Dragon Age: Redemption Episode 6

So this is it, the final episode, the exciting conclusion of Dragon Age:Redemption! It's been a long time coming. We started this over a year ago, but at the same time, I can't believe it's over already. I'm very proud to share this behind the scenes look at last chapter of the saga, yet it's a bitter sweet moment. I've enjoyed reliving the process by blogging with each new episode, and I'm sad that we've reached the end so quickly. I hope you enjoyed my posts, as well as the realization of Felicia's amazing vision.

Photo 1: One of the biggest challenges of the final episode, and actually, of the entire series, was bringing Sundermount to life. Sundermount is known in Dragon Age II as a sacred place to the Dalish elves. A place of magic and power, essentially the Stonehenge of Bioware's virtual world.

One thing that I have learned about Felicia Day is that we share a very similar approach to writing. Before a story is completely fleshed out there will be certain visual elements that she will lock onto and the script will grow from there. It can be anything really, a character, an action, a prop, in the case of DA:R, a place. From our earliest conversations, before there was even a solid plot, Felicia knew that she wanted the characters to eventually visit Sundermount.

Photo 2: What made this set so challenging is that it was the one environment we were pulling directly out of the game. Much like all of the weapons and props that I had blogged about from previous episodes, I wanted this set to be as accurate to the game as possible. We literally constructed the set stone by stone to construct the graphics.

Photo 3: Despite out best efforts, we did have to take some liberties. We searched the entire radius of Los Angeles for rolling European hills, but couldn't quite find anything accessible to match the grounds in the game. It was ultimately decided to shoot in the alien landscape of the Topanga hills. The setting was very cool, but it forced us to change our color scheme from European gray field stone to California desert sandstone.

Photo 4: Another challenge was trying to make the small shootable area that we found look like the vast landscapes that Bioware provided us. Several of the views revealed houses and freeways in the distance, and the Sundermount walls wouldn't block them all.
Photo 5: My solution was to move the in game gates and crumbled walls closer to the sacred ruins
Photo 6: Due to time budget and space constraints, I had to pick and choose which game assets we brought to reality. In some cases, such as this gateway, I chose what I felt were the coolest elements, out of a larger structure, pairing it down to a more achievable set piece.

Photo 7: All of the Sundermount elements were made of polystyrene sheet foam, the kind used to insulate houses, mounted onto wooden frames. The foam was carved, coated in joint compound, and painted.

Photo 8: Several days before shooting the set pieces as far up the mountain as possible, then carried by hand the rest of the way. There were over 20 pieces total, some being more than 12 feet in length and several hundred pounds. Lets just say, it was not easy to get up that mountain.

Photo 9: It took my crew two days to erect Sundermount. Once all of the places were staked in place and connected, all of the seams needed to be puttied and painted. The really tall structures needed to be roped off against the elements.

Photo 10: Several rock samples were taken to the shop to help guide the painting of the sets, but once it actually stood at the location, it was obvious that we needed to do some more painting to blend it into the landscape.

Photo 11: It is funny that I would blog about this alter in one of the finals DA.R posts, being that it was actually the first set piece to be constructed for the entire series. It consists of a 2x4 and plywood frame layered with the styrofoam which was then carved to look like individual stone blocks.

Photo 12: We knew that the alter was going to be involved in the fight scene and possibly end up needing to hold a lot of weight. The wooden structure was completely up to the task, but the foam stone skin would not be able to take any weight or impact. I decided to put several layers of fiber glass on the altar's surface to protect it.

The polyester resin we use for fiber glassing actually eats the styrofoam, so a trick I use is to spray mount a protective layer of aluminum foil onto the sculpted foam. This allows all of the detail to remain and keeps the resin away from the foam. Here, Josie Kavadoy and Jason Swearingen apply the final layer of fiberglass mat.

Photo 13: The final alter as it appeared on set awaiting it's sacrifice.

Photo 14: Of course, that sacrifice happens to be my dearest friend Marissa Cuevas. I knew all along that this prop played a big part in Marissa's climactic scene, so it was kind of special to be able to build it for her.

She was very excited about the role that Felicia wrote for her. And who wouldn't be? After all, its not everyday you get to dress like a princess. Especially one who gets to wear a dress designed by Shawna Trpcic, who also designed many of Marissa's favorite shows, including Firefly! Here she is during the final fitting for her ceremonial dress. I couldn't wait to see her in action.

Photo 15: Of course, actually seeing it was horrifying. That is one of the cruel twists of Hollywood, working with friends and loved one on movie sets, despite the fact that none of this is real, there are certain images you never really want to see.

It's okay though, Marissa was unharmed in the filming of this scene. The dress, however, did not survive.

