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Top Quotes, Bloopers From 'Path To The Draft' In 2019
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Why Is "Ahsoka" So Intent On Maintaining The Old "Star Wars" Order Instead Of Forging A New Path?
"The past is the past. Move forward."
When a series quotes what you're thinking back to you it's hard to hold back suspicions that its creators are aware of the audience's skepticism. Context counts, mind you. In "Ahsoka," the relevant scene shows the Jedi's architect droid Huyang (voiced by David Tennant, as he does in the character's animated version) saying this to Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), the renegade Mandalorian graffiti artist who once apprenticed under Rosario Dawson's not-a-Jedi Ahsoka.
Sabine is hesitant to join Ahsoka's mission because she believes her old Master won't have her, but we know she will, as does Huyang. That's the standard "refusing the call" step in the Joseph Campbell Hero's Journey that serves as the architecture for "Star Wars."
What series creator Dave Filoni doesn't know is how many "Ahsoka" viewers grew up with Dawson's Force-wielding character in his excellent animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" or witness her evolution into a skilled operative in "Star Wars Rebels."
Star Wars: Ahsoka
Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) in "Star Wars: Ahsoka" (Disney/Lucasfilm)To compensate for this, "Ahsoka" wallows in an expository mire cloaked in nostalgic fan service, starting with a classic opening crawl. With that its intent becomes clear. The past, as it manifests in "Star Wars" titles like "Obi-Wan Kenobi," "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett" isn't going anywhere. That mode of thinking may be holding back this franchise from the evolution it desperately needs.
"Ahsoka" isn't critic-proof but like "Obi-Wan Kenobi" and Boba Fett's spinoff, it's a property that the fandom is committed to seeing through regardless of its narrative consistency. Ahsoka, Sabine Wren and General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) all have amply established backstories spooled throughout an animated series many Gen Z "Star Wars" fans grew up with. They're also among the few female-centered protagonist teams we've seen in this franchise — certainly the only ones with extensive dialogue, agency and prolonged screen time aside from Leia Organa.
In the main, though, they are shiny new links in the product chain connected to "The Mandalorian" which, despite its mess of a third season, still engenders goodwill thanks to the appeal of its main character.
The same is likely to be true of "Ahsoka."
Star Wars: Ahsoka
Caption Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in "Star Wars: Ahsoka" (Disney/Lucasfilm)
Through "Clone Wars" and "Rebels" TV viewers were privy to the evolution of Ahsoka Tano from a young Togruta Jedi apprentice to an apostate who retains her connection with the Force and her training. And the Force rewards her for this, as many die-hard fans noticed in 2019's "Rise of Skywalker," by including her in the Jedi lineage Rey calls on in a crucial moment.
If you haven't seen those animated series, though, your emotional connection to Ahsoka and Sabine's main mission to find their ally Ezra Bridger and the adversary with whom he's lost, Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen, because evil roles demands nothing less than a Mikkelsen) may be lacking.
Similarly, while Dawson's character was previewed in both "The Mandalorian" and "Boba Fett," those who only watch Disney's "Star Wars" live-action shows will be meeting Sabine and Hera for the first time here, and what we see gives them about as much of an identity as a charm bracelet pendant. The former is bucking orders to take a speeder ride, and the latter delivers "buck up, kid" speeches via hologram before marching into a salvage facility and declaring she's a general.
More extensive explication is available via the reliable "Star Wars" online encyclopedia of your choice. Of course, Disney would prefer you to dive into "Clone Wars" and "Rebels" episodes setting up this show. It has assembled a collection of essential installments on its app for this purpose, only asking you to burn a few hours in the service of understanding . . . Several more hours that will be streaming over the coming weeks.
While that doesn't make it the first "Star Wars" series asking us to look back through the franchise history to appreciate it more fully, it may be the one with the most extensive prerequisite viewing. And that reminds us yet again of how a franchise like "Star Wars" benefits by exploring its galaxy through the eyes of figures we don't know well — like Cassian Andor.
Still, given the out-of-the-box means by which "Andor" augments what we know about "Star Wars," returning to familiar digital explosions, glow-stick fencing matches and earnest blather about searching one's feelings feels like a regression.
This is said with the acknowledgment of the disparate connections the makers of "Andor" and "Ahsoka" have to this universe. Tony Gilroy applied his background in conspiracy-driven action thrillers to the origin story of Diego Luna's renegade while Filoni is more directly connected to the old "Star Wars" ways, such as they are.
