smudger9

vranir said:

Any new updates or thoughts on this? I’m really excited to see what you do with Season 2.

Lots and lots of thoughts on this and I’m playing around with 2 main options.

Plan A is to replicate what I did with season one and make 2 movies of under 3 hours in length.

However, the sheer number of off-screen events that happen between episodes 9 and 10 is creating issues with the 2-movie idea.

The first half of the season edits beautifully into a 2h 45 movie and I’ve virtually completed that including full audio.

I’m currently going through the back half of the season to see if I can structure it adequately to produce a single movie that makes sense given the time skip.

I have also looked into a Plan B, which would be three 2-hour movies. The first would include the first half of the season, the second would be episodes 7 to 9 and the third would be episodes 10 to 12. With this option the front half of the season becomes the challenge. However, I have managed to put together a 2-hour edit of the first half of the season and it works really well…… the wedding and bugged artefact have been completely removed.

At the moment I’m still hoping for plan A, and will have a better idea by the end of the week as to whether that will work.

Wow. I finally caught up on arc number 3. Just…wow. It’s going to be very difficult finding enough in that arc to cut it down to 90mins! But I like a challenge.

But having got through that arc it means I can pretty much lock in the plot for Episode 3.
I have re-instated a few things that had a pay off in arc 3:

1. Luthen meeting (and subsequently recruiting) Mon’s assistant.
2. The scene with Cassian and the Bell-boy.
3. Luthen’s brief chat with the imperial cadet from Steargard.

I have one major quandary that I was looking for an opinion on… Bix’s arc. I really thought that after taking revenge on Dr Gorst, we would see her being an active part of the Rebellion. But it was the exact opposite. That Dr Gorst sequence now seems a bit out of place, and my feeling is that Bix’s decision to leave would be more powerful if she didn’t kill Dr Gorst. I’m very tempted to cut it completely.

I finally got time to sit down and start playing around with the second arc.

I’m happy with how my edit of the first arc fits, I’ve just made one alteration by re-instating Bix’s dream sequence given that it’s now a crucial part of her character arc. I have, however, repositioned it so that it happens after she sees the imperial ship arriving. This does 2 things - it provides a trigger for that dream sequence, and secondly it casts more doubt in the viewer’s mind as to whether the events are real.

So onto the second arc.
The main challenge with editing this season into 2 movies is going to be dealing with the time skip. And we have a major event that is referenced but not shown - the soldier killed by Cassian when he and Bix were on a mission.
I plan to deal with that by cutting together a continuous “Cyril on Gorman” sequence and have that as the first arc 2 footage. Cyril doesn’t appear in the finale of arc 1 and is absent in my edit for the last 15mins.
This gives a reasonable passage of time for him to be briefed by the ISB and sent out to Gorman. The continuous Gorman sequence then provides enough time for Bix and Cassian to get relocated to the Coruscant safe house. I’ll then edit their dialogue to turn the interaction with the soldier into a random event, rather than than a happening on a mission.

So then we have the rest of the arc.
The Gorman plot is the spine and can definitely be streamlined. But there are whole threads that don’t feed into the Gorman story - D’Quar and the bugged artefact.
Q’quar will almost certainly become relevant in subsequent arcs, but could be moved to movie number 2. The bugged artefact could probably be cut completely. The issue there is that it takes Mon Mothma almost completely out of the second half of the movie.

Lots to ponder and a plan won’t become clear until I’ve seen arc 3 and possibly arc 4.

jkimm said:

Really like what you’ve done. I made some edits to the first 10 minutes for the fun of it. Below are two sections with changes. I’m curious what you and others think.

