13 ms·

Cinematography of “Andor”

444 points by rcarmo 1y ago

sandworm101 1y ago
>> But at the same time, I’m so happy that the digital revolution happened. It’s a bigger toolbox for your creativity, especially for night scenes. It’s much easier to light something natural, and to do something with less. No. This is why everything is so dark. With film, cinematographers had to hedge their bets. They could not risk a scene being too dark, something they would not be sure of until the film was developed. Today, digital tech means they can see the results live on monitor screens. So they can cut the lights and make everything super dark without worry. Forget "natural". There is nothing natural about watching a screen in the dark where your eyes cannot properly adjust as they would in the real world. Also, I want to watch TV in my kitchen without having to douse every light in the house.
- nicoburns 1y ago
  I definitely have this problem a lot with modern TV. Full screen brightness and it's still hard to make out the details. Perhaps they're targeting HDR screens that have more dynamic range?
  - mkesper 1y ago
    Had this when playing streams from PC to TV. Had to increase gamma a whole lot, just increasing brightness does not really help.
  - xnx 1y ago
    > Full screen brightness and it's still hard to make out the details LCD screens can't do true black. Film, CRT, and OLED can.
- ghaff 1y ago
  A lot of stuff is dark and a lot of sound is muddled. My hearing isn't the very best but I've sort of surrendered and just use close captioned for everything.
  - meowface 1y ago
    My hearing is pretty good and I am a native English speaker and it is shocking how often I need to turn on subtitles every few minutes in some new show I'm watching because I have no clue what was said even after rewinding three times. At the same time, I am extremely distracted by subtitles so I can't leave them on permanently. The darkness problem is also quite annoying, though varies a lot by show. I just started watching Silo, and while I understand most scenes are supposed to take place in a pretty dark environment (inside of a silo), everything is just so dark in almost all scenes.
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    I respect the idea that all dialog need not be decipherable (any more than it tends to be in real life). Incidental sounds/comments are okay as long as a key plot-point does not suffer (and you'd like to think they would make sure that was not the case of the more important lines).
    - lupire 1y ago
      If the most accessible surface content is already better than a normal show, then adding extra hard to access content, for world building and rewatch enhancements, is more than fair. Andor passes that bar.
  - kenhwang 1y ago
    I echo the sound/dialog complaint for Andor as well. I think it's one of the few high production budget shows in recent memory that sounded like it was mixed for 2.0 audio. Watching on my 7.1 setup was actually more annoying than watching on my computer with 2.0. There's a very obvious bass-boost as if they assumed there isn't subwoofer in the setup, and dialog didn't get any clearer with a dedicated center, it was still kinda floaty across the front. Surround channels just sounded like they echo'd the L/R channels.
- cwillu 1y ago
  Andor didn't really have any issues with that, IMO.
  - LilBytes 1y ago
    Depends on your TV, watching it on an LED TV was difficult, darks bled into each other. On OLED (and I assume Micro-LED) though it was just _phenominal_.
    - cwillu 1y ago
      I watched it on an old lcd in a bright room, and personally had no issues.
- atoav 1y ago
  As someone who grew up on the countryside: many people don't really know how dark it can get outside, as you mentioned your eyes do adjust, but that will only take you so far. I remember walking home on a cloudy new moon night through the woods with both eyes fully opened and adjusted and I couldn't even make out the contour of the sky. So yeah, not seeing shit can be natural. Whether it is good for the narration or 100% of your viewers like it is a different can of worms. Let's only say that the cinematographers thought making the viewer have to concentrate on what is going on at that point was benefitial. The "natural" part about shooting digitally is that you can go outside and use a camera in dusk and the picture isn't all black or incredibly grainy as it was back when you shot at film. And that's about it. In digital you can shoot with available light only in more situations than before. In the end cameras perceive light situations different than the human eye so it is still the task of the cinematographer to do that translation.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
meowface 1y ago
The cinematography, editing, writing, and overall feel of this show far exceed any Star Wars movie I've seen. I had long since written off the Star Wars franchise as a shameless cash grab since the original movies but they proved they could do something cool with it. I'd definitely watch a new movie if it were handled by the same team that made Andor. Prequel, sequel, side story, or re-telling of the originals.
- ghaff 1y ago
  For quite a while, the further the films/series are separated from the original trilogy, the better they seem to be.
  - meowface 1y ago
    The first sequel just mirroring the original movie was so lame. Reference-baiting.
    - ghaff 1y ago
      It's probably hard for the producers not to do fan service. But they can go overboard.
  - lucideer 1y ago
    Ironically Andor is one of the closest to A New Hope narratively.
    - ghaff 1y ago
      It ties in but isn't really part of the main storyline except incidentally. You could say the same thing about Rogue One though the tie-in is even stronger in that case. The Mandalorian is pretty separate other than baby yoda.
      - lucideer 1y ago
        It's not part of the main storyline of Luke's journey as an individual & the Jedi order but it is a very big part of one of the main storylines of a ragtag bunch of rebels sticking it to the empire. A storyline which I'd argue was strongest in A New Hope & the initial trilogy & was weakened by the increased focus on individual storylines in the anakin & rey trilogies.
sgt 1y ago
Andor is a masterpiece. I recommend everyone to see it. Season 1 is probably the best, but season 2 just continues the brilliance. Unfortunately there won't be a season 3 though - they're making a final movie.
- cwillu 1y ago
  Beyond rogue one?
  - sgt 1y ago
    Yes, a Rogue One sequel movie. So it'll be a continuation of the Andor series. They really take their time filming this kinda stuff so don't hold your breath.
    - reimertz 1y ago
      Sorry but I would flag this as AI-generated unless you can provide a reference.
      - meowface 1y ago
        The user definitely is not AI but I think they may've misread something or fell for a meme/joke they saw. There indeed is absolutely no planned sequel to or continuation of Andor, nor currently any known plans for the creator of it to create anything else in this franchise. I'd sure like it if he did, though.
        sgt 1y ago
        I might indeed have fallen for something. I trusted an untrustworthy source. Sorry
        bdangubic 1y ago
        it can only be a prequel unless they want to make a season out of Rogue One movie
nicoburns 1y ago
If you haven't watched Andor and you are at all open to sci-fi then I would urge you to consider giving a go. The writing, acting, and cinematography are all excellent, and IMO it is a very strong contender for the best TV show released in the last few years.
- peeters 1y ago
  > you are at all open to sci-fi That is to say, a sci-fi setting. Andor would not be correctly put in the sci-fi genre, rather in the political thriller genre.
  - atq2119 1y ago
    That's the thing about sci-fi: almost all good sci-fi stories are really sci-fi + X, where X is some other genre. Often adventure or mystery, sometimes horror, and in this case political thriller / spy story.
    - ragazzina 1y ago
      Isn't that true for every genre?
    - lolinder 1y ago
      I'm trying to figure out what sci-fi not crossed with something else even means. Even most of the great works of classic sci-fi of the 20th century draw tropes and plot points from other genres.
  - fsloth 1y ago
    I'm not sure why some plots would be off-limits in sci-fi genre? Isn't setting limits antithesis to the whole idea of sci-fi?
    - peeters 1y ago
      I guess like with all categorization, genres are reductive generalizations. And I'm saying the sci-fi generalization is much less descriptive of Andor than the political thriller generalization is. You could transplant Andor to WWII historical fiction and it would be less of a change than changing the mood and story to fit what most people's preconceived notions of sci-fi is. I guess in short, I'm saying that you really don't have to be open to the sci fi genre to enjoy Andor.
worldsayshi 1y ago
I especially like all the retro control panels! I wish I could find a montage of all the instrument, button and control panels of Andor.
- sedatk 1y ago
  https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJP11cruD0p/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJP11cruD0p/
  - worldsayshi 1y ago
    Perfect! I probably had this one at the back of my head. I suppose there's more good examples that could be mined from the show.
