This mechanism is designed to hold the scepter that Profion grew out of a combination of organic and metallic magical components to create his own rod of Dragon control to use in his attempt to surprise the Empress and overthrow her. The rod is lodged between two magical crystals and has been magically forming from the combined elements. In this scene, the rod has been growing for about a week. Profion casts an ancient incantation designed to throw the essence of the Dragon into the scepter, thereby allowing the scepter to give him the power to control Gold Dragons. Some of the elements combined to form the rod were remains from an actual Gold Dragon. The machine is a combination of winches, gears and a gyroscope type device holding the scepter. It is water powered by the river flowing outside Profion's dungeon.

This shot is part of an entire fly through the city and ends at the entrance to Profion's dungeon. The part of this shot used in the trailer is actually 4 seconds of a 45 second shot and the section shown is in the middle of downtown Sumdall. Each building was painstakingly designed on paper first, and then placed into the overall map and layout of Sumdall. Sumdall is based on the design of Prague, which is where the movie was filmed. Each building was then individually modeled by CGI artists and texture wrapped. The artists lit the scene and incorporated shadow passes. The idea behind the creation of Sumdall was to make the city a character in the film all onto itself, as the city plays such a key role in both the story of the film and ultimately in its climax.

This was one of over 250 Dragon shots in the film and is among the five shots which are extremely close up on the Dragon. At this particular moment, the Dragon is moving its head close to Profion in an attempt to cast its own spell on the scepter that Profion is using to control it, thus rendering the scepter powerless. Extra special attention was paid to the details of this shot to ensure that the Dragon would have a photo realistic quality. Additional wet passes were done to create the photo realistic look and a lot of facial articulation was added to ensure that the creature acted and looked as if it were really there.

The Empress is making her last plea to the council of mages to avoid a war in the hope that they would see the logic behind her reasoning that "All people should be free and equal". The scene continues and turns into a debate between the Empress and Profion in front of the council of mages. The interesting thing about this shot and how it is used in the trailer is that the line of dialogue that the Empress is saying is actually from a private scene between her and Vildan at the beginning of the film. The line she says here was laid in for the purposes of the trailer. She is actually saying something completely different at the point in the film where this shot takes place.

The Imp dissolve to spark is actually the film's version of the Imp rendering itself invisible and teleporting itself back to Profion's bone chapel to report on the conversation he has just overheard. If you look closely at the shot, you will notice who he was listening in on at the back of the frame. The Imp is played as a small spy that works for Profion and Damodar in the film however, as D&D players know, the Imp's role is actually a lot greater than that, although the true extent of such is not actually revealed in the first film.

The Dragon Mural is on a wall in the tomb where the Rod of Savrille lies. It is meant as visual message of events that could be - and have been in the past - as a result of using the Rod of Savrille. It is meant as a warning that the Rod will only bring about evil and destruction to the world if it is actually used. Ridley is the only character that sees this wall and the wall is actually mirrored later in the film during the actual Dragon Battle. The wall was designed in the pre-production stage, and hand painted by a talented scenic painter.

I won't say where this takes place in the context of the film, but this Dragon is actually an illusion that Ridley and Snails encounter during the course of the film. It just about gives Snails a heart attack and also anybody in the theatre as it comes very unexpectedly.

Marina is trying to decode the scroll which supposedly contains the location of the Rod of Savrille. The scroll is comprised of ancient runes that pre-date any magical language currently on record in Sumdall. The effect is actually rather simple, but when Marina "presses the wrong button" so to speak, she is accidentally sucked into the scroll. An interesting point here is that Vildan, the Master of Dracology, is unable to break the code of this scroll early on in the film and it is interesting to find out which character actually has the innate ability to break the code. Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best solutions.

This is part of the thieves maze in Antius City which Ridley must go through and gets the prize, which is the eye of the Dragon. This is a key artifact in the film with multiple powers and uses which are all tied directly to the Red Dragons and the Rod of Savrille. This scene was actually shot on a set built in Prague and precisely designed. The fires are not the only obstacle he encounters in this specially constructed room. The room was built by the set construction department, but the traps were practical mechanical effects created by George Gibbs who created all the traps for the opening sequence of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". Justin Whalin actually was enclosed in this small set with only the camera crew. To obtain the realism we were looking for, Justin needed to get precariously close to those hot fires, to the point of it being dangerous. Too bad for Justin as one of the things that he actually hates in real life is fire. Lookout for the maze… it is a fun sequence!

The three dragons battling in sky over Sumdall are part of the action that takes place as the Gold Dragons controlled by the Empress Savina and the Red Dragons controlled by Profion engage each other in battle over the city. In order to create a realistic Dragon battle which comprises over 250 shots in 11 minutes, several layers had to be created by multiple effects facilities including: close up dragons and their animation, texturing and lighting, to CG skies, a CG city, CG background dragons, fireballs, smoke screens and other elements. The part of the shot shown in the trailer is actually only a small bit of this particular scene, which in the film is even more spectacular than what is shown briefly in the trailer.