Radical Andor S1 Single-Movie Cut; Ideas and Planning

So, I have just finished Andor for the first time. However, I started it last year, having watched the first six episodes. I thought it was good, however the pacing of that first half did not leave me excited to continue on the show. I did not have an attachment to any of the characters aside from Cassian, and Syril in the first three episodes.

I meant to keep watching but I didn’t end up coming back to it until a few nights ago this year. Woah, it sure does pick up.

I enjoy movie cuts, especially for Star Wars tv. I like tightly paced, packed stories. While I did find Andor to be a high quality TV show, I couldn’t help but imagine it at the standard of a film. Reviewing the content, I felt there was slightly too much for one movie (under 2.5 hours), but in my opinion not enough for two movies, without the pacing suffering. I know that might sound crazy to people who really loved the show, but that’s just my opinion. I have begun VERY basic work on an Andor Season 1 edit.

Goal: Cut Andor Season 1 into a single movie that does not exceed 2.5 hours.

So therefore, if I want to turn it into one movie, under 2.5 hours, it will require some radical cuts and restructuring. However, I believe it is possible. I have never done a fan edit before, but I very much desire to see this. I wanted to do a similar project with TCW, but I find Andor S1 and its length much more approachable.

For me, the strongest arc of the series was easily the Prison-Arc. Every scene in the prison had me completely engaged. I plan on using this as my primary “A plot” which the cut will be structured around.

So the content I would like to include and focus on is:

• Prison Arc as the main A plot and throughline of the film, intercut with:
• Luthen’s various machinations.
• The Imperial investigation into Aldhani.
• The very basics of Mon Mothma’s plot in the later series (Mon Mothma is the tie-in to the greater SW series)
• Flashbacks throughout of scenes with Andor and his adoptive mother.
• Flashbacks to the Aldhani heist.

It will be a lot but if it can be pulled off and trimmed to ABSOLUTE essentials, I think it would make a great 2.5 hour film. Essentially, I will have /very little/ of the first half of the series in the edit at all. Much of what I plan on cutting would include:

• Almost all of Ferrix and its characters, Bix, Cassian’s friends etc. As stated, I will be using scenes of Cassian and Maarva throughout to show their relationship. And at some point I will likely include Cassian being recruited by Luthen in an extremely cut form. But otherwise, Ferrix and its characters will likely be almost entirely cut, including its use in the finishing episodes.
• Most of the Aldhani plot. I will start with snippets of the heist as an inciting act to the story, along with the Imperial response afterwards. As the story progresses, I will use flashbacks to the heist to assist the plot. But in all, it will probably be cut to only a few minutes.
• The Syril plotline. I feel the show only gets stronger as it goes on. The first arc I felt was its weakest. However, Syril was a saving grace to me in those first episodes. His no-nonsense attitude had me and my friend practically cheering for him even though he was going after Cassian who we also liked. However… I do not feel the series progressed his plot in a satisfactory manner. And seeing as his plot is already so tied in to Ferrix in the first place, I really do not see a place for him in this edit.
• The sister plot and any references.
• Likely many other things that I can’t remember right now.

My thinking as far as structure is this:

• Possibly start with snippets of Andor’s past, some of the flashbacks we see (maybe the Clem flashbacks), just enough to show his problems with the empire. Do not include any mentions of his name.
• Begin the plot proper with a short scene/snippets from the Aldhani heist, as the inciting incident of the story. But do NOT show Cassian in the heist, cut around him.
• Introduce Cassian as Keef Girgo, a seemingly regular citizen on the beach planet (if we saw some of the Clem flashbacks, we’ll know he doesn’t like the empire but he will otherwise seem a normal citizen now). Go through the sequence of him being arrested.
• Put emphasis on all the times throughout that sequence and in prison that he is referred to as “Keef”.
• During the Imperial response and investigation, if Andor is mentioned, we will not show any visuals/holograms that actually show him. Keep it vague as to who Andor is.
• In sequences where it feels natural, like when Cassian goes to bed, we can cut in some of the mother scenes from the early part of the series as flashbacks (akin to Jyn’s flashbacks with her father in R1). During the early parts of his story, we will not include her referring to him by name.
• As the A plot in prison progresses, intercut with the flashbacks, eventually, either at the end of Act 1 or 2, it will be surprise-revealed that Keef Girgo is actually the Cassian Andor that everyone is looking for, and we will then show more in depth scenes of the Aldhani heist and how heavily involved he was. Any mother flashbacks from this point forward can include her saying his name. Same with the Imperial Investigations now being able to show his hologram to the audience. In fact it may be one of those things that IS the reveal.

