- 2 minutes ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:07Jousting at night by firelight.
00:11It was unbelievable.
00:13We wanted to shoot everything as real as possible.
00:19We didn't have a lot of acting to do because it was really cool to watch.
00:22It was a great opportunity to reshape our view of the story of becoming a knight.
00:42Episode 2, Hard Salt Beef.
00:44We open over black.
00:47Sir Arlan is standing akimbo, stark naked,
00:50and pissing from the largest cock reasonably imaginable.
00:55There are lots of conversations about how big it could be.
00:58With the size of his knighthood.
01:02We were told it had to be 10 inches long.
01:05I knew we'd hit familiar ground.
01:07Oh, that's a big man.
01:08We did Podor's piece in Game of Thrones.
01:11Making one as big as this that could also pee.
01:14It was the natural evolution of what we'd done previously.
01:17So never wanted to back away from a challenge.
01:20There was a slight obsession with weeing, I would say.
01:24But actually, it sort of works with the tone of the show
01:28because there's a not-so-serious-but-seriousness of it.
01:35We could hang him from the centre.
01:41You are flooring the fool!
01:44When I initially read the script,
01:45I thought it was going to be small puppets.
01:47Like, I was picturing Sound of Music like little marionettes,
01:51but I'm in this massive gown on this platform
01:55with these, like, little wooden hands,
01:57which they're so fun to use.
02:00We have certain opportunities to create scale,
02:03and it felt like the puppet show needed to feel more of a spectacle,
02:08something to draw, dunk in.
02:10Tanzell, when she played Lady Jonquil,
02:13she is eight foot tall, plus a hairdress.
02:16Jonquil is a daffodil,
02:18so the shapes and the colours played on that.
02:20And the long dress was printed to have a shimmery effect.
02:25We wanted her to look like this angel
02:26that Dunk would be mesmerised by.
02:30For our puppets, we made sure to not use any materials
02:34that weren't available at the time.
02:38Florian is built effectively with timber,
02:41in fact, balsa wood underneath.
02:42And he's held together with rope and dowels of timber for joints.
02:47He's deliberately built so that joints mimic human joints.
02:51His arm is completely articulated
02:54in the way that your arm is articulated.
02:57From a production standpoint,
02:59it was far trickier than hopefully it looks on screen.
03:05Your axe is the dragon puppet.
03:07It needs to be made so that it can be broken up.
03:10Decision right at the beginning
03:11was to make it of cane and willow,
03:13and then cladded it to make it look like leather,
03:16which we've used, but soft, but rigid plastic.
03:20And then it's moulded with hot air and spoons, in fact.
03:25The dragon is incredibly light.
03:28It has to be light,
03:28because you can't operate it otherwise.
03:31This is a puppet show, but in Westeros.
03:33Even though there is no magic in this world at this moment,
03:36it should feel like it used to exist.
03:42It was amazing to see that fire.
03:44I was mind-blown, like, how have they done that?
03:47We miniaturised a flamethrower and put it into a torch.
03:51A gas flamethrower was out of the window.
03:53It wouldn't have been safe enough to do it in a tent.
03:55So we opted for lycopodium.
03:57Is it pollen?
03:58Yeah, we collected on the way.
04:00Lycopodium is a spore from a plant.
04:03It's basically just like pollen.
04:05It's been around forever,
04:06and the fact that we're using it in a medieval environment
04:09added to the realness of it.
04:11Three, two, one, fire.
04:15For safety reasons, we needed to remove the crowd,
04:18so we shot them as a separate pass with no fire
04:20and just interactive light.
04:21Effect ready?
04:22Okay.
04:23Three, two, one, fire.
04:28Oh!
04:30And then we shot a pass with the real fire
04:32with nobody in there except the stunt actors.
04:35Fire!
04:36That's cut there.
04:38Me and all the other extras and essays,
04:41we didn't have a lot of acting to do
04:43because it was really cool to watch.
04:49The tug-of-war scene
04:52was absolutely mental.
05:00I remember reading that scene
05:01and thinking, how do we make that fun?
05:05And it was about trying to stylize it
05:07and give it sort of its own sudden, different energy.
05:12The whole shoot had this slightly more carnival,
05:16crazy mood to it.
05:17Looking good.
05:18It was fun.
05:20Walking around, barking orders at everybody.
05:22Pull, you cunt-strap dandelions!
05:26Yeah, that was hard work.
05:2820 people pulling on a rope.
05:29Plenty of water and mud down on the floor.
05:34It was an actual tug-of-war.
05:35And I was just putting my feet on the rope.
05:38He's not going to make a lot of difference
05:40if he's pulling because of the size of him,
05:42so he hung on.
05:44It was so crazy.
05:46I was just, like, dangling for dear life.
05:49Otherwise, I would smack into the mud.
05:53Yes!
05:55Woo!
