also cut the scene where Boba meets the gang - thet defy him too much in my opinion. If its cut, next time they appear the audience will just assume they ve been working for him as his street soldiers.
-I think it could work well if you moved the first scene with Cobb to the very first scene of the film. I think it could work super well as an opening of the film (though I know it’d require changing the whole crawl which probably is too time and consuming).
-I personally missed some cut scenes from 1x06,I’d just leave it all.
-I agree with ppl that it’d be better to end the movie with cliffhanger (Grogu’s choice would be revealed then in the next movie).

Anyway, overall its a great edit and definitely 10 times better than the original source material.
I LOVED what you did with the final battle. In future, I ll definitely watch this instead of the show (this or just 1x05 and 1x06 together) 😉 you really made it an enjoyable film.

21C Peasant said:

Great work as always and thank you for sharing your workprint.

I’m left with one major thought:

This is probably just my preference, but I feel like it would be more compelling to end the film with Grogu trying to make his decision. The resolve afterward of him in the ship with Mando just comes too quickly (not your fault — just what you have to work with). Plus, the suspenseful ending could be intriguing.

I know that we don’t know what to expect in the coming season, but one way or another, we will see Grogu end up with Mando, so his decision will be apparent in the next film. Also, the current closing shot could very well be used in that film.

Even if we were never to get another season, I still find that ending to be the most interesting and thought-provoking.

Just my thoughts

Thank you again for the chance to view in advance. I look forward to the finished product!

This is something I’ve debated. The reason I put the scene of Grogu and Mando reunited at the end is because I didn’t want such a crucial event happening off screen and being explained in the opening crawl of the next movie. However, I agree that it feels better to have the movie end with this matter unresolved.

szopman said:

So, I’ve finally watched your work print of this edit (thank you for sharing btw).

As always, you did a great job with restructuring the show into a movie format.

In this case, you made the show that sucked an enjoyable movie experience. What I liked most was trimming the flashbacks, trimming the motorbike gang, the finale and the scene with Cad Bane, Boba and Fennec. You cut a lot of bad content which is great 😉 and I’m so happy you cut the Sarlacc flashback (when they were looking for the armor).

When it comes to what I’d personally change/improve:
-I still think there are things that could be cut. For ex: the scene where Boba and Fennec steal the ship, I think it could be just ommited. The same for Krrasantan attacking Boba. It could be cut and left ambiguous (like something that happened off screen, this way we avoid the ridiculous scenario where a big wookie just enters the palace and gets straight to the Boba’s chamber). I’d also cut the scene where Boba meets the gang - thet defy him too much in my opinion. If its cut, next time they appear the audience will just assume they ve been working for him as his street soldiers.
-I think it could work well if you moved the first scene with Cobb to the very first scene of the film. I think it could work super well as an opening of the film (though I know it’d require changing the whole crawl which probably is too time and consuming).
-I personally missed some cut scenes from 1x06,I’d just leave it all.
-I agree with ppl that it’d be better to end the movie with cliffhanger (Grogu’s choice would be revealed then in the next movie).

Anyway, overall its a great edit and definitely 10 times better than the original source material.
I LOVED what you did with the final battle. In future, I ll definitely watch this instead of the show (this or just 1x05 and 1x06 together) 😉 you really made it an enjoyable film.

Thanks for the feedback, some really good points here.

1. Meeting the mods. I really wanted to get rid of this scene, but I felt their introduction was needed otherwise we just randomly meet them later in the movie. I’m not sure it works without that meeting.

2. Losing the Krrsantan Palace infiltration is also a great idea, but it then removes the motive for the Hutts to give Fett the Rancor.

3. I like the idea of moving the Vanth scene forwards. It would fit well, not as the opening scene but as the first Tatooine scene… I’ll give that a try.

4. I’ve been toying with removing the final flashback scene, which includes the Slave I rescue. I’d still like to keep the scene of him gunning down the Speed Bike gang because its a crucial plot point, so I’ll have to add that bit elsewhere.

May I have a link to this? Sounds super cool

Ι finally found the time to watch your first cut as well.
Great job again, smudger9. I honestly don’t have anything to say that hasn’t been said in the comments above. This show was at times really hard for me to watch, but I really liked what you did with the material you had.
If I ever feel the need to rewatch this show, your edit will be my only choise. Well, the final cut of it whenever it is done.

That being said, I don’t know if there will ever be a Season 2 of Boba Fett or how big the role of his character will be in future installments of this expanded universe, but I wonder if you could theoretically skip this whole season in your collection of The Mandalorian films and use just the Mando stuff for an alternative Episode 3 when Season 3 of The Mandalorian comes out.

I guess we will have to wait.

smudger9 said:

szopman said:

So, I’ve finally watched your work print of this edit (thank you for sharing btw).

As always, you did a great job with restructuring the show into a movie format.

In this case, you made the show that sucked an enjoyable movie experience. What I liked most was trimming the flashbacks, trimming the motorbike gang, the finale and the scene with Cad Bane, Boba and Fennec. You cut a lot of bad content which is great 😉 and I’m so happy you cut the Sarlacc flashback (when they were looking for the armor).

