Dragon's Lair documentary in production

Sleepyeyed

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Hey everyone,
I've been a member here at KLOV for a while now, but I've never really posted in the forums before so it's time to change that. I've been a fan of classic arcade games for as long as I can remember and one game that has truly enthralled me since my youth is Dragon's Lair. It's enthralled me so much that I decided to create a feature length documentary film on the subject. I've just started to begin production and I've set up a facebook fan page. There is also a video on youtube. You can check both out with the links below. I'd like to get other peoples perspective on the subject and would like to keep communication lines open. KLOV has been an incredible educational resource for me and I'm hoping that it will continue to be years from now. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to any questions/comments that anyone has.

Martin Touhey
Sleepyeyed Films

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB9jgRpy9KE
http://www.facebook.com/dragonslairdoc
http://www.twitter.com/dragonslairdoc
 
I got to the 0:25 mark and had to exit.
That's when kinder appears on-screen.
Please post a warning.

Just kidding. Jeff's a great guy.
I know what you posted is just a teaser,
so I'm just curious if that's the true opening
sequence or if it may be re-cut. It gives it
a slow pace right off and you may want to
be more foreshadowing in the first two minutes
before jumping into deep explanations. My guess
is you don't have much footage gathered yet?
The only other thing that I'm curious about is if
the film will have a narrator or if the story is all
told through interviews with related video being
injected... and now I say kudos for taking on
a very interesting subject. Many people know
the story of pac-man and pong is everywhere,
but little material has ever been produced
on dragon's lair, one of the three greatest
achievements in technology and innovation.
Personally, I think DL is a clever assembly of
low tech, common components to create a
real-time, playable choose-your-own-adventure
with only the best visuals.
 
... I'm just curious if that's the true opening
sequence or if it may be re-cut. ...
The only other thing that I'm curious about is if
the film will have a narrator or if the story is all
told through interviews with related video being
injected...

Thanks for the comments. The clip is not a final cut, but only a representation of the visual styling and general tone of the film. It most likely will be re-cut. You're correct in assuming that I don't have much footage shot yet, but I will have more than I'll ever need once I finish shooting everyone and everything. The clip only shows what I was able to shoot in one day. As far as a narrator is concerned I'm still on the fence about that one. I think that question will be best answered once more footage is obtained and the entire film starts to take shape. Thanks again for commenting and I appreciate the input.

Marty
 
Dragon's Lair SUCKS!!!

jk! I'm normally not that harsh, but it's the ONE game back in the day I couldn't stand... Kinda thought it was a cheat because it always cost more than the other games, and I didn't think it was as interactive as a regular videogame. To each their own, though...
 
Looks like a great documentary!

I was a total Dragon's Lair addict back in the day and spent every quarter I had on it. I used to drive 40 miles round trip to play it as a teenager, and got to the point that I could usually kill the dragon on my first Dirk as long as the machine wasn't set on the hardest settings.

I was on vacation in Colorado in 1983 and at a big arcade inside of a mexican restaurant (don't know the name of the restaurant) hey had a Dragon's Lair machine with a monitor on top so others could watch.. I started playing and as I was playing a pretty big crowd surrounded the game to watch me play on the overhead monitor... I ended up killing the dragon and when I did the entire crowd broke out in cheers and clapping. LOL. As a teenager, that's something I'll never forget, I was a mini-star for a moment and people were all amazed that they got to see someone finish the game :) People really made a big deal out of my accomplishment. Ahhh, the good old days of arcades!

I recently brought an original Dragon's Lair machine back to life and have one in my collection now. Loving it once again!
 
Casa Bonita was the Denver Restaurant, I remember that game being there, spent many a dollar on it.
 
Casa Bonita was the Denver Restaurant, I remember that game being there, spent many a dollar on it.

That's it! Thanks for helping me ID that place! I have a picture of me in front of the waterfall inside the restaurant! :) Big time flashback memories with looking at the pics of the restaurant on their website!

Ahhh, the good old days...
 
