Dragon Age: Redemption Episode 6 Part 2

At long last we come to the final blog for Dragon Age: Redemption. If you've been following along, you've seen the magnitude of the project we set out to do, and the uphill battle we fought along the way to do it! The BarnYard took on the lion's share of the visual aspects of prepping the film, including the sets, props, and make-up effects. Any one of those departments should have had the budget of the entire project, and my crew should have been 10 times the size. but it wasn't, and the people involved worked that much harder to make everything amazing. You may wonder how many unseen dozens of craftsman helped in bringing the DA:R art department's task to fruition, but the truth is everyone involved has been mentioned and/or pictured in these blogs. We were a rag tag team of believers in what Felicia Day had planned, and despite the odds that were against us, I think things turned out pretty well.

Every episode has it's own behind the scenes story, and I hope I covered most of them on these pages. The final episode brought us to a place of magic and mayhem, Sundermount, the ancient burial shrine of Elves.

Photo 1: When we last left Sundermount, it was being ravaged by the incredible winds ripping through the mountains above the San Fernando Valley. I got a crew up there as early as possible in the morning so we could get the set back together and in perfect shape before filming began.

Photo 2: We were going to be on the location for several more days, so the trick was not only to get the set standing again, but to make sure it stayed that way for the rest of filming! We quadrupled the number of stakes, sandbags, and ropes we used to secure the walls down on the backside, and we fortified them with jack stands on the front side when the set wasn't being filmed.

Photo 3: Sundermount stands again! Very little of the set can actually be seen in the show, which is disappointing, since I think it is the only real setting that directly connects our world to Bioware's virtual world.

Photo 4: The Sundermount shoot spanned over a few "splits". This is when the 10 to 12 hour work day is pushed later in the day, or way early in the morning, to split the time between the dark of night and the light of day. We needed daylight for the travel shots to Sundermount, and for the morning after the main battle. Of course, that battle all took place in the dead of night.

There was a lot to shoot, so even though most of episode 6 all took place in one location, it was heavy divided up over those several nights. Many things needed to be reset, including the blood ritual. Here, the maze of runes is being redressed for a second night of sacrifice!

Photo 5: Moviestar drinking Rockstar! (I gave Marissa Cuevas the nickname "Moviestar" on Labou, our first project together, a long, long time ago! Her birthday is this week, so send her well wishes!) The hardest part about working splits or night shoots is staying awake! No matter how many nights of a shoot I work, I never seem to fully adjust and find myself still waking up during the day to do stuff, which makes it more difficult to jump into a 12 hour work shift. Marissa had a very emotional scene during the Sundermount night shoots, so energy drinks became her best friend. Felicia and Kim gave their love to the crew in the form of a coffee truck, which kept us warm and awake on those long. cold nights!

Photo 6: One thing Marissa learned is that it is hard to keep warm when you are spending long hours playing dead! The saddest part of Dragon Age: Redemption for me was the fact that Marissa's character, Fina, dies in the end. (Sorry if that was a spoiler!!! But I hope everyone has seen DA:R by now!!!) The only bright side was that I got to participate in the dramatic scene by crafting the jawbone sacrificial dagger that does the deed. I know I showed this to you before, but I couldn't reveal all the versions of it to avoid the above mentioned spoiler!

Here is the final hero dagger, the bloody stunt dagger, and the half dagger rig that attached to a harness under Marissa's costume for the initial stabbing.

Photo 7: In the make-up trailer, make up artist John Wrightson begins Doug Jones's transformation into the corrupt mage Saarebas.

Photo 8: Originally, I planned on sculpting hand appliances for Doug, but his movement and physique are so perfect already, a paint job and some custom-made creepy finger nails were all that was necessary. This helped out the budget immensely, as hand appliances would have needed to be remade for every day of filming and added expense to our already taxed budget!

Photo 9: Our first round of zombies didn't get shot due to time restrictions, so I hobbled together a few more for the next night of shooting.

Photo 10: We have a saying around the BarnYard make-up effects shop that has never been proven wrong, and it goes a little something like this: "It takes a while to apply our creature make-up, but when we're done, it's time for lunch!" No matter how much we try to work with the A.D. department, it is inevitable that they will schedule the lead creature actor to have his make-up applied BEFORE lunch, and then go on to set with a monster face covered in spaghetti or pizza grease. Luckily, Doug is the consummate professional, and has mastered the art of preserving his rubber face no matter how restrictive it is. Unfortunately, the finger nails prevented him from enjoying the corn on the cob!

