VDT Concept Art and Storyboards

[Louloudi the Centaur]

I've found these two pre-visualization pieces that seem to be from the final script, as they have Gael and the Seven Swords plot.

http://vimeo.com/27317441 This is the sea serpent battle on Dark Island. It's not too different from the final come out, with a few minor things. First, a saytr and a sailor almost get eaten by the serpent. Edmund is injured and needs healing cordial. And the serpent's eyes glow a prominent green... and at the 3:01 mark, I paused, and in the serpent's glowing eyes appeared to be a witch! I think it looks a lot like the White Witch to me, but I can't tell which witch, but it looks like a witch alright.... But the Witch also tempts Edmund like she does in the movie... And there is also the undragonning which is almost the same as the movie, except Aslan growls at Eustace a bit.

http://vimeo.com/27317724 This one is the duel between Eustace and Reepicheep. In some shots it's strange because Eustace has glasses in some(he looks like Arnold from The Magic School Bus) and not in others. A change in here is that Lucy wonders if she and Edmund stop them, but Edmund lets them continue.

http://vimeo.com/27346145 Yet another. This one has the crew finding a dragon they believe is Eustace. It's different from the final movie, because more people are seeing him. Edmund approaches against Caspian's will, and gets taken by Eustace like he does in the movie. Then they come back and... Edmund makes a very rude and childish remark on how"Useless Eustace is back, now I can't taunt him anymore", and Dragon Eustace drops him in the water.

By the way, all of these are by Mike Makara.

8/11/11 *UPDATE* I hope everybody had a chance to see the videos, as now the video is password protected. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[8SilverSky]

It was really nice seeing all of these, but the sea serpent battle was really great.

The moment where the witch reveals herself to Edmund on the mast was actually quite neat! I was very impressed by the undragoning too. I may even like it better than the one in the movie!

Thanks for the link. That was really awesome! (All that music from Pirates of the Caribbean, haha).

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I much preferred that undragoning to the one in the movie and the sea serpent battle was also more interesting. Still some awful dialogue but what can you do? Fix it?

[8SilverSky]

Man, I really wished they had kept in the cut of Eustace falling on the floor after his undragoning, when it cuts to Edmund laying down on the Dawn Treader with Lucy rushing up in the background! Would have been a powerful moment.

The sound effects they used here for Aslan's "clawing at Eustace" were actually really good too. Sounds like the cuts went very deep!

Plus, the shot of Edmund and Lucy hopelessly holding each other on the Dawn Treader fading to Eustace flying out of the dark smoke was very nice. Of course, we'd probably be missing the Albatross if they left that in

[Nic5]

Gotta say, these are all really well done. That bit with Edmond on the Mast with the White Witch, is one of the best bits in the sea serpent fight that made it into the movie i though, got a really cool feel about it.
I like how the characters are in these short clips, more than they are in the film, seem more straight out of the book kind of feel ( this isn't related to the acting or anything ). I could happily watch this work as an entire movie.
They do have novelty value though which might be part of their charm.

[Adeona]

Update 8: (or is it 6.2?)
There are three new VDT concept art posts on Jeremy Love's blog;


Concept sketches for the Book of Incantations, its book rest, and a large telescope.

Coriakin's furniture, etc. Lots more lanterns, but also some very unique items. Concepts for the mirror Lucy steps through in her dream.

Concept art for Goldwater - treasure pieces, armor, etc. Island "Mood study"

Some of the helmets and crowns designed for Goldwater have obvious historical or cultural basis, which I find interesting. And as usual, the furniture design is beautifully intricate. I love the terrariums for the "Magician's Mansion". It would have been wonderful to see the one with the stone table in the movie!

[SilverSea]

Some of those concepts really should have been used for the movie!

[Louloudi the Centaur]

I thought those sketches for the Book of Incantations were beautiful, and that was just concept art. I wish some of them had been used.

I wonder why a telescope could have appeared in the movie? Was it just for a background prop, or could it have something to do with the "blue star" the Dawn Treader crew had to follow? Or Coriakin being a star?

[icarus]

Thanks for the update there Adeona! I'll add those to the front post as Update #8. I notice Jeremey Love has now also added his work for Ramandu's Island to his blog now:

http://coldrum.blogspot.com/2011/11/daw ... mandu.html

A few other bits and pieces... these can be Update #9...

