#andor film location

[robthepensioner]

Part of the mural in Cleveleys Bus Station. The "galaxy" reference is to the fact that the cafe and prom appeared in the Star Wars tv series, "Andor". The big wave appears to be coming across the prom from Jubilee Gardens.

[hegodamask]

“Ah isn’t this nice, Dedra? Just you and me and….Cassian Andor?!”

(thank you @supervisormeero for my new awkward roommates 🫶)

[colleybri]

Niamos on a quiet summer evening.

Vandals must have taken the pay phones. Hope the Shoretroopers are aware.

Arkie’s is under new management. No greeny-green revnog though. Only slightly green food was pistachio ice cream.

Some ne’er-do-well ignoring the No Running sign…

… scene of his subsequent arrest

Empire-approved public art on the beach

Official seating area (no running obviously)

Arkie’s interior. Oh look, there’s that ne’er-do-well.

[filmap]

Andor Tony Gilroy. 2022

Seaside North Promenade, Cleveleys, Thornton-Cleveleys FY5 1LW, UK See in map

See in imdb

[jadelotusflower]

Ah, we’ve made it the space!Scotland I see.

[tonyebikemejr]

The New Elizabeth Line stations interiors are like something out of star wars. I can definitely see them using one of the new stations for a sci-fi movie

[bluntblade]

Realised that this never posted, but I stand by it:

It's really weird that Rogue One's aesthetic, which was specifically developed for a Star Wars film which had minimal space wizards and was instead about much more subdued characters and murkier moral themes, has now become the aesthetic which gets slathered over all new live-action Star Wars whether it fits or not.

If you step back, Rogue One isn't just very different to the Saga movies either side of it, it's pretty damn different to what came back, what with the modern war movie influences. It's working to portray how the Galaxy often feels outside the saga, and the visuals are part of that.

Mando mostly works with the same look because while there are some big personalities, they're almost all side characters, while the mains are stoic and reserved except for Grogu (who's the only wizard regular). Andor looks downright great, not least as much of it is shot on actual locations and on full sets.

But apply this to Ahsoka and Kenobi, and it rather cuts against the vibe they're going for. Space wizards, with their operatic cosmic conflicts and connection to a mystic energy, tend to want something a bit more heightened (which I think is an under-discussed problem in the PT which is very muted much of the time, and a major strength in the more stylised Empire and TLJ). The colours are muted, the angles mostly flat, and it ends up being at odds with the story being told.

To extend Kenobi some goodwill, lots of the latter seems to have come from the Volume. You keep seeing where the cinematographer wanted to crank a shot of Vader to be sharper and more impactful, but couldn't because the Volume doesn't permit that. Although I do think there are some baffling bits of blocking like in the chase and the first duel, the floaty shaky-cam is a generally poor look and really, Lucasfilm shouldn't lean so hard on the Volume (I mean, seriously guys, look at Monarch. That looks miles better than anything you've done on TV except for Andor.) But point is, they tried and ran into constraints.

Meanwhile Ahsoka seems exceedingly comfortable with both feet in Gordon Willis' metaphorical bucket of cement. The characters' energy levels are tamped way down from Rebels to match the muted presentation, and things often feel low-energy even just within the context of these shows. Even when the show steps into the World Between Worlds, an explicitly supernatural plane (or goes into Ahsoka's coma dream) there's no real change in look. Contrast the way that Empire employs that low shutter speed in the dark cave, while TLJ steps into something surreal complete with voiceover and an impossible CG camera move. In Ahsoka, though, there's little attempt to make the place feel otherworldly beyond how the scenery looks.

And these are largely missing a vital part of Rogue One's look, which is scale. Both Gareth Edwards and cinematographer Greig Fraser are great at portraying large-scale things in interesting ways, and that's something which will tend to get lost with a move to the small screen and the massive use of the Volume, without shots from locations or physical sets to balance it out and make spaces feel more real. Without that, the Mandoverse keeps feeling... rather pokey.