Intro Meeting
• Trim “nervous is good - I’ve had fun here - now everything changes” dialogue (1:26-1:48)
• Trimmed “am I” (1:52)
• Removed coworker leaning in whispering (2:08-2:10)
• Swapped closeups of Andor (2:10-2:14) <-> (2:02-2:05)
• Removed “what was that?” and “she said you were cute” (2:21-2:26)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19JarUVLRzei4ZbJ8cJSBaPl2bqnfQx4d/view?usp=sharing

Hangar Escape
• Slight trim of Andor messing with controls (5:36)
• Trim fighter hitting ceiling for second time (5:43-5:45)
• Slight trim of fighter bouncing around (5:51-5:52)
• Trimmed and rearranged shots of fighter firing at troopers (6:03-6:10)
• Trim bit of trooper pausing before reloading cannon (6:19)
• Trim targeting system (6:24-6:25)
• Trim trigger not firing (6:29-6:38)
• Trim display charging (7:38)
• Trim fighter banging into cliff and “no, no, no” (7:50-7:55)
• Trim fighter making a sharp right and scraping against the rocks (8:02-8:13)
• Trim fighter hitting rocks, would’ve been destroyed by now (8:23-8:26)
• Trimmed a bit of the cave collapsing (8:51)
• Trim a little before fighter ascends (9:01-9:03)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FfefHzAbBsB4oGhtSuphuB9WRt8DvmFZ/view?usp=sharing

I like the intro meeting cut to remove the cute reference. I’ll probably incorporate that when I’m fine tuning.

The TIE escape is very smoothly edited. I tried a couple of additional edits, similar to what you’ve done, but when I added in the other 5 audio channels things got a lot more challenging lining up the music, so I pulled back and let most of the sequence flow.
My edited opening sequence is 8 minutes, which I’m happy with from a structure point of view - it makes for a nice opening sequence for a Star Wars movie.

Matt.F said:

Smudger, it looks like you’re putting your mind to Season 2 of Andor - but I’ve just finished watching your Season 1 edit (as a primer for Season 2) and wondered if you’d like feedback?

Overall it’s brilliant - you’ve really accentuated the positives and kept the core of the plot streamlined and easy to follow (except for one instance which I’ll come to). Without the episode breaks and with your choices of shots and moments to keep or trim it now feels more cinematic - like watching a pair of movies (the reintroduction of the 20th Century Fox fanfare is a cool little touch too!). I own the 4k series set but I cant see myself watching them again, as your pacier edit appeals more to me (I’ve always preferred movies over TV series, and that’s what your edit provides).

The one thing which doesn’t work… the removal of Andor being arrested on Niamos. I can see why you did it, as it removes a good 5-10 minute chunk of runtime but imho it compromised the edit too far.

Movie one ‘Spark of Rebellion’ ends with Cassian as one of the most wanted men in the galaxy after the Aldhani heist, and then movie two ‘The Reckoning’ begins with a crawl which simply says “Andor has been arrested for treason” and the first time we see him is entering Narkina with the other cons. It’s a massive leap for audiences and leaves you head scratching WTF? It also makes all the ISB conversations about ‘where is Andor?’, ‘we need to arrest Andor?’, become baffling as it appears to all intents he has already been arrested?! Furthermore, we even see Andor in Niamos at the end retrieving his stash from the hotel room - this scene no longer makes any sense without the context of the earlier footage.

I’d really suggest reinstating some abridged version of Andor on Niamos at the start of the edit, as without it ‘The Reckoning’ opens in a confusing and unsatisfying way. You could always save a few minutes elsewhere by cutting the scenes with Nurchi betraying Andor on Ferrix as they’re somewhat redundant to the plot (we already get two or three other references of why the ISB believe Andor is going to be at Ferrix for the funeral).

This is very much meant as constructive feedback rather than criticism as I really think you’ve done brilliantly to turn this TV series into something that feels much pacier and more cinematic, and I look forward to seeing what magic you can work with season 2!

Thanks. Any feedback is much appreciated. You aren’t the first person to say this, so it’s clearly something I need to look at before releasing my fully completed Andor Collection.

The main reason I structured the movies this way was because I absolutely hated the Cassian arrest sequence. By far the worst part of the series and so out-of-place. The acting, the shoretroooer dialogue, the Kangaroo court…. None of it worked for me.

I’ll go back over the footage to see the best way of including it.

Thanks Again.

I’ve now completed the edit of these three episodes and managed to get the runtime down to my target of 1h 15. This will give me a lot more freedom with the second arc.