As for B plots, and how the A plot progresses into the third act, I want to include as much as I can of Luthen and Mon Mothma, but to have it make sense in the context of the very limited version of the story we’re telling:

• Will have to include the scenes of Mon Mothma and Luthen meeting, otherwise she has no tie-in to the plot.
• The third act will culminate in the prison break, intecut with Luthen allowing Kreegyr to fall into the Imperial trap, and Mon Mothma giving her daughter up for the cause.
• I want to, via clever and liberal editing, to cut the final episode’s battle/riot on Ferrix, to imply THAT is Kreegyr’s forces falling into the Imperial trap. So as Saw is confronting Luthen about letting it happen (“You’d let 30 men die?”) we will be cutting to snippets of the Ferrix battle as if THOSE are the 30 men. If possible, I will include the Imperial side about the funeral and somehow try to meld those two events even further to make them seem as one thing. But overall it may result in including only a /little/ bit of the battle to sell the illusion that it is Kreegyr’s forces, who, as far as I remember we never even see.
• It will be made clear that Kreegyr and his men died, but we will include shots to show that they put up a fight, making it a bittersweet and hopeful thing, despite how Luthen used and discarded them. I will use the shots of Meero being knocked down to imply that she gets killed during the battle.

So that is essentially it. The third act will culminate with an intercut sequence of:

• Cassian’s Prison Break
• Luthen and Saw discussing sacrificing Kreegyr; Luthen compromising himself even further.
• Kreegyr’s forces being killed by the ISB (Ferrix battle in disguise)
• Mon Mothma giving up her daughter, compromising herself.

After that, I don’t have the exact ending nailed down but I know I want to include Cassian’s call where he finds out his mother is dead after everything he’s been through. We will have not seen this so it will be a surprise gut-punch to the audience. And then I would like to include the Death Star as the true final shot.

So that’s it! I think it is an ambitious idea but if pulled off, would truly be an AMAZING, tightly paced, packed film full of twists and turns for the audience. I would appreciate any suggestions, further ideas, critiques/problems (I know there will be a LOT of problems to solve with this restructure). etc.

And just any general advice for a new fan editor going into a project like this would also be appreciated. Thanks everyone

So, I’ve started by just cutting down to that A plot. Starting with Cassian on Niamos (beach planet) as Keef, and then everything involving his arrest, imprisonment and escape, and then those final escape scenes ending with Cassian learning about his mother’s death.

I gave that a watch, and it ended up at right about 70 minutes. I still really enjoyed all of those scenes (except will likely cut that post prison scene of them getting captured in the net by the weird aliens). I can see now that the three acts of the prison arc are clearly defined by the three episodes that contain it, which makes sense and makes things easy for me.

It is going to be a challenge figuring out how to implement everything I wanted above. I think it would feel the most correct to start with an extremely cut version of the Aldhani heist, quick cuts, snippets etc as I outline above. The inciting incident.

However, I want to include the scenes of Mon Mothma and Luthen at the antique dealer. The only issue I am imagining right now is, I want to include their first meeting and the one immediately following the heist… but if I have the heist at the beginning, it doesn’t leave a lot of room to do that first meeting. It’s like Mon would be flying right back to see him with barely any time at all in between. So I would need to pad that out somehow without making it unrealistic.

My thought is, to immediately go from the first scene with the shortened heist, and jump to Mon Mothma at the senate fighting against Imperial overreach, as if word has not gone around yet about the heist, like it is happening simultaneously or very close at least. Then go to Mon’s first meeting with Luthen at the antique dealer. Then I’ll see what else I can pad it out with, before eventually going to the scene with the ISB discussing their response to Aldhani and how they’re increasing punishment for anti Imperial crimes. THEN after that, have Mon go to see Luthen again to confront him about being involved with Aldhani. But idk, still gotta figure it out.

