hired to design the sets of the film's sixth-century world. He temporarily converted the 13th-century Dolwyddelan Castle into Ulrich's ramshackle sixth-century fortress, to the surprise of the locals. He built the entire village of Swanscombe on a farm outside London. Although Scott extensively researched medieval architecture in the British Museum and his own library, he took some artistic liberties in creating the thatched roof houses, the granary, Simon's house, and smithy and Casiodorus's castle, because he was unable to find enough information on their exact look. He built the interior of the dragon's lair, using of polystyrene and 40 tons of Welsh slate and shale. The shots of the Welsh and Scottish landscapes were extended through the use of over three dozen matte paintings. Nearly all of the outdoor scenes were shot in North Wales. The final scene was shot in Skye, Scotland. Costumes The costumes were designed by Anthony Mendelson, who consulted the British Museum, the London Library, and his own reference files to evoke the designs of the early Middle Ages. They are roughly stitched and use colors which would have been possible with the vegetable dyes of the time. The costumes of Casiodorus and his court were designed of fine silk, as opposed to the coarsely woven clothes of the Urlanders. Music The film's Academy Award-nominated score was composed by Alex North. The score's linear conception was developed through transparently layered; polyphonic orchestral texture dominated by a medieval-style modal harmony. The score was largely based on five major thematic concepts: the suffering of the Urlanders; a "magic" motif; the amulet; the sacrificial virgins; the relationship between Galen and Valerian. North had six weeks to compose the score, which featured music rejected from his score for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The opening sequence of Dragonslayer features a reworking of his original music for the opening of 2001s "Dawn of Man" sequence—which in that final film is played without music—and a waltz representing the dragon in flight which had been a variation of the cue "Space Station Docking", which in the final cut of 2001 was replaced by The Blue Danube. North was disappointed by the resulting dragon scenes, as they do not use the entirety of the pieces he composed for them. He later stated that he had written "a very lovely waltz for when the dragon first appears, with just a slight indication that this