As I mentioned elsewhere, the race sequence in Act II is something I'd like to expand on over what's in the script. I think we should make the overall sequence longer, more dramatic and more dangerous. To do this, we'll need ideas to fill things out some. I'm jumping ahead a bit the storyboarding here since I think this needs more thought and I like the action sequences. :)

I have a piece of music picked out which I think would be really good. I'll post a link to it soon, but here's a breakdown of the timing of the song and where the major drama points would have to fall. Overall, the music lasts 3 minutes. My take on the length indicated in the script is only about 1 minute, so we've got a good deal of action to fill in here. Times listed below are in "minute:second" format and are relative to the beginning of the song.

0:0 - begins with "preparing" to race - at this point, the dialog is over and Connor and Word put on their helmets, mag into the saddle, do last minute gear checks and the dragons move to the starting line, and we have the countdown.

0:16 - Go! Race begins! For 14 seconds we have intense sprinting. There's no fighting here, just the dragons running flat out as fast as they can, jockeying for position. Connor begins to pull ahead.

0:30 - the music changes here and begins to soar, so we need some visuals to go with that. I suggest having them cross over a rise in the track which reveals the remainder of the track to reach the finish line along with some potential hazards along the way.

0:39 - the main section of the music begins. The tempo slows a little here, so the sprinting phase is over now and Word and Connor begin to battle and avoiding obstacles in the track.

1:18 - there's a sting in the song indicating danger of some sort followed by a drama build up

1:39 - something dramatic happens

1:49 - something dramatic happens

2:09 - something dramatic happens

2:19 - music changes, entering the end phase so the type of fighting needs to change as well

2:36 - something dramatic happens

2:47 - big drama - Word uses the overload pod

2:57 - Connor crashes

That's just a rough outline for starters. The timing will make more sense when I get the song up. Think about how you might do the sequence to fit that.

How about, having them going through a tube and maybe one of the moments could be Word and Conner battling away and say one of them just avoid hitting the 'Y' junction so they both go down seperate paths ?

Then maybe another moment could be as thay exit, they are shot out into the air and have to make it to a ledge where one would knock the other so one would easily make it and the other catches the edge making him stumble.

Just a couple of things i was thinking of.

I definetly like Red's tunnel idea, but I have a great idea for a filler obstacle:

We have a zoom in of Connor's face, then a shot of his eyes, narrowing as he concentrates on the track. Suddenly, they shoot wide open and he screeches his dragon sideways to prevent a collision with a wall that juts from the ground - a steep, craggy incline that the other riders soon find themselves facing.

The music slows or grinds to a complete halt, as if to show what an obstacle this is.

Connor quickly guides his dragon up to the lowest ledge, keeping his foothold with a kind of primitive Rappel Gear. As he scrambles upwards, he dislodges some gravel and small stones, with shower upon Word, who shields himself with his arm. The latter quickly follows suit, leaving the other riders watching them from the ground.

I'm thinking this could happen rather late in the race, narrowing the viewer's concentration to the both of them as Word attacks with the pod.

I've got the music sample for this sequence uploaded along with some music I've picked out for some other sequences. You can listen to them here:

Music for The Alchemist

This is a three minute sequence, so we'll need lots of ideas to fill this scene out. Use a stopwatch and the timing sheet I wrote above and try to visualize what could be happen during this time.

After the three minute mark, this music becomes somber which will take us into the scene with the operation on Connor's leg. That scene will last about a minute and we'll keep it as scripted. I plan to trim off the ending of this music to make it fit the final length.

Hope you like this selection for the race. I think it will work well.

I personally don't have any ideas for the race as of yet, but I would like to make a suggestion as far as the music goes. I really like the selections you came up with from the movie DINOSAUR, but do you think that we could also use some of the music used in the show? I remember seeing somewhere on Dragoncity.org the website of the guy who composed the music used on the know, do you think we could ask him if we could use some of those pieces in this project? It's just an idea.

It would be fun to have music from the show, but I'm sure if I asked he'd say the answer is no. Bob Buckley probably doesn't own the copyrights on the music as ownership was most likely handed over to the entities that own DB. Trying to get all of them to agree and then go through the time it would take to pull all the copies of the music and send them to me all for free is probably too much to ask for. So I think we'll have to go with what we have access to ourselves. And on the bright side, it lets us add a little of our own style to this production.

But we still can use some samples of the music from the show if ripped or in our possession, like for example the DB music full trailer sequence you have on Dragon-City.org, and the ending music (if not the same)?

I certainly plan to use the end credit music for our own end credits. I also have a copy of the opening theme music with the dialog removed, so I think we can use that as well. While I really like the music from the trailer, I can't think of any place in this episode where it would fit the action. That's all the music I have from the show that would be suitable. I think the music I picked out on the web page above would work well as a substitute for Bob Buckley's music.

So getting back to the topic at hand, anyone have more ideas for the action we can have for the race to make it exciting and dangerious?