Reclaiming Dragons

Reclaiming Dragons is a hybrid film. The waking world was shot on location: fluorescent offices, night buses, the flat grey light of a life on autopilot. The virtual world was built in Unreal Engine 5, and we treated it as a real location, one we could walk through, relight and reshoot at will.

The engine worked like a second film set. While we were shooting live action, the 3D team was building the simulation's spaces, so the two realities could answer each other: a colour here, a corridor there, a gesture crossing from one world into the other. In the grade we pulled both worlds toward a single palette until the seam almost disappears. Which is exactly where the film wants you.

This way of working is the point. I write about emerging technology every week; here, I shipped with it. The same tools I teach professionals to use, turned toward a story about what they do to us.