Photo 11: After lunch, I did a quick retouching, and Saarebas was good to go. Looking at this shot mostly makes me think of how awesome the costumes were that Shawna Trpcic put together.

Photo 12: The same winds that plagued the Sundermount set wreaked havoc on the cast and crew during filming. FX make-up supervisor Erika Ladd had to keep Saarebas's hair tied up between takes to prevent the wind from destroying the wig. Note Marissa playing dead in the background, bundled up for rehearsals.

Photo 13: No one had it so bad on those nights as Felicia herself. When I was designing the Tallis costume, many key words floated around in my head: Sexy, Strong, Functional, Authentic, Organic, and did I mention Sexy!?! Words like "Warm" and "Cozy" never really made the cut. You will never feel so wimpy as when you are standing on a mountaintop in mid January, wearing multiple layers of Down, electric thermal gloves, scarves, wool face mask and fur lined hat, and complaining about the cold as the star/writer/producer stands next to you in skin tight leather pants and revealing corset of your purposeful design.

But Felicia is a trooper, and wardrobe had giant warm coats to bundle her up in between takes. Once the scene got going, Tallis was very active, and Felicia channeled her struggle against the cold into fierce assassin energy.

Photo 14: The Sundermount battle climaxes with Tallis making the choice to execute Saarebas (Again, sorry if that's a spoiler. But really? C'mon!!!) In the original script, Tallis delivers a final blow that severs the Qunari mage's head from his shoulders. In the last scene, as the remaining heroes bury their dead, Tallis walks off toward the horizon carrying the head as her prize.

Ultimately, it was decided in the final version of the show that keeping the head was out of character for Tallis, and the imagery changed the message Felicia wanted for the message of the show. Although I completely agree with the way the finale plays out, I was bummed that one of my favorite DA:R props found it's final resting place on the cutting room floor.

None the less, I made it, and here's how! I did a fiberglass cast of the cowl and horns from the silicone matrix mold used to create the make-up, as seen above.

Photo 15: Then I did a 1630 urethane cast of the face appliance, backed with fiberglass. Because the action in the script was very specific, and the head would only ever be seen held by the hair as a trophy, I decided to create it as a rigid version from the original molds. Ordinarily, if it needed to roll or be held by the face, or move in any way, we would have made a foam or soft silicone version. However, this would require additional molds, an underskull, possibly simple mechanics. Doing it as a rigid "looks only" prop saved us days of work and thousands of dollars.

Photo 16: I wanted to add a "dead" expression to the head, as apposed to the neutral look on Doug's lifecast, so I dremeled off the lower lip and chin, and removed the closed eyes. I glued in some glass eyes that were pretty close to Doug's color, then used Magic Sculpt 2 part epoxy resin to sculpt in the eyelids. I tried to make them look relaxed and asymmetrical, since the muscles would have loosened up after death.

Photo 17: Next, I fused the face to the cowl. I glued the lower jaw back on, but repositioned it so it was a little slack, and slightly twisted to one side. I used more Magic Sculpt to bridge the spaces created by the cuts, and rebuilt the lower lip to sag from it's own weight. Then I added castings of the secondary horns. I was also careful to not secure the top of the forehead, so the wig could be tucked under after the head was painted.

I used the hole in the bottom of the neck to put a set of teeth in, since the open lips revealed them. I believe those are a spare casting of Ben Affleck's teeth that were laying around! Once those were set, I capped the severed neck off with a circle of sintra plastic, then smeared some Bondo over it roughly to simulate meaty, sinewy bits!


Photo 18: This is the head after I finished painting it. I matched the paint scheme I did on the hero appliances, but added more purple veins along the wound, the jawline, and eye sockets, to represent settled, clotted blood.

Photo 19: This is the head after it was splattered with blood on set. I also did a light spray of Krylon Crystal Clear to give the skin a dewy sheen.

Photo 20: Because you can't blog about a severed head and not make the joke...WHAT"S IN THE BOX!?!?! (If the reference is lost on you, click here) The sad truth is, the head IS boxed up now, waiting for a future open space on my display shelf. As for Tallis's trophy, it was digitally removed from the final show.

Photo 21: There were many moving parts to the series finale, and the restrictive time schedule put more things at risk of ending up on the chopping block than just my prop head. There were several key moments that main unit just couldn't fit into the schedule, so Felicia called The Guild director Sean Becker to step in and helm 2nd unit.

Sean was in charge of capturing all of the insert shots and pick-up shots from various scenes that would help stitch the sequences together seamlessly. Most of this was done towards the end of the schedule, when we were back on the stage, so my team needed to recreate small chunks of the various locations in corners of our warehouse.