[markantonys]

thinking more about the garden scene, rereading it has just made me want even more for the show to do a "rand and egwene trespassing in the caemlyn palace and meeting gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida" version of it in early s3! because gawyn is adorable in the book version, but mostly exists as an extension of elayne and a helpful infodumper to explain to rand and the reader what's going on while the other 4 caemlyn characters are carrying the scene.

so in a version of the scene where elayne is not there (as i'd imagine she'd go straight from falme to tanchico, which is pretty nearby, while the rest of the gang could pass through caemlyn in their longer travels), that automatically brings gawyn more into the spotlight and makes him an independent and more noticeable character during that whole sequence. now gawyn alone is defending rand (and egwene) from galad, morgase, and elaida, which would be a strong and memorable first introduction to him as a character. (it would also be a great meetcute for gawene <3 and i'd love to keep the book vibe of gawyn being so kind and friendly to rand and having a huge crush on him when they first meet bc it makes the forthcoming events all the more angsty.)

and in general, the book version of course has elayne as the focal point of the caemlyn sequence, so in the show where the audience already knows and loves elayne from other scenes, an elayne-less caemlyn sequence would be a great opportunity to let the other 4 caemlyn characters shine more. seeing gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida argue over what to do with these trespassers, without elayne present, would do a lot to shed light on all 4 of them as characters and on the various relationship dynamics between them, which would be really good because the gawyn-elaida dynamic will be key to understanding his role in the coup later in the season (maybe we see him being willing to stand up to galad for the trespassers, but then being kinda cowed and backing down once elaida gets involved), and both gawyn's and galad's relationships with morgase are very central to their individual storylines and motivate a lot of their behavior down the road (more so than elayne, who ofc loves morgase and mourns her death, but doesn't really have those feelings as a main motivator for her behavior).

also, i've gone back to reread the wotseries articles about the shohreh aghdashloo (elaida) and olivia williams (morgase) casting leaks, and uncovered a couple interesting tidbits about the caemlyn filming!

both actresses were spotted on a set that is almost certainly the caemlyn palace (filmed inside a real-life castle with andor's banner hanging up)

wotseries believes that since this set is a location shoot 200 km away from jordan studios, not too much time will be spent there in s3 as frequent shoots there would be inconvenient

this filming occurred in late may 2023 and was for sometime in the first 2 episodes of the season

this all supports my theory of a one-time caemlyn trespassing sequence in approx 3x02! however, wotseries didn't report anything about josha or madeleine being spotted on this set, or about galad's actor or any potential gawyn actors being spotted. but that definitely doesn't mean none of them were there, maybe some or all were but just weren't leaked. on the other hand, i could also imagine maybe there's just one brief caemlyn-set scene of morgase telling elaida to go to the white tower and ask about elayne, and then G&G are introduced later when tagging along on elaida's trip and none of them meet our main characters during this season (or even just gawyn tags along with elaida while galad is instead introduced as a whitecloak in perrin's storyline, though personally i think it's important to galad's story for him to NOT be a whitecloak at first and then become radicalized out of worry for elayne). or it could be that there are multiple scenes in the caemlyn palace but some were filmed on a studio set and this location shoot was only used for a particularly grand room like the throne room or something. many possibilities and such little concrete info to go off of yet!

anyway, overall, i think that first introducing the rest of the caemlyn crew to the audience via their interactions with main characters we already know could potentially be more interesting than introducing them in a vacuum as a totally separate storyline (and indeed, most of the new characters in s2 were introduced via preexisting characters meeting them, iirc). and i think that it would be really great for rand and egwene to get a chance to meet the caemlyn crew before they get tied up in other storylines for the foreseeable future, since elaida and gawyn, in particular, are quite important to both rand and egwene later on (or rather, rand is important to gawyn but not vice versa djkfjg poor gawyn). but only time will tell if i'm onto something here or if i'm way off base!

