1. Hi, I'm Bonnie Arnold and I'm the
producer of How to Train Your Dragon.
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2. Hi, I'm Chris Sanders,
I'm one of the writer/directors
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3. - of How to Train Your Dragon.
- And I am Dean DeBlois,
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4. the other writer/director.
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5. So for those of you who don't know,
this whole world was actually
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6. born out of the imagination of a
British author named Cressida Cowell,
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7. - who wrote a book of the same name.
- You know what?
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8. We forgot to talk about something.
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9. Which is the little dragon
in the title bit.
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10. - Oh, yeah.
- Which was something Craig Ring
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11. came up with a solution for. Because
we always try to customise our titles
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12. and his solution, which was I think
a brilliant one, was to put Toothless
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13. moving through the stars when
the DreamWorks title came up.
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14. And it's subtle enough
that a lot of people miss it.
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15. I love that opening shot
of Pierre-Olivier Vincent's,
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16. of the... Berk with all the lights
and the towers.
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17. Yeah.
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18. This sequence is kind of interesting
because, when Chris and I first came on
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19. to the film, there was a sequence
much like this in place
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20. in the existing version of the movie,
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21. and it was the moment
that we really spark to.
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22. We thought it was a great way
to open the movie; big, exciting battle,
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23. and centred on a kid who just
was delighting in all of it.
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24. I think you guys really did
a great job of kind of adjusting
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25. the Hiccup narration,
that he's telling this story
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26. and you're in his perspective.
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27. Yeah, the narration itself
is kind of interesting
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28. because we tried this sequence
a few times with no dialogue,
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29. and the dialogue was a latecomer
to the whole game.
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30. But we...
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31. We finally had to nail it down,
like what in the world's?
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32. It's confusing enough... We were
used to it 'cause we read the books
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33. and we were ready to do this, but to
somebody who's just being introduced
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34. to the whole thing, Vikings
and dragons fighting, is a little bit...
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35. - I think...
more than you can explain
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36. - with just visuals.
- I think this was our most
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37. complicated sequence,
just about in the whole film.
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38. It seems like it took the longest
just to complete all the elements.
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39. Yeah, this was the sequence
that would never end.
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40. It was the first... It was one
of the first ones we started
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41. and it had to have been one
of the last we finished
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42. because it was always
being altered in some way.
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43. Well, you introduce everything.
You introduce all the main characters,
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44. all the dragons. It's night.
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45. It's got lots of effects.
It's just lots of story to set up.
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46. And it's actually a big...
I mean, in all of...
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47. If you look at the entire movie,
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48. this sequence is really
a triumph of mixing.
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49. And I've always had
an appreciation for mixing,
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50. but it wasn't until Gary Rizzo
and company sat down with this
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51. and really tried to find a balance
between the narration,
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52. the special effects, the music
and the dialogue,
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53. that it never really found its place
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54. until it went up there
to Skywalker Ranch,
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55. and with Jon Null and Gary Rizzo,
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56. - and Randy Thom.
- And Randy Thom.
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57. - We had a great mixing team.
- It's true.
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58. They're the guys
that finally put it to bed.
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59. It's not even so much a mix at this
point, it's almost refereeing sound
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60. because between the effects,
music and the dialogue,
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61. you need to have different ones
take the fore in different orders.
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62. It is, you know, it's a nicely dense
sequence to start an animated film.
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63. It's refreshing,
have a nice big battle.
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64. And the lighting.
I just think the lighting
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65. - is so unique for animation.
- Oh, yeah.
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66. - It is, yeah.
- Maybe you guys can talk for a minute
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67. about Roger Deakins and his work in
terms of the blacks and darks and how...
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68. That's true.
For those of you that don't know it,
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69. we invited Roger Deakins to come to the
studio and do a few lectures for us
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70. and maybe even a workshop about
lighting because we're such huge fans
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71. of his light and his cinematography.
And to our delight and surprise,
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72. he actually stayed on
through the entire project.
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73. And this sequence is a great place
to start talking about
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74. what he brought to the party.
He's got this kind of Jarhead lighting
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75. during this whole thing,
very reminiscent
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76. of some of those battle sequences.
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77. In particular, there's a moment,
it's coming up,
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78. it's a moment where Gobber's about
to run out of his blacksmith shop
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79. and he's gonna wave his
ax hand in the air
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80. and he's gonna run off into the battle.
In that shot, in particular,
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81. is one I want everybody to be
looking at because that, I think,
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82. represents some of the nicest lighting
in this sequence.
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83. And very unusual for an animated film.
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84. This sequence is also
an amazing showcase
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85. of our incredibly
talented effects department,
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86. which for Chris and I, having come
from classical animation...
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87. was such a treat.
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88. We were always giddy every time
they would show us an explosion
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89. or some kind of crazy effect
they were working on,
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90. 'cause they're not only amazing
at doing it, but 3-D...
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91. Sorry, computer animation
lends itself to a lot of detail,
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92. and you can really get some
pretty spectacular special effects.
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93. Shout out to Matt Baer,
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94. - who was the supervisor.
- Here it is. That's the shot.
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95. Right there.
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96. - Of Hiccup running out.
- Yeah, of Gobber.
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97. - Gobber leaving, I'm sorry.
- It's amazing.
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98. The famous net shot. Right, guys?
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99. - Yeah. It's a lot of hand work there.
- That was a... Those kind of things
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100. seem so simple but they're
so complicated in CG animation.
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101. Yeah.
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102. One of the biggest attractions
for Chris and I to the project
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103. was the idea that this
was a dragon movie
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104. that didn't just have one dragon in it.
It had various breeds.
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105. And so, we saw the opportunity to be
able to imbue different personalities
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106. and attributes and different
types of fire in every dragon.
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107. And that really kind of
made this movie unique.
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108. And the potential for it to be special
really lay in the dragons, I think.
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109. And so this is our first introduction
to the different types,
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110. all within the context
of Hiccup's ambitions
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111. because he knows that if he can take
down the dragon he will earn his place
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112. within Viking society.
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113. And, of course, he has his eyes
on the biggest and baddest...
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114. Maybe not the biggest,
but definitely the baddest.
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115. The one that they haven't seen.
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116. Yeah, this one
is called the Monstrous Nightmare.
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117. And Stoick, Hiccup's father,
comes in and saves the day.
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118. In the hierarchy,
the Monstrous Nightmare is reserved
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119. for only the best Vikings
and the toughest ones can take him on
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120. because, by personality,
he's kind of like the bull in the ring.
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121. He's a showman and he loves
to fight face-to-face
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122. and he just loves
the adulation of the crowd.
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123. This is where we find out
that Hiccup is Stoick's son.
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124. And he really screwed this up.
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125. We're trying to suggest a background
where every time Hiccup gets out,
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126. something terrible happens. And poor
Stoick is kind of caught in the middle.
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127. When we had our first conversations
with Gerard Butler about the character,
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128. we thought, "How do you draw
a empathetic line
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129. between a guy who is a figurehead
for this Viking clan
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130. and has a lot of responsibility
sitting on his shoulders,
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131. and a dad who actually
cares about his son
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132. but has to constantly deal with the
fact that his son doesn't listen
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133. and he's the bane of the community?"
And Gerard really dug into it.
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134. The amazing thing about him
is he gets into his characters
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135. and he really wants to know every
motivation and understand all the...
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136. the really subtle facets
of their personalities.
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137. Dean and I started our
relationship with Gerard
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138. with a... probably about
a two-hour phone conversation.
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139. A little conference call we had one
Saturday morning where we just talked
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140. about how in the world we can get
across to the audience that this guy,
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141. he's not two-dimensional, he has a
real reason that he's being so hard
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142. on everybody around him.
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143. But he really does have a soft spot
for Hiccup and really loves him.
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144. - In his own way.
- Yeah. It's understandable.
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145. He's not just... Yeah. Just...
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146. He's not just,
I guess, short and angry for...
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147. - Short, as in... short-tempered,
- Just because.
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148. As much as this movie would seem
to be the story of a kid and his pet,
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149. his very dangerous pet, it actually
started as a father/son story,
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150. and that's... that's the undercurrent
of the entire thing.
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151. You know, two characters
that see very differently,
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152. and they're kind of... It's their
journey of a son trying to fulfil
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153. an expectation set by his...
a very strict father.
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154. And, you know, by befriending,
by consorting with the enemy,
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155. that, not only destroys
his relationship with his dad,
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156. but it becomes the thing that
ultimately rebuilds it and mends it.
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157. Yeah, and it's interesting.
That same conversation was the genesis
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158. of another scene that's about
to come up, which is a scene
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159. between Stoick and Gobber where
they have a heart-to-heart talk
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160. after everybody else
is about to exit this mead hall.
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161. He and Gobber sit down and have this
heart-to-heart talk about Hiccup,
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162. and the genesis of that scene
was that very same conversation
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163. that we had had on the phone
where he was, again,
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164. looking for different dimensions
to his character
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165. and that it was very important to him
that there might be a confidant
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166. that he could really let down his guard
with and talk very honestly with.
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167. The nice thing was that Craig Ferguson,
who does the voice of Gobber,
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168. and Gerard Butler,
who does the voice of Stoick,
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169. were actually friends
and had a relationship.
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170. And I think that really comes
across in this scene, that they...
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171. You really believe that they've
known each other for a long time.
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172. And it's... You know, it's great, too,
'cause we weren't even sure,
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173. from the very beginning, what the
relationship between Hiccup and Stoick
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174. was going to be. And that developed
slowly as we began to write the script.
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175. And this scene is really nice to me
because it so settles... it settles it.
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176. Like, once this scene is finished,
we understand that anything
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177. that Stoick is doing
is coming out of a good place.
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178. That he really is concerned that his son
will... he's gonna get himself killed
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179. if he gets outside too many more times.
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180. Once you settle it, you can move on and
do all the other stuff you need to do.
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181. I like the idea about...
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182. Again, some of the choices that
you guys had to make as directors
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183. was the choice about music in this
scene. I mean, there is none.
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184. I mean...
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185. Yeah, it actually had been
composed in such a way
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186. that there was music running beneath
all of this, but that's one of those
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187. decisions that gets made
on the mixing stage.
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188. And Randy Thom, in particular,
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189. had made a very effective argument
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190. against having music run throughout
the entire thing,
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191. because you do need a break
every now and then.
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192. And it actually made the music coming
in at the very end much more effective
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193. to just let your ears rest and take in
a little bit of the room's ambience.
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194. And more like a poignant point
on the end of the scene.
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195. Well, yeah, the music is always there to
deepen whatever the mood is gonna be,
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196. but there's a couple places where
removing the music actually made
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197. that particular moment feel more
serious, and that was one of them.
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198. And it was a hard choice, I think,
because John Powell just did
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199. so much fantastic work on the music.
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200. Yeah, it was never an easy choice
to take it out.
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201. This is one of the examples in the movie
of how Roger Deakins really brought
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202. a sense of atmosphere to the picture.
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203. And when we first sat down with him,
he had a whole bunch of photos
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204. from his own personal library,
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205. and we just talked about how
to get the feel of, in this case,
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206. a misty wood that was
kind of steeped in moisture,
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207. that had the soft thump of the...
of the turf beneath your feet.
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208. There's so much atmosphere generated
by moments like this in the film
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209. that give it such a time and place
in a very subtle way.
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210. And it really separates it from a lot of
the animated movies that I've seen.
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211. And as proof of concept,
this was one of the...
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212. I think this was the first scene
or sequence in the entire film
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213. that was fully animated.
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214. Yeah, there's always a moment that you
know when you're mining the story...
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215. There's a defining moment that is
really the crux of the entire thing.
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216. And you can have a lot
of certainty in that moment.
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217. You know that no matter what happens,
as you begin to figure out characters
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218. and relationships,
that this moment will happen.
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219. And this was it for us.
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220. In this movie, we knew that he would
find a downed dragon in the woods
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221. and it would be his test to see whether
or not he could fulfil his destiny
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222. as a Viking, and it's a private failure
because, of course, he can't.