Changes to episode 3:

1. Moved the Kleya/Cassian scene towards the start to better space out Cassian’s scenes.
2. Cut most of Cyril and Dedra preparing for mother’s arrival.
3. Cut Luthen chatting to the guy who has a Gorman mother (easy to add back in if needed later).
4. Cut the Bix assault scene and anything related to it. I don’t have a problem with this scene, but my aim with these edits is to produce movies that feel like they are related to the main saga. It’s the most radical option, but the flow seems to work fine without those scenes. It puts more focus on Brasso’s demise, which is one of the key outcomes from this whole arc.
5. Lots of other trimming, particularly the wedding scenes, to keep the pace up.

I’ll upload the full edit of arc 1 (single channel, low res) to G-drive if anyone wants to view and give feedback.

I’m sure we’ll see more evidence of the fractured rebellion. We saw it in season 1.

And even trimming it heavily will add significant runtime.

arabian said:

I originally thought the Yavin IV stuff needed to go as well but after reading some commentary and THEN the reveal that it’s YAVIN IV, I disagree. Yes, trim the bejezus out of it BIG TIME, but keeping some of it is a necessity. And here is why.

1. We see the origin of Yavin IV as a rebel base. That is HUGE.

2. The back and forth between the squabbling, disorganized rebels in the dangerous, dirty jungle who were infighting, had no food, were fractured and barely had a clue contrasted with the board meeting of the imperials was stark. They were clean, well dressed, well fed with drinks and canapés. They were organized, working together, and casually discussing decimating an entire planet.

Cutting the Yavin IV story is cutting that brilliant juxtaposition of why the Empire is winning right now and the rebels are not. Again, trim the heck out of it, but keep the core of it. It IS important.

For now there isn’t enough there for me to keep it. That may change with the next arc. I don’t feel seeing the origin of the Yavin base is that big a deal, we’ve survived since 1977 without it. I agree on the Juxtaposition with the Empire, but by removing the Yavin scenes you get an alternative Juxtaposition between the comfortable lives of those that comply with the Empire and the tough, dangerous lives led by those that oppose it.

STF78 said:

Sounds like a great outline for trimming the first episode. The only suggestion I’d make is to reconsider the Bix nightmare, which ties in to the traumatic scene in episode 3

Thanks STF for the feedback!
I wanted to open this movie by giving Bix and Brasso a moment of peace before the Empire’s heavy hand encroaches upon their lives again. While the tie-in to Season 1 is undeniable, I felt that opening with such intensity didn’t quite match the tone I wanted to establish. You do notice subtle hints that Bix’s is carrying the trauma from the first season.

Now, on to Episode 2. I’ve felt it was the weakest of the three, and I’ve managed to cut it down from 35 minutes to a lean 17! This keeps me on track for a total arc of around 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Here’s the changes I’ve made:

1. Yavin has been removed.

2. Here I’ve inserted the opening scene from Episode 3, featuring Cassian in the TIE, trying to activate his communication device. This not only keeps Cassian relevant but also provides a plausible explanation for his silence.

3. Mon and Perrin’s conversation about Tae’s marital issues has been cut.

4. I’ve restructured several scenes to smooth out the transitions between Chandrila and Mina-Rau, creating a much better narrative flow.

5. I decided to cut Cyril’s Bureau of Standards scene. His first appearance now hits harder when he arrives at Dedra’s apartment, this is now more of a shock moment and works brilliantly!

6. The initial Imperial inspection scene on Mina-Rau felt out of place, so I’ve cut that too. This builds suspense by holding off on the Imperials until the climax of the arc. They just slowly encroach off screen. I’ll adjust some dialogue between Bix and the Lieutenant in the Episode 3 footage to make this work seamlessly.

7. There are a few other small edits that I won’t bore you with.

And with that, I’m ready to dive into Episode 3! I’ve updated the G-drive file to add the episode 2 footage. If anyone fancies viewing it I’ll give you a link. The first 2 episodes have a runtime of 43mins, which is actually the same length of the episode 1 footage alone!

What did everyone think of the first batch of Season 2? I found it to be an intriguing start, though it doesn’t quite measure up to opening of Season 1. Based on the reviews I’ve seen, it seems this might be the weakest of the four arcs, with the quality ramping up from episode 6 onwards.

For me, the Yavin 4 arc was a bit of a letdown. It felt drawn out and, frankly, somewhat pointless compared to the other storylines. That said, I really enjoyed the rest of the plot lines.

