How "The Mandalorian" Was Made
- jonothono02
- May 2, 2022
- 2 min read
The Mandalorian was created inside the Volume "formally known as Stagecraft" - https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/20/how-the-mandalorian-and-ilm-invisibly-reinvented-film-and-tv-production/
A massive room 6 meters high by 23 meters wide room with LED panels coving 270 degrees of the room including the celling. This combined with Unreal Engine 4 meant actors had real scenery to react to. This combined with the Mandalorian's reflective armour meant there was the option to have real time reflections.
Most of the rendering was done before hand so they could just turn the camera and have the background update accordingly. This meant that the most parts of the set that required building was ground based. This made set building times far quicker than other sets that need large pieces of buildings or walls to be constructed as these could be built virtually and then brought into the scene. Shooting were times much quicker overall as they didn't need to wait on the construction of sets nearly as much as other shows can.
Each individual episode of the Mandalorian season 1 has had separate directors. Giving each director the ability to show there take on the show while being guided by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Having new directors for each episode definitely, I found, gave a different feeling and style to each one. As each episode is a contained story building on a large overall arc means it can have this freedom. For example Bryce Dallas Howard who directed the 4th episode "Sanctuary" brought in a new character to bring back later in the show. But it also showed the first time the Mandalorian was more than just a questioning soldier it had a love interest. Over course this was not the only element of her fantastic episode but it also is a contrast to Taika Waititi's episode. His episode, like many of his creations, uses slap stick humour humanising the show and bringing in more serious themes using humour while making sure it doesn't get too dark and foreboding.
The combined elements of the Volume, Unreal Engine 4 and changing directors means that the creation of The Mandalorian was a new level of making shows with high amounts of CG. As the directors could also get more into the theme of the show with the Volume while the actors actually had something to react to. This means that going forward making sets and bring costs down could be a lot more achievable once a building like the Volume is constructed. I really enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes of the Mandalorian series as it goes far more into detail about the construction and making of process.
Comments