All language subtitles for The Mandalorian Gallery s01e06 Process.eng

What's the cargo?

Only passengers.

Myself, the boy, two droids...

And no questions asked.

What is it? Some kind of local trouble?

I remember
seeing Star Wars over and over,

and the formula was one
that I didn't know yet.

I didn't have a frame of reference
of the source.

So that was my entry
into all of the things

that helped create Star Wars.

So through that,
I learned about the western.

Through that,
I learned about samurai films.

What I pitched when I went in, I said,

"I don't want to be influenced
so much by Star Wars.

"Want to be consistent with Star Wars,

"but I want to be influenced
by what influenced George,

"so let's look at the samurai movies.

"Let's really look at Kurosawa films."

And that kind of led
to the whole Lone Wolf and Cub thing

that also felt like
it applied in certain ways.

We kind of had a primer of westerns.

He would come up with movies.
"Have you seen this?"

And I'd be like, "No, but we should go
over this trilogy again and watch this."

And just kind of dissecting
what makes them tick.

The beautiful simplicity,

yet really underlying complex
characterizations that you get in them.

Definitely, there's a Star Wars vibe
to any of them if you look at them.

I mean, look at Han Solo.
He's just dressed like a gunslinger.

I don't know who you are
or where you came from,

but from now on,
you do as I tell you, okay?

Look, Your Worshipfulness,
let's get one thing straight.

I take orders from just one person. Me.

It's a wonder you're still alive.

We'd get together,
throw out a bunch of ideas,

work on the logic,
and then he would suss it out

and come up with a script.

Once the script was written,
the first step was to storyboard.

The directors and the producers
would oversee the storyboarding process.

We had a story department
headed up by Dave Lowery.

And we would get our first look at it
in animatic form with pencil drawings,

and we would iterate the story
and watch it as one solid piece

using temporary dialogue and effects.

Let's get out of here!

Stand your ground!

Once we arrived upon something
that worked well in pencil,

we would then go to pre-vis.

When I came here and
saw the way that they were using pre-vis,

I was like, "This is so exciting!"

The way that I've seen
pre-vis used in the past, as an actor,

is that when there's a scene
where there's a lot of visual effects...

And typically it's,
like, an action sequence

where, when you're shooting it,
you need to be very precise.

Filmmakers will create something called
pre-vis, which is pre-visualization,

and it's basically like a mock-up
of what the sequence would be.

And it's incredibly helpful.

It was the first week
we were on The Volume.

And you and I were sat next to each other,
and I think I asked you the question,

"What's been the most eye-opening part?"

What you mentioned
is that you can go into editorial

- and see the story better and clearer.
- Yes. Yes.

And I think you were maybe referencing...

And that makes storytelling much tighter.

And the closer we get
to that animation process,

where you can iterate on story longer,

there's a permanence to live-action

that requires that
when you're on that set,

doesn't mean you can't go back
and reshoot certain things,

but for the most part,
what you're doing is permanent.

- Yeah.
- And then you have to move on.

And anything about the process
that allows you to iterate

longer on story is...
That's gonna make for better movies.

It forces the filmmakers to commit early

and understand and fail early
when it's cheap and easy.

It's what you learn from animation,
going back to Snow White,

there's still a scene that they talk about
being on the cutting room floor.

The idea that anything...

That there's any waste in animation
is just antithetical to the culture.

That's why we plan everything.

And that's why I involved
visual effects from the beginning

like as though
you're my production designer...

- They need to be there from the beginning.
- Yes.

So that it's not just thought
of as a post exercise.

It is fascinating to listen to
live-action people talk about this process

as someone from animation,

'cause then I go back to
where all the other animators are,

and we get together, and we're like,

"They're really talking
about the process we do."

They said 50.

Races age differently.

Perhaps it could live many centuries.

We'll never know.

We bring it in alive.

The commission was quite specific.

The asset was to be terminated.

Something that happened on this
show that's very, very, very unique

is that Jon created a workflow
where we could actually have pre-vis,

but for the whole episode,
for every episode.

Now, that's something that is not done,

and the reason why

it was done in this case
is because of The Volume

and because of all the visual effects
and all the things that need to be

rendered way in advance of shooting.

We needed to have a pre-vis,
basically, for...

Even though it's not necessarily
an action shot

or what you would consider
a visual effect shot.

Because it exists in The Volume,
it's a visual effect shot.

All of the technology
that we're using

is dependent upon
planning everything with pre-vis,

and we combine that
with what I had learned

on Jungle Book and Lion King,

which was plan everything
ahead of time with mo-cap,

figure out a cut, and then figure out
what live-action shots you need.

