03x07 - The Dragon in Winter

[bunniefuu]

[people chattering]

[Rowley Irlam]
Come on! Hurry up.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

We've got a very large strafe.

Three rows of IPA bags.

We will manually light
the four prosthetics.

We'll be leant over in our
sort of standard fashion.

It's the sudden feelings
of pain,

trying to feel the humanity
of people on fire

rather than 1990s...

No circular windmills,
please. Okay?

So, um, well, good luck,

and, uh, we'll go down there
and we'll get it done.

-Let's go!
-[cheering and applause]

[Rowley]
Three, two, one, action!

[expl*si*n booming]

[♪ thrilling music playing]

♪♪

[♪ solemn music playing]

[crew chattering]

...so, just because we're gonna
be running all day.

[Nina Lopez-Corrado]
Good morning, everyone.

Our dragons will enter
from the sky over there.

Caraxes will land
over where Matt is.

Dragons, dragons, dragons
everywhere.

I've never seen so many
big dragons on screen.

It's insane.

[dragons roaring]

My brain kind of exploded

because we were gonna have
four dragons fight.

[dragons snarling]

This is the biggest
dragon set piece

I think we've done to date.

Certainly the most dragons
we've ever had

in one singular scene.

So, it's very exciting
to be here

and to be a part of this.

[slate clacks]

[actor roaring]

[laughter]

In this episode,

Daemon is on a mission
to find Rhaena.

He ultimately finds her
in a big open field

and she is with Sheepstealer.

He does not heed me!

[Nina] And then,
out of nowhere comes...

Rooaar!

...Rhaenyra and Addam.

[Philippa Goslett]
We knew in the writer's room

we were gonna have
a huge dragon fight.

But, of course, we've seen
dragons fighting before

in House of the Dragon.

[dragons screeching]

-[jaws snapping]
-[dragons roaring]

So we wanted to do something
a little different,

and we had never seen

a dragon fight on the ground.

[Ryan Condal]
The aerial battles

feel much more elegant
and graceful,

whereas this is just a nasty,

biting, you know, nails,

and eye-gouging kind of fight.

-[♪ intense music playing]
-[dragons roaring]

The real concept of this
was basically to have

our four characters
in a Godzilla movie.

Where you have these giant kaiju
who are stomping around,

swishing tails
and flapping wings.

[Richard Donnelly]
So, when you have
four dragons in a field,

all moving,
all at the same time,

it's very challenging
to keep everybody aware

of where all the dragons are

and where to look.

So, we had to work out
all the eyelines for the actors

to know where the dragons
were at any time,

and to react as such.

I just asked that.

We-- We were going there,
but is that--

Does it need to be where
that, like...

[overlapping chatter]

Where that helicopter is, yeah?

-[Nina] Or was. Okay.
-Yeah.

We've got Callum who's
standing in for our dragon.

Uh, so we can position him

based on the anatomy
of the dragon,

knowing that the head
will be in the right place

when we put the whole thing in.

[Nina] Dadi really is
quite the visionary,

especially when it comes
to the dragons.

He has a understanding
of them

that blows my mind.

[Dadi Einarsson]
We'll basically
take a storyboard

and create a previs
from that.

Rhaena? Move!

[dragons growling]

Then we import that
into the Cyclops.

[Thomas Horton]
The Cyclops is
an augmented reality app

where we can overlay

our CG dragons
and environments

onto the real world.

We scan all of our locations
digitally,

and we were able
to do a virtual version

of that location.

And so it enables the director
to sit in our office

and to put cameras
on the virtual location.

We couldn't operate
without it,

particularly from the actor's
perspective.

The scale of our environments
are so large

that it's hard for an actor
to understand

the dragon that's in front
of them is the size of a 747.

So these apps really give
a sense of that scale.

[Dadi] We had the Cyclops
on the day,

and we could show,
we could walk around and like,

"Oh, look,
here is Caraxes' head."

[Caraxes growling]

You don't stage the cameras
necessarily

for what you see.

It's like you kinda need
to set them up

for what's gonna be there.

It's a lot better than kind of
waving your hands around

and describing what--

what you imagine
is there, you know?

