DRAGON AND ME
"If you want to conquer the world, you best have a dragon..."
Hello friends!
My name is Alexey Kashpersky, I am Creative Director in the VFX storytelling company. And this is Tamerlan - Albino supercrimson iguana. One of the rarest artificially created iguana morphs and quite a personality by himself :)
For over a year I have been working on a short film project.
They say -The artist would not be able to create his art if the child had not continued to exist inside him. Inside a fully-grown person. After all, he is a child inside who wants to try new things and interact with nature. It’s the boy that explores the beauty of a woman and then creates the Venus de Milo sculpture. He is a child who believes in a fairy tale and recreates his dreams, that later called "Art".
This short movie I am working on is a little boy inside me dreaming out loud. I want to tell the story of the human and animal bond as if there was a way to introduce just a little bit of magic in our real world.
The video series will consist of short, mobile-friendly episodes and will be made in vertical format.
The scope of work to be done is HUGE. From scriptwriting and plot to character developing and storyboarding each scene.
From concepting the filming location on paper to its 3D modeling, detailing, thinking through weather, water, atmosphere, foliage and implementing everything in Unreal Engine, so later real life cameras can be motion tracked to a virtual fantasy world environments.
From creating the human and dragon characters and their features on paper as sketches, thinking through their "magic abilities", interaction between each other to re-creating their "digital twins", sculpting them in ZBrush and finally to real-life camera acting and seamlessly combining together both digital and real worlds in one piece.
From dedicating the whole room in the house being a chroma-key location with all necessary lights and wind simulator setups to a real-life shooting props construction. Which is pretty much a separate workshop by itself.
For now we are a team of 4 people, and everything here is created with our own hands, from scratch, on pure enthusiasm, during the afterwork hours.
I understand that with current resources we are pretty limited. But they say “-Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Sounds like a plan to me! :))
If you are interested in supporting the project - you can make a sponsor subscription to @dragon.and.me on Instagram or on Patreon.
Thank you for your time, I hope to share a lot of exciting news and updates with you soon!
Press & Events
In this section you'll find most recent modeling works and event appearances by Dragon and Me.
What a pleasant surprise to be invited as a guest to Soulmates - Episode 24 by The Dodo!
My gratitude to Jessika Hardy and the whole Dodo team!
"Dragon and Me" interviewed by Power of Positivity - online community with over 33mil members.
2021 / Los Angeles
So excited to take you behind the scenes of "Dragon and Me" shoot with Netflix in anticipation of their new film, BACK TO THE OUTBACK!
2021 / New York
Modeling for the 2021 Louis Vuitton Prize winner - KidSuper clothing brand.
Collaboration with Vogue photographer Bella Newman for Cero Magazine.
D&M
All jewelry pieces are exclusive handmade designs by award-winning sculptor Alexey Kashpersky.
Available in 18k Gold Plated Brass or Vintage Silver. Link to online shop.
D&M
Dragon and Me - NFT's
NFT stands for non-fungible token – a digital token that's a type of cryptocurrency, much like Bitcoin or Ethereum. But unlike a standard coin in the Bitcoin blockchain, an NFT is unique and can't be exchanged like-for-like (hence, non-fungible).
Edition of 10. Reserve Price - 0.15 ETH.
Auction is up for bidding.
Coming up next after Token #1 is sold.
D&M
Help Ukraine
On February 24, Russia attacked Ukraine. Moscow strikes targets in Kyiv, Kharkov and other areas. According to preliminary data, more than 80 thousand civilians were killed by the Russians, in the Сity of Mariupol alone. And there are tens of such cities! These monsters are killing my friends, my loved ones. They simply break into our homes or shoot down civilian evacuation convoys. They killed my teacher. The person who gave me a profession in hand and shared his knowledge with me for years. They killed my school and university friends... It's very hard to talk about what's going on.
My country and my home are under barbarian attack right now.
The Ukrainian spirit cannot be broken. Russia has been trying to destroy Ukrainian nationality and self-identity for centuries, but it has not succeeded. I unconditionally believe in the victory of my people, our army. But more than ever, we need your support.
UNITED24 - was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine. Funds will be transferred to the official accounts of the National Bank of Ukraine and allocated by assigned ministries to cover the most pressing needs.
Come Back Alive - The Foundation purchases equipment that helps saving the lives of the military, including thermal imaging optics, quadcopters, cars, security, and intelligence systems.
UAnimals - saving animals from the war. Only united can we stop the suffering.
D&M
Fan Art
This is how our talented fans, friends and fellow dragon people see Tamerlan :)
Interested in collaboration with Dragon and Me?
We are located in New York and open for travel. Please contact shinytamerlan@gmail.com to get more information and discuss details.