Even so, as Filoni and Jon Favreau do in their "Mandalorian" collaborations, there's an opportunity to use a setting we know in our bones to innovate our consideration of these fables. "Ahsoka," like "The Mandalorian" and "Boba Fett," takes place several years after "The Return of the Jedi," when the galaxy believes Imperial fascism to be defeated and planets are still figuring out where they stand in The New Republic.
A more crucial commonality is that their main characters aren't Jedi, making aspects of their personality unfamiliar to most. "The Mandalorian" capitalizes on that relative mystery to explore shades of grey in a mythology long delineated in a black-and-white moral scale.
"Ahsoka" could do the same through Dawson's warrior, the equivalent of a Harvard dropout among the remaining Force-wielders roaming the galaxy. She's not a Jedi and no fan of the Sith, either. But despite reminding those who mention the Jedi and its protocols that the Order no longer exists, this Ahsoka certainly behaves like one to the point of almost verging into languor. Remember how Luke Skywalker became more of drip the closer he came to mastery? It's like that.
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This isn't Dawson fault or any shade on Mark Hamill's work in those enduring movies. If anything, her Ahsoka sports a slightly elevated swagger compared to the stoic portrayals from actors like Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson while capturing the series' overall throwback feeling. The late Ray Stevenson's former Jedi Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) approximate this too, as if they were shown deepfake Luke Skywalkers that turned up in the Disney series and were informed that was the way for their mercenaries to act.
Star Wars: Ahsoka
Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) in "Star Wars: Ahsoka" (Disney/Lucasfilm)If most a show's identity rests in its performances and the writing, then "Ahsoka" speaks of what it means to be, and what it seeks to mean to us, through these figures. The animated series loosened up Ahsoka's character along with the emotionality of its other remaining Jedi, a reason those shows proved popular among all age groups. Since "Ahsoka" essentially drops us into the scene that ends "Rebels" at the close of its second episode, the flattening of these characters in the transition from animation to live-action is a bit of a comedown.
That also speaks of a presumption that the fandom is content for these tales to remain what they always were, as if the "Star Wars" spirit were preserved in carbonite instead of trying to renew a half-century-old framework by injecting it with refreshing and unpredictable energy. If that seems like too much to expect, recall that Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, is about 50, too. Sometimes even the things we think we know can defy our expectations, reviving the stagnant into something worth believing in again.
New episodes of Ahsoka debut at 9 p.M.Tuesdays on Disney+.
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Web-to-Print Paves A New Path To Efficiency And Growth
Print provider moves to expand services, add digital media options, break into adjacent print markets, enhance customer experiences, and automate processes to improve efficiency, while combating labor shortages, are elevating the importance ofWeb-to-print (W2P) services.
According to NAPCO Research's 2023 Annual Commercial Print Industry Trends and Strategies Service, more than half of the 115 companies surveyed report their companies are:
Offering W2P services (e.G., online ordering, automated workflows, real-time process management, cost control, communication e-commerce) allows print providers to strengthen customer relationships, automate production, grow revenue, automate, and expand services.
Because W2P includes all client touch points — from job quotes, to submission, to order management, to delivery — it is a key influencer of a customer's experience in working with a print provider. Given its importance, NAPCO Research frequently includes questions on W2P in its ongoing surveys of communication buyers and influencers (print users), and print providers. This article will combine survey research and print provider interviews to highlight the trends and benefits of offering W2P storefronts/portals.
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Enhancing Customer ExperiencesOffering customers W2P services is one way that Boingo Graphics in Charlotte, North Carolina, enhances its customers' experiences. According to the company's president, Scott Nowokunski, "Our goal is to provide the best customer experience of any printing company in the world."
An early adopter of W2P, Nowokunski says his company is modeling its service experience to be like Amazon. "When you order something from Amazon, it can be delivered that day, you know where it is in the process at all times, and you get confirmations for ordering, shipping, and delivery," he explains. "We plan to continue to build out our infrastructure to be as transparent and friction-free as possible with customers."
Nowokunski adds, "Customers expect online ordering options and all of our top clients use it to varying degrees — sometimes it is a 100% of their transactions, other times it's 5%."
He cites two types of customers that need W2P:
1. Smaller organizations that want to streamline and automate the ordering process to reduce the number of steps required to place an order.
