Synopsis

A small dinosaur stands chewing grass, when a rumble heralds the arrival of a fierce Gigantasaurus. When the Gigantasaurus roars it becomes apparent that the dinosaurs are more than they at first appear!

Director's Notes

Death of the Dinosaurs was written by John Condon, as the first of a collection of OTT ideas, for the 2006 Nokia Shorts competition. New to the group, Leilani Holmes fell in love with the concept and believed it could be successfully brought to life using toy dinosaurs. Despite being an actor and emerging writer with no prior directing experience, she couldn't resist offering to direct and with the support of OTTfilms members the project was Green-Lit in March of 2006.

The initial idea was to use toy dinosaurs, which would remain quite static. The camera would provide the movement, enabling the whole dinosaur environment to come to life. While exploring the options as to how the film could best be realised, the dinosaur shopping had begun!

It was decided to go for stop motion as opposed to camera movements when some very expressive-faced and movable toy dinosaurs were found. The next step was the FX testing where, from stills, Gus Martinez put together some test footage using distortion, which worked well. And
so, the shoot was planned by Leilani and producer KC Thiruchelvam.

The film was shot in one day (approx. 8 hours inc. set up). It was decided to keep the background simple, in order to give the film a clean look overall. Green felt and blue paper were placed together, and a bonsai tree (a 30 year old maple) was added to two small ferns, to act as the set.

Extra help was provided by OTTfilms members Kevin Magee and Marc Knapton, in the form of four dedolights and gallons of dinosaur spit.

Charlie Pite shot in HDV, using a Sony A1, and the footage was captured on the day. The edit took place that week and was a precise and intricate job for so small a film. A cut that worked and best served the script was agreed upon and the FX and grading began. Distortion was used, in the form of a partial morph, to make the dinosaurs move, blink, and speak. The film was then graded and, using masks and chroma key, moving clouds were added to the original blue sky.

The sound design and voice-over took place later. Fabrice Pougnard designed the background atmosphere to suit a hot savannah and added foley, including grass chewing and dinosaur footsteps. The Gigantasaurus' roar was put together using a mixture of sounds, which included bear and deer noises. Actor Anthony Keetch came to record the voice-over for both the small dinosaur and unseen director.

Everything came together and Death of the Dinosaurs was completed.

We hope you like it!!