05:59The list field, it's a practical jousting ground.
06:03This set is one of the best jousting arena I've ever seen.
06:08The only way you can survive a set like that
06:11is by a huge amount of groundworks.
06:15Groundworks had to happen
06:16before you could even put the set on it.
06:18That was a good eight weeks of groundworks.
06:21We started the size, the tournament field,
06:24with directions from the horse master.
06:26That is a perfectly designed arena for horses.
06:29The tilts, the height of the tilts,
06:32the distance between the tilts.
06:33We've sampled so many different types of sand
06:35to get the right one
06:36that's suitable for the horses to run on.
06:39A starting point from the design
06:40was for a medieval period.
06:43The viewing stand, I just saw references
06:45to kind of ruined cathedrals
06:47covered in grass and ivy.
06:50Almost a folly that had fallen into disrepair.
06:53It had to be made and artistically covered
06:57to look like it had stood for centuries.
07:00We are blessed here
07:01with the most fantastic team of carpenters,
07:05plasters, painters, sculptors
07:07who've done a great job of making it feel lived in.
07:12Those statues, I'll never forget.
07:14They just reminded me of, like,
07:16the wizard's chess scene in Harry Potter.
07:19The whole atmosphere was incredible.
07:22Here we go, lots of energy, very excited.
07:25Three, two, one, action!
07:27The jowls at night is quite a big area,
07:30so we had lots and lots of light.
07:32Lots of our conversations were about
07:34not wanting the lighting to feel artificial.
07:36A large part of the design
07:37was to incorporate huge bowls of flames.
07:40We built large towers
07:42that would fit in with the whole ancient feel of the place,
07:45with dishes that sit on top of them.
07:47The braziers were huge.
07:49I honestly thought Northern Ireland would run out of gas.
07:53We used 28,000 kilos of propane.
07:59Early on, Ira described the Listfields as Coachella.
08:04It was definitely a challenge
08:05because we could only have 200, 300 people at most
08:09on any given day,
08:10so we extended the crowd.
08:12We had to have this festival-like atmosphere
08:15of buzz and excitement
08:17that only visualising thousands of people would bring.
08:22The background cast were fantastic.
08:24They understood the world,
08:26they understood the energy within it.
08:28Lord Ashford Fox's sheep!
08:30LAUGHTER
08:31Never really been on a job where extras
08:33had created such a huge emotional atmosphere,
08:37and they all did it with a smile on their face.
08:40For the new gods, an owl!
08:43I spoke to the actor, Russell,
08:45and said, listen, we've got to do this,
08:46biting the head off the fish,
08:48and we'll have prop fish made.
08:50And he said,
08:51why are we not just going to use a real fish?
08:53It's like, yeah, come on, let's do it.
08:54It'll only be a couple of times.
08:56Definitely was more than a couple of times.
08:58One more with a real fish.
09:00Three, two, apple, take one, eh?
09:02For the new gods, an owl!
09:11He might have thrown up at one point,
09:13but he was just totally up for it.
09:17This is the big leagues.
09:19It should be taken in the way Dunk takes it,
09:22which is that it's overwhelming,
09:24and it's impressive,
09:25and it's fucking scary.
09:30Jousting's always just been one person against one person,
09:34and the fact that we were jousting with multiple people
09:38was what made this sequence so exciting.
09:43All the horses charring together were so cool to see.
09:49This isn't just a game.
09:51It's real and dangerous.
09:54Nobody's ever done a joust at night before.
09:56We had an opportunity to blow people's minds a little bit.
10:02Jousting's all about movement.
10:03It's like a ballet of what's happening.
10:05So I think it's now about trying to find a new way
10:08of operating the camera and moving the camera with it.
10:11We had the camera on the crane quite a lot.
10:15Moving cameras, wire cams,
10:17all these kind of tools to make the action sequence
10:20more action-filled.
10:23It was quite a long journey for the action sequences.
10:26We did a lot of testing
10:28of how can we make this look different.
10:31We started the stunt viz in Thailand
10:32in a studio out there,
10:34testing and shooting all of the technical shots.
10:37Stunt viz becomes a roadmap of how to shoot it.
10:40I'll always have the viz up on a separate monitor,
10:43and I'll pick the shot,
10:43and we'll just be matching it on the day.
10:47When we do stunt viz, I operate the camera.
10:51I know I will be put into a more dangerous situation
10:55because of my stunt background.
10:58We're at a massive advantage
10:59because our whole stunt team are also horsemen,
11:02so they know what is possible, what's not possible.
11:05Anything that's super fast and super dynamic,
11:08horses flipping through tilt rails,
11:10we'll have a mechanical horse.
11:13Jousting.
11:13Was it a dangerous thing to do then?
11:15It's a dangerous thing to do now.
11:16So when we're designing the lances and the shields,
11:19it's really important that we take that into consideration.