It gives it
a slow pace right off and you may want to
be more foreshadowing in the first two minutes
before jumping into deep explanations. My guess
is you don't have much footage gathered yet?

Marty,

Yaggy beat me to it regarding the pacing. With all due respect, it was fairly flatline throughout. Questions I have for you would be:

1) If you don't use a narrator, are your interview subjects strong enough to guide and tell those story beats? Any show that relies on interview subjects to tell stories can go incredibly well or horribly bad. As you say, you'll know more later.

2) SD Footage. Not sure of your final delivery and distribution for the piece. You'll be acquiring lots of HD footage of collectors and their games, and I'd imagine interviews with the bluth gang which will help considerably. Any archival footage will of course be SD. If you plan on using a lot of that SD footage, keep in mind that networks poo poo shows that have a high percentage of SD vs HD ratio. They don't like upconverted footage, even with a Teranex behind it all. Networks will make exceptions if the footage is amazing, but interviews with Don Bluth probably wouldn't make the cut as mind blowing, maybe them testing a cabinet of DL or assembling stuff (and that's a strong maybe).

3) Aside from the collectors POV and their memories, what else will the doc provide that will be shot in HD. The backstory of the Bluth gang could be interesting, certainly the story of DLs creation is a must. I would find that information far far far more interesting rather than hearing from yet another collector of their thoughts once they entered the arcade and saw DL... you can only rely on that thought once maybe twice before its played out. There are other game docs out there that seem to rely on the collector's story, funny enough is that really isn't story and in fact that POV only narrows the market for the project. Sure the people in the film want to see themselves but people who don't know that person, who may not know DL all that well probably could care less.

I wish you guys well in the project...The subject is awesome and you've got your hands full with making it a compelling story that hopefully will do justice to a technology that was so short lived and literally raised the bar in arcade technology albeit only for a few years before it all went to cr@p.

Last thing...i know your cut piece is just for test purposes..... if you're going to cut a promo or a teaser, might I suggest catering to the flash and wow element first, create more of a hook, less is more in this case. Consider changing the music too at least for the official teaser/promo.

I hope you don't take offense to any of my notes. Just another industry person's feedback.
 
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Not sure how long you're planning it to be (~20min? 40min? full-length 70-90mins?), but it'll be a challenge to make a long documentary about a SINGLE game.

Also, the shallow-depth-of-field-focus thing is already overdone... in just 2 minutes.
 
in response to avidgeek..

I appreciate the constructive criticism, Avidgeek, and I take no offense to anyone's criticism, so long as it is actually constructive. In regard to your questions...

1) As far as a narrator is concerned I'm really trying to allow the film to take shape organically. Once filming is complete, I will have amassed many many hours of footage of approximately 20+ people. If I find that after all interviews are done and I'm missing key elements or story points then it becomes a choice between voice-over narration vs. screen text. I prefer voice-over narration because I think you lose the attention and memory retention of some people if you force them to read text. Voices tend to resonate better than text, besides that you can seek out Hollywood stars to do the voice-overs. If a Hollywood star is attached to the project then it strengthens the credibility. So saying "Inside the Dragon's Lair is a documentary about the game Dragon's Lair" really isn't as impressive as "Inside the Dragon's Lair is a documentary about the game Dragon's Lair and is narrated by James Franco". Mind you, I have no aspirations to get James Franco to do the narration, he's just an example. On the flip side of this, if there isn't much missing from the interview footage and I can weave a coherent and compelling story with just those interviews, then having a voice over for only a few scattered seconds of the film would be pointless. At that point screen text would be my choice.

2) Most of the footage being used will be HD. I used the older footage in the teaser because I haven't been able to interview Don Bluth or any of the other creators yet. There is an open communication between myself and Don Bluth Films to schedule and do these interviews in the near future. I do plan to use some older footage, but mostly a snippet here or a clip there. I can safely say that about 95% of the final cut will be full HD.

