I feel like this all warrants a more radical re-edit of TFA which is just all of the crawl ideas in this thread played back-to-back.
Just finished movie 4, and I’m very happy with that one too. I definitely think I have the right content in each movie for maximum impact, and I loved how this one played out. To be honest I think I’ll upgrade all of these from workprints to v1.0, because there’s nothing that would stop a viewer enjoying these.
As before, I think there are just a handful of transitions which could be smoother, and a slight reordering to pull a few B-plot scenes earlier might just help fill a few of the implied time jumps, but I don’t think there’s anything critical.
I hope you’ll all agree!
I’m away for the weekend, but I should have some good time next week to work on 1.1 versions across the board with a gentle focus on internal pacing and light transition refinements.
I’m just reviewing the Movie 4 workprint now, and very happy with the first 45 minutes. I love how Cassian’s absence hangs over so many plots, and I love the flow of scenes which were originally split through four other episodes - I think they work really well here as escalation as all of the series’ major plots so far start to draw together. There’re a couple of moments with implied timeskips which I might be able to allow to breathe a little more, but the options are limited here. I don’t think that’s a major issue though. And there’ve been a couple of transitions I’d like to improve just a touch, but I’ve found the experience smooth so far.
Can’t quite rearrange the Mon Mothma storyline, as Vel mentions Tay. But the others remain doable.
Finishing a watch of movie 3 (Narkina 5 prison), I’ve had a couple of ideas I could do with an opinion on.
Obviously the main mission statement of this edit is that I don’t want to remove a thing. I’m sticking to that. And I want to adhere as closely as possible to the original intent, which so far has also meant I haven’t reordered scenes which are part of individual plotlines.
However, there might be a value add in doing a little story reordering- if you guys don’t think it’s sacrilegious.
I have three examples: First,there’s a thread about the Public Order Resentencing Directive which I feel could be focused on to add just a little more value. If we were to see the Empire announce it, then Mon debate it in the sebate, then people discuss it at Mon’s party, then the prisoners suffer under it, that could be a little more powerful.
Secondly, Mon’s senate debate leads into Vel’s arrival, and the discussions with Vel’s darker activities could lead nicely into Mon suspecting Luthen, and both together could lead well into Mon telling Tay Kolma how deep she’s going.
(As an aside, front loading the Mon content that way would mean I’d need to shift Syril’s content to the later half, which might help imply more time in prison for Cassian, plus draw out parallels about their imprisonment nicely.)
Thirdly, having Cassian try to recruit Kino to escape a little earlier might help sell his desperation when he’s scratching away at the pipe alone, and give us a bit more value when Kino finally commits.
As before, no plans to cut anything, but I’ll try these if you guys don’t think them too radical.
That said, I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far, up to halfway through movie 3. Got some notes for areas to tweak and polish, but nothing massively jarring yet, so I’m happy overall with these workprints as an initial version for the early adopters. I might play around a little with the timing at the start of movie 3, just to smooth out the early time jump (Andor from Ferrix to Niamos) a little better. I think I can use Syril’s montage and “you’ve been working at the Bureau of Standards less than a month” for this.
I might also move Blevin establishing the Ferrix base back to movie two - it doesn’t add too much value here, and is slightly contradicted by a line of Maarva’s in movie 3 and a line said to Blevin in movie 2.
Totally agreed on that one. I’ve got a couple too few bridging scenes in that section, so a few times the prison scenes have to run back to back. But I might need to make slightly different selections here.
Ooh I’ll check that out!
That’s available now. I’ve sent links to everyone I’ve already sent 1-3 to. PM me for links if you’d like them.
Like the earlier ones, this one’s got a lot of new transitions in it, so please point out anything that doesn’t work for you and I’ll get to fixin’!
Please enjoy!
Yes, there’s definitely a little lost in having to continue directly from the ‘mic drop’ moments from the end of original episodes, and a little additional reordering or rescoring might be valuable there. I’ll take any suggestions there as I do any more polish. I’d be interested to know what other Andor edits have done with those moments, if anyone’s aware.
The workprint for movie 4 is rendered, so that’s uploading now. Should be a couple of hours at the most.
Four movies in three days. Feels pretty good, guys and gals! Heheheheh!
In a pleasant suprise, I had less work to do on the second half of movie four - I’d over-cut it while I was working on the reordering, so most ‘new transitions’ weren’t new at all, and I was able to just use the original ordering in a lot more places. So the job is done!
I hope to have it with you in a few hours once it’s checked and uploaded.
I think ‘Announcement’ is probably our strongest name yet for movie two, following the theme of ‘what people in-universe call things’.
I’m also pleased to report I’m over halfway through all the necessary transitions for movie #4! Had a couple of messy bits that needed a bit more restructuring, but I’ve got it all playing out nice and smooth now! As with movie 3 there’s a little bit of implicit time passing between some scenes (Dedra says “I’m off back to Coruscant” then there she is, for example), but it’s necessary for the flow and I don’t think it’s problematic. (In that example instance I think it really fits anyway, due to the way the dialogue carries through smoothly.)
For that running tally of absolute minimum cuts, I’ve had to cut twelve more frames for audio blend pacing, plus six seconds of Kleya walking plus a few more seconds of Bik’s cell window, though in the latter case I’ve found a really lovely opportunity to include what might otherwise have been an orphaned scene.