11:21All the shields have some form of protective lip,
11:24and that helps stop the lance
11:26from traveling up towards his head.
11:28We've made about 130 lances,
11:32300 breakaway sections of lances.
11:35We'll only make contact with breakaway lances,
11:38so the first two foot of that lance is soft.
11:42We've removed the front section from the lance,
11:44and we're going to replace it with this breakaway section,
11:46which is a hollow tube.
11:47This is then packed full of balsa wood and vermiculite,
11:51so that when it impacts on the shield,
11:53there's a big explosion.
11:55We had it all on a massive scale.
11:57It was quite challenging,
11:58but we had a great team behind the scenes.
12:03Episode three is one of the first times
12:05we're leaving Dunk's point of view.
12:07We're actually in Egg's point of view.
12:09The fact that suddenly you're following this character
12:12who's not your main character
12:13gave us a little bit of freedom.
12:15And I remember saying,
12:16well, I mean, that's a really good way
12:17to sort of introduce movement.
12:19We wanted to keep the camera moving and flowing
12:22and very sort of responsive to performance.
12:24Take it quick, sir, Duncan!
12:26That was actually crazy to film.
12:28Sarah went to me,
12:29Dexter, are you okay with taking your shoes off?
12:32That kid literally went running through sheep's poop for us.
12:38It was really great because Dexter was also,
12:40very much like his character Egg,
12:41so excited to prove to me
12:42that he was super fast and super capable.
12:46So he had really been training and running
12:47and getting ready for that.
12:50The scene with Egg and Thunder,
12:52it was very challenging
12:53because you see the horse,
12:55but there's a group of people
12:56just barely outside the edge of the frame
12:58helping the horse.
13:00So a scene like that,
13:01you have to be very fluid.
13:03I was also, like, so pleased
13:05when the horse pooped for me on camera,
13:07and it just felt like a gift from the gods
13:09when the horse just, like,
13:11dead-eyed stared at camera and took a shit.
13:18Later, inside the ale tent,
13:20a shirtless Sir Lionel Baratheon
13:22wearing his antlered helm, singing.
13:24Fucking hell, here we go.
13:26I cannot overstate
13:28just what a horrible singer I am.
13:30There was a number of times
13:31I kept forgetting the words
13:32and getting them in the wrong order.
13:34I just had to sort of...
13:36started just shouting syllables.
13:52Daniel's amazing.
13:53He definitely went for it,
13:54and I think he got more and more
13:55comfortable with each take.
13:57All right, all right, all right.
14:01Oh, Alice with three fingers,
14:04a copper in a glass.
14:06Have two fingers,
14:07less than most,
14:08so shut them off your ass.
14:11I realized pretty quickly,
14:13shooting around Dexter,
14:14that I was going to have to get comfortable
14:15kind of swearing around him,
14:17but he was cool with everything.
14:18I don't like cursing at all,
14:20and I only do it because it is my job.
14:23Yeah.
14:30The tone of the Tygerian family
14:32is definitely different in this show
14:34to how perhaps we're expecting it to be.
14:36Okay, here we go.
14:37Let's roll.
14:39Rolling, rolling, rolling.
14:40And action.
14:41The great and honorable
14:43Baelor Tygerian
14:45and his brother,
14:47Myrka.
14:48Those silver, white, long locks
14:51don't make an appearance
14:53in our show.
14:54I like the idea
14:56that they have gone through
14:57different styles and phases
14:59just like we do.
15:03Baelor is written in the book
15:04to have the coloring
15:06of his Dornish mother,
15:07so he doesn't look like a Targaryen at all.
15:10He has brown hair.
15:13To connect father and son,
15:15the actor who plays Baelor
15:18has heterochromia in his eyes,
15:20so we gave Baelor a contact lens.
15:24No one's ever going to notice it,
15:26but it made us feel like passing on
15:28from one generation to another.
15:31With Myrka and Arian,
15:33we didn't go pure white.
15:35It's a more creamy white,
15:36which I think reads better on camera,
15:38and especially Myrka,
15:39because he has the big beard.
15:42With Arian,
15:43I think they were quite keen
15:44to have him a bit edgier.
15:46We ended up going with a full wig
15:48with these kind of quite soft,
15:50flicky elements in them.
15:51What feels like a kind of dragon tail
15:53at the back or little dragon scales.
15:55It's a good fucking wig, isn't it?
15:57Hot wig.
15:59Prince Arian, bright flame!
16:02The look for Arian's armor is perfect.
16:05It's cold and intimidating
16:06and dragon-like.
16:08Come on, come on, little knight.
16:09Time you face the dragon.
16:10It's the coolest I've ever looked in anything.
16:14In terms of look,
16:16it's quite rooted in historical referencing.
16:20Lorna was looking at lamella armor,
16:22so what we made for her
16:23was a plate armor take on a lamella.