Build the minimum set,
and in the case of Jungle Book,

you had green screen,

and so you'd build
a whole digital environment.

You'd shoot on a cookie-cutter set,
line it up with the motion capture camera,

and combine the green screen
with the environment that was digital,

and Mowgli and the little piece of set
would lay in

against the digital characters
and background.

We took it a step further here.

Go!

On The Mandalorian, we departed
from the normal pre-vis pipeline

by using virtual cinema,
which was a technique that we developed

and refined on The Lion King.

It uses game engine
to allow the actual crew

to operate camera equipment
within the virtual world

in order to record performances
by either actors or stand-ins,

and then we do camera capture
on top of it,

using equipment that's normally used
to do photography,

but instead, we've encoded it
so that we could record cinematic moves

within the virtual environment.

The directors had the opportunity
to get involved

much earlier than you normally would
on a television show.

We combined them
with their crew and their editors,

and together, they would come up with
a first cut of the show

using virtual cinema.

Sometimes they would direct people
in, uh, motion-capture suits

to get a first take
at what their vision might be.

Sometimes they would work
with the stunt team,

capturing some stunt performances
using motion capture,

and they would have the opportunity
to put cameras on it

and cut it together and get a first look

so we could tech-vis the episode
and figure out what we needed

to build and prepare
for the actual filming.

The real advantage was that
it allowed us all to come together

and look at a first cut of the episode
done using this process,

and although it looked like
a video game at first

and there were no real people in it,

it gave us a sense of how the story flowed

to see if we needed to do
any rewrites or adjustments

before we actually hit the stage
and started filming.

The whole goal
was to treat this whole shoot

like we would have
on a superhero film reshoot,

where you knew everything
and what the story needed,

because I've never been on
a more efficient set

than, like, the Iron Man reshoots.

Because you filmed it.
You did all the planning. You shot it.

Got some visual effects going.

You cut it together.
You can't get it to be perfect.

You're like, "If we only had
another week or two, we could..."

Yeah. On the Thor reshoots,
I think we did something insane, like...

In, like, five days, like,
360 shots or something.

'Cause, like, you're just like,

"This is all glue now.
This is just the bits I need."

- They're really in.
- You're efficient, 'cause...

Yep. 'Cause you know what it is.

In principal, you're like,
"Let's keep it running.

"It's a shot of this glass going
on the table, but who knows what else...

"We'll be open
to whatever can happen."

And on the reshoots, you're like,

"Got it. Don't need another one.
It's just a shot of the glass.

"That's all we wanted,
and it fixed everything."

And so, by having us film in VR
or with pre-vis,

depending on which sequences they were...

That's what was so good
about having you, too,

is coming from animation,
everything is pre-vis.

- Everything.
- So you could jump in there,

and for stuff like the mudhorn sequence
or air-to-air,

stuff where there's not actors there,

you can help translate the vision
at the director's end.

- Just an animated movie.
- And then also, when we're doing...

and we refined it even more for this.

Now we have the MVN suits,
which we started on your episode.

- With the fight.
- How did that go?

This experience
was completely different for me

'cause I come from independent film
and smaller films,

and there was no boards.

You just sort of go in, you're writing,
and you're with your team of bandits,

you go make your movie.

And so the whole process of pre-vis

and building the story out beforehand,
uh, was new to me.

So it was like, "Oh, I wish...

"That's what happens when you get money.

"You can actually make the movie first."

Actually plan.
It's such a better way to do stunt-vis

'cause it's like they're not trying
to do some video

and make all those camera angles
that I don't want.

It's like, I can put the cameras in
and just get the action.

Drive.

Drive!

It's a very different experience
from all other television I've done.

Having the prep time.

Normally, you're getting,
eight, nine days, then you're shooting.

This, I was on it for two months
before I started,

and we pre-vis'd the entire episode.

So even if, when we hit the set
and we hit the ground,

we're pressed for time
and running and gunning

at least we've had the time
to really develop the material

and really, sort of,
creatively put it together

so that we are really dialed in,

not trying to figure it out on the day.

We're trying to execute it.

So that's been pretty amazing.

Please. No. No, no.

I did episode three, and it felt

very much like a cross
between a western and a samurai movie.

That was my first thought,
a gunslinger with a samurai code.

They all hate you, Mando.
Because you're a legend!

A lot of my prep work
in developing it, getting ready for it

was going back and watching
a ton of Kurosawa, who I love.

I think Yojimbo was probably
the strongest reference for it

in terms of the stand-off on the street
and a lot of the way we shot it.

Welcome back, Mando!

The stand-off was a lot of action.
It was intense.

And action!