3) Aside from collectors POV there is a wealth of information about Dragon's Lair that I've discovered and broken down into categories. I plan to touch upon each of these categories in the film. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but I will mention that the film will cover the backstory of how Dragon's Lair was created (with many subcategories here), the synergy between the animation and laserdisc technology and how it was a technical marvel at the time, the initial splash it made in 1983, the home versions of the game and how, at first, they were radically different from the arcade version, but then started to take shape as home computing technology advanced, the various merchandise which was created, the much anticipated Dragon's Lair film by Don Bluth, and how Dragon's Lair is still selling today, most recently the version on the Android Market. Keep in mind this is the short list off the top of my head. I have a laundry list a mile long of things to be covered.

I think the magic of documentary film is the ability to find stories that resonate with people and if I find stories the audience can identify with then the film no longer becomes the video version of a wikipedia entry. This is the challenge that lies ahead.

Your suggestion of catering to the flash and wow element is spot on. This production is in its infancy stages at this point and will mature as time goes on. This first teaser is really just to test the waters so I can gain an insight to my audience. I'm quite happy that the audience is reacting. The next teaser will be much more "dialed-in", so to speak, and will hopefully play well across a wide variety of audiences, not just Dragon's Lair fans or arcade game fans for that matter. The wider net I can cast, the better, but it's going to take a lot of time, interviews, and work before I attempt to throw that net out there.

The music in the teaser is probably not going to be in the final cut of the film. It was a piece that I found which flowed at the right tempo, had a delicate nature, and was free to use commercially, so long as I credited the author and his website. I have a music producer who is going to be working on music and I will be composing music myself for the film as well.

I truly appreciate your feedback, Avidgeek, and I take no offense. I think it's the audience that will keep me on my toes throughout the production of this project. So everybody, keep the questions coming. I quite enjoy responding to intelligent people, it's so much different than the mainstream youtube crowd.
 
Not sure how long you're planning it to be (~20min? 40min? full-length 70-90mins?), but it'll be a challenge to make a long documentary about a SINGLE game.

Also, the shallow-depth-of-field-focus thing is already overdone... in just 2 minutes.

The plan is to create a feature length film at approximately 90 minutes. It will be a challenge, but one I'm prepared to take on. As for the visual aesthetics of the film, I appreciate your opinion, but I don't wish to engage in lengthy discussions about them, as they primarily cause battles based on artistic opinion which are rarely productive. Thanks for the input.
 
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First of all, total respect for taking on such a huge project.

If you want this to become a serious documentary then you should also make apace for the people who truelly do not like this game ( to put it mildly).

For me, and many others, this game was the stab in the back of the arcade videogames and it killed the arcade fun for me BITD.

(more eleborate explanation here:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=1916141&postcount=22)

The funniest thing about the teaser is Don Bluth saying:
"to give the illusion that the player is in control".

Good luck with the project !
 
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Hat's off to you for taking this on. It is very easy to sit on the sidelines and give input on how something should be done. It is a completely different thing to take the initiative and actually produce something like this. This is not meant as an insult to those giving their input, some good points were brought up. However, I think it's best to give the guy a chance to produce at least a rough cut first before making critiques. I say this as someone who has taken on the production of a web tv series (not gaming related) recently. In general, people can be quick to give feedback before a project has taken it's true form, which can be discouraging for those doing the production.

Stick with it Sleepy, I for one can't wait to see the finished film.
 
First of all, total respect for taking on such a huge project.

If you want this to become a serious documentary then you should also make apace for the people who truelly do not like this game ( to put it mildly).


There will be parts of the documentary that will focus on some of the more negative aspects of the game. I realize that not everyone is in love with Dragon's Lair and their points are valid. I understand that the game is one continuous quick time event and there are those out there who don't particularly like that style of game play. Those viewpoints will be represented, but mind you I'm not going to look to interview somebody who specifically hates the game. I think some of the more negative things will also show up in the home versions section of the film. I particularly was annoyed at some of these home games and rightly so, some were awful and nothing like the arcade experience. If you haven't seen it yet, the Angry Video Game Nerd rips into the NES version of the game and it's one of my favorite episodes of his. So, even though I have a bias towards the game, I won't ignore certain negative aspects. Thanks for commenting.

Marty
 
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