02x03 - The Burning Mill

[bunniefuu]

The first time you walk out there,
it's jaw-dropping.

It's completely
shocking and unexpected.

Oh, it was a great day.

Brilliant set.

It's really badass.

Thank you very much. Drinks on me.

It was a storm inside.

Oh, my God.

It's unbelievable!

This is a very iconic moment

in George's books.

The Battle of Burning Mill.

Two houses that were pitted
against each other.

And it's the metaphor
for the history of violence

and how you get to a point
where there is no forgiveness.

And that's where
we find ourselves this season.

- Morning. Morning. How we doin'?
- Morning.

Jim Clay, in collaboration
with the special effects department

created a place that truly felt
real and haunted

and brought the book to life.

I was well pleased when Ryan said

we're going to feature
the interior of Harrenhal

so that was one of the first things
we went to work on designing.

Harrenhal. "It's a cursed castle

designed by a deranged mind"

was the sort of brief I got.

And so, it's dilapidated.

It's haunted
by its past and its present.

Oh, it's huge.
It goes on and on and on.

Jim Clay has just
done brilliant work.

The texture and the scale

and the vision behind
a lot of his work is really superior.

It's a set that I'd find myself
getting lost in.

You'd turn the wrong corner
and you're like

"Wait, where am I?"

Like, you could get

as disoriented as Daemon

walking through that set.

And I think
that's really saying something.

It was pretty big.
It filled the whole stage.

From a structural
point of view, mainly

how are you gonna hide

your integral structure

if you've got a steel frame that,
obviously, you can't see in shot

then we've gotta try
and conceal that.

That's what makes it fun,
really, though.

I wanted to give
the whole four-walled world

the advantages of tracking shots,
Steadicam shots

and the actors being enveloped
in the entire world.

You can go where you like,
sh**t what you like

pretty much 360 around the set.

Whichever way you look,
you'd be covered.

And the idea was

it should be quite a maze.

You shouldn't feel like
you know where you are

at any given time in that castle.

Got lost in there most mornings.

This is honestly my favorite set
that Jim has built, to date

because it's so well brought to life

the idea of this ruined castle

the fact that he made it rain inside

the way he made the weir wood roots

break through all
of the stones that you see

that, slowly, the castle being
reclaimed by the old gods.

This here is the guy
who makes me wet.

- Yeah.
- We're gonna wear it today.

That's it.

He's... he's the rain punisher. Tom.

- This is it.
- Screws me up every day.

Harrenhal,
wetter than an otter's pocket.

I know. But I do like a bit of rain.

Harrenhal's supposed
to be this windy, wet place

and we're doing some interior stuff

and we need it to be raining inside

'cause the whole idea
of it being dilapidated

was there's holes in the wall
and holes in the roof.

Man, did we soak that place.

It really brings an incredible amount
of realism and texture to the place

which was really important
for the storytelling.

My brief was,
"It's gonna be really damp."

That was it.

And in the end, my last brief was

"It's gotta rain inside

like it does outside."

And it didn't stop raining.

My God, it was horrendous.

But it looks amazing.

It was a slightly late-in-the-day
idea to have the water

dripping into the set,
so we weren't totally prepared

in terms of tanking the set

which we normally would
if you had a lot of water.

But we coped and special effects
did a great job

with soaking up the water around
the set when it was all pouring in.

It was too late
to retrospectively fix it

so we had to just minimize damage.

So we did individual tanks
and tried to contain it that way

which worked really well
and it looked real.

I thought Matt's gonna freak out

you know, walking around in his armor
all day long with rain.

But it looked so good,
and he was lovin' it.

We were wet from, like

eight in the morning
'til eight at night

which was quite fun,
actually, to be honest.

I love all that.
Like, gettin' sort of properly wet

and I hate being really hot,
but I quite like being really wet.

To make sure
his continuity is correct

he's gotta be soaked all the time

and the best way of doin' it
is turn the water on and say

"Matt, can you go stand
under that, please?"

In my experience
with working with Matt

he likes to embrace
all the challenges

you throw at him, in that sense,
so it was good.

The script is describing
the character can't see.

What does that mean for the audience?