[Daemon grunting, panting]

Lykiri, Caraxes!

[crew member]
Yeah? I think it's cool.

-[Nina]
Yeah, it's gonna be awesome.
-I think it's cool.

[Dadi] Once we have it planned,
that's it.

'Cause they're such big beasts,

you can't really reimagine it
on the day.

Then the whole thing
starts to unravel.

[Judit Soltész]
The dragons are massive.

When they move,
the ground is moving.

[Nina] And then,
after the dragon fight,

we figured out where
all the actors fit

inside of that fight.

[Judit] Seasmoke comes in
and he fights Sheepstealer!

[Nina] The thing you forget

when you're sh**ting those
dragon sequences

is that they are actors
in the scene, too.

[actors growling]

Two eyeline poles probably.

-Yeah.
-Get the eyeline poles here,

so they can react to the
two dragons doing something.

Hi, I'm Courtney,
I am part of the VFX team.

I'm one of the dragon
puppeteers.

[Rowley] Let's get ready
to start rehearsing, please...

We're about to start rehearsing.

[Nina]
And then the other thing
that was very helpful

is Dadi's team dress
in these blue suits

with this giant dragon head.

And we often put them in
for eyeline

or just to be behind them
so we can see how much of them

they're gonna be
in the shot at any time.

And they are true artists

because they had
those suits on

for the whole entire week.

[♪ light upbeat music playing]

Alright, dragon time.

[dragon growling sound]

I've actually especially
liked watching

when Callum's been doing
his dragoning alone.

He did it last season.

So, seeing him
sort of like really

take it upon himself

and, you know, doing some
of the dragoning on his own

has been like lovely
for me to watch

'cause this is his passion.

[Matt Smith]
Call off your dragon!

[actor screaming in distance]

He's a proper nerd
with it all. [laughing]

You look like a Ninja Turtle,
but blue.

It's always good to interact
with the cast and--

and have something to feed off
rather than just...

you know, me in the head
doing the movements.

If I've got somebody there,
that's good.

It's tougher than it looks.
Yeah, genuinely.

-It's heavy.
-It's the-- the weight, yeah.

[dragon head thudding]

[whispering] Getting attacked
by bugs in here.

[insect buzzing]

[whispering]
Save me from the heat!

I can't actually see anything.

I have to go by what
I can... feel,

and anything I can see
just below me there.

You first, you first.

[roaring]

[crew member]
Oh, Callum, that's good.

That's so good!

[laughing] Oh!

-Now I've gotta live up that.
-Go on,

you've gotta live up to it.

[Courtney chuckles]

[roaring loudly]

[both laughing]

[Kevin de la Noy]
And we walked
into this location.

I saw the various layers

and I said, this is a fantastic
place for the fight.

Yes, it's difficult to get to,

but it is so good
for the storytelling

because there were natural
points of landing for dragons

and a tremendous crosscut
of angles and things to do.

[Emma D'Arcy]
I'm genuinely not surprised

that the Welsh national symbol

is the dragon,
because when you see

those huge
spines of mountains,

that's exactly the animal
that's conjured.

That landscape lends such
reality and legitimacy.

And so you
suddenly get a sense

of the scale of the realm,

which I think lends
to the drama scale, too.

[Judit]
Just a quick note.

A safety note here.

This zone is, uh,
kind of full of ticks.

I highly recommend
wearing long pants.

Oh, what a nightmare.

We shot that scene on a bog.

The ground was so uneven that
people could not walk on it

without falling over.

And so it had
wonderful madness,

leagues away
from the machinery

of working in the studio.

[camera operator grunting]

[Matt] That sort of moment
filmically is a pain to film.

It's a very technical
exercise.

It was just, "Again, again,
again, again."

I wish I could tell you it was
a wonderful day on a film set.

It wasn't, it was
a f*cking misery

because it was just repetitive.

And then you've done a scene
sort of a million times

and you're like,
by the end of it,

you don't know what...
You can't think straight.

I've lost my mind.

[Nina] Okay.

It's gonna feel like
a great, big, operatic

dragon-based bit of drama,
which will be great.