16:26We were on something like 400
16:28individually pattern-and-cut lamella panels.
16:32Then his helmet.
16:33We played with drawing
16:34every type of dragon head
16:36and found that actually
16:38the most terrifying thing
16:39is a human face.
16:40The helmet is a mold
16:42of Finn Bennett's own face.
16:44It was quite involved.
16:46The helmet alone
16:47was probably something
16:48like a 12-week build.
16:49The flaming hair crest,
16:51really that was a reflection
16:52of Arian's personality.
16:54Very dragon-like
16:56with the red detailing,
16:58like lava flowing.
16:59So it's very much
17:00this feeling and unrest
17:02just below the surface.
17:07The Targaryens came to Ashford
17:09as like a diplomatic mission.
17:14And then it goes completely awry
17:16when Arian slaughters this horse.
17:24At first, you think
17:25when you're breaking down this script,
17:27that has to be a fully CG horse.
17:31To augment this horse,
17:32it's incredibly difficult
17:33to get correct.
17:34We were relieved to find
17:35that speaking with the horse team
17:36and the stunt team
17:37that there was every intention
17:38to do this for real.
17:40Ultimately, our role became
17:42adding in the lance
17:44that pierces through the horse's neck.
17:46The horse crashing through the tilt,
17:49that's all real.
17:50We've had a foam tilt made up,
17:52so it's safe for the horses.
17:53We do train our horses
17:55to lie down
17:56and then just using
17:58the horse's natural desire
17:59to try and get up,
18:01which will look like
18:02the horse is dying.
18:04So then we'll cut to an actor
18:05or a double
18:06with a prosthetic horse.
18:08Action!
18:12Moving on.
18:12Well done.
18:15It's an important scene
18:16in the sense that
18:16you're establishing a villain.
18:19Arian believes himself
18:20to be blood of the dragon,
18:22to actually be the dragon
18:24incarnate in human form.
18:26And so he feels entitled
18:28to that kind of brutality.
18:32Stay down, Fred.
18:33You have to come.
18:34I'm re-testing her.
18:35Hurting who?
18:37I really loved the idea
18:39that Dunk springs into action.
18:41We're seeing the birth
18:42of his own knighthood.
18:44It's just such a cool scene.
18:46And we got one take
18:48where the heat was like
18:50definitely really close.
18:52But it was nobody's fault
18:53but me because I wanted
18:54to get in as close
18:55as I could.
18:56It felt like a real
18:56Tom Cruise moment.
18:59I love Sarah for this.
19:01She said to me,
19:01every day I want to do
19:02one cool shot.
19:03Well, that happened to be
19:04the special shot that day.
19:08Shooting that scene,
19:09it was a little bit complicated
19:10because the shot starts
19:11with a couple of grips
19:12carrying the camera
19:13and then they pass it
19:14and they clip it on the crane
19:15and the crane goes past
19:16to the finger snap.
19:21We did the slight
19:22dolly zoom effect
19:23on Dunk
19:23as he's taking it in.
19:25It's like we see
19:25something change in him.
19:27Almost the beast
19:27inside him is awoken.
19:33Cut, nailed it!
19:34Huge credit to Zach
19:36who was stunt doubling
19:37for me.
19:40Everybody's very safe
19:41and set but,
19:42you know,
19:42Pete's like a big guy.
19:43Cover set.
19:44Peter just went
19:45full beast mode.
19:46I remember at one point
19:47I actually couldn't even
19:48believe what I was seeing
19:49on the monitor
19:49because it was so intense.
19:52No!
19:53Don't touch him!
19:54For those who were
19:55already fans of the novellas
19:57Let go of him.
19:58They'll know
19:58that this reveal is coming.
20:00For everyone else,
20:01hopefully it's a surprise.
20:02And we wanted to do service
20:04to both audiences.
20:05If you were to go back
20:06that you would see
20:07all those little breadcrumbs.
20:08You're from Flea Bottom?
20:09No.
20:12Perhaps I should go back, sir.
20:13Sir Donald of the Kingsguard
20:15is but the son of a crabber.
20:17His father owns
20:17half the crabbing fleets
20:18in Westeros.
20:19How would you know?
20:20Like fishing.
20:22Kill him!
20:23Kill him!
20:24And at the same time
20:26not give it away.
20:27The only way
20:28he can save Dunk
20:29at this point
20:30is to reveal
20:31his secret.
20:32What happened to her?
20:33I cut it off, brother.
20:34I didn't want to look like you.
20:35We are about to
20:36shift the dynamic
20:37between Dunk and Egg
20:38where you can't put it
20:40back in the box.
20:41We wonder whether
20:42that's going to be
20:43the end for them.
20:44Kill him!
20:45Oh, no.
20:47No.
20:47No.
20:48No.
20:49No.
20:49No.
Comments