Pax East 2016 Warcraft Movie Roundup: Draka Poster, Lion's Pride Inn, Q&A

Posted 2016/04/23 at 5:03 PM by perculia

WarcraftDraka Movie Postercharacter galleryLion's Pride Inn Tour

Check out my exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of The Lion’s Pride Inn set from #WarcraftMovie. https://t.co/Pkhebswutr

For The Horde!

— Robert Kazinsky (@RobertKazinsky) April 23, 20163pm Twitch Interviewstarted at 4:32:00

Duncan Jones talked about how Warcraft was a big fantasy film and there’s been a lack of big fantasy since Lord of the Rings.

Rob Kazinsky is a big Warcraft player and talked about how he had over 450 days played in Wrath of the Lich King, raided in a top 100 guild, and was one of the highest-rated Death Knights. However now he’s just a “dirty casual keyboard turning raider” who only plays casually. He talked about how WoW was a very important part of his life - it’s more than just a game, it was a community.

Duncan Jones expressed surprise that Rob Kazinsky was so calm when told he’d be part of the film. Kazinsky said he felt so much relief when he heard the news.

While the movie has a big budget, this was really a passion project with a gigantic budget. There’s always the worry that big budget projects can become a money machine, but so many people were personally invested in Warcraft.

One of the challenges working on the film was the marathon aspect—keeping the attention to detail and focus over so long.

All the actors playing orcs bonded together on set! There were ply a few times the humans and orcs interacted in the movie, so filming those scenes really did feel like strangers meeting.

4 pm Main Stage Interviewlonger interview and Q&A at 4pm EST

Rob Kazinsky has always played an Orc Death Knight, but he found it really interesting to go to the Alliance areas as well. Going through the Dark Portal was also a highlight, as players in-game simply experience it as a loading screen.

Durotan and Draka are seen going through the Dark Portal and it was used as a moment where the audience can learn more about them. Duncan Jones was excited to show Orcs as well-rounded characters with character advancement, especially an orc couple.

Ben Foster wanted to learn how to do real magic because he wanted to look like he could actually cast spells. They came up with choreography and visual language so it would look realistic.

Orcs had to move in certain ways, so the actors went to a month-long orc camp!

A key moment was meeting with Jeff White, who made the Hulk for the first Avengers movie. He's a big Warcraft fan and created the Orcs for the film. It was a nerve-wracking moment to see the finalized Orcs for the first time, but everyone was blown away and was so happy with how they looked, they were confident to do more close-up shots of Orcs.

They realized that Orgrim didn't actually get to fight much, so they added some moves in for him. Example: a scene where he punched and lifted up a guy with Doomhammer, then dropped him onto Orgrim's head to knock him out.

The person who worked on languages in Game of Thrones created the Orc language for Warcraft and is a big fan of the game. There are several scenes in the movie where that language is used in an interesting way, as well as phrases players will recognize.

The Game of Thrones composer also did the score for Warcraft--it's a very different style though. The score is original but some game music themes are in the film so fans feel like they're going home.

Some actors were more familiar with Warcraft than others. Rob Kazinsky was proud that he's an Orc Death Knight and with his years of playing the game, he's done so much research! He didn't want to be *that guy* on set correcting people about the game though--and fortunately he didn't, as everyone took the movie seriously!

Expressing emotion is a challenge with CGI, but subtleties came through in rendering faces. You can see 100% of Orgrim's thoughts.

Duncan Jones lucked out on joining the film project when it had movement. He remembers seeing the original script and being upset that it was "human heroes" vs. "orc villains" and he could see why Blizzard pulled the reins on that story line. He wanted to show the heroes on all sides and thinks Chris Metzen was happy with this.

Duncan Jones wanted the audience to feel close to the Orcs, which wouldn't be possible with prosthetics and latex. With so much CGI, they decided that the sets needed to be real and epic.

The lore in the movie is a little more flexible--eg Doomhammer is a warrior weapon. Some races are left out like Tauren and if we all see the movie, perhaps there can be a sequel with Tauren!

Their favorite battlecry is FOR THE HORDE.

The actors who played Orcs had an interesting time. They got to the set early at 7am, got in their special pajamas, then did character building exercises. They had to take care to correctly map the character to their own bodies--tons of dots were mapped onto a computer and the actors had to learn how to move correctly. It's hard to get across the physique and weight of the Orcs, but they had to show it with regular body movements. They also created differences between the Orcs, eg Durotan's posture is more upright than the other Orcs.

The film is a good starting point for the Lore of WoW, but as a minor disclaimer--there are some moments that are different (eg Garona as half-human).

As a filmmaker, Duncan Jones tried to fit in extra material and easter eggs that fans would appreciate which wouldn't distract from the overall story. It was a unique challenge that he enjoyed.

No word if in-game items are coming with a movie ticket purchase.

The movie team worked closely with Blizzard and concept artist Wei Wang did the concept art for the movie.

5:00pm Facebook Interview

Comment by VamphiirWhoa. Wish the nights in WoW were as dark as that last shot of goldshireComment by WalkerfinLol ofcourse there must be goldshire inn XDComment by GraharamIs it just me that sees the resemblance between Draka and the kid in Jumanji who got turned into an ape?