[randomthefox]

The opening scene is an action fight with a splash of comedy that introduces the main villain of the story. After the title it goes into a scene introducing and establishing Sonic's character of being a bumblefuck cringe Lord and that he has speed based abilities. Then Sonic returns to a home location where his family is establishing the normalcy of his stable home. Then he has a heart to heart with Tom wherein he is told words of wisdom that will be reincorporated near the end of the film to convince a villain to become an ally. Sonic is then separated from his family by the necessity of traveling to an island nation. Sonic then encounters the new villain-who-will-turn-friend of the movie, who effortlessly defeats him. Sonic is then given an exposition dump about who the new villain is, and put on the track of what he should be doing for the rest of the movie. We then see Jimbotnik and Stone being extremely gay with one another. There is an atrocious not at all funny dance scene with licensed music that goes on for way too fucking long. There is a flashback scene showing the villain-who-will-turn-ally's tragic backstory explaining why they are antagonistic towards Sonic, which also causes Sonic to feel sympathetic towards him and try to reach out to him and convince him they shouldn't fight which falls on deaf ears. There is a token scene of Maddie andor Tom infiltrating through GUN soldiers defenses on Sonics behalf. Rachel is in the movie and is an offensive black woman stereotype. Sonic is victimized and held temporarily captive by GUN. After evading GUN, the main villain of the story acquires ultimate power and sets the stage to enact that power against the world in the form of a giant weapon of mass destruction. Sonic has a fight scene with the villain-who-will-turn-ally that is interrupted by constant cutting away to Jim Carrey being unfunny. Sonic sits down with the character he was just fighting with and says the words of wisdom Tom told him at the beginning of the movie which convinces him to become Sonic's ally and assist him in the final battle to save the day. Tom almost dies. In the end Sonic becomes Super Sonic and effortlessly dispatched robot(s). Jim Carrey seems to die in the giant evil weapon being destroyed. Sonic confers with his family unit after the climax is resolves and reaffirms his feelings for them. The movie resolves with Sonic and his dumb family being cringe together.

Now, tell me. Was I just summarizing Sonic 2 , or Sonic 3?

(Trick question because I was summarizing both movies lol)

[thedirtiwalkoniswet]

I finished the Obi Wan series and wow it is... not good.

I just watched the bad batch (actually solo inbetween but that was so bad I won't mention it further) and this show surprised me with how good it was. When these characters were introduced in season 7 of clone wars I was sure I wouldn't like the show, because they annoyed the hell out of me. But then I actually got to watching the show and it was good all the way through.

So Obi Wan was a whiplash. I have a lot of thoughts.

It's bad. It's so bad. For one, it looks cheap. The main reason I think is the lighting, half the time it is so painfully obvious it was filmed in a studio, and it takes any emergence that you could've had. They also could've color graded a little, it is boring to look at. Additionally is everything so stale, nothing in the background moves, there is 0 wind essentially in the show. The budget also definetly didn't went into make up and costume design, but that is so obvious it's barely worth noting and not the worst part.

The worst part, by far, is the dialog however. The actors are great, I know they are great, but they still struggle so hard to make the dialog sound normal and they can barely do that, because it is so, so bad. They just string random sentences together that don't make sense as a whole anymore. The actors can't react properly to the dialog, because in real life you'd look at them with the most confused face, like what the hell are you talking about bro. It is a shame that great actors are wasted on terrible dialog, that could have easily been better.

Additionally is the camera work quite odd. It can be decent occasionally, I think the scene were "Leia" gets dressed was nicely done and so are some other scenes. But then you get the scenes like when Reva was climbing on these buildings, which had terrible camerawork. Don't get me wrong, there is charm in the camera not being completely stiff, but they're just shaking it around whenever a fight scene comes up or any scene that isn't completely peaceful. It is jarring and makes the show look like a fan project, and not even a good one.

The action scenes also feel slow somehow. I know I can't compare it to a cartoon, obviously not. But I can compare it to action scenes from the prequels or Andor. In Obi Wan, it very much feels like the characters are holding back, when they clearly shouldn't be. Everyone is running and moving so slowly, it only makes me frustrated to see. I fear it might be because the actors weren't given enough time to rehearse or not enough care was put into choreographing/ editing. Even the fight between Vader and Obi Wan at the end was meh, and that was for most the best part. Yeah, it's cool he can use the force again, yeah it's sad that he has to accept that Anakin is not there anymore and Vader is all that's left. But... what else? This was what the entire show led up to and it could have been better. At least the location was extremely cool.

