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Go behind the scenes of one of House of the Dragon's most ambitious battles. Special effects supervisor Mike Dawson and executive producer Kevin de la Noy reveal how the team brought the Battle of the Gullet to life using massive practical sets, life-size warships, complex hydraulic systems, and an army of stunt performers. Stream now on HBO Max.

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Transcript
00:01On House of the Dragon, they don't cut corners.
00:03We're going to make something quite special here.
00:06Two!
00:07It's real fire.
00:08Two!
00:09Blood effects.
00:10One!
00:10It's the real deal.
00:17Hi, I'm Mike Dawson. I'm the Special Effects supervisor.
00:27This is the Battle of the Gullet, episode one.
00:30Kevin Delanoi, executive producer.
00:33Today, we're filming The Queen who never was on the wet tank,
00:37as it fragments into two parts.
00:39You can see all of the equipment's required.
00:42We're going epic with a capital E.
00:47I was given six pages of script, and Kevin's like,
00:50we're going to build a tank brand new.
00:52The water tank is about 20 feet deep.
00:56We started, and this was just dirt.
00:58We started building the tanks.
01:00What you're seeing now is a culmination of 14 months of development and work.
01:09Here you have The Queen Who Never Was,
01:11which is two gimbals sunk underwater.
01:14All my guys have welded about over 200 tons of steel to make this.
01:19Very impressive. It's awesome. It's breathtaking.
01:22The pitchfist rolls and then also travels at the same time.
01:26You have The Queen Who Never Was on impact.
01:28The ship rolls and then comes back.
01:30They can rotate independently of each other.
01:32The hydraulics underneath the ship have to be chunky
01:35for when you need an extra push.
01:41So here, we have a computer system that actually runs this.
01:45It's just making sure all the gimbals that are out there,
01:48they're all in the right place at the right time.
01:50This is basically what will make the boat behave like a real boat.
01:54So this animation becomes live on our gimbals,
01:58and they actually match this.
02:00We have the 70 stun guys on the two halves of the ship
02:04that move independently.
02:06So when you see us on there, we really are swaying.
02:09Some people do get seasick too, which is kind of surreal and crazy.
02:13And then we've got wave machines.
02:15So we've designed this ball that we pull up and down in water.
02:19Eight of these cylinders that we can pressurize, fill with water,
02:22and on cue, we can release it,
02:25and this forces the water out and up and over the deck.
02:32We're much more cinematic this season.
02:34This draws on my experience from Titanic.
02:36Larger numbers of extras, bigger set piece sequences,
02:39bigger special effects.
02:40This is not CGI.
02:42They've really just dunked me in a water tank and drowned me all day.
02:49It should have been done quite like it to fall.
02:52And as you just heard say in the background,
02:54it's never been done quite like this before.
02:55This is a unique set, and what you're about to see
02:58is the first take on the biggest movement of this rig.
03:01So I'll step out and let you enjoy it.
03:04Action!
03:05Two!
03:06Two!
03:07One!
03:08Six!
03:10There it goes.
03:11There's the big pitch.
03:12Two.
03:17Three!
03:18Three!
03:25Two!
03:25Pretty good, huh?
03:28Four!
03:30Three!
03:32Two!
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