HomeLife Style‘How to Train Your...

‘How to Train Your Dragon’ | Anatomy of a Scene

“Hi, My name is Dean DeBlois. I’m the writer, director and one of the executive producers of “How to Train Your Dragon.” In this particular scene, it’s the catalyst of our story. Young Mason Thames, playing Hiccup, wanders into the woods to search for a dragon that he shot down the night before, and he finds it looking still and dead in a little gully in the woods. And as he approaches it, feeling victorious, he comes to realize that it’s still alive. And so he has to muster up the courage to pull out his dagger, act like a Viking, and kill this dragon in order to earn his place among the dragon-fighting warriors of his tribe. This is one of the scenes that follows quite closely the animated movie. It’s a handful of scenes that I wanted to recreate, almost shot for shot. “I did it!” But in this case, we realized we didn’t need a lot of the dialogue that we gave Hiccup in the animated version. So much of it could be played on Mason Thames’s face in pantomime, in the nuance of his acting, the bolstering of his courage, and also the recognition of his failure and to see his compassion come out. It was all evident in the acting without words. This is an example where John Powell’s score actually does a lot of the narrative work for us. So as Hiccup stands over Toothless and pulls his knife and tries to psych himself up to kill the dragon, instead of dialogue, we could lean on John Powell, building up the theme of Viking tradition and strength and having it all unravel as Hiccup realizes he just doesn’t have the will to kill this beast. I remember on the day talking to Mason before we started rolling cameras and I said, don’t forget, this is the moment you reference later in the movie when you looked into his eyes and you saw yourself. It seems like a moment of weakness, but this is that strength in disguise that causes Hiccup to be a new thinker that can usher in an era of peace that nobody saw coming. This whole scene takes place in Northern Ireland’s Tollymore Forest that we scouted and found a perfect little bowl. that would be a nice landing place for Toothless. We installed a broken tree and we dug out a trench to show how Toothless would have crashed hard and landed in the spot that he is. But this is one of the few scenes in the movie that is in a practical location, and I think it brings an authenticity to the world.

Source link

Most Popular

More from Author

Read Now

Lego builds record earnings from botanical-themed bricks and brand deals

Lego toymaker saw its sales flourish in the first half of 2025, thanks to plant-themed bricks and partnerships with well-known brands like Formula 1 and the popular animated children's series "Bluey."The Danish toymaker saw a 12% increase in revenue in the first six...

GST Authorities Detect Rs 104 Crore Tax Evasion In Tobacco Products In Q1 | Economy News

New Delhi: GST authorities have uncovered 61 cases of illicit tobacco products, including cigarettes and pan masala, involving unpaid taxes worth Rs 104.38 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year (Q1 FY26), government data showed.  The cases were detected during April-June 2025 by the Directorate...

Naomi Osaka wears wild rose-themed outfit and ‘Billie Jean Bling’ Labubu mascot at US Open

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines...

Data brokers sell your personal info to scammers even without Facebook

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! "I don't use Facebook. I don't even have an email. How could scammers possibly know anything about me?"That's the question I hear from people over 60 all the time. If you assume that by staying off social...

Emma Heming Willis makes tearful confession about husband Bruce’s condition

Emma Heming Willis, wife of Bruce Willis, tearfully shared she still catches rare flashes of her husband’s personality after...

Business news live: FTSE 100 drops and Poundland is saved from going into administration

Business and Money live - 26 AugustMorning all and welcome back to our live business and finance coverage on The Independent.This morning we’re looking at food inflation rising, the stock market reopening in London and plenty more.Karl Matchett26 August 2025 08:09Food inflation rises to 4.2% - fastest...

From kitchen staple to natural shield: What garlic can do for our health

Garlic is not just a common kitchen ingredient and a flavour enhancer, but also a potent medicine. For ages it has been part of traditional medicines and Ayurveda regards it as an effective cure for several ailments. From applying garlic-infused oil to eating a clove...

Stone Age settlement lost to rising seas 8,500 years ago found off Denmark coast

Bay of Aarhus, Denmark — Below the dark blue waters of the Bay of Aarhus in northern Denmark, archaeologists search for coastal settlements swallowed by rising sea levels more than 8,500 years ago. This summer, divers descended about 26 feet below the waves close...

Corporate earnings: RBI data shows listed firms’ sales growth slows to 5.5% in Q1, IT and manufacturing drag overall pace

Sales growth of listed private non-financial companies slowed to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of FY26, down from 6.9 per cent in the same period last year, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday. The figures were...