It’s hard to argue that the finale of the first season of Star Wars Andor was one of the most finely crafted and moving hours of television – be it in or out of the galaxy far, far away – for many years, and some of the creatives behind the episode (costume designer Michael Wilkinson, production designer Luke Hull, composer Nicholas Britell, editor Yan Miles, executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg and executive producer/actor Diego Luna) set on the very grounded world of Ferrix delve into what made the episode come together in such impressive fashion.
As Gilroy began to conceive of the funeral march, the creator started his collaboration with Britell, whose first task on “Andor” was to create the three movements of the music as the band of local townspeople gathers and marched to the end of Rix Road to hear Maarva’s last words.
“It was very important to Tony that we get this really, really right,” said Britell. “What would it feel like to have a piece of music that resonated through the ages.”
Go inside the making of #Andor with the team, from executive producer and actor Diego Luna to composer Nicholas Britell: https://t.co/rdogrqFRSC
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Beyond capturing the emotion and traditions of Ferrix, Britell’s funeral march also served as the baseline for the choreography of an incredible eight-minute sequence. “The rhythm was very much set by the music, so Tony wrote to it,” said executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg. It was also within that rhythm that director Benjamin Caron and editor Yan Miles wove together the large ensemble and tracked how their storylines emotionally and physically converged with each musical phrase.
“It became this rhythmic process to integrate the journey from the beginning of the music to place at the end of Rix Road. And then amongst all that was all the other storytelling to integrate inside of it,” explained editor Yan Miles in the video above. “It’s like surfing around all these characters, and they are all circling inside the same rhythmic pulse.”
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