Photo 16: Marissa was not the only things pretending to be dead at Sundermount. The evil mage Saarebas attempts to hold his ground by raising an army of the dead to battle our heroes. Luckily for him the Dalish elves buried their fallen comrades in a cemetery not far from the Sundermount ruins. We made a wide variety of tombstones based on Bioware game assets from foam and wood.
Photo 17: Tombstones being set in place in the Topanga hills, creepy but peaceful. For the moment...
Photo 18: This next series of photos are truly a behind the scenes exclusive. Due to circumstances beyond our control, production had delays during the Sundermount shooting schedule, and almost all of the zombies, which I am about to show you, did not make it on the film. We created a variety of foam latex appliances, such as this one piece pull-over zombie. All of the appliances were sculpted by Digger Mesh and myself.

Photo 19: One of the first pitfalls was that the stuntman hired to play the large zombie was allergic to latex, so I couldn't apply his make up. We considered switching actors but there was no one available to fit the mask. In an experiment to see what the latex would look like on a smaller person, I donned the dead elf head. You can tell its me because of the hat.

Photo 20: Here we have a female zombie elf warrior. This was a full head single piece appliance.

Photo 21: The best part of the zombies was that it gave members of my art department an opportunity to do some make up effects. Here Rikki Techner applies the zombie girl. Rikki's true passion is make up, so she really enjoyed being able to create a character that would be filmed on a set that she had helped to build.

Photo 22:This pruney zombie was sculpted on a life cast of Ben Afflek's face.

Photo 23: Art Department Coordinator Pooja Sharma tries her hand at applying zombie make up for the first time.

Photo 24: This elf obviously died from severe wounds to the face. It was done as a one piece face appliance.

Photo 25: Yeah, yeah, yeah... you get it.

Photo 26: About at this point we were informed that the zombies would not be filmed. As you can see, they were not happy about it.

Photo 27: No really, they were not happy! They kind of haunted us for the rest of the night.

Photo 28: The ghastly ghouls had their revenge though, summoning the dark forces of nature to reek even more havoc on poor Sundermount. When we returned in the morning, we discovered that the winds that blew through the mountains in the late hours of the night took down our set, despite out best efforts to secure it. Needless to say, I had a situation on my hands...

Photo 29: It was a mad scramble to get everything back online, but I will save that story for the final post of my DA:R blog.

I am excited to hear all of your reactions to the epic finale of our series. Please leave comments below and feel free to ask me about anything I might have left out within these blogs. Don't forget to like and share this page below!

Zombie School Day 6

Day 6 you wonder? Yes, day 6. There were a few key moments that didn’t get shot, and we decided it was all too cool to just let slip away. So we pulled up our boot straps (except for guitarist Chris, who seemed to be running around naked most of the night) and went for another all nighter on Sunday. Hence the delay in blogging: I’ve been passed out! Well, not completely. There have been a few other projects and art emergencies I had to deal with, but that’s for blogging another day. This is Zombie school!

So, between Saturday morning, when everyone left, and Sunday afternoon, when everyone came back, there was a frenzy of photo sharing. I got a hold of a few cool pix I thought I would post in case anyone forgot what this project was about. Because I’m certain it is not haunting you like it is haunting me…

Photo 89: I didn’t really get to do a step by step on the application process like I wanted to, mostly because I had to do the zombie girls so fast there was no time for blogging. But a few people wandering through snap shots randomly, so here is step one: the bald cap. Marissa got once since her zombie appliance went up past her hairline to expose the brain. The bald cap is used to give a surface to glue the foam latex to while protecting her hair.

Photo 90: I have yet to find any photos of the intermediate stages, but here we have Marissa’s zombie face fully applied. I am gluing down the foam edges around her eyes. I sculpted all the girls’ makeup in one piece, to minimize the amount of edges I would have to deal with in the very short time I knew I would have to apply them all. But around the eyes and mouth are the most important areas to blend in, or it will obviously look like a mask.

Photo 91: Here is Marissa zombie blended and wigged, prior to the final make up being brushed on. I blended the edges with the medical adhesive, Pros Aide, mixed with a thickener, cabosil, to make a paste. I applied it with a Popsicle stick (stop laughing and pointing, Rick Baker!), which I also used to quickly sculpt in some lines to match the zombie sculpture. This gets powdered and dried with the cool setting on a hair dryer. The final color is Krylon rubber mask grease paint. Then the whole thing gets a layer of KY jelly to make it, well, gross looking. Marissa will assure you that it is just gross overall.

Photo 92: The lovely Lesley being zombified. There are many ways to impress a beautiful woman. This is probably not one of them.


Photo 93: I made her green. You’re green with envy, aren’t you? I know.

Photo 94: So before all that zombing, costume tearing, and body painting went down in the middle of the night, there was some filming involving very beautiful people for the other side of the video’s narrative. That’s my hammer on the rock. Oh, and that’s my rock…

Photo 95: But things can only stay beautiful for so long. Here are the girls returning to the camp a few hours later. But, hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe you are into this sort of thing…

Photo 96: There’s Kerri bringing back the White Snake vibe. My Caddy hasn’t been so excited since White Snake was cool! Damn, that was a long time ago!

