The Mandalorian and Grogu

by Shawn Holden

Some of the Curveballs You Face When Making a Star Wars Movie

In 2018 when I was asked to be the Production Sound Mixer on a new Disney + TV show called The Mandalorian, I had no idea what a fun adventure I had in store! After three seasons of the show, I was thrilled to be asked to join the crew of the first Star Wars movie to be shot entirely in the USA! The first Star Wars movie in seven years. Getting to be part of launching Mando and Grogu onto an IMAX screen was quite an honor and a dream come true.

Having spent years living inside the sonic universe of The Mandalorian, we had the advantage of familiarity, the tonal language of the characters, and the space in which they exist. On some levels, we knew what to expect, but we were also ready for the challenges that come with making a big, epic feature film.

The Volume remains one of the most challenging environments for production sound. Visually, it’s a dream. Dynamic backgrounds, interactive lighting, and the feeling of being totally immersed in an environment. All that truly helps to keep the actors’ performances energized. Sonically, it’s complicated. We were grateful we had the experience, tools, and knowledge on how to tame the environment as much as possible. From using the ZR Acoustic sound panels that we discovered the first season of the TV show, blowing the dust out of the cooling fans on the back of the LED screens to help them stay quiet, along with various other tricks we had learned along the way, we were able to capture totally usable dialog in The Volume regardless of the challenges.

We had some really exciting practical environments throughout the film. One was a swamp set that was so authentic it became a destination for local crickets. It’s hard to explain away cricket sounds on a distant planet! But with a few strategically placed squirts of bug spray, we were able to overcome.

There was a set with a very large swimming
pool-size body of water. It played as an underground sewer. It also had a large on-camera drain pipe that would pour water into the pool. We could stop the water when it was out of shot but you just never knew when it would and wouldn’t be a problem. Nothing like trying to record dialog with Pedro Pascal in the water and a waterfall in the background. On top of that there were lots of stunts with and without Pedro, so you really had to be prepared to capture the dialog in all situations. My Boom Operator Patrick Martens was masterfully able to follow the action and help preserve Pedro’s performance. In true Star Wars boom op fashion, he wore pink short bathing trunks! IYKYK!

We also had a distant planet street set built inside a warehouse where we had moving Star Wars vehicles, some of which sounded like the oldest hot-rods you’ve ever been in the presence of. Loud! Especially in doors. We worked with all involved departments, transportation, camera, etc., and were able to coordinate when the loudest vehicles would clear camera so they could stop and turn the engine off before we would get into our dialogue. That set also required a constant mist in the air, so things were always in some state of dampness. Not the best for an RF environment. But we got it done!

Star Wars locations and environments are so unique, it can prove challenging at times, but my crew and I have been in this galaxy for years and we work together well. Boom Operator Patrick Martens and UST/2nd Boom Yvette Marxer are truly some of the best in the business and are at the top of their game. Be it booming a scene on a set full of hanging cages with various noisy animatronic space animals moving around inside them (think Disneyland Enchanted Tiki Room) to figuring out where to put a microphone on an actor who will be inside a large costume being controlled by puppeteers, these two have proven time and time again they can face any challenge and come out on top. I have been blessed to have done many projects with them, and I thank them both for their professionalism, strength under pressure, their fantastic attitudes, all the laughs and most of all, their friendship.

We also had the great pleasure of having Maribeth Powers as our trainee. She was an invaluable addition to the team and excelled in the position. She has now become a sought-after utility sound technician. Ryan Pedersen did the majority of our playback work with Jeff Zimmerman also helping out. Ryan and Jeff are two of the best at what they do and thank goodness we had them. This project was one that had a number of complicated playback elements. Martin Scorsese as a Ardennian fry cook and Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt are just two examples of dialog playback we had to work with. It can be very complicated for a Playback Operator when you have one actor on set and one only on playback. You have to time out the playback elements just right to keep the scene conversational. Ryan and Jeff did a fantastic job. Our 2nd unit work was done by Production Sound Mixer Moe Chamberlain, Boom Operator Ray Westman and Quinn Commans was the Utility Sound Technician. Many thanks to them for their hard work and flexibility.

I have to mention a few of the amazing magicians at Skywalker Sound who have always been great collaborators. The core of this group has been with us since the first season of the series. For the movie, the lineup looked like this; Matthew Wood and David Acord were our Supervising Sound Editors with David also being the Sound Designer for the film. Bonnie Wild and Christopher Boyes were our Re-recording Mixers. Our Dialog Editors were Vanessa Lapato with James Spencer working as Supervising Dialog Editor. JR Grubbs and Addison Teague were our Sound Effects Editors. These people make magic happen. It always blows my mind.

I will be forever grateful to Jon Favreau, our Director, Writer, Producer, and his producing partners, Karen Gilchrist and John Bartnicki, for having me along on this ride. It has been some of the most fulfilling work of my career. I have made some lifelong friends and have learned so much. I take away many memories that will live with me forever.