Photo 22: The Guild's director of photography, Chris Darnell, joined Sean to film each shot. We all studied the footage together to make sure that the right environment was created, and Chris very carefully recreated John Bartley's lighting. Inserts and pick-up shots are more difficult than they look, as you are trying to match another team's footage exactly while being in a completely different place, with completely different resources.

Here, Chris lines up an over the shoulder close up of the mask of Fen'Heral as Saarebas prepares it for the ceremony.

Photo 23: The mask and dagger await their close-up insert shots by 2nd unit.

Photo 24: The biggest challenge for the 2nd unit art team was piecing together environments for the fight scenes. We needed pick-ups for both the cave fight and the Sundermount fight, which were both heavily location dependent sets. Here, Chris rigged a large backdrop out of a black fabric called Duvetyne to simulate the night sky above Nyree as she deals her death blow.

Photo 25: Lune is at the receiving end of that rock! Pooja and Red 5 helped Sean and Chris painstakingly recreate a small section of the Topanga mountains in order to complete this scene. I think that grass is from my lawn!

Photo 26: When filming was done, we spent the next week striking the sets and wrapping out the show. I tried to hang on to as much as possible for use in future projects, but there really was just too much! We ended up filling three 40 yard dumpsters with set walls and broken props. It's always a little heart breaking to work on something so hard for so long, and see it end up in a trash pile. Here, the remains of Sundermount await their fate.

But don't be too dismayed! I made sure all of the hero props, weapons, and set dressing was carefully packed away. And there was a lot of it! Imagine the final shot in Raiders of the Lost Ark, that giant warehouse of wooden crates containing all the known secrets of the universe. Just know that there is a version of that storing everything you love from Dragon Age: Redemption, The Guild, Legend of Neil, Labou, Babylon 5, Speilberg's AI, Lost World, and everything else I ever worked on, just waiting for a reason to be put on public display.

Photo 27: All of those things will not be forgotten, much as DA:R will not be forgotten even though the series has come to an end. Tallis vanished over the horizon, but everything that Felicia accomplished by bringing Dragon Age to life has paved the way for so many more adventures to come. Hopefully some of them will be yours! I know I would love to see them.

And the genius of digital media is that the entertainment doesn't need to end when the show is over. I'm certain this is not my last blog ever about DA:R, as I remember new stories every day about the journey we had to create it. Felicia has also created an episode by episode commentary so you can get more of her insight on the making of the show.

So, for now, that has been my experience on the making of Dragon Age: Redemption. I hope you have enjoyed my public logging of the memories! It was an amazing project to work on, and I must thank Felicia for involving me, and especially for letting me take on so much of the responsibility, even when everyone else thought I was crazy for wanting to do so. Everyone else except Kim Evey, who I am eternily greatful for, as she suported my artistic insanity to the very end. Huge thanks to BioWare for letting me play so freely in their abundant and detailed world. I also need to thank my tireless crew again for their undying dedication during the endless hours and often unbarable weather! I hope this blog allowed you to know more about them and their incredible talents, without which the show could never have been made.

And I want to thank you for reading this. The response to my blog has been overwhelming, and honestly, surprising to me, and I am honored that so many are interested in what I do. It means the world to me that I get to ineract with you about the work done at the BarnYard, and your comments and sharing have really insired me to do more. Thanks again!

With Dragon Age:Redemption complete, it's time to move on to other things. But now that you have seen EVERYTHING, definitely let me know what your favorite set, prop, make-up, or any part of DA:R was! And I feel like I covered pretty much everything, but was there something I missed that you really wanted to know about? Leave a comment below and let me know. Oh, and don't forget about that DLC! As of right now, Talis is pretty much my favorite video came character ever. I think Felicia might agree...

Dragon Age: Redemption Episode 3

So, Dragon Age: Redemption is starting to get pretty intense, huh!?! Episode three brings us lots of action, and finally a clue as to what Saarebas is up to...

Photo 1: With the young Dalish mage joining our heroes, the group sets out to find Saarebas. But they find that he is still not alone. The reaver Nyree guards the enterance to the cave.

Photo 2: There was a lot of back and forth in regard to how big the reaver's weapon should be, and I believed the bigger the better! The game asset we chose from the BioWare chart looked mean, but I wanted it to strike fear in people's hearts just sitting on Nyree's shoulder. We went pretty large, ultimately, but Marcia Battise make it look natural to weild, which made the weapon and warrior combo even that more impossing.

