01x04 - King of the Narrow Sea

[bunniefuu]

It was incredible.

It was really otherworldly.

We just shot the hell out of it.

So we were really happy.

I've got to say, actually, probably that

was one of my favorite scenes to sh**t.

We're honoring the original show,

obviously.

It's one of my favorite little secrets.

They were night shoots, so they

were quite difficult but very fun.

It's more of their Blackwater

pleasure yacht sailing vessel.

It's not something that they would

probably take out in the open sea.

But they spend a lot of time

sailing the Blackwater

because they go to Driftmark and

Dragonstone, to the two popular houses.

So they need this fast ship that can

kinda go back and forth between them.

But it was exciting, you know,

to build that.

I think there is a lot of naval

presence in this series.

But it was a unique set to build.

It's one of those things where you hear

they're building a ship on the back lot.

And then you actually go and see,

"Oh, they actually built

a ship on the back lot."

The flagship was a lot of fun. I think

Clare had a lot of fun sh**ting that.

It's the weirdest thing to be involved

in designing all these different sets.

This was a lovely opportunity.

Because on Game of Thrones, we're

always using kind of like the same ship

for various different things

through a lot of the seasons.

So this was a chance to sort of

come up with a different ship design.

It needed to look quite grand and royal,

but it's not, like, a massive ship.

It's just something they use for touring.

So, only the bit that people had

to actually stand on was built.

Everything else is gonna be us,

so it's probably only a third

of the actual size of the real ship.

The set was beautiful. VFX was

really prepared for the extensions.

Or, you know, what kind of shots do

we wanna do,

and what was the best

way to achieve them?

Ready. And action.

We shot on the Targaryen flagship.

We storyboarded it to quite

a high degree.

We sort of worked out every single

shot, what that would be.

And then we pretty much built

a 360-degree blue screen around it.

We worked out that we wanted to give

a slight movement with the camera.

We found just the right sort of degrees

to get the sense of the boat

moving and wind.

We had this incredible special

effects of this water

just being thrown over the side.

So, you know, it's just a feat of

coordination more than anything.

So, one of the dragons

sweeps the boat and tilts it over.

So everyone on the ship had to do a bit

of Star Trek back and forth.

Take cover!

I think you need to search for moments

of levity in making a show

that is as grim and heavy

at times as this is.

But the trick with that is that they

have to be in tone with the show.

So it's finding it's finding

a moment of levity in the darkness.

The castle is surrounded

by a peat, dry moat.

The view across the marshes

is inspiring.

We see her, and there's this, like,

70-year-old guy talking about

how the view's so great.

And she's like, I'm not gonna

I'm not gonna marry you. Like stop.

And this kid comes up, so it kind of

just feels like a big joke at this point.

This feels like a big parade.

Volume is brand new to me.

It's really interesting.

The first thing that hits you is how

much better it is than blue screen.

Because the actors walk in

and they feel that they are in this

incredible environment.

And they're very excited by that 'cause

it inspires them physically, emotionally.

It sort of gets to them,

and it helps them draw and bring out

their most playful work, in a way.

There are pros and cons

about it, so I think you

You know, I felt that it was good

to bring the elements in a little bit.

So we built in some wind, had a lot

of leaves blowing across the stage.

'Cause I felt it helps to sort of

make it feel a more alive environment.

You know, you've got this 360 degrees

that you can sh**t against.

But it's important where you place

the real pieces of the set.

'Cause you can't place them

too close to the screens, for example.

And you can't really have

people walking out through an exit.

So you have to, like, work that out.

Well, I wanted it a little bit more open

because she is there to get her husband.

I like the contrast between her

personality and what she's wearing.

She's wearing things

which are too old for her.

And it's very strange

because with Milly,

there were some dresses

where she felt very comfortable.

And some dresses where she felt

a little bit more dressed for the part.

And that was excellent

because that was meant to be.

That was a fun,

sort of happy-go-lucky look.

It was, "I'm here.

I'm not sure whether I want to be here.

I don't know whether

I like these guys or not."

It was just that sort of element of

slightly more blusher, slightly flushed.

All of those elements just

to help her dealing with that scene.

The Blackwoods are an ancient house

with a formidable army.

Let us have the next.

Craven.

Those two actors did

an amazing job actually,

and they we didn't double them.

And the fight changed a few times.

A few times, there were different

ideas and what have you.

And that's actually one

of those scenes.

When I read it, it didn't seem

to make that much sense.

But actually, when you actually did it,

it was actually quite funny.