I feel like I’ve got this all very smooth. Where I have the option, I’ve been trying to match scenes as nicely as possible to maintain flow. I’ve got some nice smooth transitions that weren’t in the original episodes - things like Syril being frustrated with his food bowl transitioning into Melchi enjoying prison food from his bowl, and people walking offscreen in one scene matching footsteps with people walking onscreen in the next scene. I feel like I’m really doing it justice, which is important to me.
I’ve just sent out more links to requestors - but the forums are behaving a little oddly. If I’ve sent you links twice, you’re welcome (!), but if I’ve not yet responded, please PM me.
And Ildiem, I like both ‘The Movie Omnibus’ and ‘The Movie Collection’ a lot.
And that’s movie 3 (WORKPRINT) uploaded now. I’ve double-checked the transitions but it might still have bugs- please point them out to me. I’ll send links to everyone who’s already requested it.
I’ll be as quick as I can with movie #4.
Having just watched movie 1, I think I’ll call it Reckoning, as suggested by mikebailey15, since that’s what Maarva calls the events of the movie.
So we have:
1: Reckoning
2: ???
3: Prisoners
4: Sacrifices
Loving this input folks, thank you. I’ve just watched movie 1 with my girlfriend and I absolutely loved digesting those three episodes as one discrete block, so I can’t wait to test the rest and I’m really hoping that my patching of the new seams holds. I’ll honour those new requests shortly.
I do like Sacrifice a lot, but for the project I was thinking something more descriptive than artistic, because I like people to know what they’re getting. I’d go with ‘Andor: The Movie Structure’ but I don’t want to disparage or compete with others who have already converted it into movies. Perhaps just ‘A Movie Series Restructure’, since that’s the most direct and honest. Or even something more unwieldy like ‘All Movies; Nothing Cut’. This project exists solely for people who think “Please don’t edit Andor, it’s perfect… I’d take it as movies though.”
That said, I’ll call movie four ‘Sacrifices’ for sure, for Luthen, Kreegyr, Vel and Cinta’s relationship, and Mon('s daughter). Plus Maarva’s death being the trigger.
What about movies one and two? For one I’d go ‘Fugitive’ but he’s not quite that. A few characters have something they desperately want in this one, but I can’t think of a word for that. There are also a few dissidents, or wrenches in the machine- people operating out of the normal bounds of what is required or expected. Plus the flashbacks to a tribal way of living interrupted by outside influence.
(‘Excession’ is a lovely not-quite word I could use here, borrowed lovingly from sci-fi author Iain M Banks, who uses it to mean both people exceeding their bounds/remit and a culture having to deal with an ‘Outside Context Problem’ of an external civilization they can’t possibly comprehend.)
Movie two is the Aldhani heist, Mon’s domestic troubles, and Dedra’s workplace conflict. But it’s also the triggering/inciting event- later called the “Announcement”.
I’m not intending to treat these names as something formal enough that it needs hardcoding visually into the movies themselves, just their labels really.
Links coming your way guys.
And that’s movie 3 rendering now, after which I’ll upload it - but I probably won’t be able to share links till the morning. I’m very happy with all the audio transitions, I think they really work and match the spirit of the original. This movie’s far more complex so I’m calling it a workprint for now until I’m sure I’ve crushed any bugs.
Speaking of which, I wonder what to call these individually?
I’d like to call movie 3 ‘Prisoners’ since that works for Andor, Mon, and Syril. But I’ve no idea what to call the others.
Movie 4 should take less time than a day, since it’s got about 60% of the transitions of movie 3, but I might have to work on it piecemeal through the week.
Coming your way bud.
If anyone has any ideas for a name for this subfranchise, let me know. And any simple poster art would be welcomed.
I could just call it ‘Andor: Refocused’, to keep it on brand, but I don’t really have a strong feeling. ‘Andor: Four Movies, Nothing Removed’ could also be useful to illustrate what it is. My current project working title is simply AndorByFour, but at the end of the day this’ll be nine things.
By the way, I’m not doing anything special to ‘moviefy’ the format of these. It’s the standard TV Lucasfilm and Star Wars franchise logos, then the Andor logo, straight into the episodes, and regular end credits. Once season two comes out I’ll probably just stitch those into movies using the same format. So you’ll basically have eight movie-length episodes, then Rogue One. But if anyone has any ideas/VFX skills for sprucing these up a bit so they can all be packaged as an ennealogy (thanks ildiem) of more movie-like movies I’d happily present these all as a single nine-film subfranchise.
That’s movie 2 uploaded too, and I’ve only got five more transitions to polish for movie three, so that’ll be rendering soon. I won’t get to movie 4 today but I’ll be on it ASAP. Still, three movies in one day isn’t bad! Sending links to those requesting!
Movie two is uploading. Movie three is taking a bit longer to smooth since it has so many transitions. I’ve done about a third, but I’m very happy with the quality of all of them so far - I’ve been able to emulate a lot of the long drawn-out musical pieces across multiple scenes that the original did. I definitely feel like I’m capturing the spirit of this. Coming soon!
Movie two is rendering while I move on to smoothing movie three!