So that sequence

wound up being incredibly fun

to light and conceive and sh**t

because, obviously,
it's raining and lightning

and we were playing a lot
with shadows

and silhouettes and film noir

but the way it looks
when it's completely wet and dripping

and he's standing there

I mean, it's really badass.

Quite fun though.

The Brackens and the Blackwoods

are the Hatfields and McCoys
of this time period.

We don't really know
why they hate each other.

They simply just hate each other.

And they're always ready
to fight each other.

That guy's gonna rip your face off.

- Okay. Yeah.
- Okay? Great.

Directing that opening moment
of episode 203

where you find all the bodies
dead after a battle

took quite a bit of prep.

Aeron Bracken is a human one minute
and a prosthetic dummy the next

but you can't tell.

First thing we did was scan his head.

So we gonna just lie you
on the floor.

- Cool.
- And then we'll do

a couple of options of like

mouth open, eyes closed

eyes open, maybe

head back,
and then, we'll run it past Geeta

and she can tell us what she likes.

And we'll process whichever

version of that she likes.

- Amazin'. Cool.
- Cool.

And we're off.

We've just literally
finished printing his head

ready to be remolded and cleaned up.

The shoulders in two halves
on another printer.

Just assemble it
like a jigsaw puzzle at the end.

It's so lifelike. It's so real.

It was incredible.
I mean, the fact that

we were doing an extreme close-up
on the prosthetic dummy of an actor

that's in the scene before,
and you can get away with that

just shows the quality
of Waldo's work.

So, you're lying on a body bag,
by the way.

- Oh, great.
- Surprise!

Geeta always imagined it
as one simple, elegant shot

where we're on Aeron Bracken's face

and you just raise up
and there's dead bodies

as far as the eye can see.

And on the morning when we shot it,
it had rained a lot.

And so, it was incredibly misty
and sort of spooky-looking

and it wound up being the perfect
weather for a scene like that.

It's one of those ones
where you don't really know

what it's gonna look like because
we knew it was gonna be in the water

and he's kinda semi-submerged

and the sword
is going through his neck

which meant getting in the stream,
having to dress it in.

And luckily, we had some great
props guys in waders helping us out.

The Aeron Bracken sword

is shot in extreme close-up

and is actually one of the most
important shots in the show, for us

because it's the closest
we ever get to a sword.

There was a lot of discussion about
how we get the sword to stand up.

We ended up just driving it
so far through his neck

it would just stand up in the ground
which was fantastic for us.

Oh, that looks so good over there.

That bare back of someone.
That's great.

In visual effects,
the rule of thumb is

you do as much practical as you can.

With Waldo, the bar

is pretty high with him

so he does amazing stuff

and we can take it from there.

There's quite a bit to do.

There's obviously a windmill
that's not there

that we need to put in.

Setting fire to the mill,
and boundary stones

and then we get to that end shot,
which is the aftermath of the battle

but we're expanding that enormously.

So, yeah,
it was a fairly big shot for us.

When the camera tilts up

and we see the aftermath
with that beautiful sword

just tells the story
without actually showing

any physical violence whatsoever.

It was one of
my favorite days of sh**ting

because all departments
came together so quickly that morning

to create the tone of that
epic moment in George's books.

No, it's good. Tight.

It's genuinely been the best time
I've ever had on set.

Ever! It's so much fun.

Moondancer's a brand-new dragon

so the description
that I gave to the designers

was simply, "David Bowie."

And we ended up
with this, like, tiger-striped

green punk rocker with a mohawk

and I'm thrilled
with the outcome of it.

She is the coolest of them all.

I am biased

but she's really, really slender.

She's pale green. She's so fast.

The Crownlands sequence

where Baela
is chasing Cole and Gwayne

it's just a very fun,
classic chase scene.

Everybody has to use their
imagination in those moments

but ultimately, it's down
to the VFX team to make it real.

So, it's essential that
they're right next to you

and what you're sh**ting
is going to work for them.

This is what happens
behind the scenes.

I'm just goin' on a practice...
practice joyride.

Katie, the DP,
and the guys in the buck

and all the lighting technicians
are working there

with the manumatic rig
and all that technology

they get together
and work through everything

to make sure they're getting

what the VFX department
need for the post work.

So the whole dragon process
was incredibly complicated

as they are characters

acting within a scene

and we have to
work out their performance

before we get to the actual location.