Tragically I'm still not done. Because another issue is that it is simply not a good experience. I'm not saying it has to be a happy one, but even tragic stories can make you engaged and riled up. It was a very bold desiscion to completely change Obi Wan, considering that in episode 3 and 4, he is extremely similar. So they had to change him just to bring him back to who we knew. Usually I LOVE angst, I think it is so interesting to see characters who you love go through hard times and evolve and change. But somehow it didn't work with him at all. I blame it mostly on the writing being so in your face, so bland and without nuance. Star wars was never known for good dialog, but usually that was George Lucas' fault and he wasn't really involved in the writing as far as I know.

There are good ideas sprinkled in. But it mostly felt like somebody said "you know what would be cool to see?" and then they wrote the plot around it to make it happen. (Like that pick up driver or whatever the space version would be)

Maybe I have so much to say because it is a huge shame. It could've been good, it could have been great. And yet it is genuinely terrible, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. To me this is some of the worst star wars media I have seen out of what I watched so far. Only Solo being worse (I fucking hate that movie). BUT I do think it's salvagable. They could make a fantastic season 2, it is very easily possible if they only put more effort in the writing and maybe fire Chung Chung-Hoon.

If you like it I am super happy for you, I know I ripped it apart, but please don't let me ruin something you like, despite all of this. My uncle loved this show and I can't talk to him about the show because I am not blinded by nostalgia bait. You can tangle any familiar character in front of him and he will most likely like it. (He liked Boba Fett and I haven't seen anyone liking it yet, but I haven't watched this one either so I don't have an opinion yet)

[e-the-village-cryptid]

Hey, I was curious if you knew anything about the Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars legends? I'm currently writing a fanfic that includes them, but the wiki was slightly confusing about their descriptions. Also anything you know about Mgnaa-Mgnaa or whatever its name is. If you want to answer, of course.

Also, just to have something that includes the interest from your description, what about Andor sets it apart from other Star Wars properties? I've heard it being talked about as one of the best currently out, but don't quite understand the hype (I haven't watched it yet).

sorry anon I don't really know star wars besides andor lol. I watched andor having only seen the original trilogy once when I was very young, and having read a detailed (spoilery) synopsis of rogue one for context. I don't know how you found this blog in a non-andor star wars context haha because I really don't know anything more than I've absorbed by having andor friends who also know other star wars (pssst @chipthekeeper mayhaps you know the answer to anon's question here?)

as for why I love andor. well. I can and will talk about this for hours so I will hold myself to just three bullet points:

the writing has such a depth to it. sci-fi can sometimes struggle to get through exposition in an engaging way, but andor ensures that every single conversation forwarding the plot/worldbuilding also carries a lot of weight as far as characterization and implied history of the characters and their relationships to each other goes, too. a lot is left unsaid but very much present in the implications of the way characters speak to each other. I notice something new every rewatch and it's delicious. in relation to this, the acting is also brilliant for just. every. single. character

visually it's STUNNING. most of the sets and effects were practical and it SHOWS. the droid is an elaborate puppet and so his body language and everything just feels so full of life. they built 8 full city blocks of ferrix, including many detailed interiors as well as exteriors. it's just GORGEOUS it feels SO REAL. they're attentive to what the extras are doing and actually making them part of the city, not just people wandering around. you could just reach out and touch it. they filmed on location in the scottish highlands they jumped off an actual dam they just. it's beautiful.

the MUSIC. it's brilliant. again, there was a vision and there was a heart to it and it SHOWS. the composer was on board from the very very beginning and so the music is beautifully woven into the diagetic soundscape of the show (klaxon alarms, clanging of metal, actual diagetic music, and more) in a way that is just so emotionally impactful and makes my little band kid heart dance around in glee. I won't spoil the show for you but there is a moment towards the end of the season that made every single former band kid jump out of their chairs losing their entire goddamn minds

*shuts mouth with visible effort* like i said i could talk forever but. i love it. i love the characters i love the story i love the visuals i love the music i love the way it makes you think and the questions it poses and the way it rewards digging deeper into motivations and implications i love the endless things there are to discover. i hope you decide to watch it :)

[hegodamask]

My pictures from last weekend in London seeing People, Places & Things one last time and visiting some Andor* filming locations.