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223. Every film that we've worked on,
there's always that moment, you know,
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224. where the cement dries first
and you can build everything around it.
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225. Yeah, there's that first, like,
tent pole. That first tent pole.
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226. There's a scene that went by,
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227. and I wish we had talked about it
as it was happening.
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228. But it represents one of those happy
accidents that actually does happen
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229. once in a while in animation. And it's
a scene where we're panning from left,
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230. or from right to left.
We're moving the camera left.
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231. We're moving up Toothless's body
and there's a moment
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232. where Toothless's wing is in the
foreground and it masks his eye.
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233. And the shot had been, I think,
originally shown to us
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234. with, you know, we pan up the dragon
because we're going to land.
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235. The camera's gonna finish moving
on his eye.
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236. And we had seen it several times
and it worked swell.
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237. But then we saw it one time
in some other review in the theatre,
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238. and it was a mistake that had been
made, that had not been corrected.
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239. But it was a shot where,
as you pan past the dragon's eye,
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240. his eye is closed. And as that wing
crosses in front of his eye,
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241. it goes to an open eye.
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242. It was just one of those
ghostly, kind of weird effects
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243. that you couldn't have planned in, one
of those things that kind of happened.
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244. And we both saw that and loved it
and said, "Oh, my gosh, you know,
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245. go back and make it be like that".
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246. I think that the hard thing about
this scene being finished first
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247. is that this had the most...
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248. Everybody wanted to go back and make
everything a little better in the end.
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249. But we didn't really...
We sort of ran out of time.
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250. - But I think it's fantastic as it is.
- Yeah.
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251. It's a good point. When you're talking
about making these films,
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252. the one thing you can't
make more of is time.
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253. You have so much time to get these
things done and then you just run out.
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254. They're never finished.
They're just released.
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255. They just are abandoned or...
yeah, or released.
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256. This sequence, I don't know why,
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257. I just love the textures and the
surfaces in this particular sequence.
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258. - I think... are fantastic.
- I love them talking together, here.
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259. This is one of the one sessions,
I believe, we recorded Gerard Butler
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260. and Jay Baruchel, who voices Hiccup,
in the same session, didn't we?
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261. And tried to get them to talk together.
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262. This is one of those rare sessions
that we were able to get them both
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263. in the same place. In fact,
Jay and Gerard and Craig Ferguson
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264. were able to come
together in New York
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265. for a series of recording sessions
over two days, which was...
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266. We were able to strike every major point
on their relationship curve.
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267. I think it enhanced
the performances so much.
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268. - It really does.
- Don't you think?
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269. Yeah, one of the things
you don't get much of in animation
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270. is spontaneity, and it's kind of the...
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271. It's like the Crock-Pot of filmmaking,
but what you end up with,
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272. in having actors together
in the booth,
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273. is that they can talk
over each other's lines
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274. and they can do spins on their
own material as we script it,
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275. so that it feels much more lively
and in character and off-the-cuff.
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276. It's always a logistic nightmare
to try to make it happen,
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277. but I think on this movie it really
gave us some great stuff
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278. between Gerard and Craig and Jay.
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279. And America, actually, came in
and recorded with Jay a few times,
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280. - which was fantastic.
- Yeah.
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281. I love the sound in this... in the
inside of his room. It just echo-y...
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282. This, right here, is another example
of Roger's influence,
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283. but also our own desire
to have a sense of place.
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284. And it's not to say it wasn't tricky,
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285. but we knew we couldn't afford rain
because that's really difficult.
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286. And especially interacting with puddles.
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287. But we thought, "What if we just have
it feel as though a storm just passed?"
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288. And so we coated everything
in a glaze of rainwater,
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289. and it actually grounds you
in that northern atmosphere
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290. and really makes you
feel like you're there.
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291. I think those little additions
really add up to a lot,
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292. where you can almost smell the air
and feel the dampness.
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293. I think it goes a long ways to making
this feel like a real world, as well.
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294. - Absolutely.
- Makes it feel like...
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295. yeah, the idea of the storm
just passed through.
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296. I think what was great about
all the Roger collaboration,
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297. he set those things up like you
described before.
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298. He gave us a lot of reference pictures
and, the great thing about our team:
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299. Craig Ring,
our visual effects Supervisor,
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300. and Kathy Altieri and all the lighting
supes... supervisors on the film,
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301. - they make it all look so fantastic.
- Yeah, great...
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302. Huge amount of thanks has to go
to Craig Ring and Kathy Altieri
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303. because they were there
to problem-solve
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304. when we didn't have all that much time
or resources left to do it.
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305. And so this is...
this sequence, in particular,
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306. is kind of a miracle as guided by them.
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307. This is one of the later things
to get finished.
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308. Actually, one of the
last sequences almost.
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309. It was one of the last. One of the
interesting things about this story,
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310. in general, is that we've definitely,
in the past, dealt with second acts
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311. that feel a little bit empty and you're
doing your best to dig up things to do
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312. and to make it feel as though
you've got a very full,
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313. very tight second act,
and this movie was really the opposite.
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314. We had a second act where
we had so many different things
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315. we could be doing all the time,
that it was really more, like,
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316. just a little bit more
like being a traffic cop
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317. and making sure that the right things
were going through
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318. and that we held off the wrong things
and kept them out and stuff.
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319. And just the opportunity to do this
series of training sequences
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320. in the second act was really fantastic,
I think, from a story standpoint.
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321. It's something that, for myself
and I think Dean as well,
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322. it's been utterly unique,
I think, in animation,
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323. at least the films that we've worked on.
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324. Now one of the reasons why we left
the training days to the end
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325. was that we knew...
we knew they were difficult,
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326. in that we had our hands full
trying to solve Hiccup's story.
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327. And part of crafting our particular
take on this story
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328. was really bringing Hiccup
to the forefront
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329. and making his relationship with his dad
and his relationship with Toothless
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330. as driving and as full of emotional
investment as we could get it.
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331. And that left a lot
of the ancillary characters
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332. kind of untended to
for the longest time.
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333. It's kind of... it's interesting because
we have some of the most amazing
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334. voice talent out there,
but we didn't have big roles,
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335. at the end of the day, for them to fill.
It's an embarrassment of riches.
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336. Kristen Wiig, TJ Miller,
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill,
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337. they all gave terrific performances
in the supporting roles.
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338. And when you do hear them,
it's funny and fun and...
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339. They were great about taking
anything that we had written
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340. and just riffing on it.
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341. - And make it look good.
- They could give us minutes
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342. and minutes of material
for one line,
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343. and so they helped define those
characters for as little time
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344. as they have on screen.
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345. Especially, I think, a lot of Hiccup
is defined by how he...
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346. I mean, the kids are almost
like a microcosm of the village.
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347. And the fact that
he's not accepted by them,
Copy !req
348. and he becomes accepted by them, is
a great... is another part of the story,
Copy !req
349. just a nice subplot piece of the story.
Copy !req
350. One of those parts of the story that
doesn't need a lot of care and feeding
Copy !req
351. and yet is very satisfying.
Now, this is one... OK.
Copy !req
352. I love that little bit there.
Copy !req
353. It was a nice little visual
that said so much more
Copy !req
354. than ever could have been done
with dialogue.
Copy !req
355. - The erasing of the tail?
- Yeah, I think it's one of those things
Copy !req
356. that we were, especially in animation,
you're always looking for an opportunity
Copy !req
357. to have a character not say something,
especially if it's exceedingly obvious.
Copy !req
358. That'd be one of those moments
that you were able to use that book
Copy !req
359. - for a real good effect.
- I think that's one thing...
Copy !req
360. another thing, you guys did,
too, was like,
Copy !req
361. go back and take out some of
the dialogue when we realised
Copy !req
362. some of the visuals came...
Copy !req
363. We started seeing them
and realised we didn't really need it.
Copy !req
364. We didn't all... need it all
explained all the time.
Copy !req
365. Nice thing about the relationship,
the secret relationship in the woods
Copy !req
366. that he develops with Toothless, is that
it can be largely without dialogue.
Copy !req
367. And one thing that Chris and I have
discovered in working on past films,
Copy !req
368. trial by error,
we realised that you do need moments
Copy !req
369. where you just carve out
a moment for music
Copy !req
370. and just silence, in general.
Copy !req
371. It actually feels good in this film
because the other parts are so busy.
Copy !req
372. You know, it's worth noting
that a lot of Hiccup's physical acting
Copy !req
373. is coming from one of our animators
who's incredibly gifted
Copy !req
374. at that sort of thing.
Copy !req
375. There's a great moment here
where Astrid and he are left alone
Copy !req
376. and she shoves the book at him
and then is about to...
Copy !req
377. Here. She shoves the book at him
and then she exits and right here.
Copy !req
378. I think a lot of people... They're a lot
of people that really love animation,
Copy !req
379. that know this, but some people don't,
that the voice performance
Copy !req
380. comes from the actor, Jay Baruchel,
Copy !req
381. but the physical performance actually
comes from the key animator
Copy !req
382. and the guys and the men and women
Copy !req
383. that are animating his character.
Copy !req
384. And we do shoot a lot of reference,
video reference,
Copy !req
385. so they can see some of Jay Baruchel's
mannerisms, for example.
Copy !req
386. - Yeah.
- And I do think Hiccup reminds me
Copy !req
387. - a lot of Jay.
- Well, this is a wonderful fusion
Copy !req
388. between Jay's voice
and Jay's physical presence,
Copy !req
389. but also Jakob's natural ability
to have these uncomfortable moments.
Copy !req
390. Definitely, they sit there, like,
animators like Jakob sit there
Copy !req
391. and look at themselves in the mirror
and act out the role.
Copy !req
392. This book is a part of the movie
that came late.
Copy !req
393. And at first we didn't really
feel like we needed something like this,
Copy !req
394. but there was also a request
to sort of broaden the world
Copy !req
395. and suggest that there are more dragons
than the ones we know in the film.
Copy !req
396. And as we put the book element in,
we realised,
Copy !req
397. it was just... it had this great
ghost story vibe to it.
Copy !req
398. And it works.
It's very effective, actually,
Copy !req
399. in continuing the mystery and the lore
that surrounds the Night Fury.
Copy !req
400. Hiccup sort of scares himself.
Copy !req
401. The other thing that is nice
about this empty page combined
Copy !req
402. with the great piece of music
that strikes when he opens it.
Copy !req
403. It does so much
for that dragon's mythology.
Copy !req
404. One of the things that I felt
from the start we needed more of
Copy !req
405. was having Vikings in boats.
Copy !req
406. It seemed odd to me
that they had Vikings
Copy !req
407. who were leading a pretty much
a pastoral existence,
Copy !req
408. raising sheep and living on an island.
Copy !req
409. And no one ever piled into boats to sail
around, so it was nice to get them
Copy !req
410. off the island in iconic Viking boats,
sailing out for adventure.
Copy !req
411. Just want to do a little mention again
of just how tough
Copy !req
412. some of these things that we take for
granted like water and fog,
Copy !req
413. and those types of things
are hard to do in CG animation.
Copy !req
414. Our team did a terrific job.
Copy !req
415. Sometimes it's very counterintuitive
because you think
Copy !req
416. the most expensive effects
must be something like that,
Copy !req
417. where there's
a giant explosion and flames.
Copy !req
418. And those are relatively simple
Copy !req
419. when compared
to interaction with water.
Copy !req
420. Like just having a boat sitting
in water is so tricky,
Copy !req
421. and yet, blowing up a house,
not so much.
Copy !req
422. It's funny, too, 'cause
when you're doing what we do,
Copy !req
423. you're so into the storyline that you're
really not thinking about those things
Copy !req
424. and those considerations, and then you
know when you're getting close to one
Copy !req
425. when somebody in the room
starts saying, "Is that mud?"
Copy !req
426. And you're like, "That's mud".
Then they'll say,
Copy !req
427. "Are they stepping in the mud?"
Copy !req
428. You're like, "Am I getting close to
something I shouldn't be close to?"