A lot of moving parts
in terms of scale, size, speed.

So really, a lot of logistics

about how this is gonna come together

from a practical point of view

and what can we actually sh**t

and then, what actually
really needs to be happening

in the shots at the end.

So there's a lot of science
involved in that

in terms of dragon speeds
and distances

in terms of that chase.

We have developed a system

so, through camera,
we can take the footage

and we can apply it to a CG scene

using Unreal Engine.

And what that does is allow us to see

the solved camera move on the buck

recomposed onto the dragon in CG
for a sort of slap comp, if you like

just so they can see in video village
that the move is working correctly.

It's hard work.

Dragonriding, you know?

Because we shot the buck work
of that sequence

before we had shot the location work

the main challenge, lighting-wise,
was we didn't know

if the location was gonna be sunny,
if it would be cloudy.

So, we had to do one pass for sun
and one pass for shade.

It's fun filming on the buck.

It's incredibly strategic
because you have to understand

the difference between
fantasy and naturalism.

So, thinking about how much wind
goes on someone's face

when you're actually going
at terminal velocity

how someone moves on an animal.

All of these things
are really important.

I don't think there's much
you can do in a profile shopping.

It's all right.

Unless you turn to the camera and go,
"This is amazing!"

You get shown a mock-up
of what you look like on the dragon

like a half-hybrid
cartoon version of you

doing the whole sequence

and then, suddenly,
you're really, like

digging your heels in
as though it's a horse.

It's bonkers.

It's great when you get
an actor like Bethany

who loves the experience
and is putting their all into it

because so much
of what you're doing is imaginary

so everybody
has to be on the same page.

Nothing can prepare you

for what that first day on the buck
is gonna be like.

It's the most insane thing
I've ever done in my career so far

and being so high up
and bein' able to see

how many people it takes
to make this show

and you're just all
on your own on that dragon.

I was like, "Wow. This is a really
cool thing that we're doin'."

She was havin' an amazing time.

She couldn't wait to get
on the buck every day

which makes everyone else's life
a lot easier.

It's like goin' to Disneyland
at, like, terminal velocity

only you're dressed like this.

I said it's the best day
at work ever.

Do you like me gold bits?

- Fancy gold bits.
- Well, ya know.

Aegon is obsessed with namesakes
and symbols of legitimacy.

He has his father's Valyrian dagger

which, of course, he doesn't realize
the full significance of.

He has Aegon the Conqueror's crown,
he has his name

and I think he's trying to
legitimize himself

now in the absence of Otto saying,
"This is my reign now"

and he wants to cut this image
of this warrior conqueror king.

So we see him
having this ancient armor

that's probably been
pulled out of some dusty corner

of the armory being fitted to him.

What's it actually called?

- A gorget.
- A gorget.

- A gorget.
- Like a courgette that you eat.

It's way better. Gorget's way better.

We hear a lot
about Valyrian steel weapons.

We don't hear a lot
about Valyrian steel armor

but it felt like that was something
that Aegon the Conqueror would've had

from his time in Old Valyria

as, like, a House Targaryen
family heirloom

a suit of armor that would be,
in theory

very light and very strong
because of its make.

So the assignment that I gave
to Caroline and Simon Brindle

was that I wanted
an ancient suit of armor

made of Valyrian steel

that seemed like
it was from Old Valyria.

And I think the execution
is dazzling.

- Hello.
- Hello.

- Nice armor.
- Yes!

Aegon's armor
was a huge challenge for us.

In the designing and the making of it

I've never had so many meetings

about a set of armor in my life.

It was a significant undertaking

in terms of Aegon the Conqueror

is a really major character

in the whole Westeros universe

so we wanted to create
something that was iconic.

Caroline spent
a lot of time designing it

and then, we developed it.

- Okay, great. Thank you.
- Shout for help

- when you need to get up.
- I will. Turtle.

Ordinarily, a build like that

would be somewhere between



It can be shorter

but if you're doing a bespoke piece

with every element sized to the actor

you, essentially, have to make
every piece from scratch.

So that was 20 weeks of work.

It's got quite architectural shapes

within the forms and outline.

And then, probably

another good four weeks plus

just putting on
the Valyrian steel detailing.