Concept Art by Marco Genovesi:
http://www.marcogenovesi.com/gallery/na ... n-treader/

Concept Art by Paul Chandler (the last piece on the right)
http://www.paul-chandler.com/#!__concepts

Concept Art by Tim Holleyman:
http://paintingpencils.blogspot.com/201 ... i-did.html

Concept Art by Annette Mackie:
http://www.annettemackie.com/#project5

Matte Paintings by Ivan Girard:
http://ivangirard.blogspot.com/2011/11/ ... eader.html

Storyboards by Mat Brady:
http://matbrady.blogspot.com/2010/10/na ... eader.html

Two Animatics by Federico D'Alessandro:
http://thefilmartist.com/animatics/

Plus some Concept Art also by Federico D'Alessandro:

the first 3 of the first row here (all labelled with the movie title):
http://thefilmartist.com/portfolio/environment/

and the first two pieces on the second row here:
http://thefilmartist.com/character/

[Louloudi the Centaur]

Thanks for the find!

Some of these pieces appear to be from the leaked script, especially the animatics, as the art piece for Aslan's Country with Eustace and Edmund has the Disney logo, and one of the animatics has "Star Girl".

I like the art pieces, but not the Star Girl animatic. Beautiful visual look, yes, but not really anything great story wise.

In the Star Girl clip, Caspian seems to be having a dream (?) like in the leaked script. It is stormy, and nobody is controlling the Dawn Treader. He tries to steer it, but he almost falls off the ship in the process. Caspian only gets the strength to climb up when a mysterious glowing "Star girl" shows up. Uh? Yeah, I'm thankful now for the relationship they have in the final version.

On the other hand, I really like the Aslan's Country animatic better than the one in the final movie. Edmund and Lucy have no idea that they won't return to Narnia, and Eustace's second adventure in Narnia is hinted at again... Still some cheesy dialogue from the children, but my question is: Where is Reepicheep? It's been awhile since I've read VDT, so maybe he left slightly earlier in the book. But very beautifully animated.

[Nic5]

I like that Aslan's country animatic alot too.

It's understated & melodic, where as the film version laid it on quite thick but it hadn't been that type of the film up to that point for one and the other aspect to that then comes down to objective taste, which is more separately independent as to what appeals, & diff. views there are all equal.

I also like how it is centered around Lucy for it's emotional beats without being exclusively about Lucy.

The other animatics good too, not sure how it fits with the story though.

[icarus]

One of the most interesting pieces in that bunch is, i think, the 6th piece by Annette Mackie which has the caption "Ext. Greenhaven Forest Clearing - Day"

As far as i can tell, it appears to show the set-up for a Wedding in a small forest village. There is what looks to be a Wedding Cake amongst the food in the foreground, a small covering/altar for the ceremony in the middle, rows of church pews behind that, and further behind that you can just about make out a horse-drawn carriage pulling up.

Unless it was some alternate take on the "Susan as Lucy" Dream Sequence (which was set during a Garden Party), my guess would be that it was for a Caspian/Ramandu's Daughter wedding that they cut from an early draft - especially since "Greenhaven" sounds like somewhere that ought to be on the Lone Islands or somewhere Narnian, rather than the real world.

[Louloudi the Centaur]

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/01 ... t-art.html

Here is some very cool VDT concept art back from 2007, most definitely from the leaked script.

The first one looks a lot like the one from the PC DVD, except there are mermaids(?) it seems. Kind of like the ones at the coronation in LWW, these are not the sea people that seem to be described in the book.

The second has the actual sea people fighting the sea serpent. Again, strange...

Third piece has the Dawn Treader sailing to the End of the World.

Fourth piece has Dragon Eustace with Caspian(?) or maybe Edmund on Dragon Island.

Fifth piece is a sea girl riding a sea horse from the view of the ship.

The final two pieces have the sea people riding on their sea horses in a very interesting style, one of which appears to be following the Dawn Treader.

[icarus]

Ooh, those are all very nice. Thanks for the find Louloudi! Justin Sweet really does have a wonderful artistic style, his pieces for Prince Caspian are amongst my favourites.

The one with the Dawn Treader at the edge of the world is a really interesting piece. I think i still prefer the design they went with in the movie as its much closer to the description in the book, but conceptually i think the idea he's gone with there looks rather spectacular and it certainly would of made for an interesting visual in the movie.

Most of the ones with the Sea People do seem to correspond to the original Leaked Script as you pointed out. In fact the fifth piece there with the sea-girl visible through the porthole of the ship seems to match exactly with some of the original pre-vis work we saw back here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2779&start=16#p149778

[Louloudi the Centaur]

http://coldrum.blogspot.com/2012/01/daw ... dream.html

Here's even more concept art by Jeremy Love. This round of VDT concept art features Lucy's Dream sequence and the Sea of Lilies and Reepicheep and his coracle.

(Note how in the main boat rowed by the children has only themselves and Reepicheep, and not Caspian in it. This concept art seems to be from a more final version of the film we know. Could Caspian's role have been added in at the last minute? )

[wolfloversk]

Oh thanks for that LouLou! I liked the sea of lilies one, it's beautiful! I also like how detailed Reep's coracal is!