The edit is starting to come together. Looking at a runtime around the 2h 25 region.
I’ll start posting some completed clips. Here’s the Tusken Raider meeting. I’ve trimmed down the speeder bike journey and cut the campfire scene.
Finally had a chance to sit down and give this a watch. Wow! I knew this was going to be good, but not as great as this.
A few thoughts -
At no point did it feel like anything was missing. Obviously I knew what had been cut out, but the seams were pretty much non-existent.
I personally feel like the original introduction of Mando works a little better than just seeing him being rescued by Kuill on Arvala-7, however I see where you were going with it.
In removing the Tatooine episode, you have omitted the ending scene in which Fennec is rescued by Boba Fett. Will this scene be included in your Season 2 edit, or will it just be assumed that the two have always been travelling together?
Other than those two queries, this is pretty much the best way to watch Season 1 without all of the fluff that held it back the first time round.
Thankyou!
The edit originally opened on Nevarro and I didn’t cut those scenes until very late on. In discussion with others here we agreed that it didn’t add a great deal and allowed the movie to be shortened by 20mins.
The thing I like most about starting on Arvala, is that when Mando then goes to Nevarro, as the viewer you experience it from the point of view of the child.
Short answer here is no. It’s very easy to cut the 2 lines from season 2 that references their past meeting. I would love to include that scene in episode 2 but there is no way of logically including it.
The longer answer is that I may go back and replace the Sorgen village with the Tatooine episode.
What I am definitely going to do is run 2 parallel projects. This project which is one movie per season at around 2.5 hours and another project that is either an extended cut of 3.5 hours or 2 movies per season clocking in at just under 2 hours.
Frustratingly I just can’t get this Gideon survival reveal to work. Its close, but not quite there because of the jumpy audio meshing.
Yeah, you can definitely tell that the Moff Gideon has been editing in there from other sources. I have an idea, what if you don’t have her say “Moff Gideon,” but instead, just “Gideon?” It was the higher, quicker “Moff” that really threw it off.
Already done! I’ve also modified the editing of that scene so that I can keep the frame on Bo Katan to avoid rapid cuts.
Frustratingly I just can’t get this Gideon survival reveal to work. Its close, but not quite there because of the jumpy audio meshing.
That was pretty damn seamless to me. 😂
Thanks. It’s still not as good as I wanted. Bit more tinkering I think. And having drawn a blank on TCW and Rebels for the required additional
line for Bo Katan, I might have to explore Battlestar.
I need to make sure this little scene is right because it dictates the rest of the edit.
Did you ever update this episode? I know you had plans for a few changes, or are you waiting to release your Episode 2 edit first?
I’m waiting to complete episode 2 first.
Frustratingly I just can’t get this Gideon survival reveal to work. Its close, but not quite there because of the jumpy audio meshing.
I watched this edit last night and I love it! I could wax lyrical about how good it is and about how it feels like a ‘proper’ Star Wars film, but I’ll suffice to say; this edit has become a high-point in my personal definitive collection.
I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the second series edit.
Many thanks! Episode 2 is well under way.
I don’t feel like her using lightsabers takes away from Luke, any more than Ben using a lightsaber in the cantina takes away from Vader showing up later.
This episode introduced Din to the concept of the Jedi, as well as serving as a warning to what they could be. This is Din getting a glimpse of what could become Grogu’s future. That’s fairly significant. Her reluctance to help and her prowess in battle feed into that insight. It all gives Din a choice of whether this is the path he wants for Grogu or not.
Ben’s use of a lightsaber in the Cantina is a single stroke. It’s an introduction to what a lightsaber can do. It’s a blink and miss it moment.
Ahsoka mowing down an army and then engaging in a duel is completely different. However, her brief attack on Din in the forest is very comparable.
As I said, I have 2 different cuts so I’ll see how they feel as the process progresses.
So, in the end, you are gonna go with a bit trimmed version of 2x01 or you decided to use the version you shared hersome time earlier (with Mando obtaining the armor quite fast 😄)? Because I really love what you did there, it os brillant.
I guess that since you cut 2x4,2x7 would be cut as well?
And I am wondering how much of the Ahsoka episode you had to trimm? ☺️
At the moment I‘m keeping the Krayt Dragon attack in. Without it the first act feels too short.
I‘ve trimmed part of the battle and I‘ve cut the return to the village. When Mando says he volunteered the village I then cut to the villagers at the sarlaac pit.