chiph 1y ago
What has impressed me is that in all the Imperial scenes - they have a lot of polished surfaces (floor, control panels, etc) and you never see a reflection of crew or film equipment. I'm sure most of this is the result of good planning before filming but also the amount of effort put in post-production to remove any it. As a physical media guy, I'm happy that Disney decided to release season 1 on 4k UHD. And I hope to buy season 2 when it hits the shelves.
- iainmerrick 1y ago
  That reminds of Arthur C Clarke writing about the process of making 2001 with Stanley Kubrick. Clarke visited the set one day, and was absolutely blown away, but jokingly pointed out that somebody had left some fingerprints on the Monolith. Kubrick was furious and Clarke was seriously worried he was going to fire somebody on the spot. (I think that's in Lost Worlds of 2001, which is a fun read)
- isleyaardvark 1y ago
  I love how there are a lot of reflections in windows, makes it look more real.
- morkalork 1y ago
  All the interior sets of imperial ships, especially the crashed one in S1 were absolutely gorgeous. The shiny black glass surfaces, analogue controls, blinking lights and fixtures everywhere were just wow. I can't remember the last time I saw such a well done rendition of "sleek retro-futuristic" aesthetic.
  - chiph 1y ago
    Part of the design esthetic is that nothing is labeled. How do people know that the 2nd switch from the right opens communications? I think that in the Empire you have to be a fast learner. Or else.
buyucu 1y ago
Andor is absolutely amazing. After the shameless cash-grab attempt that was the Sequel Trilogy, Andor feels like a breath of fresh air. Denise Gough and Elizabeth Dulau are particularly good.
- lucideer 1y ago
  If Denise Gough isn't drowning in awards on the back of this it isn't a just world. (albeit every single other performance in the massive ensemble cast was also excellent)
- xnx 1y ago
  Elizabeth Dulau first significant role!
IshKebab 1y ago
I thought it was great except for that one scene where they're eating in the wheat fields... It's just so weirdly obvious that it's a set and you can really clearly see where the set ends and the green screens start. Dunno why.
- kennyadam 1y ago
  Did you read the article? That specfific scene is discussed.
- MattyRad 1y ago
  I thought it was great except for the final episode of season 1. Spoilers: People seem to gush over Maarva's hologram speech, I thought it was pretty weak (it started good then it was fumbled). Maarva's act of rebellion should have been killing herself to deliver her speech at the right time. She's old and sickly, so it'd add gravitas and cost effectively nothing. Then she should have said that she'd resisted all her life, but killing herself was her first act of rebellion. Then the bomb that gets thrown into the Empire ranks should have been baked into her brick, giving her the chance to fight posthumously. They had nearly all the plot points set up so nicely for the slam dunk, I was perplexed when it ended so dryly.
captainbland 1y ago
The main thing that impressed me about Andor is how they managed to make the Stormtroopers seem like a genuinely intimidating force rather than just a rabble of goons in costumes. It goes to show how much they elevated the believability of Star Wars in Andor.
- twodave 1y ago
  I agree. Especially in the originals, everything just sort of “works out” for the protagonist(s). The bad guys don’t aim well, fly well or really do anything great. And that’s fine because that is era of cinema Star Wars came from. In Andor the empire is smart, calculated, deadly and just plain scary—nearly to a visceral degree, if you allow yourself to be absorbed into the story. And despite how good Andor (and Rogue One fits here as well) was, I think there’s some merit to wanting to go see a film that makes you feel good. There are certain films and books I won’t put myself through (especially fiction) more than once because I don’t want something ultimately meaningless adding stress to my life. It’s supposed to be an enjoyable escape. So Andor/Rogue One come pretty close to that point for me.
  - CGMthrowaway 1y ago
    > Especially in the originals, everything just sort of “works out” for the protagonist(s). The bad guys don’t aim well, fly well or really do anything great. In a New Hope as Luke and Ben are inspecting the damage to the Jawa transport, Ben does say "Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise." Then the stormtroopers go on the rest of the series missing everything they aim at.
  - jimbokun 1y ago
    One aspect I didn't realize though watching it as a kid is they only escape the Death Star because Vader WANTS them to escape. So he can follow them back to the Secret Rebel Base.
    - fknorangesite 1y ago
      It's not exactly subtle. Leia says it outright: > Leia: They let us go. It was the only reason for the ease of our escape. > Han: Easy? You call that easy? > Leia: They're tracking us.
tecoholic 1y ago
Everyone seem like to be discussing the show and none the article. For someone who hadn’t watched the show, the article is a pain to read. The images are thrown in randomly, there is no relationship between the text and the images. Every images is pointlessly labelled “Cinematography of “Andor” by Christophe Nuyens”. The interview seems to have covered things in detail, like going into specific scenes and sets, and lens.. etc., but the accompanying images are utterly useless in showing any of that to the reader. I gave up after a while.
- acomjean 1y ago
  To be fair, the photos were just ones provided by Disney. Most likely promotional shots. They used them as examples of the work, and as stills they hold up. I thought the article cromulent.
- lucideer 1y ago
  I didn't find the images relevant to the article - they seemed to just be filler to avoid it seeming like a mundane wall of text - but I just ignored them & didn't find it hard to read as a result? I can understand it might be difficult to understand the context of some set descriptions without having seen the show but I think that would also be true with relevant still images as you'd still lack character & narrative context. Honestly can't see how they could've formatted the article any better than they did. Seems fine.
- themadturk 1y ago
  Frankly, the best photo was Denise Gough grinning at the cinematographer. I love seeing actors in costume and out of character, and her playing of Dedra is so chilling, it's like whiplash seeing her being a real human in costume.
kriro 1y ago
I think Andor is a bit over hyped in this threat. I absolutely love it (especially the Imperial side of things) but saying it is better than the original movies is a bit too much. If you take into account the time and technical possibilities it's not even close. And the original movies have more memorable things overall. I mean the two villains alone are all time greats. The music is also better (imo). But most importantly, I think Andor is less strong without the original movies. The looming threat and the Mothma high-society scenes become a lot less powerful. Same for the insights into the Imperial machine. And even the meaning of the Rebellion itself. I'd argue while technically great, well written etc. without the SW backdrop the storytelling suffers quite a bit.
- meowface 1y ago
  I think with nostalgia goggles and appreciation for what it was at the time, the originals are great, but in retrospect I don't think the original movies are that great. The story is very compelling and fun but across basically all other dimensions Andor is just higher-quality.
- Joeboy 1y ago
  Andor is a very good TV show, but it's obviously getting extra appreciation because it's part of a beloved but increasingly exhausted franchise.
  - belval 1y ago
    It's the opposite for me. I could not be more burnt out on StarWars, when they introduced the force in season 2 I rolled my eyes and it somewhat took me out of it. The main downside of watching Andor is that you have your brain nagging you about eposide 7 making everything that you are watching pointless (the new republic is obliterated after 20-30 years). I have friends that I can't convince to watch it because they are just too done with that universe in general. But that's the thing, Andor could be outside of StarWars and just its own thing because the world building that it does on its own is excellent, the premise (empire vs rebellion/revolutionaries) is mostly intemporal.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
t0bia_s 1y ago
First session really impressed me. After all Disney Star Wars casual garbage shows, this one get my attention. Creators finally do not consider audience as dumb consumers. Second season is great, but I still appreciate first more. S01E09 has one of the best space battles I ever saw in sci-fi. Ever.
- t0bia_s 1y ago
  Sorry, S01E11. This one: https://youtu.be/zJOoyrIbdHU https://youtu.be/zJOoyrIbdHU
iainmerrick 1y ago