Basically, this bully gets done.

It's quite cool.

But the actors did so well.

They're hitting the ground

without mats, and they did it all day.

They did an amazing job.

It's just like,

"Whoa, guys, calm down! Calm down.

No one needs to die.

No one needs to die."

The godswood is an interesting set.

'Cause it's got that beautiful tree

at the center of it.

And you can't help but want

to sh**t the actors by the tree.

But at the same time, you've gotta,

like, bring the changes.

So when we were there,

we talked about, you know,

how we were gonna block the scene.

And eventually,

we moved the scene to the table.

And Matt's sat there with his feet up on

the table and offering her wine.

And I think that blocking really helped

it become a little bit more about

You could see the subtext

of that relationship

and the flirting that was going on.

You cannot live your life in fear,

or you will forsake the best parts of it.

I have no desire to live in fear.

Only solitude.

It's such a lonely prospect.

It's quite liberating

acting in a different language.

And I've enjoyed the learning of it

and working with the voice coach,

who's fabulous.

If you speak any language,

your personality is sort of transposed

into the language in a different

way somehow.

And I find that with Daemon,

it's quite it's quite interesting.

It was the language of Valyria,

and it has seeped kind

of like Latin did into Europe.

It seeped into certain parts

of Westeros' societies.

But it's also the language

of the Targaryen family.

You know,

they all grew up learning it.

And they can switch into it

when they're discussing either things

of sort of great importance

or when they just don't want other people

to know what they're talking about.

No, there's grammatical things going

on here, so it got a bit complicated.

But we got through it and we did it.

Why did you come back?

There is surely more to your return

than simply taunting my father.

That set had to have

a very fairy-tale quality,

to have a sort

of Renaissance quality to it.

A beauty to it. We introduced

frescos on some of the walls.

In my head,

it was a Byzantine prayer space.

It was a Byzantine influence

I tried to bring to that.

In the old stonework, the brickwork,

and the tree as the centerpiece.

We've done trees before,

so we know how to do 'em.

It's making sure you've got

the right people to make it,

and we had some great sculptors.

We looked at what had been done

previously for weirwood trees.

And then gave them,

a lot of reference, and away they went.

It was a lovely project.

A massive tree. Great, big, gnarly roots.

And originally, we were gonna cast

the tree from a Winterfell tree.

Because there's a godwood tree there,

which is very old.

We did get some bits from that

but not enough to really clad it.

So we've copied all the textures.

And it looks lovely with the grass

growing in amongst the roots.

It brings it to life.

The tree, again, was one of those

things that was one of my favorite builds

to see because it's that

thing that you recognize.

Even though it's technically a different

weirwood, it's a weirwood tree,

which is very unique and recognizable

to George's world.

And this particular one has

a somewhat recognizable face.

We needed a face

for the godswood tree,

and I just decided

that it should be my mom.

She wasn't impressed either.

She was like, "What's that weird face?"

I was like, "Well, it's you, actually."

It's almost like having a Christmas party

and the disruptive brother

is gonna turn up

and ruin the whole celebration.

He's that sort of unruly.

He's more Targaryen in that sense.

I think he's just winding his brother

up again.

Just because he's the only person

that can wind the king up in that way.

You wear a crown.

Do you also call yourself "king"?

Once we smashed the Triarchy,

they named me "King of the Narrow Sea."

But I know that there is only

one true king, Your Grace.

The crown and the Stepstones

are yours.

Matt Smith is an incredible actor,

and he always finds the flip side

of a scene or how to play with a scene.

Yeah, it's been interesting. I think

he's an instinctive actor like myself.

And we just want to sort

of explore and go as deep

as we possibly can,

you know, into that relationship.

So it's been really fun sparring

with him and pushing each other.

It takes such a long time

to paint bone.

We only had one, so I think it was

a very nervous day for the standbys.

Actually, Matt Smith's very respectful

of these kinds of things.

He was so careful taking off the crown.

At one point, they asked him like,

"Oh, could you just bow and, like,

put your head all the way down?"

And he was like,

"No. No, I can't. It'll fall."

And I was at the side

just going, "Oh, thank God."

The throne room is an incredible set.

Alejandro lights it beautifully.

You can really use the throne

to sort of kind of ground Viserys' power.

We had 250 background who were,

like, swarming into that room

expecting to see the king.

And then Rhaenyra,

she walks in on her own,

and she has these feelings for Daemon.

You're not quite sure

what they are, but they're there.

It was just kind of like,

"Oh Daemon's back."

