Jon Favreau is overseeing the new Disney+ series ‘The Mandalorian’, the first ever ongoing live-action program based in the ‘Star Wars’ universe. Favreau has already gone on the record stating that he wanted to utilize some of the same types of visual effects employed in the making of the original trilogy back in the 1970s-80s. That means ‘The Mandalorian’ employs the use of miniatures, matte paintings, and other practical effects.
As he stated:
“Star Wars at its core has to feel hand-made and practical. So we have a lot of audio-animatronics and puppetry, all the techniques that we’ve used from the beginning.”
But Favreau didn’t go completely analog on the show, and is using CGI and other cutting edge technology.
One of the show’s costars, Giancarlo Esposito, whose role on the show is unknown, described one new technique utilized on the show:
“Technically, this show has a new technology [that’s] never really [been] refined as much as it is right now. We’re in a place called The Volume, where we do most of our acting, where set pieces are brought in, where we can control the physical atmosphere of what is projected on the walls and control how gravity is; you get a feeling that gravity is being played with. This is a show that’s gonna be really fantastic.”
A similar projection technique was utilized in ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’, where the “lightspeed” effects were projected on a screen outside of the cockpit, rather than being rendered in post-production with CGI.
With its $100 million budget, ‘The Mandalorian’ had access to any type of technology that was available. It should be interesting to see how Favreau and his collaborators combine the most high-tech cutting-edge techniques with old school, tried-and-true methods.
‘The Mandalorian’ will be available when Disney+ launches on November 21. New episodes will be released on a weekly basis.
Source: /Film