To address this interview specifically, rather than just gushing about how great Andor is-- One point Nuyens makes in a few different ways is that they used a variety of tools and techniques at every stage. People often have simplistic, extreme viewpoints like "modern CGI can do anything" or "CGI looks fake and weightless, practical effects are better". But here's somebody with a big part in making a fantastic-looking show, who very explicitly embraces multiple approaches. Massive real sets with CGI enhancements; sometimes green screens, sometimes old-fashioned backdrop paintings, sometimes LED screens. It sounds like close collaboration between teams in different areas was key, like the VFX team working with the production designer from the start. "Some shots started VFX and then became sets." It sounds like a big success for an artisanal approach, where every element is a bespoke construction by cross-functional experts, versus a modular approach where each team has a position in the workflow with well-defined inputs and outputs. But maybe it's not worth the time and money, and the "worse is better" approach wins out? I hope not, or least I hope we get more shows aspiring to be as good as this. On a smaller scale, interesting to hear how much equipment on a high-end film set is now wireless. That must be a massive change from just a few years ago, where you'd have had massive cables snaking everywhere.
- andrepd 1y ago
  > Massive real sets with CGI enhancements; sometimes green screens This is the definition of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and they're still some of the best-looking films I've ever seen, far surpassing the modern UE slop.
  - chrisweekly 1y ago
    UE?
    - Filligree 1y ago
      Unreal Engine is used quite a lot in animation.
    - Darthbuddha 1y ago
poisonborz 1y ago
Andor is a huge middle finger for everything that came after the original trilogy. It manages to be menacing and showing a convincing rebellion against realistic fascism - relying heavily on the tones of the old films - without any of the dumb Jedi magic, light sabers andd mystic blabble.
- aeve890 1y ago
  > without any of the dumb Jedi magic, light sabers andd mystic blabble They have some of it too. But it's a very well crafted scene showing how normal people would react to the force weirdos.
- mystifyingpoi 1y ago
  What's wrong with light sabers? It's just a weapon with some useful properties (like bouncing back blaster shots). Finn used it fine for a sec, so it's proven that the user doesn't need to be trained at all in anything really. The Force though... yeah, as much as I'm a big fan of SW, the whole concept leans way too hard into soft magic territory, at least to my taste.
  - poisonborz 1y ago
    For one the technology for such a saber far surpasses and stands out from anything else in the Empire. But more importantly it requires the same superhuman Jedi magic to be useful (swinging to bounce blaster shots). It works as a ritual weapon / in climatic battles, but modern SW overuses it (as the Jedis in general).
    - mystifyingpoi 1y ago
      > But more importantly it requires the same superhuman Jedi magic to be useful No, Finn used it fine in defense when fighting a trooper in TFA. It is useful even without the Force. We can only blame sequels for that :P Although yeah, when compared to other weapons at the time, they seem overpowered, I agree, never thought of that.
  - CGMthrowaway 1y ago
Kon5ole 1y ago
Andor + Rogue one are my favourites from the franchise. It tells a story that the 50 year olds that grew up with SW can appreciate for its depth and intrigue as well as connection to the original films, but leaving the hallowed originals mostly alone. I wish the crew behind it would be allowed to continue the story until the fall of the emperor, so we could get the whole "rise and fall of the empire" story told with the same quality, depth and overall "tone" for lack of a better word. Three more seasons taking place during the same time as the original trilogy would be nice, but of course keeping the Skywalker and Jedi stuff mostly in the background. A similar show as Andor with storylines taking place on Alderaan and the construction site of the death star, say.
- sdenton4 1y ago
  Hmmm, rise of the empire you say? So a long hard look at a faltering parliamentary system, gradually usurped by an authoritarian and his team of goons... Doesn't sound very relatable for today's audiences.
  - hammock 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - jajko 1y ago
      Must this old russian propaganda permeat also thread about... Star Wars?
ksynwa 1y ago
Don't have much to add as a rube but Andor is the best TV I have ever watched. Not just in the Star Wars universe.
- ukFxqnLa2sBSBf6 1y ago
  Just for calibration what’s your second favorite TV show of all time?
  - ksynwa 1y ago
    That would be It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Nathan For You but I don't appreciate them nearly as much as I do Andor.
  - el_nahual 1y ago
    Not OP but Andor is definitely "up there" for me. My two favorite shows ever are Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (w/ Alec Guinness), The Wire, The Simpsons seasons 1-8.
7bit 1y ago
I found Andor incredibly boring. The characters were unlikeable. Dialog was bland. I have nothing against a slow burn, but that show didn't even light a fire in the first place.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
cjcenizal 1y ago
George Boole would have loved a show called “Andor”.
- globalnode 1y ago
  Nandxor
- colordrops 1y ago
  Had to scroll down far too long to find this on an HN thread about and/or
imetatroll 1y ago
Andor is OK. I didn't manage to finish the first season though and there are a few scenes - like the "training to blend in" - that are just totally corny and just seem "cheap". I disagree with the sentiment that Andor goes beyond the original trilogy. The world building in the originals is incredible.
- sdenton4 1y ago
  The first season seriously builds up. The prison arc and the last episodes on Ferrix are absolutely top notch.
wishfish 1y ago
For those people who loved Andor and its approach to the Empire and fascism, I have a book recommendation: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Chris Kempshall. It's written as history (not a novel) with the author being an in-universe scholar who originally focused on Jedi antiquities but decided to write a general history of the Empire. Ties in well with Andor as the book discusses, realistically, how the rot set in with the Republic. How it could be transformed into the Empire with little initial protest. How the Empire sustained itself via a mix of military control, propaganda, and moving towards making the population feel helpless and thus apolitical. And how the blind sides of a rigid, fascist system led to the Rebellion winning despite the huge power disparity. It's the perfect companion book for the series. And is a good introductory book on how authoritarianism takes hold, how the insurgents can exploit weaknesses, and what should be done, post-rebellion, to keep the fascists from returning. I think many people, who otherwise would not be obsessive about Star Wars lore, would find it interesting. On a side note: the book does address the events of Abrams sequel trilogy with an interesting angle. That the New Republic essentially didn't do enough de-Nazification and that led to their downfall. This approach to those terrible movies doesn't entirely succeed, but does make them a little more interesting. And matches what we've seen in real life reconstructions after the downfall of various regimes.
- robterrell 1y ago
  My immediate headcannon was: Dedra goes to prison for sedition and builds parts of the second Death Star; is liberated after the death of the emperor; as a (purportedly) rebel-aligned political prisoner is held in esteem (that Loni should have gotten!) She works for the New Republic and rebuilds the police state machinery that ultimately leads to the first order.
parsimo2010 1y ago
Andor is shot beautifully but it has a major issue that has plagued an increasing amount of shows recently. It is way too dark. The creators knew it was going straight to streaming and was never shown in theaters. I can’t watch the show in the daytime because even with my blinds down and curtains drawn the window in my living room washes out half of the scenes. Some very important things happened in the dark (it being a spy/espionage show), and I felt like I was blind. The script was not written to be an audio drama, it relies on visuals that I literally couldn’t see half the time. Directors shooting something for streaming: please watch your show on a laptop or cheaper TV in a realistic bedroom or living room setting (with daylight leaking in or with some lights turned on). We don’t all have reference grade monitors and a pitch black studio. In fact, most consumers don’t have those things. If you really want to keep the cinematic purity, could you at least make a “normie edit” that pumps up the brightness?
- hammock 1y ago
  I finished season 2 yesterday and was actually thinking how refreshing it was that andor WASNT too dark. It has some dark scenes sure but I really it’s not nearly as bad as most shows these days
- piyuv 1y ago
  Agreed. Real PITA with OLED tv’s. Musicians listen to their tracks in car stereos, directors should do what you suggest
  - djaychela 1y ago
    Not seen any of these issues on my oled and have watched in full daylight.
- jfengel 1y ago
  Netflix has a brightness setting that you can easily get to while watching. I really wish the Disney app had one.
- vachina 1y ago
  Turn on dynamic tone mapping on your tv, or reduce contrast your TV settings. I’d rather they preserve the dynamic range than succumb to the loudness war.