Regarding the editing, I’m still planning to create two movies for this season, just like I did for Season 1. Let’s break down the numbers for this arc:

• Episode 1: 43 minutes of footage
• Episode 2: 35 minutes of footage
• Episode 3: 45 minutes of footage

Total: 123 minutes (2 hours and 3 minutes)

My goal is to trim this arc down to about 1 hour and 15 minutes, which means cutting 48 minutes. I believe this is achievable. The entire Yavin 4 arc needs to go, which will significantly reduce the footage, and there are several scenes in the other episodes that can also be cut.

I’ve already edited Episode 1 down from 43 minutes to 25 minutes (an 18-minute reduction) with the following changes:

1. Opening Scene: I started with an external shot of the Seinar Facility, smoothly transitioning to Cassian in the mess hall. I removed the initial shot of the TIE in the hangar to create a better reveal as Cassian approaches.
2. Some of the dialogue between Cassian and Niah has been trimmed for brevity.
3. TIE Escape Sequence: I tightened this sequence to enhance the pacing.
4. The Bix nightmare scene was cut. I feel we can do without this foreshadowing, especially after her traumatic experience on Ferrix. Her opening scene deserves to be more uplifting.
5. I edited the first four scenes of Krennic’s briefing into a single, cohesive segment detailing their plans on Gorman, eliminating the retro advertisement.
6. Transition to the first Chandrilla scene. I cut the discussion about parking problems for a more streamlined narrative.
7. Transition to Bix on Mina-Rau - This scene remains intact.
8. The entire Yavin 4 storyline has been removed.
9. Perrin & Scolden’s discussion about their children’s relationship has been cut.
10. I removed Mon Mothma’s conversation with her daughter regarding her lover’s quarrel.

If anyone is interested, my edited version of Episode 1 is available on Google Drive for feedback. It’s in 720p with only the center channel audio.

I aim to have the entire arc roughly edited by the weekend. Of course, things may evolve as new episodes are released, but the time skips should help mitigate any inconsistencies. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

honestabe said:

Is it realistic to wrap up all the plot threads that go unresolved?

Either way I am fully on board with your focus being on Andor. I fully expect it to have stronger content versus Bad Batch season 3.

I haven’t attempted to address the dead-end plots. They may be revisited in the future in some other form, but for this edit I’ve focused on the core story, which is the Bad Batch and Tantiss.

No Ventress, No Fennec, no Cad Bane, no Wolfe.

DMs sent.

Keep the title. I don’t own it 😊, and I may change it to “The Spark” when my season 2 edits are done. Can I have a link please. It’s definitely a new approach to the series, I’m intrigued.

Is everyone ready for tomorrow? Sooooooo excited!

Further Update… The project is still being worked on. I’ve finally made it to the final act, which is the final 2 episodes. The middle act took a lot of work on the audio because of the sheer number of cutsand story changes, but it’s done. The final act should be a lot quicker.

However, it’ll go on the back burner as of tomorrow because it’ll be full steam ahead with Andor Season 2.

GrayFoks said:

Would also love a link when it’s ready. I’m intrigued 😃

It’s finished. dM sent.

aGreatHumanBeing said:

I knew there was one thing I could not remember when I wrote the last post:

I don’t think we got any clues/hints that the Wim don’t trust Jod not being a Jedi early on, but then all of a sudden Wim says something like “If you are not a Jedi, then how did you do that?”.

I recall KB say she has calculated the odds and therefore don’t trust him, but I don’t think we see the other kids, and certaintly not Wim, be mistrusting toward Jod before this scene?

Yes. This was pointed out by someone else too. I’ve already fixed it my removing that bit of dialogue. I’ll upload the version to the folder tonight.

paolaargento said:

Sorry for coming so late! (I’ve been studying so hard I wanna scream)

Ok, so I think I’m coming here with a particular perspective, of one who didn’t even watch The Acolyte. I’ve got no more interest whatsoever with Disney Star Wars, but by mere chance I found this forum and your edit as most popular, and actually got intrigued, because a two and a half hour long movie is actually enticing compared to another insufferable series.