I had the best time with @supervisormeero, @lighttailoring (and a surprise @karnpuffs!). I think getting to hang out with you all at the ISB boardwalk and freak out about the D23 trailer together has rewired my brain 🥴 You are all super super super super cool irl and I hope we get to do it again someday 🫶

*Pictures 4, 5 and 6 were used for Season 2 when they filmed at the Barbican in February 2023. The last picture is Canary Wharf station which was used in Rogue One!

[colleybri]

What’s in the bag??

Official Andor merchandising is really terrible. I want my set of Eedy Karn motivational messages mugs! But maybe that’s all about change …

Going by some of the leaked Season 2 photos from last year , we’re going to get some great opportunities for Andor themed … tote bags!! Yaaay!!! Because it looks like they’re going to be playing a major role in the plot.

S2 Spoilers below!

Bespin Bulletin spies observed the shooting of this scene in London. It seems that Cassian and Bix are undercover (yay, rebel Bix!) and heading for a meeting in Samo’s deli. No idea if that’s the same Sam(m)o character from Ferrix as to my memory he didn’t make it out. Unless Pegla and some others took off in a second ship.?! More Ferrix survivors?! 🙏

Anyway, the report says:

“It begins with Cassian Andor, who’s got his hood up to keep a low profile, and Bix Caleen, who’s carrying two grey bags, walking towards Samo’s Deli Grocery store. Cassian and Bix are deep in a tense conversation before Cassian suddenly stops and grabs Bix by the arm – stopping her in her tracks. Cassian, seemingly paranoid and untrusting, begins to rifle through the bags she is carrying. Bix seems surprised and visibly upset by Cassian’s actions. After the short pause and Cassian assumably being satisfied with his search, the two link arms and carry on walking towards their location and enter Samo’s store.

“Due to Cassian’s apparent paranoia, I assume he and Bix are possibly meeting a contact of some kind inside of Samo’s store, perhaps even Samo himself is the contact. Given the history between Andor and Caleen you’d assume he has trust in Bix, and why Cassian was searching for in her bags was maybe to make sure something they needed to take to the contact, perhaps credits, was there. However this is merely speculation on my behalf.”

So there we have a tiny nugget of possible plot detail. Filmed at the Barbican, which was used for Coruscant in season 1. Not sure I agree with his speculation… from Cassian’s actions and Bix’s reaction it sounds more like he might be checking that nobody has put something undesirable in the bags?! or maybe he thinks her torture has made her absent-minded or something? Can’t believe this fuss would just be for checking she’s remembered her purse! Cassian’s own bag looks like a spy camera type number, but maybe that’s a bit obvious. Anyway, we know that every little detail will have story importance so I’m very intrigued.

So I n the absence of any other S2 information I now have a new question to drive me nuts…

What’s in the fucking baaags??

Set build for Samo’s deli ^

Full report and other photos here:

[filmap]

Andor Tony Gilroy. 2022

Apartment Brunswick Centre, Unit 57, Bernard St, London WC1N 1BS, UK See in map

See in imdb

Bonus: also in this location

[lulamadison]

Went to visit an Andor filming location today in Thornton Cleveleys. Stunning place (Forgive the Mando minifigure. He's the only Star Wars figure I had with me 🤣)

[cantsayidont]

April 1979, October 1979, and August 1980. These novels by Brian Daley were not the first STAR WARS tie-ins, but they were the best of the early phase, and a strong influence on later SW media. The creative success of these exciting, frequently very funny books, which chronicle three adventures of Han Solo and Chewbacca prior to the first movie, had a lot to do with Daley himself. According to Daley's friends and his partner, novelist Lucia St. Clair Robson, Daley was Han Solo, or close to it: a brash military veteran with no love of authority, a fondness for sports cars and motorcycles, and a notoriously sarcastic sense of humor that concealed a heart of gold. Ironically, Daley, who genuinely loved STAR WARS, would have preferred to explore the history of the Jedi, but Lucas declared that off-limits, and imposed many restrictions on what Daley could and couldn't use from the films. For that reason, the novels take place on the fringes of the Empire: The first two books are set in the Corporate Sector, a region administered semi-autonomously by corporate interests with their own ruthless Security Police (an idea that clearly inspired some of the plot of ANDOR), while the third is set in the Tion Hegemony, a remote principality.