praveen9920 1y ago
>> Right now everything is going wireless. Video is wireless. Lights are wireless. Sound is wireless. It’s all good, but there’s a lot of congestion on sets with all those things combined. Sometimes those nice tools don’t work because there’s too much technology on set I’ve been there. Too much tech and compatibility among them is a major source of frustration. For a movie tech guys I see that as opportunity to come up with an OS where everything can be integrated where all stakeholders being users and multiple technologies working together with cohesion
xorcist 1y ago
What I don't understand is how film crews can work together when they are larger than two pizza teams? And when they want to change something, it's almost like they just do it? Surely they have to file a ticket with the Product Owner first? And why don't they wait until the current sprint is done before doing things that clearly belongs to the next one? Why do the producer run around speaking in precise terms when he is clearly in the position of Business Owner and should stick to user stories? It's a wonder that the result is even watchable! Sarcasm aside, there is something to be said about industries that let professionals do their work, and everyone is doing their bit towards a clearly defined shared goal. Considering the IT industry has taken so much ideas from industrial production, it wouldn't hurt to take some from artistic production too. After all, both are work concerned with refining blueprints where the final draft ends up being the product.
- api 1y ago
  This is the joy of physical reality as opposed to software. Atoms vs bits. Software is different because digital systems are messes of rigid causality. If reality were like software moving a table could trigger the elevator to stop working and birds to fly upside down by breaking DNS by way of a change in server load triggering Kubernetes to get into a weird state where it kills and restarts DNS too fast to allow it to properly initialize and serve requests, but only when it is raining in Bangalore, India on a Tuesday. The other nice thing about reality is reusability. A table used in one movie set could be used in a different movie without rebuilding the table. There has been a ton of work on good system design to avoid this, like well done (not enterprise Java) OOP, and we were getting there until the web and cloud hit and we decided to trash all that and go back to piles of slop on Unix servers. Still wouldn’t have been as inherently causally ordered as physics but it might have been nicer.
- gsich 1y ago
  >two pizza teams 1 person teams?
  - mananaysiempre 1y ago
    Enough to feed with two pizzas[1]. [1] https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoPizzaTeam.html https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoPizzaTeam.html
BugsJustFindMe 1y ago
Even the set photos are color graded teal and orange.
jfengel 1y ago
I'm astonished at the sets. Some of them seem impossible even for The Volume. I'm sure it's a combination of techniques (locations, Volume, CGI, green screen, etc), because that's what keeps your eye guessing. But I'm continually blown away by how expansive it is in both the foreground and background (and moving between the two).
- lucideer 1y ago
  Afaik they didn't make any use of The Volume for this, but otherwise it's a nuanced combination of all 3 of CGI, locations & built practical sets.
  - themadturk 1y ago
    The did use some Volume (it's mentioned in the article, but as "digital background" or some such), but there's a lot of painted backgrounds and practical sets.
    - lucideer 1y ago
      I don't see it mentioned in the article? I saw an interview with Tony Gilroy where he said he didn't make use of it, but I can't recall if he was referring to Season 1 or both, so it might've been introduced in S2.
      - themadturk 1y ago
        I took this passage, mentioning the "LED wall", to be a reference to the Volume (I think there might have been another reference as well): Kirill: The show spends a lot of time at the apartment with Bix. How big was it? Christophe: The nice thing about that set is that everything you see is captured in camera, including the view outside which was an LED wall. That wall allowed us to be more creative and find some extra shots. You have shots from the outside where you see the city below in reflection with raindrops on the window. You see cars passing and light coming in.
replete 1y ago
The sets are beautiful, but in this season some of the lens choices have resulted in so much CA/distortion outside the focus that you miss out on seeing them properly - to point of frustration. Possibly not noticeable at HD, but glaring in 4K.
- jajko 1y ago
  There are certain things that simply look better at lower resolutions (and vice versa)
- kevinsync 1y ago
  Just conjecture, but this might also be what Apple does with a lot of their TV+ series that are filmed for Immersive / Spatial Video (shot stereoscopically and end up in MV-HEVC format). On a regular screen it ends up looking like a super weird bokeh towards the edges of the image.
My_kent_NURBEK 1y ago
[flagged]
nwlotz 1y ago
"Made with love" is a concept that's subjective but real. You can tell Andor was made with love, while the sequel trilogy looks like it was made with a set of release criteria designed by consultants. Not to mention I don't even put Andor in the category of a typical Star Wars story. It's just great geopolitical writing. The boardroom scenes were some of my favorites of any show I've ever watched.
beloch 1y ago
The only thing I can say against Andor is that it made Rogue One seem a little bit inadequate as a capstone film.
briian 1y ago
Unoriginal opinion: Andor is the best Star Wars TV Show/Film since Disney took over. But, the reason it probably did so well was they let people like Christophe just make something cool instead of overly commercial. I'd love to see VCs start funding film production like they fund video games. Maybe then we'd have a genuinely new film the quality of Andor, that was as popular as the original Star Wars instead of another thing inside of Star Wars. Something genuinely new, there's only been remakes recently. I just want a new universe to geek out on.
fdspopofe 1y ago
[dead]
everyone 1y ago
My friend was telling me Andor S2 is insanely good. So I'm seriously considering watching it. However, I had previously watched a few eps of S1, and everything was fine and very well made.. but I just didnt care about anything that was going on, so I stopped. Just wondering did anyone else feel the same about S1 and then get blown away by S2?
- udkl 1y ago
  Yes, I am the same. I enjoyed the entire S2 even though I left S1 after 1 or 2 episodes. S2 has great, great acting and characters along-with good pacing since they apparently jammed in at-least 2 seasons into a single season. It starts out strong too. S2 shows the larger republic and it's politics and factions. This gives you a broader galactic context of what's going on. This enamored me and got me to go back and re-watch the first 6 movies. I originally watched them as a teen and was lost at the time. Really started to appreciate the setting and story now. I need to go back and watch the remainder of S1 though since they say it gets better later.
Am4TIfIsER0ppos 1y ago
> cinematography "How do I light and shoot this green screen?"
stevenwoo 1y ago
Related trivia (he mentions he worked on low budget shows prior to this), 650 million dollar budget for show's two seasons or 26-27 million per episode: https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/andor-tony-gilroy-genocide-pretty-effortless-1235127755/ https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/andor-tony-gilro... For reference, Rings of Power, Jupiter's Legacy and Citadel (US version) cost about twice as much per episode on Amazon, and Game of Thrones on HBO started at five to six million per episode and went up to 15 million by the final season.
- lucideer 1y ago
  I haven't seen the rest of your comparators but twice as much for Rings of Power - one of the cheapest looking fantasy/scifi shows I've seen in some time - is shocking.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
RataNova 1y ago
The whole "as long as I’m learning, I'm happy" mindset hits hard, especially for anyone in creative fields trying not to burn out
- neom 1y ago
  Indeed. I'm apparently good at it, won 4 Emmys for docs, ditched out before 30 because I couldn't take the mindnumpingly boring place I landed when I stopped learning, the work to push my creativity would have ruined me, way easier to ship a business creatively than a film.
enopod_ 1y ago
Cinematography looks great indeed, framing, composition, depth of field, lighting, all outstanding. But the colors? It all looks quite sallow to me, the colors are boring. I am colorblind (protanopia), so to me colors _do_ look a little sallow, but I'm used to it, I don't know anything else. But when a movie or tv show looks like this, it makes the whole thing super boring to look at. Little contrast, bleached, like they pulled the saturation bar waaay much to the left. It's a pitty, because strong colors can also transport emotions. I'm not asking for Teletubbies-style coloring here, but a tad more here and there would have been very nice.

