Video of Filming - Dragon Attack!

[narnian1]

The smallest figure there is carrying a sword, Maybe it is Reep's stand in or Dr. Cornelius if it isn't Eustace.

Dr. Cornelius is already confirmed not to be in the movies, thankfully. So my best guess is Reep's stand in.

[mm1991]

(On a side note, though, wouldn't the director's voice- or who ever it was calling out the instruction- be caught on film? I thought everyone, except for the actors, needed to be silent when they were filming...)

They can turn off the sound on the cameras.
They will add the sound and/or music later on in post.

[ForeverFan]

Ahh, okay, thank you mm1991! I've been wondering about that for some time, but I could never quite figure it out.

[Malfhok]

Assuming Eustace is on the Dawn Treader in this shot, I'm thinking that this dragon is not Eustace.

What if, as it seems from the video, they shoot the dragon, and this is used to explain why the dragon Eustace sees later dies? It lets them add an action scene without compromising the book much, and it also explains why the dragon was sick.

[eustacegirl]

Is georgie in there, with a ponytail?

[JadistarkilleR]

Is Lucy the one with a ponytail who ran to the other side of the ship?

yup i think so

Very interesting glimpse. True, the camera was rather shaky and that somewhat was distracting, and all it was was a bunch of people running around on deck to the director's orders, but... Thank you for sharing, icarus!

(On a side note, though, wouldn't the director's voice- or who ever it was calling out the instruction- be caught on film? I thought everyone, except for the actors, needed to be silent when they were filming...)

for something as open and as noisy as this, they usually redo the dialog in ADR.

Assuming Eustace is on the Dawn Treader in this shot, I'm thinking that this dragon is not Eustace.

What if, as it seems from the video, they shoot the dragon, and this is used to explain why the dragon Eustace sees later dies? It lets them add an action scene without compromising the book much, and it also explains why the dragon was sick.

hmm good point. that explains why i thought i saw Will there, and it seems that the cast is still complete on the ship.

[eustacegirl]

Yes! So glad her hair is till long and can't wait to see her in a ponytail!

[Beren]

Shouldn’t the mast be gone though? In the book, they lost the mast in a storm before Dragon Isand.

I'm glad you noticed (and mentioned) that, Pattertwigs Pal. This could turn into a serious plot-switch. Perhaps they moved all the events around? Or perhaps they just made the storm not break the mast. Idk. But it's something to keep in mind.

Also remember everyone: the final assumption made by the characters was that the old dragon was the Lord Octesian. Wouldn't it seem kind of wrong for them to shoot at Octesian, and have him die from those wounds? That would put some tremendous feelings of guilt on Caspian and the Dawn Treader crew.

[FriendofNarnia2]

That was a very enjoyable video to watch. I wonder if the audience will know that this dragon is Eustace at this point in the film. What do y'all think?

[starkat]

Whew, I feel seasick just from watching that shaky video

Ditto! That's a great find icarus! Thanks for posting that. It's interesting to see the clip and later we get to compare it to the final product. The changes that the shot will go through in post should be pretty cool.

Do you think they would have put the stand-ins for the main cast into that shot or stunt doubles?

[Movie Aristotle]

Anyone want to help try and make a transcript? A couple of bits i can't quite make out, but here is my attempt:

Wave!(?)

It's a Dragon!
He's coming in closer! He's starting to come towards the ship!
One! He's coming around towards the front! He's going around the front!
Two! We (or "He"?) don't know where he is going! React! React!
He's coming around to the other side!
Three! He's coming around the back now!
Look around! He's coming to the back side! He's on the tail now!
Four! He's swinging all the way around. He's circling, circling!
Coming around the starboard!
And Five! He's coming towards the mast! He's looking up towards the mast!
And he lands on top of the mast!
Shake to Port!
And shake to Starboard!