Photo 3: And once inside the cave, we finally get to see Doug Jones in costume designer Shawna Trpic's final ceremonial Saarebas armor. Here he is during the last fitting before the shoot started. Doug is the nicest guy you will ever meet in Hollywood. That whole evil hands thing is just an act!

Photo 5: And yes, Felicia Day once again wore mismatched socks to the fitting!

Photo 6: I am friends with the entire cast, but no one is more dear to me than the lovely Marissa Cuevas. When I signed on to DA:R, Felicia hadn't worked out the entire story yet. After getting the first script and seeing the role of Fina, I suggest that Marissa audition for it. I was so thrilled when Felicia replied, "Oh, no, I WROTE that role for her!"

Photo 7: I'm sure you notice Marissa in many of my blogs. It's a long story as to how she became such an important person in my life and a major part of the BarnYard, but it all started with the first feature film I wrote and directed, LABOU. Marissa was only 12 years old when I discovered her while casting in New Orleans for the lead girl. We shot the film all summer long, right up until the morning Hurricane Katrina hit. The storm devestated the city, and destroyed many people's lives. We were very fortunate to survive the ordeal, but it did derail my movie, and it took almost a year to pull it all back together.

The entire time, Marissa and her family supported me in every way possible, and were there to see the whole thing through. After the movie, Marissa had her sights set on making film her career, but New Orleans was in no shape to give the entertainment business a fair shot. So she packed up and headed to LA, and I have tried to help her succeed in every way I possibly can.

Photo 8: Not that she needs my help! She is going to be a star, and there is no storm front strong enough to stop her!

Photo 9: Marissa was the second pair of ears to get cast, after Felicia. See the irony of Marissa helping cast all the other elf ears now?

Photo 10: Here's a close up of Marissa's right elf ear sculpture. I decided to only apply the elf ear to the pinna, and not sculpt all the way to the inner ring. This allowed the foam ear to fit tighter and have a little more room for adjustment. You can also see Marissa's name and charater etched into the base. We had so many Elves, I needed to make sure that each actor's ears were perminately labeled so there wouldn't be any confusion in the lab.

Photo 11: The elf ears were also one of those rare occations where the mold needed to be designed before the sculpt, so that everything was executed in a fashion that would work! Specifically since the molds needed to be run so many times. We couldn't afford for them to degrade, or get damaged in the process due to difficulty in use.

Photo 12: Fina plays a major role in Saarebas's plan. In order for his blood magic to work, he needs the blood of a virgin!

Photo 13: To procure that blood, the wicked mage uses a ceremonial dagger. There were once again many choices on BioWare's Dragon Age II weapons chart, but the second we saw the shark jaw bone sword, I knew I had to shrink it down to be the mage's blade.

Mike Laidlaw at BioWare agreed with the idea, and I didn't even have to beg! I sculpted the dagger out of roma clay. Here it is in its bed of leisure clay, getting ready for a silicone box mold.

Photo 14: Despite the fact that Marissa watched me the entire time I sculpted and molded the dagger, I don't think it sunk in until she held the multiple urethane castings in her had. If I'm reading this photo right, she's saying, "Really!?!? I get sliced with this!?!?"

Photo 14: Here is a comparison of the Dragon Age game asset, and my final prop.

Photo 15: Saarebas uses the blood to awaken the magic contained within the sacred Mask of Fen'Harel, the dread wolf.

Photo 16: Fen'Harel is the god of trickery and decite. He is spoken of in DA lore, and the Dalish use this idol to protect their camps, but not much more detail is know about the god. Felicia penned the mask as a device within the story, but no such item existed in the game. This was one of the few oppertunites I had to create an original design.

Photo 17: We had already seen the Dalish wagons and bows, and I knew that they were very ornate and detailed in there craftsmanship. Josmael stresses the mask's value in episode 2, so I wanted it to have a definite visual presence when we finally see it to support that statement. And, obviously, Felicia and I agreed it should look like a wolf!

Photo 18: We were on a very tight schedule, only having just over a month to manufature hundreds of props, and I wasn't quite sure were I was going with the mask. Instead of figuring it out in sketches, which would only be an idea, I jumped right into clay and started exploring shapes and expressions. Once I felt like I was onto something, I sent the images you see above to Felicia and production for feedback.

Photo 19: When everyone signed off on my rough sculpt, I spent a few days refining it, then carving in the Dalsih patterns and runes.

Photo 20: The sculpture was molded in an open faced silicone mold, and then a 1630 urethane brush-up was done. The final mask needed to be two pieces, the face and the jaw, and we needed multiple copies of each. So this first casting was a preliminary step. Here, I explain to Art Director Bryan Fulk how to divide the mask and finish of the back surface.