2. Larger organizations with more complex needs. For example, Nowokunski shares how his company created a portal for a healthcare facility during the COVID-19 pandemic that started off with six items, but when it was finished offered the client close to 100 items. "The number of transactions from that customer portal was phenomenal and that really fed us through the pandemic," he reports.
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Turning Points in DemandTwo turning points that accelerated demand for customized storefronts, observes Natalie Ross, senior director of Enterprise Solutions at O'Neil Printing in Phoenix, are Amazon Prime and COVID-19 because both of these occurrences demonstrated the value of speed to market and accessibility of online ordering to the masses.
More than a decade ago, the 115-year-old company launched O'Neil Direct (OND), its service for creating customized online storefronts. What started in response to addressing a client challenge in managing inventory has blossomed into an online, customizable W2P storefront service where customers can organize, manage, edit, and maintain consistent branding across a variety of commercial printing, signage, and promotional products.
OND has evolved its capabilities in tandem with customer demands and now supports 45 customized customer storefronts, a number that Ross says is continually growing. She reports that many clients and prospects are now inquiring about customized storefronts, whether they are a good fit for their business or not. "But before creating a storefront for a customer, we thoroughly review their requirements to make sure it is the right fit for their business needs," she points out.
Ross' job title — senior director of Enterprise Solutions — is not a common one among printing companies, and is possibly a signal for industry change as the adoption of technology solutions and customized W2P portals increases. She started at O'Neil a little over a year ago and has deep experience in W2P portals, brand management, direct mail campaigns, signage, promotional products, and technology service offerings.
"Any printing company that does not offer W2P services needs to start," Ross advises. "It will be a key component of future success, and it will be hard to meet client needs without it," she explains.
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Click to enlarge.
DMS Color: Founded on W2PDMS Color, Pelham, Alabama, started its printing business with the goal of providing W2P services to larger corporations to optimize production and distribution of marketing collateral and materials.The company built its own W2P platform called DigiFLO, which supports more than 100 Web portals and 35,000 users.
According to DMS Color CEO and CTO Matthew Greer, the company recently executed its first licensing agreement for DigiFLO, and is considering offering its use to other printing companies. The platform offers companies the ability to grow their product portfolios and business without being a franchise or having to make significant capital investments.
"We are looking at a different type of Web-to-print offering where we give a print provider a platform to run their business at significantly reduced costs, and with access to a whole bevy of other products and production methods as well," he says.
Greer shares that DMS Color has invested heavily in equipment to offer printing embellishment and packaging, which other print providers may want to offer to their customers.
He believes many companies look at W2P only as a vehicle for processing an order online, but it can be an extremely powerful tool when considering how companies like Shutterfly and Vistaprint have implemented it.
The missing piece of the print e-commerce puzzle, he notes, is connecting producers with other producers. "There is always something else a customer wants or print provider wants to offer. With our first license of DigiFLO our mindset is to connect what we can offer to the market with what other print providers can offer."
Surveys Say Customers Favor W2PNAPCO Research frequently surveys communication buyers and influencers (print users), and print providers on W2P trends, demand, and services print providers are developing.
A NAPCO Research study (sponsored by Canon U.S.A.), titled "Enhancing the Print Customer Connection," surveyed more than 200 communication buyers and influencers, and asked various questions on job submission and preferences. A key finding of this research is that communication buyers and influencers prefer —and use —a variety of options for submitting print work. As shown in Figure 1, two-thirds (67%) of communication buyers/influencers report using an online ordering system, and more than half upload files (56%) or email (55%) job files to print providers.
The survey reveals that many organizations prefer the flexibility offered by using multiple methods to submit print work. This finding indicates that job submission via email, uploading files through FTP, online file sharing services, and even physical storage media haven't disappeared.
Email and file uploads are popular job submission methods because communication buyers find them easy to use and a fast way to submit work. While respondents value email and file uploading systems, they recognize they don't offer the same level of benefits provided by customized online storefronts, such as the ability to centrally manage and track their print work and spending.
It's important to recognize that not all print customers need a customized storefront. Ross says the best candidates for a dedicated storefront are organizations with multiple locations that require brand consistency with marketing collateral, need support managing inventory and supply chain logistics, and expect business growth.