444 points by rcarmo 1y ago

>> But at the same time, I’m so happy that the digital revolution happened. It’s a bigger toolbox for your creativity, especially for night scenes. It’s much easier to light something natural, and to do something with less. No. This is why everything is so dark. With film, cinematographers had to hedge their bets. They could not risk a scene being too dark, something they would not be sure of until the film was developed. Today, digital tech means they can see the results live on monitor screens. So they can cut the lights and make everything super dark without worry. Forget "natural". There is nothing natural about watching a screen in the dark where your eyes cannot properly adjust as they would in the real world. Also, I want to watch TV in my kitchen without having to douse every light in the house.

nicoburns 1y ago
I definitely have this problem a lot with modern TV. Full screen brightness and it's still hard to make out the details. Perhaps they're targeting HDR screens that have more dynamic range?
- mkesper 1y ago
  Had this when playing streams from PC to TV. Had to increase gamma a whole lot, just increasing brightness does not really help.
- xnx 1y ago
  > Full screen brightness and it's still hard to make out the details LCD screens can't do true black. Film, CRT, and OLED can.
ghaff 1y ago
A lot of stuff is dark and a lot of sound is muddled. My hearing isn't the very best but I've sort of surrendered and just use close captioned for everything.
- meowface 1y ago
  My hearing is pretty good and I am a native English speaker and it is shocking how often I need to turn on subtitles every few minutes in some new show I'm watching because I have no clue what was said even after rewinding three times. At the same time, I am extremely distracted by subtitles so I can't leave them on permanently. The darkness problem is also quite annoying, though varies a lot by show. I just started watching Silo, and while I understand most scenes are supposed to take place in a pretty dark environment (inside of a silo), everything is just so dark in almost all scenes.
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  I respect the idea that all dialog need not be decipherable (any more than it tends to be in real life). Incidental sounds/comments are okay as long as a key plot-point does not suffer (and you'd like to think they would make sure that was not the case of the more important lines).
  - lupire 1y ago
    If the most accessible surface content is already better than a normal show, then adding extra hard to access content, for world building and rewatch enhancements, is more than fair. Andor passes that bar.
- kenhwang 1y ago
  I echo the sound/dialog complaint for Andor as well. I think it's one of the few high production budget shows in recent memory that sounded like it was mixed for 2.0 audio. Watching on my 7.1 setup was actually more annoying than watching on my computer with 2.0. There's a very obvious bass-boost as if they assumed there isn't subwoofer in the setup, and dialog didn't get any clearer with a dedicated center, it was still kinda floaty across the front. Surround channels just sounded like they echo'd the L/R channels.
cwillu 1y ago
Andor didn't really have any issues with that, IMO.
- LilBytes 1y ago
  Depends on your TV, watching it on an LED TV was difficult, darks bled into each other. On OLED (and I assume Micro-LED) though it was just _phenominal_.
  - cwillu 1y ago
    I watched it on an old lcd in a bright room, and personally had no issues.
atoav 1y ago
As someone who grew up on the countryside: many people don't really know how dark it can get outside, as you mentioned your eyes do adjust, but that will only take you so far. I remember walking home on a cloudy new moon night through the woods with both eyes fully opened and adjusted and I couldn't even make out the contour of the sky. So yeah, not seeing shit can be natural. Whether it is good for the narration or 100% of your viewers like it is a different can of worms. Let's only say that the cinematographers thought making the viewer have to concentrate on what is going on at that point was benefitial. The "natural" part about shooting digitally is that you can go outside and use a camera in dusk and the picture isn't all black or incredibly grainy as it was back when you shot at film. And that's about it. In digital you can shoot with available light only in more situations than before. In the end cameras perceive light situations different than the human eye so it is still the task of the cinematographer to do that translation.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

meowface 1y ago

The cinematography, editing, writing, and overall feel of this show far exceed any Star Wars movie I've seen. I had long since written off the Star Wars franchise as a shameless cash grab since the original movies but they proved they could do something cool with it. I'd definitely watch a new movie if it were handled by the same team that made Andor. Prequel, sequel, side story, or re-telling of the originals.

ghaff 1y ago
For quite a while, the further the films/series are separated from the original trilogy, the better they seem to be.
- meowface 1y ago
  The first sequel just mirroring the original movie was so lame. Reference-baiting.
  - ghaff 1y ago
    It's probably hard for the producers not to do fan service. But they can go overboard.
- lucideer 1y ago
  Ironically Andor is one of the closest to A New Hope narratively.
  - ghaff 1y ago
    It ties in but isn't really part of the main storyline except incidentally. You could say the same thing about Rogue One though the tie-in is even stronger in that case. The Mandalorian is pretty separate other than baby yoda.
    - lucideer 1y ago
      It's not part of the main storyline of Luke's journey as an individual & the Jedi order but it is a very big part of one of the main storylines of a ragtag bunch of rebels sticking it to the empire. A storyline which I'd argue was strongest in A New Hope & the initial trilogy & was weakened by the increased focus on individual storylines in the anakin & rey trilogies.

sgt 1y ago

Andor is a masterpiece. I recommend everyone to see it. Season 1 is probably the best, but season 2 just continues the brilliance. Unfortunately there won't be a season 3 though - they're making a final movie.

cwillu 1y ago
Beyond rogue one?
- sgt 1y ago
  Yes, a Rogue One sequel movie. So it'll be a continuation of the Andor series. They really take their time filming this kinda stuff so don't hold your breath.
  - reimertz 1y ago
    Sorry but I would flag this as AI-generated unless you can provide a reference.
    - meowface 1y ago
      The user definitely is not AI but I think they may've misread something or fell for a meme/joke they saw. There indeed is absolutely no planned sequel to or continuation of Andor, nor currently any known plans for the creator of it to create anything else in this franchise. I'd sure like it if he did, though.
      - sgt 1y ago
        I might indeed have fallen for something. I trusted an untrustworthy source. Sorry
        bdangubic 1y ago
        it can only be a prequel unless they want to make a season out of Rogue One movie

nicoburns 1y ago

If you haven't watched Andor and you are at all open to sci-fi then I would urge you to consider giving a go. The writing, acting, and cinematography are all excellent, and IMO it is a very strong contender for the best TV show released in the last few years.

peeters 1y ago
> you are at all open to sci-fi That is to say, a sci-fi setting. Andor would not be correctly put in the sci-fi genre, rather in the political thriller genre.
- atq2119 1y ago
  That's the thing about sci-fi: almost all good sci-fi stories are really sci-fi + X, where X is some other genre. Often adventure or mystery, sometimes horror, and in this case political thriller / spy story.
  - ragazzina 1y ago
    Isn't that true for every genre?
  - lolinder 1y ago
    I'm trying to figure out what sci-fi not crossed with something else even means. Even most of the great works of classic sci-fi of the 20th century draw tropes and plot points from other genres.
- fsloth 1y ago
  I'm not sure why some plots would be off-limits in sci-fi genre? Isn't setting limits antithesis to the whole idea of sci-fi?
  - peeters 1y ago
    I guess like with all categorization, genres are reductive generalizations. And I'm saying the sci-fi generalization is much less descriptive of Andor than the political thriller generalization is. You could transplant Andor to WWII historical fiction and it would be less of a change than changing the mood and story to fit what most people's preconceived notions of sci-fi is. I guess in short, I'm saying that you really don't have to be open to the sci fi genre to enjoy Andor.

worldsayshi 1y ago

I especially like all the retro control panels! I wish I could find a montage of all the instrument, button and control panels of Andor.