Photo 21: After the mask was divided and finished, each piece was remolded as a two sided silicone mold. The final casts were done in a very durable BJB 808 urethane. Everyone loved to run around with the mask on! If this looks way too familiar, it's beacuse the sculpture was done on my head cast!

Photo 22: It was decided early on, for many reasons, that the mask would not actually be made of gold. A major factor being that on an item this big, gold paint would not look real. We couldn't afford the time to do any of the other trick processes that might get around this, nor the money to have the masks electroplated. Storywise, it seemed important to keep the focus on the mask's mystical value, and not it's monetary worth. I felt terra cotta was the next best option for earthen people like the Dalish. Here, I'm painting the teeth to look as if they were real wolf's teeth set into the jaw.

Photo 23: Here are the two components of the mask. The lower half was never meant to be seen on its own, as it magically grows from the mask during the ceremony. You can see the registration areas that lock into the upper half.

Photo 24: Here is the completed mask. The jeweled eyes appear after the mask is run with virgin blood upon the altar dog...

Photo 25: Oops! Wrong dog...

Photo 26: The altar of Fen'Harel. Hidden deep within a mountain cave, this wolf statue awaits a blood sacrifice. I originally had an elaborate plan of seeing the statue crumble when the completed mask was removed, revealing the skeleton of Fen'Harel's human form. Very Conan the Barbarian. Alas, there was no time for such a thing.

Photo 27: I did a quick sketch of the altar, and it was carved out of foam. Digger Mesch did the dog, and Joanne Gross helmed the set piece. We didn't have the budget for giant blocks of foam like we usually use on studio movies, so mutiple layers were fused together with spray insulation to get the thicknesses we needed. For all the stryofoam people throw away on a daily basis, you would think the stuff was cheap. But large blocks of foam run in the thousands of dollars!

Photo 28: The finished carving was coated in a layer of spackle, then a base coat of house paint was applied. The set piece was sceniced with a combonation of washes, dry-brushing, and splattering to give a stone effect. For large pieces like this, I use a hudson sprayer with thinned down house paint. If you open the nozzel all the way, it sputters and creates a realistic granite effect.
Photo 29: Fen'Heral keeps an eye on the cast and crew in the cave. Which is actually the Bat Cave!

We filmed in Bronson Cave, a staple of the LA filming community, located in Griffith Park. It was originally used as the Bat Cave in the 60s Adam West version of BATMAN. Since then it has appeared in hundreds, if not thousands of movies. I actually died in there a few times. Oh, and this one time, I had breasts and ate somebody in that cave. No, seriously. It was a Roger Corman movie...

Soooo, anyway. The funny thing about shooting at Bronson cave? It's not a cave at all!

Photo 30: It's more like a tunnel...!

Photo 31: ...with giant opening at both ends. So the trick was to turn it INTO a cave. We decided to plug up the largest opening, so the smaller one could more easily be tarped of by the grip team.

There was no small amount of obstacles to this task. The mouth of the cave was huge (You can see Joanne standing there for scale) the ground was loose and sloped, and we weren't allowed to dig, nail, glue, stake, or lean on any part of the cave! And to top it off, the way the mountain was positioned, the tunnel was a bona fide wind tunnel! It was hard to stand in the middle at times from the force of the air rushing through. Our styrofoam plug was going to need a well engineered support system to resist against that.

Photo 32: Joanne took basic measuments of the cave mouth, and set off to extend the altar to include cave walls.

Photo 33: The beginning of the extended altar. The "plug" needed to be built in sections so the individual pieces could be transported to the cave.

Photo 34: The altar was assembled in place, and the cave plug walls are being brought in. It took several days at the loctaion to get everything together and blended into the surrounding rock.

The cave is a landmark, and a tourist attraction, so even though we had permission to film there, we couldn't prevent people from entering during the construction days. It was amazing to me that people had absolutely no issues with walking right up and breaking pieces of styrofoam off the altar just to see what it was made of! While we were standing right there!

Photo 35: I guess they had to come inside to see it, beacuse from the outside, there was no hint of the adventure to come...

Alright, there's been a lot more blogging than usual this month. But I can't help it! I want to share all the behind the scenes DA:R with you that I can. Obviously, there will be yet another entry for episode 3 by the end of the week. So much more ground to cover.

Share this with your friends if you think they might be interested, and leave me your comments on episode 3! How about that Nyree?!? What are your thoughts on the series so far?