IR TV Review: DISNEY GALLERY - THE MANDALORIAN - EPISODE 6 ("Visualization") [Disney+]

After the texture of the previous episode with "Practical", the next episode of "Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian" rightly focuses on "Visualization". This bridges the gap in how the practical in this area and the technology of something like The Volume have to work together. It is an interesting balance. The initial impression is that it would leave less room for spontaneity and more restriction in terms of planning. It does this but probably can't work in a lot of productions. It works well here simply because of the visual effects involved. Also the idea of a director being involved in a TV show 2 months before shooting as Deborah Chow, the director of 2 of Season 1's episodes and also the director of the upcoming "Obi Wan" series relates. She says that this is unheard of in many ways especially in a show like "Mr. Robot" where they had 6 days to shoot an episode. It all comes down to budget and how meticulous something might need to be. There likely will be some spectacular work to come out of this technology but also misfires. It will be interesting to see.Granted the fact of being able to see the entire episode in a game engine setting before a frame is shot is an interesting one. "Star Wars" is a very specific monster though because of the money involved but Favreau did pick the correct team to do this with. Rick Famuyiwa, whom we interviewed for Dope in Cannes a couple years back, is an unusual choice but makes sense in his love of certain type of movies. Again for re-shoots it is an specific move as Waititi and Favreau discuss overall in terms of adjusting something like "Iron Man" and "Thor: Ragnarok". But then again these are large movies. The question becomes of those great moments based out of on the set inspiration.. Granted the reality is that Lucasfilm and Favreau did not have to show behind the scents. It could have simply been kept a mystery except within Hollywood. They wanted to show how it is done which speaks to them wanting to inspire another generation coming up. That is the concept of what Favreau is doing. Very few make the transition from actor to indie director to big budget filmmaker to the kind of open minded technology that is happening now. The journey continues to show the way.B+

By Tim Wassberg