sedatk 1y ago
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJP11cruD0p/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJP11cruD0p/
- worldsayshi 1y ago
  Perfect! I probably had this one at the back of my head. I suppose there's more good examples that could be mined from the show.

chiph 1y ago

What has impressed me is that in all the Imperial scenes - they have a lot of polished surfaces (floor, control panels, etc) and you never see a reflection of crew or film equipment. I'm sure most of this is the result of good planning before filming but also the amount of effort put in post-production to remove any it. As a physical media guy, I'm happy that Disney decided to release season 1 on 4k UHD. And I hope to buy season 2 when it hits the shelves.

iainmerrick 1y ago
That reminds of Arthur C Clarke writing about the process of making 2001 with Stanley Kubrick. Clarke visited the set one day, and was absolutely blown away, but jokingly pointed out that somebody had left some fingerprints on the Monolith. Kubrick was furious and Clarke was seriously worried he was going to fire somebody on the spot. (I think that's in Lost Worlds of 2001, which is a fun read)
isleyaardvark 1y ago
I love how there are a lot of reflections in windows, makes it look more real.
morkalork 1y ago
All the interior sets of imperial ships, especially the crashed one in S1 were absolutely gorgeous. The shiny black glass surfaces, analogue controls, blinking lights and fixtures everywhere were just wow. I can't remember the last time I saw such a well done rendition of "sleek retro-futuristic" aesthetic.
- chiph 1y ago
  Part of the design esthetic is that nothing is labeled. How do people know that the 2nd switch from the right opens communications? I think that in the Empire you have to be a fast learner. Or else.

buyucu 1y ago

Andor is absolutely amazing. After the shameless cash-grab attempt that was the Sequel Trilogy, Andor feels like a breath of fresh air. Denise Gough and Elizabeth Dulau are particularly good.

lucideer 1y ago
If Denise Gough isn't drowning in awards on the back of this it isn't a just world. (albeit every single other performance in the massive ensemble cast was also excellent)
xnx 1y ago
Elizabeth Dulau first significant role!

IshKebab 1y ago

I thought it was great except for that one scene where they're eating in the wheat fields... It's just so weirdly obvious that it's a set and you can really clearly see where the set ends and the green screens start. Dunno why.

kennyadam 1y ago
Did you read the article? That specfific scene is discussed.
MattyRad 1y ago
I thought it was great except for the final episode of season 1. Spoilers: People seem to gush over Maarva's hologram speech, I thought it was pretty weak (it started good then it was fumbled). Maarva's act of rebellion should have been killing herself to deliver her speech at the right time. She's old and sickly, so it'd add gravitas and cost effectively nothing. Then she should have said that she'd resisted all her life, but killing herself was her first act of rebellion. Then the bomb that gets thrown into the Empire ranks should have been baked into her brick, giving her the chance to fight posthumously. They had nearly all the plot points set up so nicely for the slam dunk, I was perplexed when it ended so dryly.

captainbland 1y ago

The main thing that impressed me about Andor is how they managed to make the Stormtroopers seem like a genuinely intimidating force rather than just a rabble of goons in costumes. It goes to show how much they elevated the believability of Star Wars in Andor.

twodave 1y ago
I agree. Especially in the originals, everything just sort of “works out” for the protagonist(s). The bad guys don’t aim well, fly well or really do anything great. And that’s fine because that is era of cinema Star Wars came from. In Andor the empire is smart, calculated, deadly and just plain scary—nearly to a visceral degree, if you allow yourself to be absorbed into the story. And despite how good Andor (and Rogue One fits here as well) was, I think there’s some merit to wanting to go see a film that makes you feel good. There are certain films and books I won’t put myself through (especially fiction) more than once because I don’t want something ultimately meaningless adding stress to my life. It’s supposed to be an enjoyable escape. So Andor/Rogue One come pretty close to that point for me.
- CGMthrowaway 1y ago
  > Especially in the originals, everything just sort of “works out” for the protagonist(s). The bad guys don’t aim well, fly well or really do anything great. In a New Hope as Luke and Ben are inspecting the damage to the Jawa transport, Ben does say "Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise." Then the stormtroopers go on the rest of the series missing everything they aim at.
- jimbokun 1y ago
  One aspect I didn't realize though watching it as a kid is they only escape the Death Star because Vader WANTS them to escape. So he can follow them back to the Secret Rebel Base.
  - fknorangesite 1y ago
    It's not exactly subtle. Leia says it outright: > Leia: They let us go. It was the only reason for the ease of our escape. > Han: Easy? You call that easy? > Leia: They're tracking us.

tecoholic 1y ago

Everyone seem like to be discussing the show and none the article. For someone who hadn’t watched the show, the article is a pain to read. The images are thrown in randomly, there is no relationship between the text and the images. Every images is pointlessly labelled “Cinematography of “Andor” by Christophe Nuyens”. The interview seems to have covered things in detail, like going into specific scenes and sets, and lens.. etc., but the accompanying images are utterly useless in showing any of that to the reader. I gave up after a while.

acomjean 1y ago
To be fair, the photos were just ones provided by Disney. Most likely promotional shots. They used them as examples of the work, and as stills they hold up. I thought the article cromulent.
lucideer 1y ago
I didn't find the images relevant to the article - they seemed to just be filler to avoid it seeming like a mundane wall of text - but I just ignored them & didn't find it hard to read as a result? I can understand it might be difficult to understand the context of some set descriptions without having seen the show but I think that would also be true with relevant still images as you'd still lack character & narrative context. Honestly can't see how they could've formatted the article any better than they did. Seems fine.
themadturk 1y ago
Frankly, the best photo was Denise Gough grinning at the cinematographer. I love seeing actors in costume and out of character, and her playing of Dedra is so chilling, it's like whiplash seeing her being a real human in costume.

kriro 1y ago

I think Andor is a bit over hyped in this threat. I absolutely love it (especially the Imperial side of things) but saying it is better than the original movies is a bit too much. If you take into account the time and technical possibilities it's not even close. And the original movies have more memorable things overall. I mean the two villains alone are all time greats. The music is also better (imo). But most importantly, I think Andor is less strong without the original movies. The looming threat and the Mothma high-society scenes become a lot less powerful. Same for the insights into the Imperial machine. And even the meaning of the Rebellion itself. I'd argue while technically great, well written etc. without the SW backdrop the storytelling suffers quite a bit.

meowface 1y ago
I think with nostalgia goggles and appreciation for what it was at the time, the originals are great, but in retrospect I don't think the original movies are that great. The story is very compelling and fun but across basically all other dimensions Andor is just higher-quality.
Joeboy 1y ago
Andor is a very good TV show, but it's obviously getting extra appreciation because it's part of a beloved but increasingly exhausted franchise.
- belval 1y ago
  It's the opposite for me. I could not be more burnt out on StarWars, when they introduced the force in season 2 I rolled my eyes and it somewhat took me out of it. The main downside of watching Andor is that you have your brain nagging you about eposide 7 making everything that you are watching pointless (the new republic is obliterated after 20-30 years). I have friends that I can't convince to watch it because they are just too done with that universe in general. But that's the thing, Andor could be outside of StarWars and just its own thing because the world building that it does on its own is excellent, the premise (empire vs rebellion/revolutionaries) is mostly intemporal.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

t0bia_s 1y ago

First session really impressed me. After all Disney Star Wars casual garbage shows, this one get my attention. Creators finally do not consider audience as dumb consumers. Second season is great, but I still appreciate first more. S01E09 has one of the best space battles I ever saw in sci-fi. Ever.

