Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian

Dude, did you see when you could see the laser in his helmet?

Yeah, look at that.

That's good.

Yeah.

Amazing what we get excited about here.

Exactly. - Look, a laser!

Left.

Right.

I thought when the whole thing is rumbling and it's going like this

and back, like, that's the intensity level we want.

Everything has to build as we're doing it here.

Look back at the kid. Kid, forward now.

And let's cut.

Cut it!

It's so hard.

I mean, it's not wrong...

One thing unifying us is we all love Star Wars.

Right? That was a prerequisite.

Yeah.

But other than that, I don't know that we all have anything else in common

as far as how we came in to directing.

But each and every one of you came in and learned so quickly

until you were actually pushing the medium in a different way,

and allowing us to create the tools around what your needs were.

And it was really fun for me.

I've never been in this position 'cause I'm usually directing.

On this project,

it was interesting working with many Directors.

Very lucky to work with Dave Filoni to get a strong vision of how he wanted,

and Jon Favreau wanted the show to go.

And then it was really interesting working with Rick and Deb and Bryce and Taika,

'cause they all brought different things to the show and party.

They all had different perspectives of the same vision,

and it was wonderful to be able to execute that.

Action.

Jon Favreau explained like we were kind of like this Dirty Dozen,

Magnificent Seven type of crew

that he wanted to put together to help tell these stories,

and wanted the different voices and personalities

each of the filmmakers were bringing to the table,

and wanted to accentuate that and bring that to the world of Star Wars.

Really, for me, you go from never doing anything in live-action

and shooting a Star Wars anything,

it's a very complex arrangement of ideas and reality

and imagination running together,

and I'm very fortunate to have Jon here as, like, a mentor

for things that he knows are hang-ups in live-action

or are things that are difficult, so he helps steer what I'm doing,

and it's actually a continuation of my education.

It's more of a passerby-moment throwaway. It's not like a focused...

Yeah.

He walks through and then we sit on it,

and then we cut.

It's like Apocalypse Now.

It adds a little menace.

It also gives some backstory.

Remember when Threepio's head gets blasted,

and they all walk by, in Empire,

and they pan over to it, and they don't see it?

No, I don't remember that. It's a deep cut for me.

I started in traditional 2D animation, all hand-drawn.

I used to have hundreds of drawings on the floor of my office

that were not the good ones.

My first job was King of the Hill, actually.

Drawing a bunch of Texans drinking beer on a fence,

which isn't what I went to art school for.

It's harder to draw them than people think.

I worked for Disney in the TV division, and then I worked on Airbender.

The Last Airbender at Nickelodeon was a super fun show,

'cause very anime, and I love anime and action.

And then George with Clone Wars.

And that was really the big change for me because I'd never done CG before.

When I got there, he said, "We're not gonna do storyboards.

"We're not gonna draw anything".

I'm like, "Okay, but that's what I do".

So the one skill I had was rendered largely useless.

But it wasn't really, because it's still in all the language

of making, you know, a film.

I still sketch all the time, even today for this stuff.

But George taught me to think more in terms of a camera and blocking

and how to set up cameras for a whole shoot and staging.

So this language was kind of built in me slowly over ten years,

and George always talks in terms of live-action.

And so he really got me interested in, well, maybe it's something I'd like to do.

That's an interesting story of how you guys met,

or how you got the job, I should say.

Oh, yeah, I got the job as almost a...I almost didn't get the job,

because I thought it was a practical joke.

I was working at Nickelodeon, and somebody called from Lucasfilm Animation,

and I'm like, "There is no Lucasfilm Animation".

I thought I'd been excited about Revenge of the Sith

coming out and talked about it a lot,

that the guys from SpongeBob were just

busting my chops over Star Wars. I thought it was a prank call.

It was this producer who I'd never heard of from "Lucasfilm Animation",

and they're doing the "Clone Wars", and I go, yeah.

And I'm being like, all...

You get so tired of being picked on.

And you're just like, "This is the SpongeBob guys. I know it is".

I'm like, "Oh, you're making..."

"Uh, yeah, we're doing a..."

Yeah.