After this intro sequence, we’ll go to Cassian on Niamos and begin the story proper.

Before I started I was having hopes of having fun introducing Luthen as the eccentric high brow antique dealer, before revealing his deep rebel connections. However I don’t think there is enough content to make it flow naturally. At most it would be a surprise for a few small minutes before Luthen and Mon’s discussions reveal his true nature. But similar to the bigger surprise I am creating of Keef’s true identity as Cassian, I want to have as many surprises like that sprinkled in. The Luthen one feels like a natural setup so if I can find a way to work that in as a little surprise for the audience, I want to do so. Even if it’s just for one scene.

As for the ending, I still want to do the intercut sequence for Act 3 as described. The beginning of the prison riot intercut with Luthen and Saw talking about having Kreegyr and his forces take the fall, and cutting to shots of the Ferrix battle implying that is Kreegyr and his forces.

I initially wanted to include Mon in this sequence, some of those final shots when she has to give up her daughter. But, I don’t feel the energy fits. Instead, I have wanted to end the movie on the scene of Cassian finding out his mother died. That sad music that leads out of that scene into the credits I think would be really great for a montage where we can include some of Luthen and THERE is where we put those final shots of Mon and her daughter set to that music.

After that, I would just some kind of transitioning dialogue. Maybe flashing back to when Luthen recruits Cassian, and including some dialogue from Luthen about the Empire, how bad it is or how relentless they are etc… and use that to transition to the final shots of the Death Star ending the movie.

But we’ll see. I am aiming to not exceed one hour of content Outside of the A plot in prison. So hopefully the final run time will land between 2:10 and 2:20, which to me is the perfect length for a Star Wars film.

EddieDean said:

This is really interesting!

Thank you Eddie! Yeah, I think I’ve even seen some others talk about the only way to cut it down to a single movie would be to remove the prison sequence. And I think if you want to mostly retain the show’s structure as is, that would be correct.

But I really loved the prison arc. And I found an editor on reddit who said he made a 75 minute cut of just that arc, starting with Cassian being arrested and ending with the escape. In his cut, he is literally presenting it as Cassian being a civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Which, I did find that compelling. Because I think that story, and that opening 10 minutes of him on Niamos is a great way to draw the audience in. Anyone can relate to it and what happens to him. He’s literally done nothing wrong.

However the two issues I had was, the prison sequence is only 70 minutes, not a full movie like I would want. And the show and character are “Andor” not “Keef Girgo A Star Wars Story”. But thats when it struck me, what if I go with that idea. Our protagonist is just a guy who got unlucky… until an hour into the movie it is revealed that he is really much more. Playing around with Cassian’s alter ego, but making it where he’s fooling the audience as well. And of course doing it this way, I get to actually tell the story the show itself told, albeit in a highly altered form.

But I appreciate you posting your ideas of how you would handle it. It gives me something to contrast with. I find it interesting the different things from me that you would drop.

So, I’ve begun by cutting something close to the ending I want. I may end up including more in this than I have, but here is roughly the ending 5 minutes of my edit that I’ll be building to through the rest of the edit.

This is my very first fan edit, and even then I am NOT an experienced video editor, so editing sound is not something I know and will need to learn as I go. The sound transitions right now ARE rough, but that is something I will hopefully nail by the time I finalize the edit. But, the idea for the ending is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E7Xkh50gROsrbhCabZwUw0pA7VA1uv6W/view?usp=sharing

Now that I have a somewhat solid idea on what I want in the ending, I am going back to the start, watching the main story lines that are applicable and seeing what I can work from them.

I’ve reached the conclusion I do want Cassian’s childhood scenes on his home planet, the jungle planet. I want the entire sequence of going to salvage the wrecked ship and being rescued by Maarva and Clem. It’s roughly about 15 minutes we spend on there if you put all those flashbacks back to back, which is more than I remembered.