t0bia_s 1y ago
Sorry, S01E11. This one: https://youtu.be/zJOoyrIbdHU https://youtu.be/zJOoyrIbdHU

iainmerrick 1y ago

To address this interview specifically, rather than just gushing about how great Andor is-- One point Nuyens makes in a few different ways is that they used a variety of tools and techniques at every stage. People often have simplistic, extreme viewpoints like "modern CGI can do anything" or "CGI looks fake and weightless, practical effects are better". But here's somebody with a big part in making a fantastic-looking show, who very explicitly embraces multiple approaches. Massive real sets with CGI enhancements; sometimes green screens, sometimes old-fashioned backdrop paintings, sometimes LED screens. It sounds like close collaboration between teams in different areas was key, like the VFX team working with the production designer from the start. "Some shots started VFX and then became sets." It sounds like a big success for an artisanal approach, where every element is a bespoke construction by cross-functional experts, versus a modular approach where each team has a position in the workflow with well-defined inputs and outputs. But maybe it's not worth the time and money, and the "worse is better" approach wins out? I hope not, or least I hope we get more shows aspiring to be as good as this. On a smaller scale, interesting to hear how much equipment on a high-end film set is now wireless. That must be a massive change from just a few years ago, where you'd have had massive cables snaking everywhere.

andrepd 1y ago
> Massive real sets with CGI enhancements; sometimes green screens This is the definition of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and they're still some of the best-looking films I've ever seen, far surpassing the modern UE slop.
- chrisweekly 1y ago
  UE?
  - Filligree 1y ago
    Unreal Engine is used quite a lot in animation.
  - Darthbuddha 1y ago

poisonborz 1y ago

Andor is a huge middle finger for everything that came after the original trilogy. It manages to be menacing and showing a convincing rebellion against realistic fascism - relying heavily on the tones of the old films - without any of the dumb Jedi magic, light sabers andd mystic blabble.

aeve890 1y ago
> without any of the dumb Jedi magic, light sabers andd mystic blabble They have some of it too. But it's a very well crafted scene showing how normal people would react to the force weirdos.
mystifyingpoi 1y ago
What's wrong with light sabers? It's just a weapon with some useful properties (like bouncing back blaster shots). Finn used it fine for a sec, so it's proven that the user doesn't need to be trained at all in anything really. The Force though... yeah, as much as I'm a big fan of SW, the whole concept leans way too hard into soft magic territory, at least to my taste.
- poisonborz 1y ago
  For one the technology for such a saber far surpasses and stands out from anything else in the Empire. But more importantly it requires the same superhuman Jedi magic to be useful (swinging to bounce blaster shots). It works as a ritual weapon / in climatic battles, but modern SW overuses it (as the Jedis in general).
  - mystifyingpoi 1y ago
    > But more importantly it requires the same superhuman Jedi magic to be useful No, Finn used it fine in defense when fighting a trooper in TFA. It is useful even without the Force. We can only blame sequels for that :P Although yeah, when compared to other weapons at the time, they seem overpowered, I agree, never thought of that.
- CGMthrowaway 1y ago

Kon5ole 1y ago

Andor + Rogue one are my favourites from the franchise. It tells a story that the 50 year olds that grew up with SW can appreciate for its depth and intrigue as well as connection to the original films, but leaving the hallowed originals mostly alone. I wish the crew behind it would be allowed to continue the story until the fall of the emperor, so we could get the whole "rise and fall of the empire" story told with the same quality, depth and overall "tone" for lack of a better word. Three more seasons taking place during the same time as the original trilogy would be nice, but of course keeping the Skywalker and Jedi stuff mostly in the background. A similar show as Andor with storylines taking place on Alderaan and the construction site of the death star, say.

sdenton4 1y ago
Hmmm, rise of the empire you say? So a long hard look at a faltering parliamentary system, gradually usurped by an authoritarian and his team of goons... Doesn't sound very relatable for today's audiences.
- hammock 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - jajko 1y ago
    Must this old russian propaganda permeat also thread about... Star Wars?

ksynwa 1y ago

Don't have much to add as a rube but Andor is the best TV I have ever watched. Not just in the Star Wars universe.

ukFxqnLa2sBSBf6 1y ago
Just for calibration what’s your second favorite TV show of all time?
- ksynwa 1y ago
  That would be It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Nathan For You but I don't appreciate them nearly as much as I do Andor.
- el_nahual 1y ago
  Not OP but Andor is definitely "up there" for me. My two favorite shows ever are Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (w/ Alec Guinness), The Wire, The Simpsons seasons 1-8.

7bit 1y ago

I found Andor incredibly boring. The characters were unlikeable. Dialog was bland. I have nothing against a slow burn, but that show didn't even light a fire in the first place.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

cjcenizal 1y ago

George Boole would have loved a show called “Andor”.

globalnode 1y ago
Nandxor
colordrops 1y ago
Had to scroll down far too long to find this on an HN thread about and/or

imetatroll 1y ago

Andor is OK. I didn't manage to finish the first season though and there are a few scenes - like the "training to blend in" - that are just totally corny and just seem "cheap". I disagree with the sentiment that Andor goes beyond the original trilogy. The world building in the originals is incredible.

sdenton4 1y ago
The first season seriously builds up. The prison arc and the last episodes on Ferrix are absolutely top notch.

wishfish 1y ago

For those people who loved Andor and its approach to the Empire and fascism, I have a book recommendation: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Chris Kempshall. It's written as history (not a novel) with the author being an in-universe scholar who originally focused on Jedi antiquities but decided to write a general history of the Empire. Ties in well with Andor as the book discusses, realistically, how the rot set in with the Republic. How it could be transformed into the Empire with little initial protest. How the Empire sustained itself via a mix of military control, propaganda, and moving towards making the population feel helpless and thus apolitical. And how the blind sides of a rigid, fascist system led to the Rebellion winning despite the huge power disparity. It's the perfect companion book for the series. And is a good introductory book on how authoritarianism takes hold, how the insurgents can exploit weaknesses, and what should be done, post-rebellion, to keep the fascists from returning. I think many people, who otherwise would not be obsessive about Star Wars lore, would find it interesting. On a side note: the book does address the events of Abrams sequel trilogy with an interesting angle. That the New Republic essentially didn't do enough de-Nazification and that led to their downfall. This approach to those terrible movies doesn't entirely succeed, but does make them a little more interesting. And matches what we've seen in real life reconstructions after the downfall of various regimes.

robterrell 1y ago
My immediate headcannon was: Dedra goes to prison for sedition and builds parts of the second Death Star; is liberated after the death of the emperor; as a (purportedly) rebel-aligned political prisoner is held in esteem (that Loni should have gotten!) She works for the New Republic and rebuilds the police state machinery that ultimately leads to the first order.

parsimo2010 1y ago

Andor is shot beautifully but it has a major issue that has plagued an increasing amount of shows recently. It is way too dark. The creators knew it was going straight to streaming and was never shown in theaters. I can’t watch the show in the daytime because even with my blinds down and curtains drawn the window in my living room washes out half of the scenes. Some very important things happened in the dark (it being a spy/espionage show), and I felt like I was blind. The script was not written to be an audio drama, it relies on visuals that I literally couldn’t see half the time. Directors shooting something for streaming: please watch your show on a laptop or cheaper TV in a realistic bedroom or living room setting (with daylight leaking in or with some lights turned on). We don’t all have reference grade monitors and a pitch black studio. In fact, most consumers don’t have those things. If you really want to keep the cinematic purity, could you at least make a “normie edit” that pumps up the brightness?

hammock 1y ago
I finished season 2 yesterday and was actually thinking how refreshing it was that andor WASNT too dark. It has some dark scenes sure but I really it’s not nearly as bad as most shows these days
piyuv 1y ago
Agreed. Real PITA with OLED tv’s. Musicians listen to their tracks in car stereos, directors should do what you suggest
- djaychela 1y ago
  Not seen any of these issues on my oled and have watched in full daylight.
jfengel 1y ago
Netflix has a brightness setting that you can easily get to while watching. I really wish the Disney app had one.
vachina 1y ago
Turn on dynamic tone mapping on your tv, or reduce contrast your TV settings. I’d rather they preserve the dynamic range than succumb to the loudness war.