So, I enjoyed it a lot, thank you so much! I could tell you put a lot of effort into making it seem a movie, because too many times I forgot this had been a TV series, completely. Only when series-like pacing and scenes (and the humor, jesus, those jokes are horrible) were too distinguishable I could notice, but as I said, I had a great time. It just makes you realize that this really could have been a movie, and a pretty good one.

Only after watching it, I read all the changes you enlisted, and OH MY GOD, every single thing that I actually liked about it was all because of you. Can’t be thankful enough, you literally created a whole different product than the original. I like reviewing things, so I also reviewed The Acolyte, citing that I watched YOUR edit and a link to it, though now I realize that it’s so weird to review something that everyone else reviewing DIDN’T watch. Whatever, I only care if I can make more people know about your edit and give it a try as I did.

Great job bro

Thankyou so much, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Out of all the Disney Plus series, this is the one that needed an edit the most. As you say, there were a lot of changes needed to produce a consistent, canon-friendly edit. I really hope they continue the story in some format, it has great potential if done right.

Both Episodes are now up on IFDB, if anyone fancies leaving a review.

https://fanedit.org/starr-wars-andor-ep1-spark-of-rebellion

https://fanedit.org/star-wars-andor-ep2-the-reckoning

Mk_9000 said:

smudger9 said:
…Remove unnecessary profanity and suggested sex acts - not very Star Warsy!

THANK YOU! Oh my goodness! I wanted to watch Andor with my younger sister, but I wasn’t sure weather she was ready for the suggestive (kinda) sexual content or the swearing since she isn’t very exposed to that type of things in movies. So Thank you so so so much!@

You’re Welcome 😊

J4k3 J0hn4th4n said:

Just Finished watching it. Really enjoyed it, superb pacing, and very engaging. 2 suggestions would be: when Fern and KB meet Win and Neil, and then Win says "you!’ it just feels off. I feel like you could skip to when fern says: the name’s Fern. Just a thought. Also, some of the wipe transitions are a bit quick from scene to scene, such as when Fern says: I guess we’re splitting up. The wipe comes a bit too quickly in my opinion. Otherwise, FANTASTIC JOB smudger9!!!

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed it.

The Wim-Fern “you-me” is how it plays out in the series. It’s a bit corny, but I quite like it and it immediately shows us their relationship… rivals.

Good point on the splitting up transition. It’s actually an L-cut rather than a wipe but it is a bit sharp. I wanted to end the scene on Fern’s line because its a stronger scene exit. However, there is an immediate cut to KB after she finishes her line. I’ve gone back and added in KB’s response “fine” which allows a better paced transition.

If anyone is looking for an Andor recap before season 2… My edits are 2 movies of 3 hours each - a faster, more intense experience!

I’ll be editing season 2 as it’s released. I’m hoping to edit the season into 2 movies, as with season 1, but the time skips may be a challenge. I can’t wait to get stuck into it.

I’ve restarted work on episode 3. I’m going through to addd in 5.1 audio. It’s pretty slow work because there is constant music in the BB, and with so many edits there is a lot to do. Almost half way through!

aGreatHumanBeing said:

Please be gentle if this is a dumb question, but my knowledge of video formats, codecs and containers are limited.

In the folder there are two version, one in ProRes.mkv and one in MOV. I grabbed the first one since mkv is a format I’m used to, but noticed something strange when I started to watch: It seems my left speaker is the main one for sound and talking, not my center speaker.

I tried to download the MOV-version and everythings seems (and sounds!) fine, with the sound coming from the center.

Is there something wrong with the ProRes.mkv-version or is it just my computer that can’t handle ProRes?

Hi there. Thanks for the message. You’re right, the mkv format does have the sound anomaly you describe. Handbrake must have altered the channels when compressing it from ProRes. I’ve deleted the mkv, just use the .mov - they’re the same resolution anyway.

yoshif8tures said:

I just finished watching this, and it was really solid. I’d probably watch it again and might even check out the original episodes now. To me, it looked like it had a higher budget than any Disney+ show—the space battles and planets were far more interesting.

My only critique is that it sort of comes to a sudden end and feels a bit open-ended. That might be an issue with the original source material, though.

Overall, I really liked it and would recommend it!

Thanks Josh. As JarJar said, the ending is as it was presented in the series. Disappointing given that the series was otherwise excellent.