Copy !req
429. I think the Deadly Nadder,
which this is right now,
Copy !req
430. is probably my favourite dragon just
in terms of his look and his...
Copy !req
431. the colours,
and he's the most birdlike.
Copy !req
432. - He's so fun and I like his fire.
- One of the other things
Copy !req
433. I like about this sequence is how much
it shows off Astrid and her acting.
Copy !req
434. She's a character that I don't
think we talk enough about,
Copy !req
435. and I think she came out so...
just so beautifully, you know.
Copy !req
436. She's a strong character,
a smart character.
Copy !req
437. Of all the kids, of all the teenagers,
we decided that she would be
Copy !req
438. the most capable and the most serious
about what she's doing.
Copy !req
439. I think the other ones are not quite
as serious about this whole thing,
Copy !req
440. but she's deadly serious. We even
had a little back-story that we wrote
Copy !req
441. a long time ago that explained
most of the kids' position,
Copy !req
442. but she had this seriousness
from being a little girl.
Copy !req
443. All she wanted to do was this
whole dragon fighting thing.
Copy !req
444. She's also the toughest nut to crack
because the cast of teenagers
Copy !req
445. are meant to mirror
the older generation,
Copy !req
446. in that, they're doing everything
that is expected of them
Copy !req
447. and they're gonna carry on this belief
that dragons need to be slaughtered.
Copy !req
448. And that the battle continues,
and she's at the forefront of all that.
Copy !req
449. She believes it wholeheartedly.
So the fact that she becomes
Copy !req
450. the first to turn
when taken up on Toothless
Copy !req
451. and shown a different side of dragons
Copy !req
452. is indicative of...
that change is possible.
Copy !req
453. America Ferrera does her voice,
or is the voice of Astrid,
Copy !req
454. and I just love what she did with it.
Copy !req
455. Yeah, she's good,
and just her voice is great, too.
Copy !req
456. Well, it's a nice contrast
to her toughness.
Copy !req
457. This is the beginning
of forbidden friendship,
Copy !req
458. which is the first of three sequences
we were able to do with zero dialogue.
Copy !req
459. This has a tiny little bit solo dialogue
from Hiccup at the very beginning.
Copy !req
460. But for the rest of it,
we were able to just eliminate it.
Copy !req
461. And it's over a five-minute sequence.
Copy !req
462. I was one of the naysayers that thought
maybe we couldn't sustain
Copy !req
463. five minutes of just...
in the middle of the movie,
Copy !req
464. but I was really proven wrong
by how fabulous the animation is
Copy !req
465. and the emotion of the story here.
Copy !req
466. One of the things, in designing
Toothless, that we like to talk about
Copy !req
467. is kind of the needs that we needed.
In the book,
Copy !req
468. Toothless was
a little iguana-size dragon.
Copy !req
469. But we needed one that Hiccup
was eventually going to be able
Copy !req
470. to climb onto and fly.
He also needed to be fierce.
Copy !req
471. And so part of his design
is one that is very threatening.
Copy !req
472. But built into him is the ability
to emote and to become a big pussycat
Copy !req
473. as the film goes on. So he needed
to have all of those factors
Copy !req
474. and he had designed into him
a little bit of a mammalian quality
Copy !req
475. that's based on a black panther
photograph that we had seen.
Copy !req
476. He also has those plates on the back
of his head that act as ears
Copy !req
477. so they can signal emotion
and curiosity,
Copy !req
478. and when laid down,
you know, threatened.
Copy !req
479. For us, it was really the most
non-negotiable part of this dragon,
Copy !req
480. is that no matter what people think
a dragon should be
Copy !req
481. or what a dragon should have on him,
we knew that we had to give him
Copy !req
482. a gigantic set of virtual ears.
In this case, they're not actually ears.
Copy !req
483. If you really want to get technical,
they're enlarged plates,
Copy !req
484. and he has a series
of them around his head.
Copy !req
485. But without those gigantic ear things
you would really never understand fully
Copy !req
486. how he's feeling
and what his state of mind is.
Copy !req
487. Chris, I know you did a lot
of the boarding, storyboarding
Copy !req
488. on this sequence, but I know also
Tom Owens had done some early,
Copy !req
489. another one of
our terrific story artists,
Copy !req
490. did some of this stuff
with the regurgitating the food.
Copy !req
491. And from an early thing,
it was always so fun.
Copy !req
492. Gabe Hordos, who is the
supervising animator on Toothless,
Copy !req
493. actually channelled a lot of his cat
into the behaviour of Toothless.
Copy !req
494. So people who see this animation,
Copy !req
495. they often see elements
of their own cats' behaviour.
Copy !req
496. He didn't realise he was a cat person
until just before the film started,
Copy !req
497. when he adopted one.
Copy !req
498. So a lot of this behaviour kind of
finds its way into the things...
Copy !req
499. the way Toothless acts
and the expressions he does.
Copy !req
500. I never know if that reads, but that
little bit where he's watching that bird
Copy !req
501. fly away is supposed
to come off as him feeling envious
Copy !req
502. that that thing can fly and he can't.
Copy !req
503. A lot of this was flushed out between
Tron, Alessandro Carloni and myself
Copy !req
504. sitting in our editors' suite.
Copy !req
505. Just working out how this thing
would really unravel and unspool.
Copy !req
506. Which, oddly enough, we captured
that entire meeting on video.
Copy !req
507. We just handed the camera
to the editor and said,
Copy !req
508. "Shoot this meeting
in case something happens".
Copy !req
509. And in that meeting we worked out
pretty much everything that happened
Copy !req
510. - in this sequence.
- I remember being in the
Copy !req
511. animation dailies room
when Gabe showed you
Copy !req
512. some of the test shots
for this sequence.
Copy !req
513. It was so fantastic, of what Toothless,
the Toothless animation might look like.
Copy !req
514. Yeah, it's important to note that most
of the things that Toothless is doing
Copy !req
515. in this sequence
he is not rigged to do.
Copy !req
516. Which means they have to break
his rig and there's a lot of people
Copy !req
517. in the character effects department
that have to go back and just fix it,
Copy !req
518. and, you know...
Copy !req
519. And if you bend him too far,
Copy !req
520. he'll actually develop a kink
in his body and stuff.
Copy !req
521. In particular, there's a scene
in the very beginning of the sequence
Copy !req
522. where Toothless sits down
and just watches Hiccup
Copy !req
523. before this whole thing really gets
rolling. And he can't sit down.
Copy !req
524. But Gabe was able to pose that thing
so beautifully and work it out.
Copy !req
525. And then a huge number of people
would come back later
Copy !req
526. and fix all the stuff that was lingering
that had to be fixed.
Copy !req
527. We have to do a call-out to the music
that John Powell did such a great...
Copy !req
528. This sequence is
so much about the music.
Copy !req
529. I think it's a beautiful,
beautiful combination.
Copy !req
530. - This shot is... This is it.
- This is... OK.
Copy !req
531. There's something about to happen,
this little tiny move the dragon makes
Copy !req
532. before he puts his nose
in Hiccup's hand.
Copy !req
533. And to me, it's right... there.
Copy !req
534. It's so beautifully thought out,
Copy !req
535. I think, on the part of Gabe.
Copy !req
536. That's the moment
where they really connect,
Copy !req
537. or the first moment where they connect.
Copy !req
538. Just to think of it... I'm just
so impressed when somebody can think
Copy !req
539. of something that clearly, that
there be that minute little move
Copy !req
540. before he finally gives in and puts
his nose in his hand. Very impressive.
Copy !req
541. I think this was a lot of improv
by the kids, again, wasn't it?
Copy !req
542. - They call them kids.
- In particular, yes.
Copy !req
543. - In particular, this line.
- From Jonah?
Copy !req
544. About the beautiful hand on the
beautiful foot. I think this is...
Copy !req
545. We did not write "beautiful" in the
dialogue. He added the word "beautiful"
Copy !req
546. and it just made it.
It just made it so ridiculous.
Copy !req
547. And he added the whole thing
about his face.
Copy !req
548. Fantastic.
Copy !req
549. Craig Ferguson I think was, as Gobber,
Copy !req
550. was a lot of the glue
that keeps a lot of this stuff,
Copy !req
551. these scenes working, to me.
It's just...
Copy !req
552. You really buy that he's,
you know, the teacher.
Copy !req
553. You don't know if he's exaggerating or,
you know, telling the truth, or...
Copy !req
554. We're about to jump into the
second of the three sequences
Copy !req
555. that have no dialogue.
Copy !req
556. It's something that Dean and I
learned a while ago.
Copy !req
557. That we would try
to engineer places in our films
Copy !req
558. where we could just let the dialogue...
just let it go.
Copy !req
559. Let the music take over. We're such fans
of the scores of these movies,
Copy !req
560. and to find, on purpose, to find
places where the score can carry it.
Copy !req
561. The score and the visuals.
Copy !req
562. I'm very proud that we have three places
in this film where that happens.
Copy !req
563. If you count "Secret in the Cove,"
it's four.
Copy !req
564. - Is it four?
- Yeah.
Copy !req
565. Obviously, this is Hiccup
creating a tail for Toothless.
Copy !req
566. This is one of the very first images
that we talked about
Copy !req
567. when we came onto the film.
It's the idea, how do we separate this
Copy !req
568. from other dragon movies and how
do we refresh the idea of dragons?
Copy !req
569. And one thing that just
kind of struck me early on
Copy !req
570. was the notion
that we would have a dragon
Copy !req
571. that was part organic
and part mechanical.
Copy !req
572. That Hiccup will have constructed
Copy !req
573. some sort of replacement prosthetic
Copy !req
574. that he controls through
some rigging in the saddle.
Copy !req
575. So it was very...
it was an exciting image to us,
Copy !req
576. and immediately we thought
that would be great.
Copy !req
577. It had an almost kind of
a Miyazaki quality to it.
Copy !req
578. This was one of those...
another scene that was produced
Copy !req
579. really early in the game. Right, guys?
Copy !req
580. This is one of the earliest ones,
maybe the second one.
Copy !req
581. I mean, when you guys
came up with, you know,
Copy !req
582. painted a picture
of the whole story of the movie,
Copy !req
583. the flying scenes were
the most clear in your head.
Copy !req
584. And we decided to go with those first,
in terms of producing them.
Copy !req
585. They were the places in the movie
where you couldn't argue that
Copy !req
586. that was going to happen. There's
other places where it was more plastic
Copy !req
587. and you could see it maybe
going different ways.
Copy !req
588. But yeah, we knew that
the points on the curve with the dragon,
Copy !req
589. we'd go from broken, to being repaired,
to being flying.
Copy !req
590. That's my favourite shot,
almost in the movie, when the wings...
Copy !req
591. I know something bad's gonna happen.
Copy !req
592. John Powell has some great Celtic
flavour, I think, in the score here
Copy !req
593. that I really...
makes you feel of the place.
Copy !req
594. It's a big "hats off" to Craig Ring and
Kathy Altieri and our lighting team
Copy !req
595. to make that cove feel different
every time we go there.
Copy !req
596. 'Cause it was a set we
know we would be going back to,
Copy !req
597. having Toothless being trapped there.
Copy !req
598. I think they refreshed it every time
with a great look.
Copy !req
599. Speaking of refreshing, this
is our third time in the training ring.
Copy !req
600. We were always trying to find different
ways of keeping that ring interesting.
Copy !req
601. So, just like the Academy Awards
tend to change their set
Copy !req
602. over the course of a broadcast,
we changed this ring
Copy !req
603. every time you went into it.
Copy !req
604. The first time you went in,
it was just big and open
Copy !req
605. and had the Gronckle flying around.
The second time we partitioned it off
Copy !req
606. with a maze, and the third time now,
we partitioned it with this
Copy !req
607. kind of greenish fog.
Copy !req
608. So it always feels different.
Copy !req
609. Who doesn't enjoy that?
Copy !req
610. This was a great opportunity
for sound design as well.
Copy !req
611. 'Cause we knew that Randy Thom
would be able to
Copy !req
612. orchestrate kind of the comings
and goings of this two-headed...
