Director Isaac Ravishankara Captures The Rise of Ludwig Göransson's Mandalorian Score

‘The Mandalorian’ is a conceptual music video that aims to express the creative process for Oscar-winning composer/producer Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther, Creed, ‘This Is America’) as he conceives the thematic score for the Disney / Star Wars TV series.

Jon Favreau, Lucas Films and Disney+  tapped writer, director and Star Wars superfan Isaac Ravishankara to take viewers and fans inside the musical mind of Award-winning composer Ludwig Göransson as he performs the theme for the new Star Wars series the Mandalorian.  Göransson is most well known for his Oscar-winning score for Black Panther and collaborations with Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino, including ‘This Is America.’

Shot on the revolutionary Volume stage using live capture with massive LED screens created by LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic, Isaac skillfully captures Ludwig’s personal process making music as we see the composer playing all of the instruments himself.  The theme gives expression to the expressionless main character and is an evocative conjuring of a lone man’s journey.  A show about a lone character, created by a solo musician, a galactic one-man-band echoing the show’s themes. 

Part music video, part documentary, part featurette, the film starts in the studio and we are introduced to the tools in Ludwig’s process, but as the theme builds and the orchestra swells, elements of the show are incorporated, expanding the world and the viewer’s experience.  Ravishankara skillfully depicts Göransson in his flow-state of making music, while giving fans a behind the scenes look at the show. We’re given a welcome peak behind the curtain into an artist’s process and a show’s creation in a way that’s rarely done in Hollywood.  

Isaac said of the project: “Star Wars has been a huge inspiration my entire life. These were the films that made me fall in love with film in the first place. As a kid, I watched them all until the tape disintegrated. I read all the books (canon and extended universe). I collected all the trading cards. In college, I even started a punk-hardcore Star Wars tribute band (So Long Princess... we played on national TV once).

This is all to say, I was honored when Ludwig approached me about this project. I really think he's one of the best composers in the world these days, and I was excited to work with him to showcase his process. As he and I developed the concept, the project blossomed into a much larger collaboration with the greater Disney / Star Wars team. They welcomed us into shooting much of the video on the groundbreaking Volume Stage itself. There was no better way to showcase the magic of Ludwig's creative process and the grandeur of the Star Wars universe. 

The project was a literal dream come true, and not just creatively.  Every time that starship would come in to dock, in real time and to scale within the Volume environment, that 10-year-old-with-a-broomstick-lightsaber in me would take over, and I just couldn't stop smiling.”