Online Ordering is Key Customer PreferenceTwo survey findings (Figure 2) pointing to the importance of print providers offering online job submission are:
Communication buyers value many of the benefits W2P systems deliver. More than half of communication buyers participating in the same NAPCO Research survey value services that enable better management and visibility of their print orders and costs (Figure 3). Almost three-quarters (72%) report that placing print orders at any time is highly valuable. In addition, more than half deem real-time access to print job status, cost tracking, and price quotes as valuable to their organizations.
These research findings indicate that today's communication buyers demand higher levels of management control over their print ordering and spending. Organizations that use print are under enormous pressure to better manage and cost-justify all of their communication investments — from brochures, to signage, to promotional products, to digital media.
As the responsibilities of communication buyers have increased, organizations are looking to work with suppliers that offer customers tools and processes — like W2P storefronts — to better access, manage, create, and control print production and spending.
Many of these organizations no longer employ full-time, dedicated print buyers; instead they have staff responsible for handling multiple media formats. This shift in who is ordering print is prompting print providers to offer customized Web portals that enable organizations to order and manage printed materials and beyond.
Organizations that centralize ordering and management of all types of communication products to a single Web portal/storefront enable customers to better manage and control ordering, inventory, spending, costs, and branding.
Research on Web PortalsTo uncover market trends and customer demands that are fueling development and use of customized Web portals, NAPCO Research conducted a study titled "Web Portals, New Path to Print Profitability," sponsored by Propago. The research is based on the survey responses of more than 100 commercial printers that offer Web portals/storefronts.
The survey focused on capturing commercial printers' experiences with offering Web portals, defined as a customized/branded online portal configured to the specific needs of each client, and can feature Web-to-print and other marketing asset management capabilities.
Nearly all (89%) of survey respondents offer customers access to customized Web portals for order entry and materials management, while 8% plan to offer them in the future and 3% have no plans to offer them (Figure 4). These portals are branded to customers, and are specifically configured to meet their needs in offering access to a wide variety of products — from print to promotional items to apparel.
More than half of survey respondents report their customers order the following items through their Web portals: marketing collateral (86%), direct mail (71%), promotional products (65%), signage (61%), forms and manuals (57%), and digital marketing (53%). About one-third of survey respondents report offering apparel items via Web portals.
This research finding points to a shift in print providers expanding online ordering capabilities to develop Web portals/storefronts that support all types of client marketing and communication assets, whether they are produced in-house or outsourced.
Benefits of Offering Web PortalsSurvey respondents identified a wealth of benefits in offering customized Web portals that span improving operational efficiency, increasing sales, pursuing larger clients, moving into new customer markets, and enhancing services.
Respondents report that offering customized Web portals delivers many benefits to their organization, from sales growth, to production advantages, to strengthening customer loyalty. As shown in Figure 5, respondents report that offering customized Web portals resulted in strengthening customer relationships, increasing sales from clients, shortening the customer buying process, reducing labor costs, increasing print order volume, enabling organizations to go after and win larger clients, expanding services, and protecting against customer vendor consolidations.
In the next two years, survey respondents that offer customers access to customized Web portals expect revenue from those portals to increase, on average, 12%.
Offering W2P portals strengthened Boingo Graphics' client partnerships, Nowokunski says, because customers typically use portals to manage all of their communication assets, not just print. Through a portal, he says, his company becomes "default brand management."
Boingo Graphics maintains about 130 portals, and it's growing. He says Web portals can increase customer retention because it makes it easier for clients to order and manage items, while making a printing company part of customers' marketing and communication ecosystem.
More complex jobs, Nowokunski adds, may fall outside the capabilities of a portal because "we automate the mundane so we can spend time on the complex." The hardest part of setting up a portal, he says, is "identifying the true pain and the workflows that need to be created to be successful."
Nowokunski points out that it takes a different skill set to be successful with offering W2P solutions. He believes organizations need to have a dedicated person to manage the process. In turn, Boingo Graphics has a director of e-commerce and a support team. "When you are combining promotional products with print-on-demand with a purchase order system with different department codes and approvals and things like that, you need talented staff that map those things out and identify the best solutions," he explains.
Final ThoughtsOffering customers W2P services is becoming a mandatory ingredient for print providers' success because it enhances customer experiences, communication effectiveness and efficiency, and service delivery. Print providers with strong W2P offerings are strengthening customer relationships, increasing automation levels, and more easily expanding their services beyond print.
W2P is a key component for meeting customer expectations to work with print providers that offer a broad mix of services, smooth onboarding, easy order submission processes, ongoing communication, effective job management, value-added services, and security measures.
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