Photo 97: So there are people who love Zombies! LV Eric (LV stands for Lead Vocals, a seventies industry term the band told me they were bringing back. I’m in.) is a huge horror fan, and he was loving every minute of our monster fest. He probably would have been helping me do the makeups if he wasn’t so busy, you know, being IN the video and stuff!

Photo 98: So remember a few days ago when I mentioned I had a crazy idea for an additional set for the video? Well, it became reality. We didn’t get to shoot it Friday night, but it was the main target for the Sunday night shoot.

Photo 99: In our desperation to get the girls in make up Friday, coverage was a bit lean on the non-zombie versions. So before Marissa transformed, we shot more of her beautiful self. Here’s a pic of her hanging out in the sewer set.

Photo 100: The most important coverage to get was to reinforce the relationship between Eric and Marissa. You will see the love she represents, to conflict with the “hate” the zombie symbolizes.

And no one should hate anyone! That just reminded me of a cool thing that went down on Sunday at about this time. The guys from NOH8, the campaign against Prop 8, drop by and photographed the band, Marissa beautiful, and Marissa zombie. If you are in the LA area, contact Adam (I have the link on my site) and let him photograph you. He’s an amazing artist, and it’s a good cause. We all deserve our equal rights as humans. And zombies, too!

Photo 101: One last shot of Marissa before she gets zombified. Here she is with the band. I think I saw the guy on the left in American Pie, and I’m pretty sure the guy on the far right used to be in Guns n Roses. No, just being stupid! That’s Chris, Eric, Kevin, and Augusto of Fallbrooke. If you are not a fan already, you should be. Or zombies will eat your brain!

Photo 102: And Marissa is back in the chair. This time, my buddy Chris Hayden was around and filmed (I almost said video taped! How’s it going, 1985?) the whole thing. As soon as I get the 56 minutes edited down to something that will fit on your iphone, I’ll post it!

Photo 103: A key scene in the vid involves a killer kiss. And by killer I mean someone loses a tooth! The tooth we had wasn’t big enough to read clearly, so I made this new, unnaturally sized one in about 4 minutes with some styrene square stock, a little clean clay, and an xacto. Then Eric put it in his mouth!!!! Ah, Hollywood.

Photo 104: One thing I learned while shooting this video is that if Studio City ever gets over run by zombies, my Boston terrier Print will kick their asses!

Photo 105: It’s getting late, and I’m not sure if Marissa is acting or expressing her inner thoughts. Either way, this face says, “I want to kill you!”

Photo 106: The band is rotating through single close-ups, so the guys are hanging out in my studio. Here, Kevin and Chris are trying to convince Jabba to go on tour with them. Unfortunately, Max Rebo has him under contract indefinitely. In other unfortunate news, I just revealed what I nerd I am and probably reduced my chances of getting a date in the next 6 months to 0%!

Photo 107: Here’s me prepping the sewer set for the big shot of the evening. I think Augusto took this picture. For some reason, the band found my late night hose work hysterically funny. I don’t know, must be a rock and roll thing.

Photo 108: And here it is, the moment we were all waiting for. Eric and Marissa had to dunk themselves in that cold water for about half an hour. Huge round of applause, please, everybody! They were awesome!

I personally would have kept this bit a secret till the video release, but since everybody was excited to twitter it on the day, I wasn’t going to be left out! I think it will still make you jump when you see the final cut, anyway. Just pretend like none of this ever happened.

Well, that was our Fallbrooke “Take me under” zombie extravaganza video shoot. Are you wondering what happens now? Well, Pax goes into he edit bay and cuts like a madman. And I survey the damage and figure out how to clean up. And now you are wondering, “How bad can it be? It was only a week long project!” sure. Let me show you…

Photo 109: Here’s the shop. Now I’m not going to pretend like it was all Martha Stewart before we started, but I think you have been following this long enough to identify the layer of crap that is zombie related…

Photo 110: Here’s the molding area. Its not a camera trick, that small opening in front of the door is actually almost too small to walk through. There is so much junk piled up out there you need spelunking gear to get to the house… Even Arnold looks sad…

Photo 111: The water has all drained from the swamp, but I have a feeling the plastic and framework will haunt me for weeks. I’m sure my neighbors aren’t happy with my cars parked out on the street. Goal: retrieve driveway.

Photo 112: You find the strangest things after a film crew leaves your property. I documented the weirdest thing I came across for this project. Early Monday morning, while preparing for another shoot (alien ninja. I’m almost done!) I found an un-open chunk of cheese in the corner of the yard. When it went to pick it up, cause I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave cheese around, it was warm and squishy!

Photo 113: Incase you wanted to know how squishy, here’s a picture of my pressing on it! I have no idea why I did it, but I did, and the smell that came out made intern Katie almost vomit! I don’t think cheese is supposed to be like that. Welcome to Hollywood!

Photo 114: Be cool! And if you don't know how, ask Print. His latest technique is putting his paws in his water bowl after a long summer walk. Now that's keepin' it cool!