Last year, Disney released a brand new Rogue One spinoff titled Andor. From the pilot to the finale, fans found the series incredibly different from the feel of traditional Star Wars projects. Rather than Jedi, Sith, or the Force, Andor’s plot was centered around a more relatable character facing much more relatable issues. It’s a production that many find thrilling, suspenseful, and even disturbing.
Scott Pritchard, a Visual Effects Supervisor for the Andor series, recently sat down for an interview via The Los Angeles Times. He spoke on many aspects of the show, including how he worked to visually design the show to become the diverse featured presentation we all watched not long ago.
Pritchard spoke early on about the cinematography process and how they created many of the shots for their series:
"“Primarily on this show, it was environments where we were taking existing photography and either extending or augmenting it.”"
Andor contained many beautiful shots throughout the entire show. Pritchard revealed that multiple of these shots were taken in Europe, particularly in England and Scotland. Pritchard delightfully commented on the utilization of different types of land for the show.
"“When you have that material to work with, you’re off to a great start in terms of making something feel grounded. We did go to Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, to film some helicopter footage, to take some photogrammetry, footage of some of the volcanic terrain around there.”"
Among other Star Wars productions, the planet, Coruscant played a massive role in the series’ political plot. While the prequel films relied heavily on politics to further drive the story, no film had shown us the type of middle-level bureaucracy like Andor. Coruscant has been explored throughout so many projects. Previously, the busy planet was always shot from high above the city, making many buildings, ships, and people visible. Due to the constant prior use of big shots, Pritchard decided to take a separate approach to how the city-planet was displayed on the TV screen.
"“We wanted to be completely immersed in the city. We didn’t want these kinds of big aerial shots, kind of, ‘Meanwhile on Coruscant,’ you know, big helicopter shots. Most things were shot at ground level as if the camera operator has the camera on their shoulder and they’re right there.”"
Many Star Wars fans quite appreciate it when the people making their favorite content at Lucasfilm are fans themselves. According to Pritchard, there was no shortage of that in Andor’s Production. Many crew members reportedly trace their interest in movie production back to the previous Star Wars films. One thing’s for sure, all the excitement, joy, and love put into Andor can be clearly seen throughout the entire series.
Stay up to date on all things Andor here on Dork Side of the Force!