Copy !req
613. Hideous Zippleback
as it moved around in its own smoke.
Copy !req
614. A great sense of tension to it.
Copy !req
615. How many times did we see that shot
without water? That was...
Copy !req
616. - Yeah.
- That was so tough to add that.
Copy !req
617. I have to say, one of the things
I like about this dragon in the end,
Copy !req
618. when he was all surfaced and lit,
Copy !req
619. he has kind of like the feeling
of a giant toy
Copy !req
620. in the best possible way.
Copy !req
621. When his nose is really close and you
see those nice little shiny plates
Copy !req
622. on the bridge of his nose.
I just love this guy.
Copy !req
623. - This shot gets all the laughs.
- Here's a nice... OK, this is a nice
Copy !req
624. little piece of physical acting here,
I think, on...
Copy !req
625. - And that's Jakob.
- It's him again. Yeah.
Copy !req
626. And on to the montage.
Every movie needs a montage.
Copy !req
627. And we wanted this one to feel really
bright and fresh and uplifting.
Copy !req
628. I think it has great energy to it.
Copy !req
629. It really helps us cover
a lot of ground, story-wise,
Copy !req
630. 'cause we knew in order for any of this
to be believable that there would
Copy !req
631. have to be a lot of trial and error
in learning to fly the dragon.
Copy !req
632. At the same time,
we wanted to build the house of cards
Copy !req
633. in a very precarious way for Hiccup
Copy !req
634. so that his double life
was getting harder and harder to live.
Copy !req
635. Some beautiful examples
of lighting that, of course,
Copy !req
636. Roger and Craig and Kathy
and our incredible lighting team
Copy !req
637. brought to the mix.
Copy !req
638. One of the things that's hard is
to come up with new lighting setups.
Copy !req
639. Or I guess many new lighting setups
in a scene like this.
Copy !req
640. And they were able to vary it
with so much believability
Copy !req
641. that you never feel
like you're reusing anything.
Copy !req
642. Curiously, just because we mentioned it
for some other sequences,
Copy !req
643. this would be opposite of the sequences
that were done first.
Copy !req
644. This was actually one of the very
last sequences that we finalised.
Copy !req
645. This is a good place to mention that we
originally started with a Toothless
Copy !req
646. that was actually jet black
and found later that we needed to add
Copy !req
647. just a little bit of texture
and patterning,
Copy !req
648. or he'd begin looking actually
like kind of a big toy.
Copy !req
649. So if you look at him now,
he has little tiny spots,
Copy !req
650. almost like a... like, I don't know,
like a manta ray would have,
Copy !req
651. and it really helped.
Copy !req
652. Well, he almost looked
too shiny and black.
Copy !req
653. And it was hard to see him in certain
scenes, I think it was, too.
Copy !req
654. It's true. It was great that we
started out that strong
Copy !req
655. and then had to leaven it
just a little bit.
Copy !req
656. It's also a good moment to mention
the actual design of the dragon.
Copy !req
657. Toothless was a latecomer
to the whole thing
Copy !req
658. and he was designed by two guys, really,
that worked very closely together.
Copy !req
659. Simon Otto, who was our
head of character animation,
Copy !req
660. and Takao Noguchi,
who's a brilliant designer and modeller
Copy !req
661. all at the same time.
Copy !req
662. All the other characters, pretty much,
the lead designer was Nico Marlet.
Copy !req
663. - The human characters, the dragons.
- Yes.
Copy !req
664. And they all collaborate,
I mean, they're just terrific.
Copy !req
665. Yeah. Nico really is responsible for
the incredible unity that you feel
Copy !req
666. throughout all the characters
in the film.
Copy !req
667. And Toothless is actually
notably the odd man out.
Copy !req
668. He was supposed to look a little
bit different than the other ones.
Copy !req
669. He doesn't land,
Vikings have never seen him before...
Copy !req
670. travels around. He's kind of a ghost,
you know, really in their world.
Copy !req
671. So we did want him
to have that different feel.
Copy !req
672. As Dean mentioned before,
he also feels more like a mammal,
Copy !req
673. as opposed to the other dragons
who have predominately
Copy !req
674. a more sort of reptilian vibe.
Copy !req
675. I think the whole... Didn't you
give John Powell, our composer,
Copy !req
676. some real specific direction
about the whole montage?
Copy !req
677. Yes. You know, we wanted
the montage to feel like
Copy !req
678. almost a song of its own and have
kind of a song structure to it.
Copy !req
679. So verses and choruses and...
Copy !req
680. Just so it felt like a unified piece
that wasn't necessarily score.
Copy !req
681. It was more just something that would
pull all of the images together.
Copy !req
682. - Stoick is...
- We loaded more Vikings
Copy !req
683. into this ship than we originally did
because we didn't want people
Copy !req
684. to think that the other
two ships went down
Copy !req
685. - with their whole crew on.
- Exactly.
Copy !req
686. I don't know if anybody's paying
attention, but three ships went out
Copy !req
687. and only one comes back.
Copy !req
688. But, hopefully, people will get
that all three ships' worth of Vikings
Copy !req
689. were on that one.
Copy !req
690. It's funny how filmmaking is so much
about paring things down.
Copy !req
691. Almost every one of these sequences
started out about three times as long
Copy !req
692. as it actually is onscreen.
Copy !req
693. And you just keep trimming back
until you find the essence of it.
Copy !req
694. And anything that's just fluff
kind of falls to the wayside.
Copy !req
695. We worked for an inordinately long time
on a scene where Hiccup
Copy !req
696. went down to the docks with his dad
to say goodbye to him.
Copy !req
697. And we ended up with a scene
Copy !req
698. where
they just kind of say goodbye at home.
Copy !req
699. The dad really walks out that night
and doesn't really even say goodbye.
Copy !req
700. We're getting... This is
a great sequence to talk about.
Copy !req
701. The flying sequences in this film
were such an incredible opportunity,
Copy !req
702. and they represent, I think,
some of the most detailed
Copy !req
703. and, I think, dense thinking
on the entire thing.
Copy !req
704. There's an incredible density
of thought in these things.
Copy !req
705. Simon led his team of animators through
something they called "flight school".
Copy !req
706. They spent a whole lot of time
Copy !req
707. studying the flying movement
of different creatures.
Copy !req
708. Bats, birds,
everything they could pull together.
Copy !req
709. And so a lot of the physics
in this movie feel so real
Copy !req
710. because it was
a very deliberate line of thinking
Copy !req
711. on the part of everyone involved.
We just wanted the...
Copy !req
712. In order for the peril and the stakes
Copy !req
713. and just the scale of the world
to feel believable,
Copy !req
714. we needed to make sure
that all the physics were in check.
Copy !req
715. I have to say, it's one of the most
effective things in this entire film.
Copy !req
716. There was never a moment
when an animator did a flying bit
Copy !req
717. that it didn't look
incredibly convincing.
Copy !req
718. That flight school
was incredibly effective.
Copy !req
719. Another accomplishment,
was just the clouds.
Copy !req
720. - Yeah.
- Didn't they spend hours
Copy !req
721. and endless days making
the clouds look right?
Copy !req
722. There's a bit here.
It's a very short little moment,
Copy !req
723. but there's the top of a mountain that's
about to come into frame, right there.
Copy !req
724. Man, that... I remember
the first time we saw that
Copy !req
725. and how much that added to that
moment. It's so brief, but man,
Copy !req
726. it feels like... OK, he's this far
from the ground now.
Copy !req
727. Time's running out.
Copy !req
728. Spent a lot of time on that shot,
Copy !req
729. - right there, right Chris?
- Yeah, that one took a while.
Copy !req
730. But, boy, was it worth it.
Copy !req
731. This is great.
This is taking the learning curve
Copy !req
732. of flying a dragon and just really
speeding the whole thing up.
Copy !req
733. And what I think is a very
satisfying sequence in the film.
Copy !req
734. He's been so tedious about this whole
thing and so tepid about learning it,
Copy !req
735. and he's made this little cheat sheet.
He loses the cheat sheet.
Copy !req
736. Then in this moment, at the end of the
freefall, he either flies or that's it.
Copy !req
737. It's a great release 'cause,
in a sense, there's a tension
Copy !req
738. to all of the grounded work,
the building of the tail,
Copy !req
739. the short little flights,
being tethered to that cliff.
Copy !req
740. All of it's in service of this moment
where we're just gonna just
Copy !req
741. blow the doors off and have it be
this wide open expanse
Copy !req
742. that they can explore together.
Copy !req
743. That's really the wish fulfilment
of any movie with a flying beast
Copy !req
744. and a human, is that you just want it
to be completely untethered and freeing.
Copy !req
745. So it was a few months after
we actually get the sequence going,
Copy !req
746. this particular one
you're watching right now,
Copy !req
747. that we realised that this
was a little tug of war
Copy !req
748. between the original Toothless
and the new Toothless.
Copy !req
749. It was interesting
that the new Toothless won
Copy !req
750. and now the original Toothless
is about to get all fussy about it.
Copy !req
751. But by the end of the sequence
he actually curls up and finds
Copy !req
752. a little comfortable place next to
Hiccup, which really is what happened
Copy !req
753. to his character during the making of
the film. He found a great place to be.
Copy !req
754. He's a great character,
but he's no longer Toothless.
Copy !req
755. If you're ever watching
this commentary on a screen
Copy !req
756. where you can see this
in stereoscopic 3-D,
Copy !req
757. I think this is one of the folks
that Craig Ring,
Copy !req
758. Gil Zimmerman, Captain 3D Phil,
worked really hard
Copy !req
759. on making this
work really well in 3-D stereo.
Copy !req
760. This is also one of the scenes that's
probably the oldest in the movie.
Copy !req
761. It came very early on,
Copy !req
762. but it's exemplary of Roger Deakins'
effect on the film.
Copy !req
763. Just the fact that he was
able to isolate the lighting
Copy !req
764. and bring it down to two candles
in a room and rich, dark shadows,
Copy !req
765. which is not something you
normally see in animation.
Copy !req
766. I think there's a definite urge,
Copy !req
767. that once you've built these detailed
sets, you really want to see them.
Copy !req
768. And so it's hard, I think, sometimes,
to let a set like this just bleed off
Copy !req
769. into these depths of black
where you don't see any detail.
Copy !req
770. But, boy, is it satisfying.
Copy !req
771. I like giving Dean credit
for this sequence.
Copy !req
772. This is one of the sequences
that Dean wrote.
Copy !req
773. When Dean and I go into these movies,
we tend to initially divide
Copy !req
774. the sequences up and write them... We'll
be in the same room most of the time.
Copy !req
775. But we'll write them by ourselves and
then trade the scenes back and forth
Copy !req
776. and work on each other's scenes
and give notes and things like this.
Copy !req
777. This is one of those scenes that started
out with Dean and didn't change much.
Copy !req
778. If anything really changed about
this scene, it tended to get
Copy !req
779. edited down just a little bit.
Copy !req
780. I think it's a great little
moment between a dad and a son who,
Copy !req
781. the dad thinks he's finally
made a connection with his son,
Copy !req
782. and, of course, he hasn't.
Copy !req
783. But it's an unusual scene, I think,
in an animated film.
Copy !req
784. And I think it's very...
It just feels real.
Copy !req
785. It makes the place feel real.
It makes the relationship feel real.
Copy !req
786. This, being one of the first sequences
we put into animation,
Copy !req
787. also meant that we were still exploring
the character traits. And so,
Copy !req
788. from shot to shot, Hiccup and Stoick
are just a little bit different.
Copy !req
789. And we never had the time to go in
and make those adjustments,
Copy !req
790. but it's kind of nice
to show how he evolved
Copy !req
791. in terms of his mannerisms
and expressions.
Copy !req
792. This is a huge laugh in the movie,
the breast hat.
Copy !req
793. It does. I don't know if...
Nobody ever picked up on it,
Copy !req
794. but it was supposed to be
a secondary funny thing
Copy !req
795. that the two hats
were such disparaging sizes.
Copy !req
796. And they're supposed
to be a matched set.