**a crew member yells something**

**another crew member yells "Fire!" (?) **

And Hit! He's trying (?) to fall down! He's going down!
He lands! Crash!
And he's getting back up! Here he comes!
And he's flying out to sea! He's going around!
He's coming around the front, he's going around the nose(?)
And now he's flying off towards the island
*something, something* and he's going off to sea

I think the middle part goes like this:

Crew Member 1: Kill it! He'll break the mast! (?)*

**Crew Member 2: Aye Aye!**

I think the *something something* that icarus couldn't identify at the end was just the person misspeaking and correcting himself:

And now he’s flying off towards the island *and he's going to (pause) the island* and he's going off to sea.

[Lirenel]

I think it's possible that the dragon is the dragon from the Island (Lord Octesian). Perhaps the Narnians hit the dragon and it returns to the island. They follow to make sure it doesn't cause anymore problems, and end up separated. Eustace finds the dragon dying and continues as in the book. I think this only because I think they would want an interesting end to the dragon, and not just have it dying of old age or whatever.

EDIT: Whoops, people already suggested that. Hmm, how did I miss those comments when I read over the thread...

[aravis_tarkina]

That is definitely Eustace. The dragon isn't aggressive enough to be actually attacking and there is very little chance the assumed Lord Octesian dragon would be healthy enough to fly. But the option that everyone else is suggesting (that the Narnians hurt him and he dies when he gets back from the island) is possible, and workable, from a director's standpoint. But from a Narnia fan it is not at all accurate. When the Narnians are discussing how to face the dragon I believe they mention that arrows won't do anything to a dragon. Anybody else remember this, or is it from another book I mixing up?

[sweeetlilgurlie]

The bit I'm confused about is how they have a mast. It should be gone if they were in a storm on the way to Dragon Island. If they haven't met Eustace as a dragon and learned it was him, they shouldn't have found a mast yet. Eustace-as-a-dragon, if you remember, found them a pine that would work splendidly as a mast after they discovered it was him.

They wouldn't be shooting at him if they knew he was Eustace, I don't think.

EDIT::

Unless, of course, it's that makeshift mast that Eustace mentioned in his journal. The jury-mast? I can't remember the name.

[Gymfan15]

Yep, I'm not buying the Lord Octesian angle...from a very practical aspect, it would just detract from the Eustace storyline and confuse the crud out of people.

Here's my completely personal, non-verified hunch on what's going on.

Eustace gets turned into a dragon. Not being the brightest kid on the block and perhaps not thinking through what kind of reaction the DT crew would have to his appearance, he flies to the ship and is very surprised and taken aback when he's fired at and injured. Disappointed and a sadder but wiser dragon, he flies back to the Island.

In the meantime, Lucy got a good look at the Dragon while he was at the ship and can't shake the feeling that something is up. She recognizes that he wasn't trying to attack them, and feels awful that he was injured. She convinces Caspian and Edmund to put to shore so she can try and heal the dragon's wounds. There, they meet the dragon face to face and Lucy is able to discern that he is, in fact, Eustace.

That's just my completely random opinion. Don't ask me why, but it is. Does it sound plausible to you? It would seem very in character for Lucy to be concerned about the dragon; she was always the one who could discern the motives of people and she would have seen that Eustace-dragon was not trying to attack them, and as the compassionate Healer, she would want to right the wrong done.

[narnian1]

Assuming Eustace is on the Dawn Treader in this shot, I'm thinking that this dragon is not Eustace.

I didn't think of this,
however it's not very clear who is on board, atleast to me.
I know someone posted a pic previously on who is assumed to be on board,
(only Caspian I think is discernible, having a very hard time with the rest).

However I hope it's not Lord Octesian, the dragon, I can see them doing that but it wouldn't make sense from the book viewpoint, however they have made changes before and they will continue to do them. I am not opposed to the idea entirely, but I'd hate Caspian and crew having the guilt of having killed him.

To me, it has got to be Eustace, and I like Gymfan's explanation, mostly.
It seems to make sense with the person Eustace is in the book.