You trust the technicality of
the filmmakers and the process

and know that eventually
that's gonna turn out

to be something really
exciting to watch.

But to film, it was--
it was-- it was--

it was painful.

[Clinton Liberty]
It was just one of
those moments

where you take a step back,
look at your surroundings

and see what you're
involved in.

Yeah, it was-- it was amazing.
Amazing for me.

[Phoebe Campbell]
It was the funnest time ever.

It was like a delusionally silly
time, it was really great.

[wailing]

Whoosh!

[♪ ominous music playing]

[gravel crunching]

[crew chattering]

[Nina]
Aegon and Tyland decide

they need to get out
of Rook's Rest,

so we are following
their journey

until Mooton's army
is coming towards them.

The Mooton army scene

we shot over the course
of three night shoots.

We knew we were gonna have
to use lighting effects

for most of it, and then
we would bring the fire aspect

back to the backlot,

where we would sh**t
all the elements of the fire,

and then Dadi and his team
would then take over

and add those elements
into the scene

that we shot on location.

[soldiers shouting]

Aegon had this huge scene

in which he had to literally
be screaming

out to an army of thousands.

Behold me now!

I am Aegon Targaryen.

He was very excited
about the scene.

It was a very emotional
scene for him.

It was a big outburst,
a big mess.

It was like someone had
let the dam crumble

and just gallons of water
just gushed out.

I was trying to imagine it
sort of sweeping down the hill

and sweeping this army away.

It was all the tension,
all the pressure

that Aegon had felt building up
inside him this entire time.

What does a man feel
when he's got nothing to lose?

It's like it's--
this is my last moment.

I'm not gonna be shy about it.

The Warrior!

The Warrior's sword...

[♪ tense music playing]

Line? f*ck' line?

[script supervisor]
The Warrior's sword will be

-judgment upon you.
-Thank you.

The Warrior's sword will be
judgment upon you!

[Nina] Tom came to me

at the beginning of the
first night and he was like,

"I probably only have like
eight takes in me,

period."

And when you watch the scene,

you see he is literally
giving it 120%.

[yelling loudly]

[yelling loudly]

When we saw him giving
the speech to the Mootons,

everybody had goosebumps
because it was so powerful.

It made me sort of go,
"Yeah, we can take 'em!

You tell 'em!"

It's two to 500.

Going for it. Yeah.

That's why you get an actor
like Tom Glynn-Carney.

He, like-- He goes for it.

[Tom Glynn-Carney]
I threw my guts into it

and ended up losing my voice

and throwing up
at the end of the day.

[laughing]
Which was not-- not the, uh--

Not the intended reaction.

But it was great.

Basically what happens
is you see the dragon,

and you're like, "Oh, f*ck."

Very slowly backing up.

[Aegon]
So now you see me

as I truly am!

Dreadful in vengeance,

righteous and glorious!

[Jefferson Hall]
There was a man
in a blue suit.

He was scary. That's worse
than a dragon at night.

A man in just a blue jumpsuit
with a blue tennis ball?

[Callum Hanny]
There's a lot riding on me

getting the right positions
for the eyeline,

otherwise, he's not looking
in the right place.

I just want to get it right
the first time, as well.

And I'm tired. [laughing]

[Tom] Sunfyre coming back
is a miracle.

All the worries that
Aegon has had about

being powerless
have dissipated.

He's back on,
but more glorious
than ever, really.

And then...

Dracarys.

-[flame whooshing]
-[soldiers screaming]

[actors continue screaming]

[yelling]

That was a different level
of dracarys.

[laughing maniacally]

[Sunfyre growling]

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[cast and crew chattering]

[Judit]
Rowley came up with an idea.

-[bell dings]
-"Let's burn 23 people!"

[Rowley] Very fortunate
to have had the opportunity

back on Season Seven
to do 20 guys,

which was the first time
we achieved that.

And then, Season Eight,
we did 22 guys, twice.

So, this season,

when the Mooton host
sequence came up,

it called for a big burn.

It called for 20 guys.

Oh, he drives me insane, Rowley.

He just brings up these ideas.

And all he's gotta do
is bring a stunt in

and put it in place,

and I've gotta make it work.