Copy !req
797. But, clearly,
there's something odd there.
Copy !req
798. I don't think anybody
really picks up on that,
Copy !req
799. but we originally thought
that was gonna be kind of funny.
Copy !req
800. This is another one those scenes
that was about three times
Copy !req
801. - as long at one point.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
802. But when you get it all up together, it
really kind of finds its fighting weight
Copy !req
803. and the film starts to tell you,
after a while,
Copy !req
804. what's overstaying its welcome
or whether it's even needed.
Copy !req
805. And this scene, it went
through its twists and turns
Copy !req
806. as the story developed around it.
Copy !req
807. I don't know why, I just... the angrier
Astrid gets, the more I like her.
Copy !req
808. And she's reaching a point
in the movie now
Copy !req
809. where I'm just really liking her
as a character.
Copy !req
810. I just find her to be fresh.
And this bit right here...
Copy !req
811. Here's a tribute
to Gil Zimmerman's camera work.
Copy !req
812. There's a bit of handheld stuff right
here that I just think is brilliant.
Copy !req
813. Love that bit.
Copy !req
814. That whole bit of Astrid is...
was animated by Dave Torres,
Copy !req
815. and I think he did such
an amazing job with her.
Copy !req
816. The little fit she throws here with the
axe, swinging it around while she's...
Copy !req
817. And this right... there.
Man, it's a great little shot.
Copy !req
818. It should be said that we do a great
deal of planning on all of these shots,
Copy !req
819. but at the very, very end,
after they're animated,
Copy !req
820. there's a last little bit of sweetening
that happens with the camera work.
Copy !req
821. And that's where we add
a little bit of a handheld feel,
Copy !req
822. a little bit of organic motion
to just make it feel comfortable.
Copy !req
823. We went to great lengths on this film,
both with the camera work,
Copy !req
824. the exposure of the lighting,
to produce an overall effect
Copy !req
825. that this is really being filmed
and that the whole place was real.
Copy !req
826. We even tried to overexpose
some spots in these shots
Copy !req
827. to make it feel as though
we weren't in control of everything.
Copy !req
828. That little old lady,
who was the village elder,
Copy !req
829. who decides the winner
within the training class,
Copy !req
830. was actually constructed
to have a larger role in the movie.
Copy !req
831. She was gonna
be the town sage and mystic,
Copy !req
832. in a version of the movie that
had a lot of prophecy and magic.
Copy !req
833. And we quickly dispensed with that
in the first couple of months.
Copy !req
834. And so she became just another villager.
Copy !req
835. It should be noted that
this is a sequence
Copy !req
836. that people who worked
on the film find funny,
Copy !req
837. and during our first test screenings
we realised that it's not funny
Copy !req
838. to other people when he's
discovered by her.
Copy !req
839. - How about when she does this?
- Well, I find this funny.
Copy !req
840. Right... there.
Copy !req
841. The crew always found that funny,
but in test screenings,
Copy !req
842. people are actually under a great deal
of stress because they knew that she
Copy !req
843. had arrived in the cove where the dragon
was, but we didn't feel that stress.
Copy !req
844. We'd worked on the film, of course,
we knew it wasn't a big secret to us.
Copy !req
845. We found it amusing that she was,
you know, she caught him in this lie
Copy !req
846. and she was very angry at him.
But it was at the first test screening
Copy !req
847. that we realised that it really
wasn't funny to anybody else.
Copy !req
848. In a good way, though. They were
feeling this wonderful tension.
Copy !req
849. I remember an early story conversation
that the three of us had together, guys,
Copy !req
850. where we talked about Astrid and Hiccup
going together
Copy !req
851. - to discover Dragon Island and...
- That was your idea, Bonnie.
Copy !req
852. I'm patting myself on the back
right now just thinking...
Copy !req
853. - She actually is.
- That actually worked
Copy !req
854. because you guys both said,
"We like that idea".
Copy !req
855. - You're right.
- We were trying to just get them
Copy !req
856. together, get them
to do something together.
Copy !req
857. But it ended up you guys really took
that idea and really made it fantastic.
Copy !req
858. Because now she knows something that,
you know...
Copy !req
859. She's in on his deal and
the repercussions of that
Copy !req
860. for Astrid are big. You know,
become, big at that point.
Copy !req
861. There's a bit of subtle animation
that I want to take note of, as well,
Copy !req
862. which is the scene where she lifts
herself up. She's hanging on that branch
Copy !req
863. and she initially lifts herself up
and we're underneath her.
Copy !req
864. And it's just one of those moments
I find incredibly believable,
Copy !req
865. the way it was handled.
Copy !req
866. This is where Toothless
has a mind of his own.
Copy !req
867. A little continuity thing.
Copy !req
868. I don't know if you want to call it
continuity, but illogical thing is,
Copy !req
869. Hiccup is controlling
his flight in a way,
Copy !req
870. - but Toothless is now taking over.
- Yeah, really.
Copy !req
871. You don't want to think about this too
much. If it really took two to fly,
Copy !req
872. then they're in such disagreement
with what should be happening here
Copy !req
873. that really the whole thing
should break down.
Copy !req
874. We're getting ready
to go into a sequence.
Copy !req
875. Chris, is this your favourite sequence,
what we call the romantic flight?
Copy !req
876. You know, it's one of them. Yeah, it's
another sequence where we were able
Copy !req
877. to shut off the dialogue
and just be, you know?
Copy !req
878. It's also a moment where
we can really indulge the flight.
Copy !req
879. Like all things flight: The way
the camera's relating to the dragon
Copy !req
880. as he does his thing,
the way we cut between shots,
Copy !req
881. the whole idea of this sequence
was, of course, to evoke
Copy !req
882. this real beautiful expanse
both inside of them and outside of them.
Copy !req
883. The other thing we were trying to do,
we were trying to, and not too much so,
Copy !req
884. but to gently... disorient people.
Copy !req
885. The idea that we get away from
the ground and we're doing our best
Copy !req
886. in these shots
to barely ever show the ground.
Copy !req
887. Once they clear and they're
in the clouds, it's just a landscape.
Copy !req
888. This is in particular one of those
moments where there's no up or down.
Copy !req
889. And I have to credit
Gil Zimmerman for this shot,
Copy !req
890. one of the shots that people pick
out of the whole film to talk about.
Copy !req
891. And he brought this shot to us,
and I think it's brilliant
Copy !req
892. and it does so much for us and it
accomplishes that sort of disorientation
Copy !req
893. that makes you feel like
you've left the ground behind,
Copy !req
894. and now you're in this world of clouds.
Copy !req
895. And I think Astrid's discovery is...
You're with Astrid in discovering
Copy !req
896. this whole fabulous world that,
you know, Hiccup knows
Copy !req
897. and he's sharing with her,
which I think is so touching.
Copy !req
898. I think it's my favourite
music cue, actually.
Copy !req
899. It is a beautiful, beautiful cue.
Copy !req
900. John brought this in very early on,
Copy !req
901. and it was just one of those winning
melodies that we stood by
Copy !req
902. to make sure it didn't
get tampered with.
Copy !req
903. 'Cause we absolutely loved it.
Copy !req
904. It's a neat little moment that
they're flying within sight of Berk,
Copy !req
905. but we know nobody will see them
Copy !req
906. because that dragon
is so invisible at night.
Copy !req
907. And again,
in the structure of the story,
Copy !req
908. this being the first Viking
who has her mind changed
Copy !req
909. and sees dragons in a different light,
Copy !req
910. is actually a nod toward
how the rest of the Vikings
Copy !req
911. have the possibility of changing minds,
the village over.
Copy !req
912. Yeah, because Astrid is gonna be the
toughest sell of anybody that he knows,
Copy !req
913. save for his father.
Copy !req
914. This was a moment
that was originally scored,
Copy !req
915. that we decided
to pare the music back a little bit.
Copy !req
916. It actually plays
at a low level underneath,
Copy !req
917. so it's there on a subliminal level,
Copy !req
918. but we wanted to open up a moment for
Randy Thom and his sound design crew
Copy !req
919. to kind of really take this over
Copy !req
920. and let us feel what it's like to be
surrounded by hundreds of dragons.
Copy !req
921. Let me ask you, in the upcoming bit,
is the hippo still in there,
Copy !req
922. - or was that just a temporary?
- Yeah. There it is. It's right there.
Copy !req
923. - Is that the hippo?
- That's the hippo from Madagascar.
Copy !req
924. Another fun fact for a cocktail party.
Copy !req
925. Just so you know. Impress your friends.
Copy !req
926. Yeah, the folks in our crew that
did crowds and all these, it just...
Copy !req
927. Like I say,
those are quite complicated shots.
Copy !req
928. There are times in these films
where you become a 14-year-old again,
Copy !req
929. and that's one of those moments
for Dean and I.
Copy !req
930. Whenever we tilt the camera up
and see that giant mountain
Copy !req
931. with rivers of lava running
down the outside of it,
Copy !req
932. you just feel like
a kid getting all excited.
Copy !req
933. I think we take for granted,
you know, that there are...
Copy !req
934. Every element of every frame
has to be created in these films.
Copy !req
935. That would go back to Dean's comment
about spontaneity being...
Copy !req
936. something you have to work for.
Copy !req
937. It should be noted that every time we
did a flight sequence in these films,
Copy !req
938. the easiest way we found
to pitch it, to talk about it,
Copy !req
939. even to conceive it, was to have
a little model airplane in the room
Copy !req
940. that you could pick up and pull
off of its stand and actually hold up.
Copy !req
941. Again, you felt like you
were seven years old
Copy !req
942. and you just finished working
on your Spitfire model,
Copy !req
943. and you're now able
to fly it around the room.
Copy !req
944. One of the departments that
doesn't get talked about a lot,
Copy !req
945. but they're crucial,
especially in a film like this,
Copy !req
946. is the crowds department.
And they do what our animators do,
Copy !req
947. but they do it en masse.
And so they develop behaviours,
Copy !req
948. whether it be flying or standing around
or just different behaviours
Copy !req
949. that are needed for the sequences.
Copy !req
950. And then effectively we were
able to rubber-stamp that behaviour
Copy !req
951. onto millions of dragons in that case,
you know. It's like a thousand up there.
Copy !req
952. And so Sean Fennell and his group
are responsible
Copy !req
953. for the world feeling so full.
Copy !req
954. This is just another good moment
to point out the subtle lighting
Copy !req
955. that we were able to get.
Copy !req
956. All three of us come from a background
of traditional animation,
Copy !req
957. so getting into this level of subtlety
Copy !req
958. in terms of lighting and shape and form
is really kind of incredible.
Copy !req
959. I know Bonnie's already done it
on Over The Hedge and on Toy Story,
Copy !req
960. but for Chris and I, having
access to these tools, you know,
Copy !req
961. everything from the textures,
the hair, the fur, the fabrics,
Copy !req
962. but also just the subtlety
you can get in the expressions.
Copy !req
963. And the way it's lit, of course,
is super important.
Copy !req
964. It was all new to us and a really
amazing kind of adventure
Copy !req
965. figuring it all out.
Copy !req
966. Well, I think it's always about
supporting the storytelling, you know,
Copy !req
967. and Chris and Dean did a great job
Copy !req
968. of telling the crew
what they were going for
Copy !req
969. and having an amazing group
of artists
Copy !req
970. deliver great things everyday.
Copy !req
971. Well, you're right. And when you come
into a mix like this,
Copy !req
972. you really do need to just
look after your job on the film.
Copy !req
973. And with Chris and I,
we always kept story first.
Copy !req
974. And that's what we spent a good chunk
of our day in a room doing, you know,
Copy !req
975. writing the script
and figuring out the moments.
Copy !req
976. But then always talking to every artist
and technician on the film
Copy !req
977. from a story perspective and
letting them do what they do so well.
Copy !req
978. And I think as such,
it felt like a well-oiled machine.
Copy !req
979. This is a piece of great animation
by Kristof of...
Copy !req
980. - Stoick.
- Serrand.
