Rotating Episode Directors

Exactly this.

 

I dig it and agree with others in this thread

 

What others said. I don't mind the rotation of directors, especially since the show is written by the same group, meaning it's consistent characterization.

 

I didn't really notice or care until later on, but overall it wasn't bad! Television shows do this very often, so it's not that big of a deal in that perspective. What fans do tend to notice is that sometimes you can tell which director did which episode as you're watching. It's not a bad thing usually, but there are certain tells or trends that the audience can pick up on. Or the directors are simply picked for a specific type of episode. And the longer a show goes on, the more likely you'll have actors themselves direct an episode or two - The Flash, Agents of Shield, Smallville, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are all examples I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm positive there are more.

For example, when the stunt coordinator James Bamford - no not THAT James Bamford - in Arrow started directing full episodes, I noticed that his episodes were a lot more physical and the action was more dynamic; a carryover from his stunt coordination. Or how when there is an epic battle in the final three seasons of Game of Thrones that takes up an entire episode, isaid episode is probably directed by Miguel Sapochnik (he directed: The Gift, Hardhome, Battle of the Bastards, The Winds of Winter, The Long Night, and The Bells).

The Wheel of Time's adaptation on Amazon Prime is filming episodes in blocks, with a single director per block, if I'm remembering correctly.

That doesn't mean it's all good though. There will almost always be discrepancies between episodes, and sometimes they're glaring. Pulling an example from Game of Thrones, in the final season's episode "The Bells" (directed by Miguel Sapochnik), the final shot is of a character finding a horse in the middle of a decimated city and riding it...someplace. In the next episode, we see said character walking to a safe-zone of sorts, horse mysteriously gone. In the grand scheme of things, it probably wouldn't really mean much, but at the time it felt supremely disjointed, given how much attention a white horse in a charred city was given, and frankly how lazy the showrunners had been the past two seasons.

Overall, I'd say what The Mandalorian is doing is pretty common for television, and I think it's a nice way to ease directors into the Lucasfilm family if all goes well.

 

Awesome..until the last season!

 

As mentioned above the TV format really seems to be the right place for doing so.

Although we all have recognized that it could indeed become quite critical, if directors try to contradict each others ideas, especially if they direct the episode right after the other one of a director with a very different approach.

If a director can close up most of his own storylines and/or character developments WITHIN his own episode, everything is going to be allright (most of the time).

The difficulties (may) come up with a character that should have a consistent story over a lot of episodes, because maybe every director has a very specific opinion about how the protagonist should evolve.

Puhh.. don't know if anyone gets my point here

 

So far it's been a great team effort!

 

It's been great so far, they've all done an amazing job!

 

I think they’ve all done a great job so far too.

Does anyone else remember the beginning of TV show Shooting Stars when they had the team members literally, physically rotating on a platform? That’s what this thread reminded me of, imaging Mando directors rotating on a stage, lol.

 

I think you hit on one of the biggest reasons: Star Wars boot camp.

When you have some major FILM directors -- people like Taika Waititi and Peyton Reed directing episodes, it's clear to me that they are prepping them, under the tutelage of masters Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, for future Star Wars movies. They are also prepping their director crew for Disney's expanded line-up of Star Wars shows.

 

Almost all TV shows use rotating directors. They often have multiple episodes in production simultaneously (at various stages in the process) and it would be almost impossible for one director to do it all. Also, directors do occasionally get sick or go on vacation.

I only know of one show where one person directed every episode. The legendary director James Burrows directed every episode of Will & Grace (including the reboot).

The Office used 55 directors during its run (including JJ Abrams), Friends used 28 (including James Burrows) and The Simpsons has used 44.

 

That's no small deal either. With all due respect to past film directors who told us they "grew up loving Star Wars," their work indicates they didn't fully understand it.

 

I think this is true of traditional network shows, but a lot of the newer streaming shows have one director, especially the single-season shows.

 

Yes, good point. A single director can be more feasible for a smaller scale production.

But The Mandalorian is not a small scale production.