And she sees him, and then he kind

of takes on this big adventure.

And she feels

that she's seen as an adult by him.

She's starting her angsty phase.

She's starting her, like, rebellious

phase and sneaking out at night.

She's kind of yep, becoming,

slowly creeping into adulthood.

So, Rhaenyra has this sort of cool

little concept

with the secret door when

she sneaks out.

That was a nice element

behind the paintings.

It sort of leads out somewhere.

You never quite know where that is.

We did think it would have been

a set for a longer passageway.

But it was decided

it wasn't really needed.

That we didn't need to have the long

stretch of passage for the shots.

We had room left on the stage to make

that work, and so we put it in.

That was a lovely moment in the script,

which I latched onto immediately.

This secret passage.

There are these panels behind the bed.

And a secret passage leading

through the tunnels.

Where she eventually emerges

into King's Landing when she's

Her secret night out.

And that was a lovely thing to do.

So that formed an integral part

of Rhaenyra's apartment.

And there's also a hint of Cersei's

apartment in the original,

which Miguel had wanted to keep.

The balcony and the window formation.

So we introduced that too.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite little

secrets in our Red Keep set.

It felt important for Daemon and Rhaenyra

to have this kind of shared secret.

For him to come back from victory

and then take her out

for a night on the town.

And that becomes

something entirely different.

Where are we going?

Since the sets were not ready,

the first one of the first things

we did was scout Spain.

So we scouted for this marquee

and Flea Bottom streets

where those scenes

were gonna happen.

And it was kind of like the biggest

part of episode four.

We found this town Cáceres.

Which actually had been used

as King's Landing in season seven,

I think, on Game of Thrones.

More and more as the seasons wore on,

we, actually, in the original show,

we were going to Dubrovnik,

to Croatia a lot more.

And Spain was becoming more

for these unique individual locations,

but not so much for King's Landing.

Part of the devolution of Thrones was

trying to look at King's Landing and say:

"Two hundred years ago,

what would this place look like?"

And I think architecturally,

the smaller villages in Spain,

there's a similar colonial feel.

There's something going on there

that you can identify.

The two things cross over.

Cáceres is a very small, old town.

So the challenge is just getting

everything in place on the right time,

with the right amount of people.

Without disturbing the unit

that will be sh**ting around the corner.

It's very much a logistical problem

rather than a creative problem,

to be honest.

There's a lot of cogs

and a lot of moving parts.

Normally,

on a film or a television show,

you will have a main unit

and a second unit.

This show does what is called

it's tandem sh**ting, or double banking.

So it's not a main and a second.

It is two main units sh**ting

at the same time in different places.

In Cáceres, it's a city

full of people, full of locals, tourism.

The locals like to be involved,

and they sometimes even play as extras.

So they are used to having us,

and and they love it.

So that was very beneficial

for our side

because they are very

collaborative with us.

The biggest challenge in Cáceres,

for sure,

was the number of night shoots

that we're sh**ting.

So we're doing a really big sequence.

Where Daemon and Rhaenyra

are going through, essentially,

a festival that's happening at night.

In order to make that work,

we had to pick certain streets

that would be cohesive with each other.

But we'd have to sh**t that

over consecutive nights.

We just had to get the permissions

from everyone that was living there

that this is gonna be noisy.

You're gonna be hearing

until six in the morning.

But fortunately, if you look

out your window,

you're gonna see House of the Dragon

sh**ting at the same time.

Suddenly, everyone was watching.

It was kinda like

They know who we are.

We did have areas

that the public didn't come into.

So we kind of, like, quite sectioned off.

But I think when you get gritty sets

like that, it's often good fun.

Because you can throw so many different

fabrics and textures around.

And really old, dirty,

rusty kind of pieces.

Quite a lot in Spain, actually,

I found some really good sources of

furniture and smalls out there.

And Yeah. It was great.

It was very difficult

to get areas locked off for us.

And we were bringing in

an awful lot of dressing.

And again, the set decorators have

thought about the furniture elements,

and the exterior dressing,

and the awnings.

All of that stuff takes a lot of work

to get it down to that level.

The prop team are working real hard

to break all of that stuff down

and make it look aged, and worn,

and not very valuable.

f*ck off, boy.

He called me boy.

Oh, it was great.

I got to wear pants.

Yeah, there was a lot

of discussion about the beanie.

'Cause all my hair had to obviously

hide under the beanie.

And then my hair,

you know, the silver hair.