And I said, "Oh, so you're making Clone Wars".

"But you already did that, right?"

I'm talking like that.

You're just talking...

And getting to Clone Wars.

She said, "Well, this is gonna be a computer animation,

"you know, and a whole new series".

And I'm like, "I don't do computer animation".

She's like, "You've been recommended to us by George".

I'm like, "Really? George recommended me, huh?"

And this is the way I'm talking.

Oh, yeah?

She goes, "I'd love..."

He's got confidence.

"I would love to meet with you".

And I'm like, "Oh, I would love to meet with you".

So mysterious.

And so this whole thing...

And then, it's dawning on me, the way she's talking...

But I was like, "No, I don't want to buy into this.

"I always buy, I'm so naive".

And I said, "Look..."

She's about to hang up, 'cause we made the appointment.

I said, "I got to ask, who put you up to this?"

She's like, "Excuse me?" I'm like, "Who made you do it?

"Is this the guys from SpongeBob? Is this Vince? Who is this?"

And she's like, "Is this Dave Filoni?" And I'm like, "Yeah".

She said, "You work on The Last Airbender?"

I said, "Well, yeah". She says, "Well, you're the guy".

Then I realized, it just clicked. I'm like, "Oh, my God".

This is literally what I said.

You have no idea how the guy I am.

I am so the guy.

I was like...

"I have a Jedi costume I'm making in my garage right now".

And she later told me she wanted to hang up right then and there,

but she'd already made the appointment, so she kept it.

And then, I had to go through two rounds of meeting people

and then meet George.

And when I met him, I had to go up to the main house,

and I had to sit there and, you know, at a table.

You know, he's got my portfolio,

my little art portfolio of animation things I've done.

He's going through it like this.

And I'm just sitting there like, "Yeah, I'm not getting this,

"'cause he sees the best in the business, right?"

And all I can really think is...

You said, "That's from The Natural".

Right, right?

All I could really think, though,

"When I'm in line for Revenge of the Sith, I can outclass any nerd there".

"I got the best story ever".

Because I've been in a room with George Lucas.

My cred for my opinion has just shot up.

And then he closes my portfolio and he looks at me, and he says,

"Well, a Jedi would do this".

And he starts on this elaborate description of

how a Jedi would handle a negotiation more like a Samurai.

More like, almost like a mafia, putting their lightsaber on the table, saying,

"It's how we'll do business. If you don't listen to me, this is kind of..."

It's very much in the Toshiro Mifune mindset of,

"Here's the sword, boom. We're gonna negotiate now on my terms".

And he's talking about...everything he was saying,

it was like getting incredible validation for all the arguments I have with friends.

'Cause I was like, "This...", I was like, "I really got what you were saying".

But you don't say anything. You just listen.

And I listen to him and listen to him, and it was about ten minutes.

Then the producer said, "That's it. Your time's up".

And he says, "Okay". And then I stood up, and I was like,

"Well, I'm never gonna see this guy again".

I said, "Nice to meet you". I shook his hand.

He said, "Very nice to meet you". And I left.

I went to the green room next to his office,

and I was like, "Whew, that's awesome. This was a great experience".

'Cause he was cool, he was super knowledgeable.

He was everything that you thought the guy who created Star Wars was.

Great experience.

And then the producer opens the door and says,

"He likes you. You got the job". And she shut the door.

It was just like...

Really, for me, I felt with the pilot,

my job was to show this guy as he is, as he has been:

A hardened, kind of weather-beaten person

that has been through things we can't imagine

and is just doing a job.

And his job is hunting down beings and turning them in.

The consequences of that, the morality of it, "I get paid".

And then everything's gonna shift right at the end, you know, and it's that pull

between greed and being more selfless,

which is fundamental to the human experience.

And for Mando now, he's made choices,

and how is he going to improve himself.

You are Mandalorian. Surely you can ride this young foal.

Dave Filoni, great collaborator,

great animator, Director, storyteller, writer.

But also, he has a strong intuition about what George would say.

He's an encyclopedia of all of the Star Wars lore.

You can ask him anything. "Hey, what about this shoulder pad?"