Dragon's layer: Golgotha
After a year of toil and turmoil, bloodshed and tears, the Dragon has been laid to rest... not slain as such since she triumphs in the film- she was just retired.
Last Sunday, well before sunrise, The Lady and I crawled into the mechabee, picked up Mr. Parham and headed over to Karla Jean Davis' house for a breakfast of Mickey D's and Karla's killer coffee. Once our crew had assembled, and our lead actor was in costume, we loaded up the caravan and set off for White River Cave, a small, natural cave pressed up alongside highway 113, near "Iron Stab" northeast of Rockmart, Ga.. For decades the cave has been a popular destination with the locals, especially the kids from a neighboring high school, a fact evident in the layers of spray paint and etchings declaring who was there, who loves who, where hell is and who "sux" etc...
As soon as we arrived at the cave, I threw my car keys into the arm rest, grabbed my flashlight, strapped on a headlamp and ran to the cave entrance. In my excitement, I somehow encouraged Mr. Parham, Mr. Munger (the craftsman who built our Dragon's neck and saved the shoot along with a degree of my sanity) and two other men, that we needed to inspect the staging area and at least fifty yards of cave behind it.
Exiting the cave mouth fifteen minutes later, covered in mud and moisture, we found that most of the equipment had been unloaded and the crew was waiting for us to set up the Dragon's head and twelve-foot, armature neck. I ran back to the mechabee, apologetically only to discover that The Lady had shut the windows and locked the doors.... and the keys were in the armrest.
I had a mild mental blow-out trying to explain that I couldn't afford to hire a locksmith, especially one that would make a trip to the middle of nowhere. Furthermore, the idea that we might have to reschedule the Dragon-shoot was a terror I didn't want to consider; we were all ready to wrap this beast up. Fortunately Cooper, our Maori fight-master has AAA and before noon we had the mechabee unlocked.
During a lull in the activity, while we all sat around waiting for AAA to arrive, a red-haired woman carrying an infant approached the cave. We assumed she was part of the shoot and introduced ourselves. She told us that she and her husband were thinking about buying the property and were there to look at the cave. Her husband, a pleasant man named Tyme arrived shortly thereafter and explained that he was a speleogist and that if they bought the land, they would clean up the cave and offer it as a beginner's course for amateur spelunkers. Tyme then handed us a map of the cave and eventually allowed me to keep it... that's like porn for me: I love maps.
Once the Dragon was attached to Mr. Munger's neck rig, we added the skin and I attached the new tongue which I'd created the night before (see pics). Then we hooked up the nasal-tubing to our makeshift smoke blower and ran a few successful smoke tests.
The Lady took some awesome pictures that KJD plans to use in the "making of" extras.
Click the pics for larger versions.
Although the entire head only weighed ten pounds, when held twelve feet away from the puppeteer it weighed close to 96 pounds and required almost 100 pounds of counter balance in order for the main operator (Cooper) to lift it.
It took six operators to roll the Dragon backward into the descending cave mouth and hold it in position. Together we tried a dry run, following the script that Karla had provided and decided that there was no way we'd get a shot of the Dragon "running" up out of the cave. At best, she could expect a shaky exit.
When we were finally ready for the first shot -in which the Prince meets the Dragon- the prince announced that he'd left his shield at Karla's. Since he couldn't appear in the scenes without it, the Prince offered to make the hour drive back to Atlanta, and The Lady volunteered to join him. This put off his scenes until later in the day... but Karla, our persevering director, decided we could shoot several scenes without the him.
Fatal Blow #1:
During the third shot, while the Dragon was whipping her head back and forth furiously, "breathing fire" and smoke and lunging a lot, her head suddenly dropped to the right and broke free from her neck. There was a profound moment of "..." followed shortly by a chorus of expletives and laughter.
Her neck was irreparably broken, thus rendering Mr. Munger's rig useless. This was the first of many blows to the Dragon. The next came when her smoke machine burned out.
The smoke machine consisted of a bucket with a modified leaf blower attached to the lid. The leaf blower's intake fan rested on a cuffed hole cut in the bucket's lid and the smoke was provided in the form of "smoke bombs" dropped in through a smaller hole in the lid. Once the leaf blower was turned on, the smoke would -theoretically- be blown down the muzzle-hose, forced through surgical tubing and out the Dragon's nostrils. It worked fine for awhile and only a little smoke leaked out of the bucket, creating a pleasing fog effect around the floor of the cave mouth.
Then the leaf blower's battery died. Mr. Munger attempted to rig the smoke machine like a reversed hookah, allowing an unlucky operator to blow through one hose and force sulfurous smoke out the Dragon's snout. After a few nauseating tests, the smoke was abandoned altogether.
By the end of the shoot, we had run support lines down from above the cave. Mr. Parham, his body sheathed in the Dragon's neck skin, manipulated the head by hand, while I crouched at his feet operating the mouth. Finally the mouth cable broke and the mouth dropped open permanently.
The Dragon, full of cracks and tears, slack jawed and neck broken, had defeated itself.
With the Dragon disabled, our work was done and we could explore the cave. Following the map that Tyme had given us, Mr. Parham, Mr. Munger and myself descended into the caverns. We passed Karla was at the mouth, roasting her lead actor beneath a fierce flame in front of the camera for one of the last scenes.
The cave, although vandalized and full of decades of trash, was incredible... I can't do it descriptive justice here. We did see a few bats, and found some tires and bedsprings buried in the creamy mud. They had to have been lost during the 1950's... A few times, the three of us turned out our lights and stood, silently sharing the humbling darkness. It's the first time I've felt like Huck Finn in years.... exploring caves with two like-minded friends.
Building this beast has been a lesson in design, sculpture, puppet building and personal limitations among other things. When Karla Jean Davis approached me over a year ago, and asked if I'd like to design a dragon for her film I had no idea I'd end up building it or that it would take twelve months longer than she had originally anticipated to complete it (we were scheduled to shoot after Dragon Con last year!). But it's allowed me to collaborate with some of the most talented and understanding people that Atlanta has to offer. Furthermore, I'm glad that Karla and many others had faith in me even when I didn't.
I almost forgot: Karla Jean Davis was recently interviewed in Go English! Magazine in which she gives a brief summary of her movie Golgotha!
Click the pic for "original size" in order to read it.
You can find more pics of the Dragon's construction in Karla's Flickr set:
To Make A Dragon
...and pics of the shoot in The Lady's Flickr set:
GOLGOTHA-The Last day of filming-
behind the scenes shots
Then Mr. Parham got eaten....