Yes, 4 and 7 are completely cut.
Regarding Ahsoka, in the current version I‘m only keeping the Mando/Ahsoka/Grogu scenes. The middle act is quite congested and having the village storyline in there doesn’t help. It also doesn’t really add anything to the story and worried that the lightsaber action takes away the impact from Luke‘s arrival.
I do have a version cut together where the opening scene is moved to the end battle if I change my mind!
I just finished watching this and I have a few comments.
1.) First of all, overall… WOW! So well done, the edits are just fantastic. It plays seamlessly for the most part like a SW film. It’s just so good. I’m hella, hella impressed. I just can’t say enough how awesomely a job you did, smudger, in taking a 10 episode show with running times between 25 and 40 minutes and turning it into a 2 1/2 hour movie. So, so good.
2.) With that said, I do think that the beginning is probably the weakest part with too much reliance on the crawl as the set-up. Without having seen the episodes first, I probably would have been more confused.
3.) I personally would have liked more Kuiil in the beginning scenes to give more meaning and resonance to him in the end, thus yeah, include a bit of the Jawa stuff.
4.) There are a couple of other things I’d include, not include, but that’s for ME and this is your edit and, again, overall SENSATIONAL job.
5.) I do have to agree with (I think jakeryan) that the Moff Gideon reveal should be before the end credits. I could see it fit beautifully right after Mando flies off with Baby Yoda, cut to the Jawa creatures all giddy around Gideon’s ship then to Gideon being revealed alive, and then cut to Mando putting the grave together for Kuiil. Those flow together nicely. The OOH! of the fly-off, to the jittery ooh! of the Jawas transition, and then the dun-dun-dun of the Gideon reveal which is a oh no! to the downer reminder of Kuill’s death. I think that has a good flow.
But again, it’s YOUR edit. And again, fabulous job!
I spent quite a few moments here and there marveling how great it was. I really had no clue where episodes ended and began unless I remembered it specifically because you did SUCH a great job. Starting with that first episode end on the child to the next episode swipe which was just chef’s kiss !!! PERFECTION!
Thankyou so much for the feedback. The episode transitions were the most challenging part but having access to the full episode soundtracks was a real help. The one I was actually most pleased with was the episode 2 to 3 transition.
You‘ve pretty much summed up the areas that were wither heavily debated or reluctantly cut. As a stand alone movie when I edited it, I stand by my decision to omit the Gideon ending scene. However, having now got a working first cut of episode 2, I‘ve had to completely alter the way in which Gideon‘s survival is revealed to Mando and it has lost some of its impact. Therefore I may need to put it back into episode 1 so that it works better for the viewer.
There were many things that were cut to get this down to a manageable sub 2.5 hours that were difficult to lose. I don‘t think losing the opening Nevarro scene is a problem, maybe its my opening crawl that causes the confusion. The Jawa scenes were very difficult to cut because they were one of my favourite parts of the season. However, the egg was ultimately a side quest so they had to go. The adverse effect was losing some Kuill scenes.
Having now had 2 full seasons, I‘m contemplating doing 2 movie streams. A single movie per season as the initial release and then either a 2 movies per season stream or an ultimate 3-hour plus version of each movie.
Having just finished your season 1 cut (so good! – left comments in that thread), I am really excited to see what you come up with here. Have you decided to go with one or two movies at this point?
The plan is for just one.
And there’s no way to use the moment when Bo-Katan mentions Gideon on Trask/Imperial ship? Even using Din’s dialogue from another episode in the scene?
Around 26min mark you could use Bo-Katan saying “him” and swap it out for one of the times she says Gideon, and add Din saying he’s dead or something. They’re both wearing helmets, so adjusting the dialogue shouldn’t be too tough, and if Bo-Katan only says it with her helmet off, it shouldn’t be too difficult to replicate the sound of her helmet (not nearly as distorted as Kylo’s helmet, for example).
Funny you should say that… I was just fiddling around with the scene where Bo Katan changes the terms of the deal and is talking about the darksaber. I’ve cut in Mando saying Moff Gideon is dead from the Siege and added “if Gideon is dead” in front of “I need to return to the ship with the foundling”. That scene then cuts to the Gideon transmission so its perfect.
I just need to find audio of Bo Katan saying “no, he’s alive”. I’m sure I can find that from TCW.
I’ll get a cut together tomorrow and share it… if it works then the first cut is done.
