Dragon Girl Preliminary Art

From the great Chance Shirley.

Version 1

We're going punk rock here.

Version 2

Pet Your Dragon

Dragons like to be scratched under the chin. Everyone knows that.

Music for Dragon Reign

Dude, have you seen the behind-the-scenes video about the composing of the score of Dragon Reign by the Hurry Brothers?


V-Blog Episode 1 from Hurry Hurry on Vimeo.
Click through to embiggen.

Reign o' Dragon

Check it out, there's a little write up of Dragon Reign on Dread Central. This write-up is based on the trailer.

Here is my favorite quote:

"I had to do some Google searching to try and find any other information about the film since it does not yet have an IMDB page and Halcyon couldn’t be bother to list any credits on its website. I do believe my Googling turned up confirmation that Dragon Reign is directed by Andrew Bellware (Prometheus Trap, Android Insurrection, Alien Uprising). As for the cast, I’m sure they’re all fine people whoever they are."

I can assure you, the cast are delightful people. 

Dragons Reign o'er Me

We have the artwork and teaser for Dragon Reign from Ray Haboush.
Dig it.

 Those are the actual Sintel dragons as modified by Nathan Vegdahl.
Now, groove to the teaser.
You must go here to see it.

Stills

One of the most important tasks in making a movie is getting good stills. Arguably it's more important than making the movie itself. I know, right?
Today Julia came to take some stills in front of bluescreen so that art could be made. We won't even know if these stills get used until (I'm guessing) after Cannes.

Of course I've also rendered out ten thousand dragons (which really ought to be the name of a movie). And those dragons are animated by Nathan Vegdahl. It's likely that a dragon will take the lead in the artwork. We'll see.

Party Video

1102 party video small from Andrew Bellware on Vimeo.

White Spheres

Annalisa and Julia among the spheres.

Nathan Vegdahl made some reference spheres and sent them to amuse me. It worked. I am amused.

Dragon Renderer

My grandpappy was a dragon renderer. My daddy was a dragon renderer. Ah got my brothers, they're all dragon renderers. My momma used to render dragons 'till she got too sick to work in the dragon rendering mines. I got two cousins who are dragon renderers up in Altoona. I guess I got dragon renderin' in my blood.

C'mon. These LED lights are cool. Literally and figuratively. Yeah, seven-thousand bucks gets you the equivalent of a 2500-watt HMI. I really dislike HMI's. I mean I dislike them personally. They say mean stuff about my mom. I've been in more than one bar fight with an HMI. Let me tell you, those ballasts are heavy.

John Scalzi on the 1000 True Fans concept.

If I'd had this multiple-math-thing calculator in the 2nd grade I would have been much happier. 

1102: Callista the dragon watches Amelia (Julia-Rae Maldonado) eat a Choco Nom-Nom.

Nathan Vegdahl, who animated the above dragon, uses Dreamhost for web storage and Linode for applications.

If, in the next six weeks, you ask me what I'm doing, the answer will be the same.
"Rendering dragons".

An Update on the Machine

We're powering through the picture edit on the dragon picture. John Dillon has taken the lead on that. We lost a couple weeks due to some fairly popular holidays which occur (apparently) at the end of December and the beginning of January. But we're getting back into our stride.

Callista with Amelia (Julia Rae Maldonado).

Nathan Vegdahl is animating away for us. I'm going to be doing the detailed lighting and the compositing. The goal is to have some visual effects done for the Berlin Film Market in February.
Then today we got whumped with an issue on Angry Planet (which, by coincidence, we'd also got the artwork and new trailer for below). There is a strange doubling of frames in some of the acts. It's like a 3:2 pulldown issue where an extra frame is created every few frames. But it doesn't actually seem to be that. 
With tremendous difficulty I am re-rendering sections of the movie from the original (or close to original) footage. Whoo. The next few days are going to be a lot of arguments with computers I can tell you that.

Abbey Singer Day

Today we shot our second-to-last day of the Dragon picture.

Andrew Bellware, looking about a hundred years old here.

 John Dillon was our cameraman today. The Martian Queen handled art (and mustaches), whilst Tom Rowen was 1st AD/sound/bubble tea acquirer.)

I got this watch just for this movie. I was all about getting a closeup of it.

Andrew Bellware (The Monk) and Nat Cassidy (Reynard) look at a vial of dragon's blood.

We shot in a corner of the Forbidden Palace. We forgot spirit gum remover but that doesn't seem to affect me because the mustache just won't stay on anyhow.
Meredith Newman is the reason my character is called "The Monk" in the first place. Which, in turn, inspired us wearing monk's robes. Which, in turn, made the whole movie much better. ;-)

Movies to come

The remake of RoboCop comes out in North America on February 7, 2014.
Like many facts, this one is important for us to know.

The M. Night After Earth shows up on June 7, 2013. Does anybody thing this movie will actually be any good?

Nathan Vegdahl sketched in this location of a dragon. Wouldn't it be cool if the dragons looked this way? They can't. But it's cool.

World War Z is June 21st. Just sayin'.

City of Bones August 23.

Ender's Game, which to me was pretty boring, comes out on November 1, 2013.

Robopocalypse in 2014.

Day 8

We murdered and wrapped a number of people today. Stupidly, I just realized I hadn't formatted the card we shot on, so I simply added today's shooting to last week's shooting on the same CF [ed note: what am I saying? It's an SD] card. To which I say "derp".

Julia Rae Maldonado enters the "tent".

