Warner's Test Results. A lot is going on!

OK, it's been a while. So what has been going on in the world of Lonely Dog? The big news is that on a recent trip to the US Ivan and I met with Warners. They were really keen to show us their work on the "test". This is a short piece of a few minutes that will never see the light of day. It is to see what the concept looks like, how the world feels, how the digital properties look, and so on.

Well, test it might be in their language, but it looked extremely impressive! A few impressions. We were both bowled over by the opening voice over. None other than Morgan Freeman! What a compliment to The Lonely Dog to use the 'voice of God' as the test narrator! Sensational.

To set the scene, as Morgan Freeman narrates the opening a motorcycle approached the small seaside town of Port Alveridge. It pulls in, riders (2) dismount, and enter a seaside bar. A hand pulls out the power cord to a jukebox that is pumping out atrocious cat pop. The shadowy small character from the back of the bike takes to the stage, plugs his guitar in, turns, and reveals himself to be not a hound, but Lonely Dog himself. With a flourish of power chords he gets the hounds up and dancing, the cats trying to join in but being pushed to one side.....

Warners had fun with the props at a real seaside bar at Marina Del Ray. All the bottles behind the bar had appropriate houndish labels - Jack Russell Whiskey, with a slightly familiar black label! Etc. Every bottle created! Posters are on the walls, showing various famous catside and houndside artists. One of these actual posters is in the Auckland Gallery and another in the Wellington Gallery - we brought them home with us!

The footage was shot live action, motion capture, head replacement. Lonely Dog - and the other characters of hounds and cats - were played by real people, and filmed in a real set. Their heads were 'replaced' electronically. LD's head looked incredibly realistic. In fact Ivan felt it was too realistic. Stunning. It is easy to see how this is going to work. It looks like nothing else, and is very captivating.

It was quite fantastic to see tangible evidence of the project coming to life.

Next steps are to press on with scripting. The test was a resounding success. Things are getting interesting ....!