It took a lot of planning

because I think we had over 25
bounty hunters running around,

and then the Mandalorians land.

It was three days.

Then we ended up doing
additional photography on it as well.

It was a lot to keep track of,
that's where you start to feel

if this was a big feature
and we were doing a huge movie,

we'd probably have two weeks for it,
we had three days,

you have to really work
within the constraints

to make it work under that guise,

but you're still trying to deliver
the quality of a big feature.

It's Star Wars and action.

You really can't deliver anything
that's not up to par.

That was the challenge with that,
but it was pretty fun.

There was a moment,
I think, in day two or three.

We had shot so many zirc hits,

done many explosions
and started to run out.

It was getting to the point where we were
trying to preserve them

because we couldn't get any more
at that point

'cause of the licenses
on ammunition and whatnot.

We shot off, I think over 7,000 rounds
of zirc hits alone in those days.

It's crazy.

- This is the Way.
- This is the Way.

What was fascinating from my perspective
was this dojo that we had,

that we had a new style
that we were coming up with together

and everybody was bringing
their own special talents to it,

and every one of you brought
a whole different set of skills.

And what you may have seen as,
"Oh, this is the way Jon wants to do it,"

was really
all of us having separate conversations,

and that informing the next conversation
I had. So it was a very organic process.

And all of it was spent
facing the challenge of,

how do you get something ready
with a lot of prep time

and not a lot of post time
relative to a film?

How do you borrow
from the culture of animation

that I was already exploring
through Jungle Book and Lion King?

And having Dave now...

Something
I was trying to reverse engineer,

"How would Pixar do this?"
Then I had somebody who said,

"Oh, this is how you interact
with a pre-vis department."

And all of that informed a cut,

and that cut became the Rosetta Stone
for us to move forward with.

And by the end of it was much different.

In the beginning, a lot of it was you
giving direction to a pre-vis department,

the THIRD FLOOR guys.

By the end, it was you with stunt people
in MVN suits

- which are gaming mo-cap suits...
- Exactly.

...in a set that we taped off to fit
exactly what the VR version of it was,

- and you did all the fight sequences.
- Yeah.

Can you talk about that for a sec?
I wasn't on set for a lot...

- Talk about it.
- "Talk about it"?

- Stop holding back.
- I'm holding this stuff back.

Yes, I know.

Um, no, and that was, again,
when it started to get...

Not that it wasn't fun to begin with,

but it was a different level
of how you could use this

because now we were...

Now I could go immediately
from what was in my head

to talking to stunt coordinator
and his players,

and having that captured in real time
and putting that right into the pre-vis.

And so now it's not...

You would set cameras
on top of that.

We're setting cameras...

I was watching the cuts
as if you had shot it already.

Exactly. And now it's not,

you're having a conversation
with THIRD FLOOR and Chris.

You're now creating that on the fly,

and so it was...
and I remember when you were like,

"We're gonna play with this on this."
I was excited because it was...

- You were the first.
- Yeah, we had talked about

some of the fight stuff that I like,

and we both have a certain affinity
for samurai and kung fu films,

and so, you know, this was like,

"Okay, we can actually do this
with our guys in the moment,

- "as we would for an..."
- What sequence was that...

This was a sequence
when Mando is going to break out...

going to break out Xi'an,

and so he's going through the prison,

and there are tons of prison guard droids

that come out of nowhere
and start attacking them.

And Bill Burr being his self, goes,
"Oh, you know Mando.

"He's supposed to be
this ultimate warrior.

"What you gonna do?"

And the next thing you know,
Mando jumps into action,

and he starts taking down
every single droid

with his Mando bag of tricks, and so...

That's when we had to change the droids.
Remember?

I was selling them, "We'll have droids,

"but they're gonna be floating droids."

- Then it was...
- They were big buckets,

- I'd say trash buckets.
- You said,

"I could coordinate some stuff
or do some choreography.

"We could use arms and legs."

- Doug Chiang, could you draw some, um...
- Yeah.

And now, by the way,
so you had human performers,

and now when you see the sequence,
it's...

What's crazy
is it was what we shot that day,

you know, so it's still
that session that we had.

I think it was stage 17 taped off,
and it's still that sequence.

So you filmed it there with taped off.

You could pop into VR.
Saw all the action.

Set cameras, did a cut,
did it, filmed it for real.

- Exactly.
- And, uh...

We didn't have any of that on Jungle Book.

So now it's like, how can you use
these tools to inform this process?

It was really good. Now we're doing that
for every scene, season two.

Yeah, now that's exciting,

'cause I'm gonna jump back in
and do some stuff, once I get the script.

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