HAN SOLO AT STARS' END has Han and Chewie roped into aiding a group of people whose relatives have been "disappeared" by the Corporate Sector Authority, which is quietly rounding up dissidents and sending them to a secret facility called Stars' End. After Chewbacca is captured by the Security Police, Han concocts an elaborate, harebrained scheme to rescue his friend and the other "lost ones" from the galaxy's most closely guarded high-tech prison. Naturally, things don't go quite as planned, leading to a spectacularly ludicrous finale. (Spoiler: Han accidentally launches the prison complex into space.) This novel was subsequent adapted for the STAR WARS newspaper strip by Archie Goodwin and Alfredo Alcala, although the adaptation unfortunately isn't a patch on the original.

HAN SOLO'S REVENGE finds Han and Chewbacca, desperate for cash, taking a job that turns out to involve transporting slaves. This is a line our heroes will not cross, so after dealing harshly with the slavers, Han agrees to help a Corporate Sector Authority auditor named Fiolla of Lorrd track down the ringleaders of the operation, one of whom is her once-trusted assistant, Magg. Meanwhile, Chewbacca is forced to contend with a stubborn skip-tracer called Spray, who is determined to repossess the Millennium Falcon over Han and Chewie's unpaid bills!

HAN SOLO AND THE LOST LEGACY has Han and Chewbacca agreeing to help Han's old buddy Badure, Badure's friend Hasti, and an academic named Skynx locate a legendary lost starship, the Queen of Ranroon, the fabled treasure ship of an ancient tyrant called Xim the Despot. (The skull on the cover is Xim's emblem.) Although this sounds like it was influenced by RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, the book was actually published almost a year before the premiere of RAIDERS.

Although the novels make clear that Han is not overly fond of droids, the books give Han and Chewbacca a pair of droid companions: a laconic old labor droid called Bollux, and a small, extremely sophisticated, disconcertingly enthusiastic computer probe called Blue Max, who "lives" within a compartment in Bollux's chest. Here's how Alfredo Alcala depicted them in the comic strip:

Daley also includes some delightful aliens, including the skip-tracer Spray, who's a Tynnan — basically a sentient beaver with the dexterity of a raccoon — and the Ruurian academic Skynx, a sentient caterpillar who's determined to complete as much of his research as he can before entering the next phase of his life cycle and becoming a chroma-wing who'll have little memory of his former identity.

A useful companion for the first two books is Michael Allen Horne's HAN SOLO AND THE CORPORATE SECTOR SOURCEBOOK for the West End STAR WARS RPG, published in 1993:

Aside from the inevitable game statistics and some quite decent illustrations of the novels' characters, the sourcebook fleshes out Daley's conception of the Corporate Sector Authority, explaining how the Corporate Sector functions and its relationship to the Empire. This is narrated in part by Han Solo himself, which is presented as excerpts of later interviews with an Alliance historian named Voren Na'al (a common conceit in the WEG game books that works especially well here). The sourcebook is best read after the novels, since it explains their plots in detail, but it's a worthwhile supplement. Unfortunately, a planned followup describing the Tion Hegemony was never published before West End Games lost the SW license.

Brian Daley's other major contribution to STAR WARS lore was scripting the NPR radio adaptations of the first three movies. STAR WARS originally aired in the spring of 1981, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK two years later. Daley also wrote the later adaptation of RETURN OF THE JEDI, but he died of cancer in early 1996, at the age of 49, so the final drafts were completed by John Whitman.