At first we were going to try to make a tent. Because Steven J. Niles when he re-wrote the script put in a tent. As of last week I was all like "Nah, let's just use the break room and it'll be more like a shack." Well that didn't happen either because the break room was a little too gross even for me.

Steve Deighan as Gregor, after being rudely awakened in his own home.

But there's another break room outside of the regular one. And so we used that. And changed nothing. The best part is that there are actual swords on the wall. That's not the art department. They were already there.

Steve Deighan, Annalisa Loeffler, Julia Rae Maldonado. This is how we get down.

We shot two days' worth of stuff today. Well, what we had originally scheduled for two days in one day.

Dave Chontos as Cragnorak with anonymous soldiers in the background (Nat Cassidy and Tom Rowen.)

We moved to prime lenses when we moved to the fabricating shop. Mostly using a 28mm but in a couple shots we used a 50mm (on the micro 4/3rds Panasonic GH1). We're not quite wide open. Er. I should have paid more attention but probably around an f2.8? That's my guess.

Nat Cassidy, a friend, and Annalisa Loeffler.

This is the last day at the shop. We move to somewhat more luxurious environs from here on out.

Annalisa got herself straight-up murdered.

Stupidly the diopter wasn't set properly on the GH1. Or it got bonked out of my prescription. It makes it hard to focus. And it takes me a little while to realize that no, it's not my eyes. It's just the screen I'm looking at. Hmm... sure hope all my footage is in focus.

Nat creeps all over the green-blooded Julia.

Up on the Roof

Today is/was the sixth or seventh day of about 10 or so days of shooting. Seriously, I have no idea at this point.

Making art, I am.

Nat had a hard day on set. His first day shooting and we just kill him.

Does this make my nose look big? It does. I feel very Texan in this.

John Dillon looking very heroic in a socialist realism sorta way.

Julia Rae Maldonado's hair was nothing short of amazing in this shot. 

The Other Other Fifth Day (of Nine)

We shot our fifth day of the dragon picture today.

Harry, Julia Rae Maldonado, and Annalisa Loeffler tromping through the Hudson tubes.

Steve Deighan and Christopher Pope about to meet their end.

Julia and Annalisa light themselves in the tunnel.

Somebody derped and forgot the spiderbrace for handheld camera today. That somebody would be me. But this was a better day for tripod anyway. Right? Yes. Absolutely. Right. We shot the whole day on sticks.

Annalisa Loeffler.

We bought a bunch of LED bike lights to put inside the cheapo lanterns we got. It gives us a kind of different-world feel. Like they're using dragonstones to light their way.

Julia Rae Maldonado.

John Dillon lookin' sexy as he comes to rescue his sister.

Apparently this is what Amelia looks like while tied up in our world. Sort of on the supplicant side of things I should think.

Here's Julia's glamour shot.

Amelia tied up has to escape.

Joe and Amelia have their little "talk" in the movie.

Day, Uh, Something

I'm a little confused about what day of shooting this is. Because I labeled a day of shooting like four shots of an air intake building of the Holland Tunnel as "reel one" and so our actual principal photography began with "reel two" and really I should have labeled that first day as "B roll day 01" or something.

Leslie Ann Chastain getting some help from Tom Rowen putting mud on her face.

 We went to a lot of trouble to find a spot with no poison ivy to shoot this.

Leslie wears a Tyrannosaurus Mouse T-shirt.

I've shot 1000 stills with the Panasonic GH1 at this point. Or at least 1000 stills since the last time I reset the counter

No gang signs!

Tom Rowen gets ready to slate.

 It occurs to me that maybe this is the break of 2000 or 3000 stills. I don't actually know how to read the file numbers.

The non-creepy Tom Rowen menaces Annalisa Loeffler.

I'd like to point out that Tom actually wrote this scene with the hillbilly cannibals. And he wrote this part for himself. So you know, whatever he's trying to say here. Uh. Yeah.

You menace one lady, and this is what you get for your trouble.

Joe Chapman made us this great knife gag -- actually casting it from the Gerber hunting knife we're using. The hunting knife is comically difficult to remove from its scabbard.

It's not a good day to be a hillbilly cannibal in the Dismal Swamp. Tom Rowen (dead), Annalisa Loeffler (standing), Leslie Ann Chastain (dead), and Julia Rae Maldonado.

Coming upon a witch. That's actually Leslie Ann Chastain shemping for Rebecca Kush (who will be shot in closeup later.)

Today's CSI team will be played by Christopher "Cletus" Pope and John Dillon.

Producers demanded a photograph of the "Skunk Cabbage" sign.

 I think one of the trees with a bat box was knocked down by the hurricane. But mostly the swamp looks pretty good. Leaves are gone by now, of course.

I'm makin' art here. 

Pictures from Libby Day 3 III

Filmmaking is a fake bloody business.

Joe Chapman seeks solace in the olde gohds.

The scrum on the Middlesex Greenway.

Victory is ours Comerades! That's Julia Maldonado, the Queen of Mars, Joe Chapman, Andrew Bellware, Joe's dad (!), Annalisa Loeffler, and... er... Louis.

Annalisa with Louis.

The movie doesn't actually look this happy.

Louis likes a good time.

Three shot.

She's not bird watching, she's gnat watching. 

One day we'll figure out what we're doing here.

Two silver-backed gorillas fight for dominance.

This is the first time I've seen this script.

This might be a good time to put a wireless mic on.

Pilot hero Andrew "AJ" Bellware readys the quadrocopter.

I see a Facebook picture here.

Checking playback from the dragoncam.

Julia Maldonado hunted by the dragon.