So it's like, oh, she takes the beanie

off in this place

and has to walk through Flea Bottom

without her hair.

And people are going to know it's her.

She's dressed as a boy

in a very comfortable costume.

We went for, like, a very much

no makeup and slightly trying to

It's not possible with Milly

because she's beautiful.

But make her look slightly

ugly or plainer than she is.

Jany and Clare worked really closely

together to develop her character

as a page boy.

It's meant to be something that's given

to her, that's been pulled together.

So it's supposed to look like that.

And it's just about seeing her

in a completely different light,

that she can make her way through

the city unseen.

Well, when we arrived in Cáceres,

we talked to the town council.

And asked them to switch off every

single electric light in the town that

where we were gonna sh**t.

So we would start from the point

of a black, dark canvass

and then light it from then.

So it was like a really magical

and beautiful place.

To have that control over

the light was incredibly unusual.

In this show,

we have three sources of light overall.

Which is very interesting

just to think about it.

You have the moon, you have

the sun, and you have fire.

And those three elements are the way of

lighting the whole show, no matter what.

So, we came out with this dragon breath

effect, which was a huge rig.

And it just had

a pattern of breathing fire effect.

And I think it went really well.

I mean, I think, at the end,

that vision that you have

And for months you talk about it,

you think about it, you test,

and then you see it on the day.

And you see that it works.

It's really gratifying.

It was a great sequence to do.

We shot in pretty much every street

in that town center.

I think I went back there on a day off.

And I looked, and it was like,

"Oh, yeah. We shot there"

We really got the best out of that

location. It's a beautiful place.

It was a real party atmosphere there.

The way we shot it,

we used a lot of Steadicams.

And that was ideal for those streets.

Those streets were

You know, they were steps and cobbles.

We were able to travel the whole length

of those streets with Daemon.

And really get the best out of it.

And who might you be running

from now?

Ser Harwin.

Princess?

It is incredible.

It's basically a huge carnival.

Real operating, real-time carnival.

Actual tightrope walkers

and street merchants.

And what's wonderful is, you know,

all these background artists

and all the other supporting artists

around, everyone's in their own world.

And Miguel's made a point of going up to

the front and giving them things to do.

So everyone feels immersed

in the takes that we're doing,

and everyone's got

their own little story.

It's like being in another world.

It's always nice when you're in a sort

of different country.

It breaks up a sh**t like this.

So we had fun. It was good.

And camera. Action!

Now we come to the matter

of the great iron chair.

We have this great kind of series

of performers who did the play

that was written by Ryan as a complete

stand-alone thing.

It's political satire.

They're mocking the royals,

but it's a way of expressing their own,

you know, political beliefs,

and the way the people see the royals.

I wanted to do it in the vein

of the sort of English pantomime.

You know, dress the men up as women.

And we had a lot of fun with it.

So we rehearsed that.

And we put together

this sort of little story onstage.

Which was really all about

mocking Daemon and Rhaenyra.

To which heir might the chair bear?

Who will it be, the brother,

the daughter,

or the little princess,

of the three?

And then we built the throne,

and I decided that it would be fun

if it was also a toilet.

So, you know, as soon as we made

that throne into a toilet,

all the Spanish actors would sort of riff

and improvise on it and sit on it.

Rhaenyra!

The realm's delight!

That's got one of my favorite props.

It's got the Iron Throne as a toilet.

We just got told to make

a wooden throne

that was almost made by

craftsmen in this village.

So it had to look handmade,

but it was almost like

Not a piss-take of the Iron Throne,

but it was sort of a mock replica

of the Iron Throne.

That was kind of like a circus marquee,

and that went through a couple

of different stages.

So that we didn't lose the beauty of

the architecture of the building itself.

And making sure that we had enough height

and then enough space for the actors.

We've got this wonderful, huge, great

big, draped curtain that's gone over

going over the top of this

tiny stage, really.

And just getting the curtain up

into position on this old house where,

originally, we were told it's not safe.

And we've had to work out a very simple

way of hanging this drape.

And it will be beautifully lit.

And we'll make the site

of the marquee very evident.

I really enjoyed sh**ting the scene.

All the Spanish actors

really just gave it their all.

They weren't shy.

You know, they just, they

It was wonderful to see them work.

sh**ting in Spain was amazing.

We were in Cáceres

in, like, this beautiful, like, old town.

There were night shoots, so they were

quite difficult, but it was fun.

Clare Kilner is like

Anything she wants.

Anything. A liver? Take it.

She's been an absolute angel.

And that's yes, all.