[you’re able to read the Part 1 of our chat with Sam Hargrave onThe Mandalorian Season 2here.]
For someone with a long resumé of work as both a second unit director and stuntman on action flicks includingAvengers: Infinity War,Avengers: Endgame,Atomic Blonde, andDeadpool 2, it’s clear Hargrave knows a thing or two about crafting the best action sequence possible. But, in the case of filming onThe MandalorianSeason 2, there were some unusual twists. When asked if filmingThe Mandalorianaction sequences was impacted by working within the confines of a special structure known as “The Volume,” Hargrave told us:
“Truthfully, it didn’t really impact us on the action side. It did limit what you could do in the space because The Volume is closed in and its got a ceiling cap, so sometimes if you have, for example, in the first season [the Mandalorian] has a jetpack and they move him with a wire and he’s not just running around, it’s harder to execute that because there are restrictions on the height you can get your equipment to. So, from a design standpoint, it’s a little constrictive.”
From there, Hargrave touched on what makes the filming process unique from a craft perspective, in addition to the finer technical points.
“But it’s interesting in that it’s almost returning to an older school of filmmaking where you have background prints up. Because you’re seeing and photographing it in real time — a lot of these locations are real or they’re built ahead of time — you have to know your shots. So much prep goes into it. They’re not making it up, going, ‘Oh, well, we could put this in the background.’ They know exactly what they’re going to do. They have a really crazy way of doing virtual scouting where you can ‘scout’ the location before you shoot and see where you want to put the camera. It’s a really wild process. It’s extremely futuristic and kind of going back to an old school way of filmmaking where you have to do a lot more prep. You can’t just throw up a blue screen and wing it on the day.”
You can watch our full interview with Sam Hargrave onThe MandalorianSeason 2 below.The MandalorianSeason 2 is set for release in October. Get even moreStar Warsupdateshere.