A lot of work, but great to do.

The first thing

was practicality

so it should be
as flexible as possible.

So I looked at every
sort of armor you can imagine.

It needed to feel
like an ancient culture

so there's some
Greco-Roman influences.

I wanted the dragon
reflected in its design

so that there's
a scale-like quality to it.

It's Aegon I,
so it's still an ancient piece

but being Valyrian steel,
it's immaculately crafted.

We wanted to create something
ancient and otherworldly.

There's an element of almost
brutalist architecture in there.

It draws a lot on the architecture
of the Targaryen dynasty.

It ran through three processes.

We started with
the initial armor build

individually fitted and crafted

and sculpted to the shape of Tom.

Then we introduced

the angularity and sharpness

and a lot of referencing

to dragon forms.

With it being Aegon, there's a lot

of talon and scale forms in there

that run through the tassets

and the skirt scales

through a lot of small detailings.

And then we got into

the whole Valyrian steel

which was like adding

an additional build

on top of everything

because we then come back

to our original forms

and shapes, lift patterns

from the surfaces of every piece

create artwork for the Valyrian steel

and then apply it to every surface.

So it was quite involved.

Give it a bit of a shimmy, I reckon.

You go in.

- That's it.
- Very good.

They work so unbelievably hard

on creating the armor

and the helmet

and
everything that goes with it.

The attention to detail
is mind-blowing.

It is satisfying when you can
see them enjoy the costume

and it works for them and...

and it's helping them
develop their character.

And he looks incredible in his armor.

Heavy.
Conqueror's armor is very heavy

but it looks amazing, Valyrian steel.

It's got the crown
sort of built into it

which is amazing.

It took a little while to get right

but I've never felt
more heroic in my life.

I'm as fearsome as any of them.

It's just so rainy.
So rainy and so wet.

Driftmark Harbor is a dry dock.

The Sea Snake boat
has come back from w*r

and is being repaired.

The harbor itself is quite high.

It's about five meters high,
going down into the mud

and the silt of the dock
when the sea is out.

And then, obviously,
that has to be surrounded

so you can sh**t 360 degrees.

From start to walking on the set

was probably 16 or 18 weeks.

Jim is the master of the grand scale

so it started off
an already big project to take on.

A lot of structure in that
because we built up to

I think, probably, five meters high.

A hell of a lot of plaster work

involved in a set like that.

And then the props came in
with some lovely dressing

to make it feel like
you're in a boatyard

because this was a ship under repair

so it needed to have that feel
of guys heavily working.

It's the biggest set
that I think Jim ever built.

It's massive and expansive.

I mean, all that stuff
that you're seeing is in camera

including the ship.

Really only the extensions
out to sea and beyond

into the next slips that are virtual.

And it just blew me away
the first time I walked on it.

I've totally forgotten
what I have to say

because there's so much rain
all over your...

All over my face, yeah.

We had spent months
preparing for the scene

and then we found out that
the day we were gonna sh**t it

it was going to be torrential rain.

So, we moved the scene
and we added rain machines.

After eight hours of SFX rain,
you're gonna get some leaks

and the water started pooling
in the bottom of the set

and we had to keep digging it out.

For being such a simple scene

it became actually
quite complicated to sh**t.

The fake rain was like a monsoon.

If you ask Geeta,
"How heavy do you want it?"

She goes, "I want Bollywood 10."

But at first, I was like,
"I have no idea what you mean"

but I did some research

and it's full-on heavy, big,
and I love her for that.

And we did, did we not?

That scene in the rain,
that was just such a bonkers day.

And at one point, I said,
"There is actual rain outside.

Are you sure that we need
this extra monsoon?"

And we were all in kind of like
Noah's Ark, with the water rising.

The minute you'd get out there,
pouring with rain, then they'd go

"Turn the machines on."
I mean, you were literally soaked.

And by the time that

you got under the shelter

to talk to her, you were drenched.

And also, I was leaning on a post

and there was, like,
a torrent of water coming down.

So as I turn my head away
from the camera

I was getting completely bathed.

It was, oh,
it was fun, but it wasn't.

That feels a lot of rain.

The scene that,
originally, was very romantic

ended up still romantic

because now, they were underneath
this bridge in the rain

so I think it came
full circle in the end.