Copy !req
981. Yeah, Kristof Serrand
is truly an amazing animator.
Copy !req
982. Connected with Stoick
in such a great way.
Copy !req
983. Yeah, from the very beginning.
Copy !req
984. Yeah, Kristof has an amazing ability
Copy !req
985. to go beyond any clichéd acting
and find something that's very unique.
Copy !req
986. So impressive.
Copy !req
987. We had quite a bit of discussion
about this particular sequence
Copy !req
988. and what exactly was going to happen,
Copy !req
989. because one of the issues with this
whole thing was we wanted Toothless
Copy !req
990. to come to Hiccup's rescue. And
originally we stowed Toothless nearby,
Copy !req
991. which a lot of people
were actually very good in catching.
Copy !req
992. It was kind of an odd thing
that Hiccup would do.
Copy !req
993. So eventually we thought
we'd just leave him in the cove
Copy !req
994. and let him overhear this whole thing.
Copy !req
995. Before, he never got out
of the cove without help.
Copy !req
996. But because his little pal's in trouble,
he's able to come out of the cove.
Copy !req
997. - Kids, look at this shot.
- Just through sheer force of will.
Copy !req
998. Well, this guy's great.
This is the Monstrous Nightmare,
Copy !req
999. and we decided a while ago,
each of these dragons,
Copy !req
1000. we have an embarrassment of riches
as far as how many dragons
Copy !req
1001. are actually in the film. But we
decided that this guy is kind of
Copy !req
1002. the rock star of dragons
and that he enjoys this whole thing.
Copy !req
1003. None of the dragons shy away
from a fight, but of all the dragons,
Copy !req
1004. the Monstrous Nightmare enjoys it.
He feeds on the energy from the crowd.
Copy !req
1005. I love it in the screenings
that we've seen up to now,
Copy !req
1006. all the kids just love the..."We love
the dragon that sets itself on fire!"
Copy !req
1007. - They just love that.
- And, you know, the other thing is
Copy !req
1008. this guy is unbelievably complex
to move around.
Copy !req
1009. If you think about the different parts
that have to be attended to in this guy.
Copy !req
1010. This was a very
important scene in the movie,
Copy !req
1011. and it took a lot of discussion
to get it to where it is
Copy !req
1012. 'cause there were
some passionate arguments
Copy !req
1013. about what he should be saying
and what should be happening.
Copy !req
1014. Our terrific story artist,
John Puglisi, yeah,
Copy !req
1015. did put the boards on
the storyboards on this one, I believe.
Copy !req
1016. Yes. Yeah. John Puglisi is responsible
for many scenes in the film,
Copy !req
1017. along with Alessandro Carloni
and Tom Owens
Copy !req
1018. - and Tron Mai, just incredible.
- Johane...
Copy !req
1019. - Johane. Yep.
Matte.
Copy !req
1020. For a while, we discussed whether
or not he should have actually brought
Copy !req
1021. Toothless into that ring
Copy !req
1022. to show everybody
that they're not really dangerous.
Copy !req
1023. And we decided that, in the end,
it would just be too big a risk.
Copy !req
1024. And Hiccup would never really
do something like that.
Copy !req
1025. Probably, he would protect
Toothless at all costs,
Copy !req
1026. which is why we had to have Toothless
come into the ring
Copy !req
1027. as a matter of his own idea.
It's his own volition where he shows up.
Copy !req
1028. That's a great little explosion
in there.
Copy !req
1029. The fight to the... almost
to the death of the two dragons.
Copy !req
1030. This fight took a long time to work out.
Copy !req
1031. Some incredibly complex animation
going on between these two dragons.
Copy !req
1032. And Toothless is just trying
to protect Hiccup.
Copy !req
1033. Yeah, that bit of animation was
orchestrated by a guy named Olivier,
Copy !req
1034. and he did an incredible job.
I mean, he's such a powerful animator.
Copy !req
1035. This is one of my
favourite scenes, really.
Copy !req
1036. This was one of the scenes that we
recorded with Gerard and Jay together,
Copy !req
1037. miked across from each other
in a New York City recording studio.
Copy !req
1038. And as a result of the build
of the argument
Copy !req
1039. and the way they're playing off
of each other, it feels so natural.
Copy !req
1040. It's not something that you can achieve
when you record the actors in isolation.
Copy !req
1041. I think the combination of the lighting
and this beautiful space...
Copy !req
1042. Actually, the silence, you know,
and the ambience,
Copy !req
1043. it all adds up to this great feel,
Copy !req
1044. this private argument that gives
the movie so much power.
Copy !req
1045. And the writing is good, guys.
I have to give you guys kudos for that.
Copy !req
1046. It's really good.
Copy !req
1047. You know, there's a...
Copy !req
1048. Speaking of leavening,
the intensity of this moment...
Copy !req
1049. Because I think everybody understands
where Stoick is.
Copy !req
1050. You know, he's embarrassed,
he's upset with the deception.
Copy !req
1051. But there's a moment coming up
Copy !req
1052. where we're able to see
just a little glimpse
Copy !req
1053. of the pain that he's feeling.
And it's the moment right after
Copy !req
1054. he comes out of the door, that was
a subtle bit of animation by Kristof.
Copy !req
1055. That really balances everything
we've seen Stoick doing,
Copy !req
1056. and it's right... it's right here.
Copy !req
1057. Yeah, he's like thrown off-balance.
It... It so affects him, I believe.
Copy !req
1058. And then he gets control and moves on.
Copy !req
1059. But just for that moment,
Copy !req
1060. - he's overwhelmed.
- And that was a suggestion
Copy !req
1061. that was brought to the mix
by Bill Demaschke,
Copy !req
1062. who has an amazing story intuition.
Copy !req
1063. Bill's the head of production,
creative production, at DreamWorks,
Copy !req
1064. and a great partner to us.
Copy !req
1065. He's a great boss because he really
understands story and he's a movie fan,
Copy !req
1066. and so he always comes at it
from such an enthusiastic standpoint.
Copy !req
1067. He and Jeffrey Katzenberg both
are great audience members.
Copy !req
1068. They always try to add thoughts, from
the audience point of view, I think.
Copy !req
1069. Keeps the big picture in mind
when they're giving us some thoughts.
Copy !req
1070. This is one of my favourite moments
in the movie
Copy !req
1071. because I remember seeing
Hunchback of Notre Dame as a kid,
Copy !req
1072. and I just love the way
he was shackled down
Copy !req
1073. and being pelted with all the fruit.
Copy !req
1074. And it just gets so much sympathy
for the character.
Copy !req
1075. So it was nice to chain Toothless down,
have him all bound and mistreated.
Copy !req
1076. This is another moment
that came kind of late in the game,
Copy !req
1077. when we realised that we had no
Copy !req
1078. sort of end of second act
low point for Hiccup.
Copy !req
1079. He had almost immediately
jumped into action
Copy !req
1080. and was approaching the kids
to try to get them on his side.
Copy !req
1081. And so Chris took the lead
on this one in writing this scene,
Copy !req
1082. trying to get to the bottom of it,
Copy !req
1083. trying to shed light on
why he didn't kill the dragon
Copy !req
1084. and how that makes him different.
Copy !req
1085. And it takes Astrid prying him
with questions and being persistent
Copy !req
1086. to make him realise that his moment
of weakness wasn't weakness at all,
Copy !req
1087. that it's a strength.
Copy !req
1088. Kind of a great moment
in the relationship
Copy !req
1089. between Hiccup and Astrid and...
Copy !req
1090. I think it's nice to see their different
point of views on the same event.
Copy !req
1091. Of course, Hiccup's been hiding
this secret for so long
Copy !req
1092. that he sees it only
as a shameful thing,
Copy !req
1093. but Astrid knows that the world
is on the verge of changing.
Copy !req
1094. There are a few scenes in the film
where we were able to orchestrate
Copy !req
1095. our inventory so that everybody was
kept busy while a couple of animators
Copy !req
1096. really took the lead. And in this case,
Copy !req
1097. Jakob Jensen for Hiccup
and Shaggy Hornby for Astrid
Copy !req
1098. were able to do all of the scenes,
and it really shows
Copy !req
1099. because you get such a great,
consistent performance from them.
Copy !req
1100. It's true. You get a really nice,
subtle build and transition,
Copy !req
1101. an overall curve that runs through
the whole sequence.
Copy !req
1102. That's where Stoick is just like
dead-set on doing what he's gonna do,
Copy !req
1103. no matter what Gobber says to him.
Copy !req
1104. And this is a nice little bit
of acting from Gobber.
Copy !req
1105. Craig Ferguson did a great job
in this little bit.
Copy !req
1106. He's being his little chatter-y self
as they sail to their doom.
Copy !req
1107. He has this nice little bit of
nervousness, but at the same time,
Copy !req
1108. he has a real solidarity with whatever
Stoick and the other Vikings
Copy !req
1109. decide to do. So he's not cowardly.
In fact, he's not.
Copy !req
1110. But at least he's playing
out the nervousness
Copy !req
1111. that we wanted to have
all the Vikings feeling.
Copy !req
1112. It's so hard to appreciate
how hard it is for these voice actors
Copy !req
1113. to get in just into a regular room
without seeing sometimes any imagery
Copy !req
1114. of what the scene's gonna be.
Copy !req
1115. And it's just Chris and Dean
sitting here, telling them...
Copy !req
1116. Trying to paint a picture for them and
having them give these performances.
Copy !req
1117. Craig was especially good at, you know,
bringing a lot to the mix.
Copy !req
1118. In combination with Fabio,
who's supervising animator,
Copy !req
1119. who is an incredible animator.
Copy !req
1120. Now, we had two editors on our film.
We started with Darren Holmes,
Copy !req
1121. and he was there
for most of the production.
Copy !req
1122. And toward the end, Maryann Brandon
came on fresh off of Star Trek.
Copy !req
1123. And this was one of the areas
where she had a great impact,
Copy !req
1124. because she proposed
intercutting these scenes
Copy !req
1125. of Hiccup being approached
by the teens and the ring
Copy !req
1126. and the Vikings trying
to find the island.
Copy !req
1127. And it actually adds a lot of energy
to both scenes
Copy !req
1128. and gives you a sense
of build toward the climax.
Copy !req
1129. Maryann and Darren did a great job
working together.
Copy !req
1130. There was just so much to do
in such a short time that, to be honest,
Copy !req
1131. one editor, it was just more than
enough work for one editor.
Copy !req
1132. And our whole editorial team did an
amazing amount of work on this stuff.
Copy !req
1133. That's one of my favourite
moments in the movie.
Copy !req
1134. I just loved the notion that he would...
that there would be this buzz
Copy !req
1135. of dragon echo locating
Copy !req
1136. that builds to such a, you know,
an ear-splitting level.
Copy !req
1137. And then when he hits
the sand or the rocks
Copy !req
1138. on the island of the hive,
that they go completely silent.
Copy !req
1139. This is also a nice example
of just economy.
Copy !req
1140. When it got down to it,
this was a much longer scene,
Copy !req
1141. but we realised we could tell it
in relatively fewer shots
Copy !req
1142. just by suggesting
that what Hiccup has learned
Copy !req
1143. could be transferred to the other
teens, then just end it with a line.
Copy !req
1144. And we pan over to realise the other
dragons have been let out of their pens.
Copy !req
1145. It kind of spells a direction for the
ending without getting too explicit
Copy !req
1146. about training them. That's the sequence
we call "How to Train Your Dragon".
Copy !req
1147. We get into the part
of the movie now
Copy !req
1148. that surprised even
Craig Ferguson and Gerard Butler.
Copy !req
1149. They thought they knew what
the movie was going to be about
Copy !req
1150. and the level of action and humour.
Copy !req
1151. And then came the climax.
Copy !req
1152. And the first time that we showed
a few scenes to Craig Ferguson
Copy !req
1153. and his little boy
in our theatre on campus,
Copy !req
1154. he then called up Gerard Butler
and just said,
Copy !req
1155. "You have no idea. It gets really big".
Copy !req
1156. So, you know, immediately,
Gerard wanted to see this.