So I’m finally getting a decent cut together clocking in at 2h 22mins.
I’ve managed to solve the damaged Razorcrest issue by cutting together a landing on Trask with the ship intact. I then cut from Mando leaving the Imperial ship to the Razorcrest heading to meet Ahsoka.
The only outstanding issue is Mando finding out that Gideon is alive. Its a major plot point and reveal, but having cut that whole Nevarro trip, I can’t work it into the story. Putting it into the opening crawl is a major cop out. I’ve explored cutting it into his meeting with Cara, but nothing works well.
I’m still debating what to do with season 2, so I’m going through the process of trying a few things out to see how well they work.
The first one is removing the Krayt Dragon. Its a great sequence but it is very much a side quest. Here I’ve cut together a sequence where it has been removed. Let me know your thoughts.
The editing is great, but I’m not sure about its implications for the story. I worry it would leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth for the main character to kill a friendly marshall just trying to protect his town… especially when the rest of the movie is Din generally being heroic. There are no scenes to retrofit into potential guilt either so it would feel awkward when he hands it out to someone he doesn’t yet know is Mandalorian (Boba).
I think it would be better to just start the movie with Mando walking into Mos Eisley with Boba’s armor. How he acquired it would be an off-hand reference, like the Bounty Hunter on Ord Mantell or the Battle of Tanaab.
At that point we don’t know that he’s a friendly Marshall, and Mando has already hung a man up and left him to die in the episode. Also the way its cut leaves it open to interpretation. We don’t know if Mando killed him, we just know that he fired a blaster and took the armour.
However, I’m probably going to keep most of the Tattooine sequence and just edit it down. I’ve got a working cut now that is 30mins total duration. My next task is to get Mando to Trask as soon as possible and ideally with an undamaged Razorcrest!
I’m still debating what to do with season 2, so I’m going through the process of trying a few things out to see how well they work.
The first one is removing the Krayt Dragon. Its a great sequence but it is very much a side quest. Here I’ve cut together a sequence where it has been removed. Let me know your thoughts.
Boba had a theme?
If you haven’t already listened to them, the RFR Star Wars Oxygen podcasts discussing the Star Wars scores are amazing.
Here is what I’m thinking
Link please 😃
Think this is worth checking out. https://youtu.be/pRr-7JIHt2Y Would love to see it added to the edit in some way, that’s if everyone else feels the same way about it. I must say, the music does feel a bit over the top at times. But the blaster sound effects and the way the Mando theme fades to Boba’s theme at the end is a nice touch
That’s very well done. My initial thoughts were to use his OT theme when we first see him on Tatooine, as a musical reintroduction, and then stick to his new theme.
Would love a link to your 3 updated PT edits.
Can someone provide me a link to the HD video please?
Done
Smudger9, thanks again for sharing your edit with the fans. I just finished watching your cut, and overall, I enjoyed it a lot. I felt like I was watching a classic Star Wars ride with a story that flowed very well. You did a great job adding in the opening crawl, creating seamless transitions between scenes/episodes, and narrowing the film down to a core storyline by making conscious decisions on what scenes to keep and what scenes to cut. In the first act, it took me a moment to understand where you were going with the earlier scenes because I was expecting to see specific moments/events that were actually cut. At first, it felt like there was something missing in Mando’s character build but your choice of progression quickly clicked with me once I made the connection between the opening crawl and Mando turning in his bounty. As someone else had already mentioned, the action does seem to feel a bit too constant at times. Though, here I try to imagine the life of a galactic Bounty Hunter that isn’t necessarily all beaches and cocktails. Mando ‘constantly’ has to stay on his feet with little to no rest. Especially now with Grogu in his possession. It’s a dangerous life for a hunter and I think it’s well portrayed in your edit.
There are some minor editor nitpicks I have:
- The 20th Century Fox logo or the reimagined Walt Disney style Fox logo versus Disney’s Star Wars “faces”. The Mandalorian manages to make Star Wars “cool“ again and to be reminded of Kylo Ren isn’t something I look forward to. I may not be speaking for all but the Mandalorian replaces the Sequel Trilogy in my mind.