When it comes to what I’d personally change/improve:
-I still think there are things that could be cut. For ex: the scene where Boba and Fennec steal the ship, I think it could be just ommited. The same for Krrasantan attacking Boba. It could be cut and left ambiguous (like something that happened off screen, this way we avoid the ridiculous scenario where a big wookie just enters the palace and gets straight to the Boba’s chamber). I’d also cut the scene where Boba meets the gang - thet defy him too much in my opinion. If its cut, next time they appear the audience will just assume they ve been working for him as his street soldiers.
-I think it could work well if you moved the first scene with Cobb to the very first scene of the film. I think it could work super well as an opening of the film (though I know it’d require changing the whole crawl which probably is too time and consuming).
-I personally missed some cut scenes from 1x06,I’d just leave it all.
-I agree with ppl that it’d be better to end the movie with cliffhanger (Grogu’s choice would be revealed then in the next movie).

Anyway, overall its a great edit and definitely 10 times better than the original source material.
I LOVED what you did with the final battle. In future, I ll definitely watch this instead of the show (this or just 1x05 and 1x06 together) 😉 you really made it an enjoyable film.

Thanks for the feedback, some really good points here.

1. Meeting the mods. I really wanted to get rid of this scene, but I felt their introduction was needed otherwise we just randomly meet them later in the movie. I’m not sure it works without that meeting.

2. Losing the Krrsantan Palace infiltration is also a great idea, but it then removes the motive for the Hutts to give Fett the Rancor.

3. I like the idea of moving the Vanth scene forwards. It would fit well, not as the opening scene but as the first Tatooine scene… I’ll give that a try.

4. I’ve been toying with removing the final flashback scene, which includes the Slave I rescue. I’d still like to keep the scene of him gunning down the Speed Bike gang because its a crucial plot point, so I’ll have to add that bit elsewhere.

After rethinking the slave I part, I think it doesn’t bother me this much anymore. I don’t remember the original well anymore, but I’d swear you did some trimming there cause I dislike it anymore 😄 right now it looks good as it is.

The Krrasantan thing - if you remove totally both scenes with the twins and reinstate the bar scene instead, you have a nice introduction for him.
And the Rancor thing - if you remove the twins completely (their storyline is a dead end anyway and doesn’t add anything really to the story), you can still leave Danny Trejo/Boba scene. The audience will naturally assume Boba wanted to buy/obtain Rancor from the Machete and that’s it, no further explanation needed. He wanted to have a rancor so he has one 😄

About the Power Rangers gang, you’re probably right, structure-wise it’s better to keep the scene even though It’s terrible.

Plus, I still miss those Grogu/Luke scenes 😄 btw, did you try maybe move some Luke/Grogu scenes before Mando goes there? Like, an earlier introduction so they wouldn’t suddenly appear in the last 20min of the movie. Maybe then those scenes could be reinstated as well for the pacing purposes.

Anyway, great edit, makes the sh*tty show an enjoyable SW cinematic experience 😉

I’ve gone back and removed the Krrsantan Palace infiltration and edited the Hutt scenes accordingly. This removes one of the flashback scenes, so I’ve simply moved the third one further along and got rid of the fourth flashback which involved the Fennec and Slave 1 scenes.
I’ve also removed the Mods introduction scene and put the Krrsantan bar scene back in. The first time the Mods appear in the movie is now when the Pikes arrive.

Here is the edited segment from the Major meeting to the Pikes arriving.
https://vimeo.com/709939587

Wooooooow! Looks amazing 😉

I’d like to check this out if I may. Thank you.

Darth Raditz said:
This edit is in desperate need of Cad Bane in it. The series itself treats the showdown between Boba & Bane as the culmination of Boba’s character arc (Fear vs. Respect, self-interest vs. thinking about others, cruelty vs. mercy, etc.) but there’s just a whole lot of nothing because most of their history is told in other media.

I’ve not seen all of Clone Wars, but I think there’s a partial fix for this. You can include some of Bane’s dialogue from Clone Wars in Boba’s early flashbacks, then, when Boba comes to see the Tusken Tribe has been massacred, you could have a hologram of Bane saying “this planet belongs to the Pike Syndicate” as a sort of calling card for Boba to respond to. This also helps to get rid of the utterly useless plot thread of a random speed biker gang being the ones how killed the Tuskens & sooner establishes Bane as the final boss.

Definitely this.

Actually some archival audios from TCW of Bane/young Boba put here and there during flashback sequences could make sense (like some short lines), but I guess it’d be more like a nice easter egg 😄

Cad Bane has a lot of good lines you could probably use, from both Clone Wars and Bad Batch, though Temuera doesn’t voice Boba in either show.

Interestingly, their main rivalry (as referenced in Book of Boba Fett) isn’t (yet?) seen on screen properly. It was originally intended to appear in an unfinished episode of Clone Wars (some of which does exist voiced in rough form, I think?), but they didn’t complete the episode. It may be that those ideas get revisited for a forthcoming episode of Bad Batch.