Copy !req
1157. The movie does
a real interesting turn,
Copy !req
1158. in terms of, you know, escalation
of action and intensity and...
Copy !req
1159. It's what happens when you have a crew
of people that is this talented,
Copy !req
1160. because you propose a sequence like
this and you start writing a sequence
Copy !req
1161. like this and you propose a giant battle
Copy !req
1162. where this huge dragon is gonna
break out of the side of a mountain
Copy !req
1163. and it's gonna start chasing Vikings
and laying waste to their ships.
Copy !req
1164. And as it begins to get animated
and as the effects begin to come in
Copy !req
1165. and the lighting begins to come in,
it's not until then,
Copy !req
1166. and that's a long time after
you first write a sequence like this,
Copy !req
1167. that you really have to come to grips
with the scale of what you started.
Copy !req
1168. And it really, really
is just such a satisfying...
Copy !req
1169. scale and size in this whole thing.
Copy !req
1170. - Again...
- A huge nod to the effects department
Copy !req
1171. with this whole moment
where he breaks out of the mountain
Copy !req
1172. and the dragon uses his giant shoulders
to pop the last bit of the wall.
Copy !req
1173. The amazing thing about
our effects department:
Copy !req
1174. Matt Baer and Craig Ring
and everybody involved,
Copy !req
1175. is that they almost never said no.
Copy !req
1176. We would propose
these ridiculous ideas
Copy !req
1177. and they'd get giddy
and excited about it.
Copy !req
1178. 'Cause, at the end of the day,
I think they saw this as an opportunity
Copy !req
1179. to really show what they could do.
And man, did they ever deliver.
Copy !req
1180. And again, I just have to say a very
complex mixing, sound mixing job
Copy !req
1181. in terms of the balance of the effects
and the dialogue and the music.
Copy !req
1182. Oh, my gosh.
Copy !req
1183. It's attention to detail that really
makes something like this work.
Copy !req
1184. It's the way the fire comes
out of the mouth of the dragon,
Copy !req
1185. the scale of the primary
and then secondary reactions
Copy !req
1186. as that fire hits a ship
and wraps around a mast.
Copy !req
1187. We always knew that Stoick,
in his stubbornness,
Copy !req
1188. was going to stir a fight
between the Vikings
Copy !req
1189. and the mother of all dragons.
Copy !req
1190. But we, at one point,
thought that fight
Copy !req
1191. was going to come to the shores of Berk,
which is their village and their island.
Copy !req
1192. And somebody along the way just said,
"Why not just have the fight
Copy !req
1193. happen on the shores
of the hive itself?"
Copy !req
1194. And it was a genius idea
and it worked out really well,
Copy !req
1195. because now we have this completely
different look for the ending.
Copy !req
1196. Well, you're at a completely different
location and it's just more challenging,
Copy !req
1197. where... that allows the kids
to come ride to the rescue.
Copy !req
1198. Which we all love
and we're all rooting for.
Copy !req
1199. That's an interesting scene, because
Stoick used to say, "He is, isn't he?"
Copy !req
1200. And it was too quick a turn when we
realised that we needed him
Copy !req
1201. to mull on it a little bit more to give
his character the dimension it needed.
Copy !req
1202. We needed more time and we needed
him to stew on it a little bit
Copy !req
1203. before coming to Hiccup's rescue
and then having
Copy !req
1204. those powerful words of redemption.
Copy !req
1205. I think at this point everybody
was really hitting their stride.
Copy !req
1206. We're having incredible
animation with the dragons,
Copy !req
1207. really believable flying
and beautiful camera work.
Copy !req
1208. And the lighting was incredible,
the effects.
Copy !req
1209. All of it coming together.
Copy !req
1210. This was really the height of our...
Copy !req
1211. The crew was under the gun here
to get it done. Oh, my gosh.
Copy !req
1212. You wouldn't know it to see this, but it
was one of the most pressure-filled
Copy !req
1213. bits of the film,
just as far as schedule.
Copy !req
1214. Again, you run out of time
before you run out of anything else.
Copy !req
1215. And this was one of the sequences
we left to the very end,
Copy !req
1216. because it was such
a jigsaw puzzle of storytelling
Copy !req
1217. and it was also the catchall.
Copy !req
1218. We just didn't want to deal
with it for the longest time.
Copy !req
1219. - Making it all work and...
- What Dean is talking about,
Copy !req
1220. he's specifically talking
about this little micro-bit here
Copy !req
1221. where all the teams go to bat.
Copy !req
1222. It's where they fill the void between
the final battle between Hiccup
Copy !req
1223. and the giant dragon. Of course, the
Vikings getting jumped by this huge one.
Copy !req
1224. It was delicate because we didn't
want these guys to be incompetent,
Copy !req
1225. but at the same time we didn't want them
to be able to defeat this dragon.
Copy !req
1226. So it's a moment of really just bravery.
Copy !req
1227. It's a bunch of guys who don't really
know what they're doing,
Copy !req
1228. but they're jumping in there anyway,
buying everybody some time.
Copy !req
1229. You have to think this is all
a part of Hiccup's grand plan,
Copy !req
1230. but then he never really says it.
But we...
Copy !req
1231. He never tells us,
the audience, but...
Copy !req
1232. This little sequence was also
a latecomer to the whole thing.
Copy !req
1233. This also came from a Bill note,
that he really thought
Copy !req
1234. that we could push the action
one more notch.
Copy !req
1235. So this entire bit, you know,
it's no small decision
Copy !req
1236. to get your characters wet.
Copy !req
1237. And putting them underwater
was a big deal.
Copy !req
1238. I remember we spent quite a few days
Copy !req
1239. discussing the feasibility
of this sequence, and...
Copy !req
1240. Especially this late in the schedule,
because we had so little time to...
Copy !req
1241. Oddly enough, it's easier to put
a character underwater than it is
Copy !req
1242. to have a character
be standing around wet and dripping.
Copy !req
1243. So we just had to be really, really
careful of the transitions
Copy !req
1244. between the surface and underneath.
Copy !req
1245. It's an example of Bill Demaschke's
great story instincts, though.
Copy !req
1246. He knew there was an opportunity
to dial it up even a little more heroic
Copy !req
1247. and give Stoick a real moment
in the sun.
Copy !req
1248. And all of us are gonna go for it.
Copy !req
1249. Somebody says, "Why don't you put him
underwater?" Like, "Yeah, OK".
Copy !req
1250. And the Stoick apology, that was
a little bit tough to make work.
Copy !req
1251. - Yeah, it has to be genuine. Yeah.
- It had to be genuine and it had to be
Copy !req
1252. an economy of words, because you're
in the middle of a battle.
Copy !req
1253. So he had to say just enough to
motivate Hiccup to take off up there
Copy !req
1254. with knowing that he had
the belief of his father.
Copy !req
1255. Plus, it was a timing thing, too,
because if he said it too soon,
Copy !req
1256. - too quickly, it became funny.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
1257. Unintentionally funny.
Copy !req
1258. The big dragon was actually
designed late in the game as well.
Copy !req
1259. He, along with Toothless and a few
modifications to Hiccup and Astrid,
Copy !req
1260. were really the only characters that got
designed when we took over the film.
Copy !req
1261. We knew we needed a big,
nasty dragon with all sorts of...
Copy !req
1262. - Sweet, little moment.
- Sorry to call that out but...
Copy !req
1263. - Toothless rescues Astrid.
- So this is... This whole...
Copy !req
1264. We're entering the area
where I geek out the most
Copy !req
1265. as far as just the flying
sequences are concerned.
Copy !req
1266. One of the things we really
wanted to get out of this thing
Copy !req
1267. is the idea that flying on a dragon like
this wasn't easy and it wasn't gentle.
Copy !req
1268. That when you hit these velocities,
that things became actually very shaky
Copy !req
1269. and rough and that it was
a real physical activity
Copy !req
1270. to actually fly on the back
of Toothless.
Copy !req
1271. And that diving shot was the shot
where we were trying to get that across.
Copy !req
1272. Our head of story, Alessandro Carloni,
did a few all-nighters
Copy !req
1273. just to get this thing worked out
in storyboards.
Copy !req
1274. Yeah, he really took the lead
Copy !req
1275. - on this battle, this climax.
- This coming battle, yeah.
Copy !req
1276. And really solved a lot of the shots
and figured out the pace.
Copy !req
1277. His storyboards were so intensive
Copy !req
1278. and really verged
on being fully animated,
Copy !req
1279. that it left nothing to the imagination.
Copy !req
1280. He was the one that first
imagined this battle
Copy !req
1281. up in the darkness of the sky
Copy !req
1282. where Toothless would really
return to where he came.
Copy !req
1283. He came out of this dark sky
and then he would return to it.
Copy !req
1284. That's where he really
found his strength,
Copy !req
1285. was dashing back and forth
in the darkness.
Copy !req
1286. But it was a great blueprint, I think,
for Gil and Craig and all the folks
Copy !req
1287. that came in to do the camera work
and the lighting and it was...
Copy !req
1288. It's one thing that our environment,
Copy !req
1289. being the island and the hive
and its volcanic activity,
Copy !req
1290. really gave us the benefit of...
was that we could darken the sky
Copy !req
1291. with ash and make this battle up
in the darkness believable.
Copy !req
1292. It's a tremendous showcase
for Craig Ring and Matt Baer
Copy !req
1293. and the effects department.
Copy !req
1294. They really do make it look effortless.
Copy !req
1295. One of my favourite shots.
Copy !req
1296. The giant, omni-directional blast.
Copy !req
1297. I think, didn't we show
Jay Baruchel the...
Copy !req
1298. I think we ran a little bit of it.
I can't remember.
Copy !req
1299. Maybe the layout or storyboards
and he did some comments to it.
Copy !req
1300. - It was toward the end there.
- Oh, yeah. He did some live...
Copy !req
1301. Live lines, ad-libs to the...
Copy !req
1302. This is all payoff to the moment
where you saw on the beach,
Copy !req
1303. the little dragon,
his gas gets ignited by Toothless
Copy !req
1304. and he blows up from the inside.
Copy !req
1305. Which is, by the way, the reason
that sequence is in the film,
Copy !req
1306. because we needed
to set up this little moment.
Copy !req
1307. We also wanted a moment where
Toothless's tail would disintegrate
Copy !req
1308. and he would go back to being the
dragon he was at the very beginning.
Copy !req
1309. So all through this, of course,
you see the tail in its last moments.
Copy !req
1310. Now here, the monster is...
Not the monster.
Copy !req
1311. The... What we're calling the Red Death,
which is the giant dragon.
Copy !req
1312. The giant dragon is actually five times
bigger than he normally is
Copy !req
1313. just so we can get that effect of him
Copy !req
1314. flying up through the spines
on his back.
Copy !req
1315. This shot looks fantastic
in stereo 3-D. Things floating.
Copy !req
1316. Yeah, it was really, really impressive
what Gil and Phil McNally
Copy !req
1317. and everyone involved in the 3-D effect
Copy !req
1318. were able to bring to the party,
because they found ways of heightening
Copy !req
1319. the storytelling without ever
being gimmicky and distracting.
Copy !req
1320. I think the worst version of 3-D is when
you feel like you're being toyed with
Copy !req
1321. as an audience member and reminded
that you're sitting in a movie theatre.
Copy !req
1322. But if it supports the storytelling
and actually draws you in,
Copy !req
1323. it makes it more immersive.
Copy !req
1324. That's very effective
and that's what we aimed to do.
Copy !req
1325. If you're listening to this and haven't
had a chance to see it in stereo 3-D,
Copy !req
1326. I hope you will. It's really a treat.
Copy !req
1327. One of the interesting things we were
dealing with at this point in the film,
Copy !req
1328. there's a lot of films, especially
animated films that tend to end
Copy !req
1329. before the movie ends. And I think
it's not exactly a giant surprise
Copy !req
1330. that Toothless sheltered Hiccup
in his wings.
Copy !req
1331. It's one of the reasons we
didn't try to play Toothless's revival
Copy !req
1332. as a surprise that he was really alive.
