A thrilling live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon used cutting-edge lighting and motion rigs to recreate the exhilarating sensation of flight.
The 2003 animated feature How to Train Your Dragon soared thanks to the cinematic rendering of the story’s Viking world and the exhilarating scenes of dragons plummeting and rocketing throw the sky. Universal Pictures’ live action remake aimed to recreate the magic of the original even in scenes that couldn’t possibly be shot in real life.
Director Dean DeBlois partnered with Bill Pope ASC (Baby Driver; Alita: Battle Angel) and gaffer Jonathan Spencer (Andor, Napoleon) to shoot the many flying scenes with IMAX approved ARRI Alexa LF and an image-based lighting system powered by SUMOLIGHT SUMOSKY.
“We needed dynamic animated lighting for the many different flying scenes going in and out of rocks, shadow, sun, daytime and night and different moods,” explains Spencer. “Bill didn’t want to use video walls and preferred to use IBL on stages. It’s all about the quality and control of light which is hard to get with a video wall.”
Inspired by technology used in the Fast & Furious films, the SFX team created dynamic hydraulic rigs to simulate dragon flight and allowed the actors to experience realistic motion.
With so many flying scenes to stage Spencer and Pope split them into two identical adjacent sets at Belfast’s Titanic Studios each with a gimbal and lit by eight 20 x 20 softbox frames comprised of 1200 SUMOSKY bars.
SUMOSKY bridges the gap between lighting and VFX. Unlike traditional LED video panels, SUMOSKY is a true RGBWW, modular, multi-pixel LED array made of linear bars each offering 40 pixels of resolution per bar. The illumination can be used to create custom soft boxes and also light cycloramas, backlight translights, softdrops and large diffusion clothes, making giant panel lights of any shape and size.
“Bill and I designed the system so we could run both gimbals at once,” Spencer says. “They’re quick to rig, easy to use and they worked really well for us.”
Sky’s the limit
During six weeks of prep the camera team together with VFX department from Framestore created multiple looks for each scene which were driven on set by media servers with control via the lighting console.
Universal Pixels, which has a strategic rental partnership with SUMOLIGHT, supplied and integrated the equipment on the stages. This leading video rental company serves the film and television industry with cutting-edge solutions, offering image-based lighting, high-quality LED screens, professional playback services, and expert technical support.
Superior to LED walls, the SKY produces beautiful white light and deep saturated colours. “I’ve had previous experience working with the SUMOSKY so I knew it would also deliver the scale we needed for this show and keep within our budget. I had to get it right and knew that if I used that system it would work.”
The flying scenes were designed to mirror the fluid, dynamic camera work and lighting scheme, devised by Sir Roger Deakins CBE ASC BSC of the animated films. By combining traditional dolly shots with advanced gimbals, Pope, Spencer and DeBlois created smooth transitions between grounded human interactions and sweeping dragon action, capturing both the intimate and the epic.
Spencer also deployed SUMOMAX as key hard light across the movie.
“The SUMOMAX is one of my favourite units on a film set now. We used them as a directional lamp. In fact, the sun in most of the interior shots in How to Train Your Dragon is from SUMOMAX. It looks very realistic, the quality is very good, especially for an LED plus we get the flexibility of working with bi-colour.”
How to Train Your Dragon has become such a storming success at the box office that already a live action sequel, likely based on the second original animated feature in the franchise is being discussed. If that show is greenlit you can bet SUMOSKY will be on hand again to bring the dragon action to life.
Words: Adrian Pennington