praveen9920 1y ago

>> Right now everything is going wireless. Video is wireless. Lights are wireless. Sound is wireless. It’s all good, but there’s a lot of congestion on sets with all those things combined. Sometimes those nice tools don’t work because there’s too much technology on set I’ve been there. Too much tech and compatibility among them is a major source of frustration. For a movie tech guys I see that as opportunity to come up with an OS where everything can be integrated where all stakeholders being users and multiple technologies working together with cohesion

xorcist 1y ago

What I don't understand is how film crews can work together when they are larger than two pizza teams? And when they want to change something, it's almost like they just do it? Surely they have to file a ticket with the Product Owner first? And why don't they wait until the current sprint is done before doing things that clearly belongs to the next one? Why do the producer run around speaking in precise terms when he is clearly in the position of Business Owner and should stick to user stories? It's a wonder that the result is even watchable! Sarcasm aside, there is something to be said about industries that let professionals do their work, and everyone is doing their bit towards a clearly defined shared goal. Considering the IT industry has taken so much ideas from industrial production, it wouldn't hurt to take some from artistic production too. After all, both are work concerned with refining blueprints where the final draft ends up being the product.

api 1y ago
This is the joy of physical reality as opposed to software. Atoms vs bits. Software is different because digital systems are messes of rigid causality. If reality were like software moving a table could trigger the elevator to stop working and birds to fly upside down by breaking DNS by way of a change in server load triggering Kubernetes to get into a weird state where it kills and restarts DNS too fast to allow it to properly initialize and serve requests, but only when it is raining in Bangalore, India on a Tuesday. The other nice thing about reality is reusability. A table used in one movie set could be used in a different movie without rebuilding the table. There has been a ton of work on good system design to avoid this, like well done (not enterprise Java) OOP, and we were getting there until the web and cloud hit and we decided to trash all that and go back to piles of slop on Unix servers. Still wouldn’t have been as inherently causally ordered as physics but it might have been nicer.
gsich 1y ago
>two pizza teams 1 person teams?
- mananaysiempre 1y ago
  Enough to feed with two pizzas[1]. [1] https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoPizzaTeam.html https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoPizzaTeam.html

BugsJustFindMe 1y ago

Even the set photos are color graded teal and orange.

jfengel 1y ago

I'm astonished at the sets. Some of them seem impossible even for The Volume. I'm sure it's a combination of techniques (locations, Volume, CGI, green screen, etc), because that's what keeps your eye guessing. But I'm continually blown away by how expansive it is in both the foreground and background (and moving between the two).

lucideer 1y ago
Afaik they didn't make any use of The Volume for this, but otherwise it's a nuanced combination of all 3 of CGI, locations & built practical sets.
- themadturk 1y ago
  The did use some Volume (it's mentioned in the article, but as "digital background" or some such), but there's a lot of painted backgrounds and practical sets.
  - lucideer 1y ago
    I don't see it mentioned in the article? I saw an interview with Tony Gilroy where he said he didn't make use of it, but I can't recall if he was referring to Season 1 or both, so it might've been introduced in S2.
    - themadturk 1y ago
      I took this passage, mentioning the "LED wall", to be a reference to the Volume (I think there might have been another reference as well): Kirill: The show spends a lot of time at the apartment with Bix. How big was it? Christophe: The nice thing about that set is that everything you see is captured in camera, including the view outside which was an LED wall. That wall allowed us to be more creative and find some extra shots. You have shots from the outside where you see the city below in reflection with raindrops on the window. You see cars passing and light coming in.

replete 1y ago

The sets are beautiful, but in this season some of the lens choices have resulted in so much CA/distortion outside the focus that you miss out on seeing them properly - to point of frustration. Possibly not noticeable at HD, but glaring in 4K.

jajko 1y ago
There are certain things that simply look better at lower resolutions (and vice versa)
kevinsync 1y ago
Just conjecture, but this might also be what Apple does with a lot of their TV+ series that are filmed for Immersive / Spatial Video (shot stereoscopically and end up in MV-HEVC format). On a regular screen it ends up looking like a super weird bokeh towards the edges of the image.

My_kent_NURBEK 1y ago

[flagged]

nwlotz 1y ago

"Made with love" is a concept that's subjective but real. You can tell Andor was made with love, while the sequel trilogy looks like it was made with a set of release criteria designed by consultants. Not to mention I don't even put Andor in the category of a typical Star Wars story. It's just great geopolitical writing. The boardroom scenes were some of my favorites of any show I've ever watched.

beloch 1y ago

The only thing I can say against Andor is that it made Rogue One seem a little bit inadequate as a capstone film.

briian 1y ago

Unoriginal opinion: Andor is the best Star Wars TV Show/Film since Disney took over. But, the reason it probably did so well was they let people like Christophe just make something cool instead of overly commercial. I'd love to see VCs start funding film production like they fund video games. Maybe then we'd have a genuinely new film the quality of Andor, that was as popular as the original Star Wars instead of another thing inside of Star Wars. Something genuinely new, there's only been remakes recently. I just want a new universe to geek out on.

fdspopofe 1y ago

[dead]

everyone 1y ago

My friend was telling me Andor S2 is insanely good. So I'm seriously considering watching it. However, I had previously watched a few eps of S1, and everything was fine and very well made.. but I just didnt care about anything that was going on, so I stopped. Just wondering did anyone else feel the same about S1 and then get blown away by S2?

udkl 1y ago
Yes, I am the same. I enjoyed the entire S2 even though I left S1 after 1 or 2 episodes. S2 has great, great acting and characters along-with good pacing since they apparently jammed in at-least 2 seasons into a single season. It starts out strong too. S2 shows the larger republic and it's politics and factions. This gives you a broader galactic context of what's going on. This enamored me and got me to go back and re-watch the first 6 movies. I originally watched them as a teen and was lost at the time. Really started to appreciate the setting and story now. I need to go back and watch the remainder of S1 though since they say it gets better later.

Am4TIfIsER0ppos 1y ago

> cinematography "How do I light and shoot this green screen?"

stevenwoo 1y ago

Related trivia (he mentions he worked on low budget shows prior to this), 650 million dollar budget for show's two seasons or 26-27 million per episode: https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/andor-tony-gilroy-genocide-pretty-effortless-1235127755/ https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/andor-tony-gilro... For reference, Rings of Power, Jupiter's Legacy and Citadel (US version) cost about twice as much per episode on Amazon, and Game of Thrones on HBO started at five to six million per episode and went up to 15 million by the final season.

lucideer 1y ago
I haven't seen the rest of your comparators but twice as much for Rings of Power - one of the cheapest looking fantasy/scifi shows I've seen in some time - is shocking.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

RataNova 1y ago

The whole "as long as I’m learning, I'm happy" mindset hits hard, especially for anyone in creative fields trying not to burn out

neom 1y ago
Indeed. I'm apparently good at it, won 4 Emmys for docs, ditched out before 30 because I couldn't take the mindnumpingly boring place I landed when I stopped learning, the work to push my creativity would have ruined me, way easier to ship a business creatively than a film.

enopod_ 1y ago

Cinematography looks great indeed, framing, composition, depth of field, lighting, all outstanding. But the colors? It all looks quite sallow to me, the colors are boring. I am colorblind (protanopia), so to me colors _do_ look a little sallow, but I'm used to it, I don't know anything else. But when a movie or tv show looks like this, it makes the whole thing super boring to look at. Little contrast, bleached, like they pulled the saturation bar waaay much to the left. It's a pitty, because strong colors can also transport emotions. I'm not asking for Teletubbies-style coloring here, but a tad more here and there would have been very nice.