- The ‘Star Wars The Mandalorian logo’ looks really, really cool but I was expecting the traditional Star Wars logo with a Mandalorian subtitle before the crawl (e.g. “The Mandalorian/Episode I/A Vergence in the Force”). I feel like this would’ve kept the fan edit consistent with any other Star Wars fan edit that has worked to remove these reimagined Disney logos and openings without the crawl. The classic Star Wars logo would hit it a little more home. It’s a Star Wars film but the subtitle would reveal what type of Star Wars film it is.
- I don’t think the final scene should be a hidden scene à la Marvel. I think it should take place after Mando takes down Moff Gideon’s Tie and before preparing his ship to leave Nevarro.
As mentioned, you’ve done an outstanding job with this cut. Your edit will work as a continuation of selected fan edits to compile the best Star Wars saga possible. I am now highly anticipating episode 2. However you decide to patch the story, please do not cut Ahsoka (or Boba Fett). The Jedi episode was one of the best. Here we are shown to believe that Mando has finally found a Jedi that can help him but that of course turns out to not be the case. In other words, we are set to believe that Mando is close to completing his quest but there is more to it than what Mando is able to believe. He doesn’t understand the nature between the Light and the Dark side. Ahsoka attempts to explain this. Mando has to understand that he can’t just drop off Grogu with any force wielder. Ahsoka helps Mando (and the viewer) learn more about Grogu. Additionally, we don’t get to see many Jedis in action (unless we go back to the Prequels era). I don’t think Ahsoka would ruin or diminish the reveal in the final episode of season 2 (I initially thought it was Ahsoka boarding Moff’s cruiser until I saw the black glove and the green lightsaber light up). Ahsoka did not detract from the final reveal in my experience. I think it added to it, heightening the excitement because again, we don’t get to see a lot of Jedis in action these days.
That is all for the feedback I have. Thanks again for allowing me to view your edit.
PMs sent
Thanks for the review.
For the logo, I wanted to move away from Fox because their association with Star Wars is now a distant memory, but keep the fanfare. The Star Wars faces worked better than the Disney Castle! You could always pretend that Kylo Ren is a Legends Sith from KOTOR.
I will be touching up Episode 1 once I have finalised my Episode 2 ideas. That version will have a STAR WARS crawl logo release, as will Episode 2.
The end Gideon scene has been much debated. I tried many ways of including it, but none of them worked for me, and ultimately I wanted a stand-alone film much in the vein of the original Star Wars. That scene just screamed to me… look what’s coming in season 2!
I might be wrong here but in the finale, Cara Dune says her "gun is jammed. Is it just me or have they never referred to blasters as guns. later in the episode Moff Gideon even says “drop the blaster”. I personally found it distracting. Maybe you could trim some of these hallway blaster scenes?
In the original Star Wars… Trash compactor scene… “Blast it will ya, my gun’s jammed”
PMs sent
I think Ahsoka should be cut.
Here me out. Ahsoka’s episode is one of the best of this season. Incredibly well-paced plus the emotional callbacks to the Clone Wars and Prequels were excellent. But in the grand scheme, it is not essential. In fact, I would say it damages the ending of the Rescue because of how supposedly awe-inspiring the arrival of Luke is… when Mando has already seen a Jedi in action.
Imagine if the story went like this…
– Bo-Katan tells Mando to go to Tython and find a Jedi there
– Mando goes to Tython and Grogu is taken
– Mando leads a rescue, first with the Imperial Base and then the Ship
– After a movie of searching, a Jedi is finally foundIt simplifies the plot. I’d argue Ahsoka is great nuance in a TV show, but for a movie, the pacing becomes incredibly rushed and the plot wonky.
Now, admittedly I haven’t worked out all the kinks. You would have to make Ahsoka’s voice sound like Bo-Katan, or potentially compile some clips from TCW and Rebels since it’s the same actress and make her say to travel to Tython. Second, Mando’s spear would be something we can assume he collected between episodes, although I really don’t consider this that big a plot hole. The only admittedly important piece of information we gain is the Child’s name being Grogu, but unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think this ever comes up again? Mando keeps calling him “the kid” and Gideon “the child”.
This would save 40 some minutes from the movie and gives you time to fully develop the Heiress, Tragedy, Believer, and Rescue episodes, which frankly I think are the real “core” of this season emotionally.
My thoughts on the Ahsoka episode currently are to cut the village scenes. Have Mando land, find Ahsoka and then leave.
There is little of value in the end confrontation and cutting the lightsaber action will add more weight to Luke’s entrance.
Thanks for the feedback. Episode 2 is going to be much more challenging! Hope I’m up to it.