[Rowley] And so I--
I, um, looked at that

and was like, yeah,
it was just, um-- I--

The cheeky part of me
looked at that and went, "Ooh.

Okay, well, that's very close
to 22, 23."

So, I-- I actually,
I went to Kevin de la Noy,

our executive producer,
and just said,

"You know, um,
this 20-man burn?"

He's like, "Yeah."
I said, "Well, yeah, we--

"If we just add
three people to that...

[chuckling]
that would be a world record."

And his answer was...
[cash register dings]

"How much is that gonna cost?"

[laughing]

Once we looked at the cost,

and it wasn't insignificant
but also not insurmountable,

we were like, "Oh,
we'd quite like to do that."

[Judit]
So we got so excited, also,

that we never
done this before.

No one has done this before.

And he was so up to it
that we will make it.

It's gonna look amazing.

This is your background.

Because then what happens is,
you see their faces

and your brain thinks that all
the people behind them

also don't have masks on.

[Judit]
It's a big thing, you know?

Twenty-three people in fire,

they cannot breathe,
they have to act.

And then we have to k*ll
the fire on 23 people,

which is, I think, the--

one of the most
challenging part of it.

Are you happy?

Um, yeah, I will be,
in about an hour.

-[laughter]
-I'll be very happy.

[Judit] It's super challenging
when you see

23 people in one--

It's like a big fireball.

You don't really see
who's where.

So, my deep nervousness

was just, how are they gonna see
the people in the back?

How are they gonna run around
and find their own people?

But it went so smooth
and it looked amazing.

[Ryan] One of the stunt people
was celebrating being a new dad

as he was getting, like,
gelled up to be on fire.

I was like, "We should not be
burning a new dad here."

And it was like, "No,
that's how he pays for it!"

'Cause, you know, these guys
get very well compensated

when they go up in flames.

But bless them, we couldn't
do it without them.

Alright! Three, two, one!

[all shouting]

-[camera shutter snaps]
-[laughter and cheering]

[excited chattering]

That's gonna be in
the behind-the-scenes.

[all laughing]

[Rowley] It doesn't matter
how many times you do this.

You know what you're doing,

and, you know,
what the implications are

if something were to go awry.

But you put everything
in place,

everything is rehearsed.

You send everybody off
to get ready.

And there is that moment when
you turn the cameras over

and you've done everything
you can possibly do.

But there's al-- you know, I--
I wouldn't-- It's not--

It's not nervousness.
That's the wrong word.

But we never take it
for granted.

We make sure that we're
on our A-game

and that we do
the best we can,

that everyone gets through it
and does a good performance,

and then goes home with
a big smile on their face.

Here we go!

-And...
-[crew member] Wait, wait, wait.

Rowley, B-line...

-[indistinct chatter]
-[Rowley] Yeah.

Okay, let's light 'em up!

Get 'em lit, George.

Clear, clear, clear!

And, three, two, one, action!

[expl*si*n booming]

[muffled expl*si*n continues]

[♪ intense music playing]

-Ten! Eleven! Twelve!
-[stuntmen yelling, screaming]

Thirteen! Fourteen! Fifteen!

Out! Out! Out!

[Mike Dawson]
You have to take it forward.

People have
seen it all before.

And especially these days,
they're so demanding of shows

and there are so, so many
good shows out there.

This show is good because
the story is immense

and the acting is immense

and the scriptwriting
is immense,

all those things, so,

you are responsible to give them
immense effects

as far as I'm concerned.
And it's my job to do that.

[Rowley]
We wheeled out 23 guys
and lined them all up

and did a 23-man burn
which was very successful.

One take only.

Everyone was safe and happy.

[crew applauding]

Well done, guys, well done.
Excellent.

[♪ inspiring music playing]

Well done, man, that was good.

[♪ inspiring music continues]

So, 23 people, yes.

Guinness Record. We made it.

[fire crackling]

Thank you to the 23 stuntmen

that, uh, risked, uh, life,
eyebrows and limb,

uh, for our show,

for a moment that
we're all very proud of.

[distorted yelling
and screaming]

[extinguishers hissing]

[♪ theme music playing]