Copy !req
1333. So even though it's very subtle
and we have him very still,
Copy !req
1334. he's breathing through
this entire end bit of the film.
Copy !req
1335. But we are moving towards something
that kept the story alive
Copy !req
1336. and kept the story going,
Copy !req
1337. which is the damage that Hiccup
incurred in this giant climax.
Copy !req
1338. And there were a lot of reasons
that this scene, this whole bit
Copy !req
1339. with Hiccup's foot was put in the film,
Copy !req
1340. not the least of which,
was as that film... as those sequences
Copy !req
1341. started being finished, the scale of the
battle was becoming clearer to us.
Copy !req
1342. And it just became
more and more unbelievable
Copy !req
1343. that anybody could have
come out of this thing undamaged.
Copy !req
1344. It also just felt appropriate from
a story point of view that Hiccup
Copy !req
1345. could sustain a similar
amount of damage to Toothless,
Copy !req
1346. and that, in a way, they complete
each other at the end of the film.
Copy !req
1347. Handled in a poetic way
Copy !req
1348. and without having to point arrows at it
and use a lot of dialogue
Copy !req
1349. that would make it in any way hokey,
but to treat it as...
Copy !req
1350. with a certain amount of respect
and poetry, it actually really worked.
Copy !req
1351. It was also a perfect concurrence
with events.
Copy !req
1352. There was a meeting
that we had with Jeffrey.
Copy !req
1353. We have these periodic story
meetings where we talk about
Copy !req
1354. the state of the film, where it stands,
and Jeffrey was really pushing us
Copy !req
1355. to go further with the end of this film.
Copy !req
1356. He felt like the end of the film
was a little bit... little bit,
Copy !req
1357. I guess, light compared to
the other stuff that we had done.
Copy !req
1358. And so he was really urging us to find
new places to go at the end of the film.
Copy !req
1359. - Something not quite expected.
- Absolutely, yeah.
Copy !req
1360. Originally, this scene
was actually played in private,
Copy !req
1361. where Hiccup wakes up and he realises
that his foot's been replaced.
Copy !req
1362. And he dealt with it in private.
Copy !req
1363. Then we had a screening
where we showed Steven Spielberg
Copy !req
1364. where we were with the film,
and one of his main comments...
Copy !req
1365. He was very complimentary,
but one of the comments he had
Copy !req
1366. was that he so loved
being part of the secret
Copy !req
1367. and this bond that Hiccup had
with this dragon.
Copy !req
1368. He felt like in the last part of the
film, the third act of the film,
Copy !req
1369. that relationship had been
reduced to something of like
Copy !req
1370. a cowboy and his horse.
Copy !req
1371. So he was advocating
having Hiccup wake up
Copy !req
1372. with Toothless in the room, so that as
he takes his first step on his new foot,
Copy !req
1373. that Toothless would be there
to support him. And it was a great idea.
Copy !req
1374. We put it in and it worked
like gangbusters.
Copy !req
1375. Well, this is Hiccup's new world
and how it's changed because of Hiccup.
Copy !req
1376. What I loved was...
We weren't sure about the foot.
Copy !req
1377. We really liked the idea ourselves, but
we tested it in front of an audience.
Copy !req
1378. And one of the first things,
one of the first comments
Copy !req
1379. to come out of the adult members of the
audience, the focus group afterwards,
Copy !req
1380. is they said whatever you do,
don't lose the foot part,
Copy !req
1381. because they really responded to it
Copy !req
1382. and they thought it was great
and the message was interesting.
Copy !req
1383. And then a little kid put up
his hand and he said,
Copy !req
1384. "It was sad because Hiccup lost
something but he gained much more".
Copy !req
1385. I thought "Wow, that's really
perceptive for a kid of his age".
Copy !req
1386. It was an interesting moment.
Copy !req
1387. As a filmmaker, we were very excited
about the idea of this missing foot
Copy !req
1388. and the repair and how
the Vikings would accept him,
Copy !req
1389. because it's just a natural thing
in their society.
Copy !req
1390. We were very fond of it. And I think
there's always a lot of nervousness
Copy !req
1391. going into a screening like that. It's
vulnerable. That's one of those things.
Copy !req
1392. And the audience so went
to bat for us in defending it.
Copy !req
1393. They were defending it
because they could sense
Copy !req
1394. that it was a very different, very
daring thing to do in an animated film.
Copy !req
1395. So they sensed its vulnerability
and ran to shore it up for us,
Copy !req
1396. which was just a great moment.
Copy !req
1397. It's one of the moments I'll never
forget from making this film.
Copy !req
1398. It's also such a great opportunity
to show off the incredible art direction
Copy !req
1399. that Pierre-Olivier Vincent
brought to the picture. We call him POV.
Copy !req
1400. It's just easier.
Copy !req
1401. But all of this design, these incredible
buildings and the scale of everything,
Copy !req
1402. it has caricature
just like the characters do,
Copy !req
1403. but it's rendered with such realism
that it's all believable.
Copy !req
1404. It was so nice to
have this chase happen.
Copy !req
1405. We didn't have the effects budget
to have them fly through the clouds.
Copy !req
1406. So we said, "We'll keep it grounded.
We'll have them fly around the town".
Copy !req
1407. I'm so glad we did 'cause it gives you
such a great opportunity for 3-D,
Copy !req
1408. but also just get a last tour,
a nice sun-lit tour
Copy !req
1409. of the great little village.
Copy !req
1410. This song was brought to us by Jónsi,
Copy !req
1411. who is the singer
of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós.
Copy !req
1412. And his solo work is so bright
and infectious and happy
Copy !req
1413. that we thought who better
than to ask him
Copy !req
1414. to do a song for us in the end credits.
Copy !req
1415. So he took a look at the film in London
while we were there doing our score,
Copy !req
1416. and he came out of it
Copy !req
1417. having really reacted to it
in a positive sense.
Copy !req
1418. He had such an emotional response to it
that he absolutely wanted to do it.
Copy !req
1419. And he created the song
in something like two days.
Copy !req
1420. It's so upbeat and joyous, and it's
just a great way, in our feelings,
Copy !req
1421. to end the movie.
Copy !req
1422. You just want to tap your toe
and celebrate the movie.
Copy !req
1423. It should be pointed out that these
are the actual drawings by Nico Marlet.
Copy !req
1424. The Toothless drawings were Simon
Otto's, but these are Nico Marlet's.
Copy !req
1425. And he drew...
Copy !req
1426. It has to be thousands and thousands
of dragons for this movie.
Copy !req
1427. The dragons represented in the movie
are a tiny fraction of the ones
Copy !req
1428. that he actually created and drew.
And he's just a brilliant artist.
Copy !req
1429. And his drawings
are incredibly pleasing.
Copy !req
1430. So there were two places in the film,
the credits being one of them,
Copy !req
1431. that we were able to feature his
drawings, the other one being the book,
Copy !req
1432. which you noticed before,
those are his drawings in the book.
Copy !req
1433. The "Art Of" book,
Copy !req
1434. - which is a nice testament to...
- Plus...
Copy !req
1435. - Yeah, well, but also the book that...
- That Cressida wrote.
Copy !req
1436. Yeah, but also the one that Hiccup
is actually going through.
Copy !req
1437. I wanted to mention Cressida Cowell,
of course, the author
Copy !req
1438. of the book How to Train Your Dragon.
Copy !req
1439. Oh, yeah, she had something
to do with this.
Copy !req
1440. She was a great
supporter of the film and...
Copy !req
1441. - There is the book.
- Absolutely.
Copy !req
1442. - There is the book that she wrote.
- Created some great characters,
Copy !req
1443. had a real fun tone. We definitely...
Copy !req
1444. Chris and Dean in the writing
of the story and the script
Copy !req
1445. departed a lot from...
It's really more of an origins story.
Copy !req
1446. But I have to give Cressida credit
Copy !req
1447. for creating this world
that we just love being a part of.
Copy !req
1448. And the spirit, really. I think we
really held on to the spirit
Copy !req
1449. of the runt Viking who changes the
world, and so many of the elements
Copy !req
1450. were obviously culled from the original
material, and we just expanded upon it.
Copy !req
1451. When we go through these production
credits, I have to say that we had
Copy !req
1452. a great production team.
And wow, the hundreds of people,
Copy !req
1453. the small village that it takes
to get these movies made.
Copy !req
1454. I have to say one of the people,
we really mentioned him a few times,
Copy !req
1455. but didn't talk nearly enough about,
which is Simon Otto,
Copy !req
1456. our head of character animation.
Everything he brought to the party,
Copy !req
1457. the sensibilities of the world
and just the language of the acting.
Copy !req
1458. One of the things we really wanted to
get out of this film is believability.
Copy !req
1459. I think you've got so many unbelievable
things that we're trying to accomplish
Copy !req
1460. in such an incredible world,
and you fill the world with dragons.
Copy !req
1461. Those dragons... And if they're
gonna have these kind of designs,
Copy !req
1462. they're gonna have to be believable
in the way that they moved.
Copy !req
1463. And Simon accomplished
this monumental task
Copy !req
1464. with such good humour
and just always made it a joy for us.
Copy !req
1465. We would come to animation dailies
every single day.
Copy !req
1466. It was usually the way
we wrapped up the day.
Copy !req
1467. And it was really one of the high points
of our day to come in and see
Copy !req
1468. where everything was
and to visit with the animators
Copy !req
1469. and see everything they'd done.
Copy !req
1470. And Simon was just a gigantic part
of keeping this film on track
Copy !req
1471. and keeping it fun. We had a pretty
tight schedule on this thing,
Copy !req
1472. and he made it seem easy.
Copy !req
1473. Well, we had a bunch
of really great creative supervisors
Copy !req
1474. that were also good managers. I mean,
were able to manage the other artists
Copy !req
1475. and the time and the resources to really
Copy !req
1476. get everything that I know Chris and
Dean were looking for on the screen.
Copy !req
1477. Hopefully better
than what they could have imagined.
Copy !req
1478. You know something?
I could never have imagined
Copy !req
1479. a world that was this complete,
Copy !req
1480. I think, and this believable
and really this rich.
Copy !req
1481. I think, you know, just the...
everything about this film,
Copy !req
1482. I geek out about the way
the water looks,
Copy !req
1483. the way the clouds look,
the stone, the grass,
Copy !req
1484. the Vikings' beards,
the metal that they're wearing.
Copy !req
1485. Oh, my God, we didn't even talk about
how difficult the beards were.
Copy !req
1486. - Oh, my gosh.
- Hair is another thing
Copy !req
1487. that is unbelievably complex.
Copy !req
1488. And one thing as well,
like the matte painting in this film,
Copy !req
1489. the clouds, it's really hard to pull off
Copy !req
1490. and it was integrated so seamlessly
in the actual three-dimensional elements
Copy !req
1491. that I was so impressed every time
they came in with those matte paintings.
Copy !req
1492. - Well...
- Beautiful job.
Copy !req
1493. - Hope you enjoyed the film, gang.
- Yeah. Thank you so much,
Copy !req
1494. if you made it to the end.
Thank you for listening.
Copy !req
1495. It was really and truly... it truly
was a joy to be part of this film
Copy !req
1496. and to work with all these artists.
It's something that when you're a kid
Copy !req
1497. growing up like Dean and I,
and you draw because you love it,
Copy !req
1498. the idea that you could eventually turn
those things that you love into a job
Copy !req
1499. that you can actually do all the time
is really an incredible thing.
Copy !req
1500. And we get to gather together
with these incredible artists
Copy !req
1501. to put these things together.
It's incredibly inspiring,
Copy !req
1502. - and it really makes it a joy.
- It's an amazing journey.
Copy !req
1503. Thank you, Chris and Dean,
for letting me be part of it.
Copy !req
1504. Thank you, Bonnie, for leading.
Copy !req
1505. Thank you, DreamWorks, for trusting us
with How to Train Your Dragon.
Copy !req
1506. We've enjoyed every minute of it.
Copy !req