I was watching Rogue One to get an idea of the pacing I want, and man… Rogue One introduces Jyn, her family dynamic with her mother and father, Krennic, Krennic and Gaelin’s confrontation, and Jyn running away and getting picked up by Saw… all of that almost right on 4 minutes. THAT is some well done pacing. So much information delivered but it never feels like too much.

I was cutting the childhood sequences, and right now I’m up to the part where the girl in Cassian’s group who is sort of the leader, gets shot in the back. That’s only about one third through the whole sequence but I’m already about 3.5 - 4 minutes in. I do not want the intro, up through Maarva taking Cassian away on her ship, to last more than 5 to 6 minutes. To me 6 minutes is basically too long, 5 is the sweet spot. But It is looking like I may have to cut even MORE to accomplish that. I wanted the shots of him and his sister as I feel it adds a good emotional anchor, but I might have to drop a lot of those to just put the focus just on Cassian and the group more generally if I want to hit 5 minutes. (I didn’t really plan on including other sister references in the movie anyway)

Still, it’s coming together!

Edit:
So, editing this sequence to try and make it my intro… I am realizing an issue, watching all the scenes back to back in one sequence… With just these scenes by themselves, having not seen Cassian and Maarva’s later relationship already… it really feels like she’s just kidnapping him. I don’t think the show justified her doing what she did. Would have made more sense to just say “Get out of here!” I mean his tribe couldn’t have made it that far. I feel the show would have benefited had we seen the Republican actually doing something bad to the tribe, taking them away or something similar.

It does try to express that she believes he’s going to die… but, idk… I don’t really buy it. He’s a jungle kid. If Maarva had time to carry him out of there, then Cassian would have had time to just run out of there on his own separately. I’m just not buying it.

So, a little conflicted on how I’m gonna handle it/if I should include it. My original plan was to not, but then I thought it would be useful to show it as a basis for Maarva and Cassian’s relationship, but now… I am unsure.

Skybatman said:

any news ?

Hey! Not too much. I was sidetracked by some life events, my work situation got a bit crazy by the end of April. I did a much cleaner version of that ending I posted above. As well, I did more work on the start of the edit. But I got a bit stuck in the intro sequence.

I cut a really good first scene or so out of Andor’s jungle flashbacks, so good I really want to use it. But I got stuck because cutting all of those scenes together revealed an issue with the Maarva character that I outlined in my last post.

Basically she never really seems justified in taking Cassian from his home. Clem was right when he told her to leave him. Now one of our protagonist characters doing something morally ambiguous is fine. But the problem is, the show doesn’t do anything with it.

If the show addressed that in a later scene, of Maarva being confronted on some level about what she did, it would be easier. But the show never does that. Her only justification is she is afraid of the incoming Republic. So she actively knocks him out by force and takes him. But if she had time to walk and carry him back, why would he not have time to just run back himself?

If I had magic reshoot powers, I would make it where the Republic DOES show up and start blasting, and Andor gets knocked out in the battle, explosion or something, and THEN Maarva finds him and actually saves his life.

As it stands, compared to when you watch the show, when you watch those jungle scenes full on chronological back to back, it does not paint her in a good light, and the show never does anything to address that afterwards.

I would love to get back to this very soon. I will for now just skip that sequence until I can find a better solution, and move onto cutting the meat of the film.

Edit: Well this got me to pop the project back open. Those flashbacks to his childhood take up about 11 minutes. I think honestly, I am going to cut it as soon as the crash survivor stands up and shoots the tribal girl. I can cut to that point and remove some other filler, make that whole sequence about 3 minutes which is much more manageable for an intro.

Then later on, in some scene where Maarva and Cassian discuss his past on some level, I can cut in shots of her carrying him off through the jungle. So the implication being that there was some extended conflict in the jungle after the officer got up, and Cassian was injured, and Maarva found him and carried him off.

That gets rid of the problematic scene inside the ship. The biggest loss imo, is that it cuts Clem out of the sequence, and I like his character in that part. But removing it solves the issues with that sequence and improves the pacing of the intro by quite a lot.