I am starting this blog halfway through my production.
I started writing and developing the idea for my film back in 2013. I have always loved fantasy film, particularly films set in a medieval/viking era. I knew when I was told that we had to make a grad film that I wanted to do one set in this time period. This posed a myriad of issues that I needed to tackle right away back in 2013. I had costumes, locations and animation to worry about. Costumes and locations wouldn't be too much of a problem, but they would take time to find the right ones to make the world i was creating real and look real. One of the biggest issues this film posed was the idea of having a dragon in it. This being a student film, obviously I had little to no money and no way to get any. So i was left with only one real option if i really wanted to do this, and that was to teach myself how to model and animate the dragon myself. So back early in my first year in BIFE in 2013, I started work on my dragon. I began staring blankly at my computer screen with an open source 3D animation program called Blender. I started playing around and buttons and tried to understand the software. This took me about three or four months to start to understand what i was undertaking. I knew what i wanted to do was going to be difficult but i knew that i wanted to do it, so i stuck at it. My first attempts at building a dragon failed miserably. Unfazed i continued working away, learning as i went. With each week I was learning something new. I knew if i kept at it i would be able to get to where i wanted to go. Meanwhile, while i toiled away with the dragon, i was working on my script. My first draft, like all first drafts was terrible. There was a story but no meaning behind the story. It was just a guy going off to kill a dragon for no particular reason. I continued to work through drafts, getting feedback here and there. This helped me build the characters into real people with real emotions and ambitions. The script started to change from a mindless action film to an action film with drama and heartache. There was emotion in the script and started to read like a real script. Time went past relatively fast as my first year came to an end and my second year started. In this year i ran into another issue that I would have to take care of. In order to integrate the dragon in progress into real world photography. I need to learn how to green screen. This sparked more toiling in front of my computer staring at things I didn't understand. But as time went on things got easier and the mountain of learning and work i needed to do lessened. It was early in my second year and i decided the best thing to do would be to film my special effects much earlier than the rest of the film. The reason for this was because adding the dragon into the real world shots would take a lot of time, time i wouldn't have had in my third year. I planned to film in February so i needed to find a location and i needed to cast the main actors. I looked for locations for a while, i needed a ruined castle. While there are plenty of them in Ireland, finding one that would work for the film would prove difficult. Eventually in Laois i found the perfect ruin. The Rock Of Dunamase would be my dragon lair. This meant i needed to get on to the OPW to secure permits which would prove another mountain to climb. I moved to cast the lead actors. A few weeks of looking and i found who i wanted. Unfortunately these actors fell through due to various issues. Which turned out to work in my favor as the actors I ended up casting fit the roles perfectly and i am so glad that i got them. I also needed costumes and for authentic costumes there was only one place i could go, and that was to Dave Swift at Claiomh. February was right around the corner and everything was in place for the shoot. I started putting the final touches in place. I got transport and food sorted and made sure everyone knew what they were doing. February came and went and the shoot went off with out a hitch. I got everything I needed and I didn't need to use my second day for pick ups. Since February I have been mainly working on the animated dragon and getting things sorted for my next batch of shooting which takes place in November. |
AuthorKiefer McGinn ArchivesCategories |