- 3 hours ago
Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra Targaryen) and production designer Jim Clay take AD on a tour of HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 3 set. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the iconic Red Keep and see the extraordinary craftsmanship, architecture, and world-building that bring Westeros to life on screen.
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00:01Hello, AD. I'm Emma Darcy and I play Rhaenyra Targaryen in HBO's House of the Dragon.
00:22When I first got to the Red Keep set, I think, I mean, the first thing I think we were
00:27all struck by was the scale.
00:28The Red Keep does exist. There is a castle in a soundstage in Watford and what Jim has created is
00:34something that's topographically accurate.
00:37You know, all the things are in the right places. You're used to, as an actor, that this bedroom would
00:42be on one stage
00:42and then the connecting corridor would be somewhere else and you're always sort of gluing little pieces together.
00:47But here, you can learn the geography of the castle and it's allowed us to do some really playful things
00:55over the years.
00:55People might remember in series one where Rhaenyra gives birth in a room downstairs and she makes a really, really
01:02long journey up the grand staircase to what were Alicent's chambers.
01:07And we could do all of that for real. All of that happens in camera. Big, like, you know, ten
01:11minute long takes.
01:11That was a gift that Jim gave to us, us, the cast and us, the creative team.
01:17This is such an incredible space. In fact, all of the sets in the show are remarkable and we are
01:25incredibly lucky to have Jim Clay's genius bringing this world to life.
01:32Hi, my name is Jim Clay and I am production designer for House of the Dragon.
01:39Well, how did it feel being given the job of designer on House of the Dragon?
01:43I think to begin with, it was enormously daunting because I was very aware we were stepping into some very,
01:49very big shoes following the success of Game of Thrones.
01:51You know, at the same time, it was exhilarating. When I discussed it originally with Ryan Kondal, our showrunner, the
01:59aim was to make the audience feel comfortable, that they were familiar with some of the places, that they felt
02:06a little bit as if they were in the same show, and then to gradually make it our own show.
02:13And I think the approach we took was to embrace and expand, and gradually we built our own world and
02:21it became House of the Dragon.
02:26A lot of my job is to create domains which reflect the psychological climate of the narrative, and the narrative
02:34of this show often is quite dark.
02:36I hope the actors feel that when they step onto the set, they're entering an immersive world, they're surrounded four
02:44walls and full ceilings.
02:45So if I can give them a complete, composite, immersive world, my hope is that that helps their job.
02:55This is newly Rhaenyra's chambers. They were formerly her father's.
03:01This, I think, is a big psychic obstacle. Her father's bed is sort of, I don't know, the phantasm of
03:08the season. Viserys died in it.
03:12This was his sick bay for a lot of the end of season one.
03:16I think for Rhaenyra, from it looms a kind of, well, the shadow of his tenure, I think.
03:25I'm really fond, actually, of this desk. I mean, it's a hangover from when the space belonged to Viserys and
03:32then subsequently to Aegon, though we don't talk about that.
03:34This is a sort of domain of leadership that Rhaenyra is actually able to kind of inhabit.
03:40And I think there's like a gendered element because being in this setting as a woman and having a desk
03:45to work at, I think is quite significant.
03:49You know, it's a private object that speaks to one's intellect as opposed to, you know, one's ornamental value, say.
03:57And so I think to have a desk of one's own is, yeah, quite a powerful thing.
04:03But if you spend time, as we do, obviously, on these sets, you just, I mean, look, even here, so
04:10these will be messages that have come via Raven.
04:13And these are not necessarily working props, like we haven't had action in which this plays, but the thought that
04:20goes into all of the dressing is so sublime, very special.
04:27So obviously, the dimensions of these rooms are really large, like they're supposed to have a kind of operatic scale,
04:34the sort of Byzantine influence in Viserys rooms, particularly the kind of high vaulted ceilings, the cross shaped floor plan.
04:43And within that, the sort of scale of everything is scaled up so that you can get, you know, people
04:49and equipment in the corners.
04:51If you're shooting scenes in here for day, it's obviously all daylight.
04:56And so you have this beautiful filtered light, not only through the screens, but also through the like sheer fabrics
05:03that are hung in all of the windows.
05:05And when you're shooting for night, everything's obviously candle lit or fire lit.
05:11And that's mostly practical. So most things in here will be on fire at some point.
05:16You're rarely shooting a scene in House of the Dragon without a roaring fire at your back.
05:20So the fireplace would have a roaring fire in it, sconces and all the walls.
05:24And I think it gives the show, I suppose, a very specific look.
05:30This is the model that Viserys spent a kind of lifetime working on.
05:35It's a model of the seat of old Valyria.
05:39It's gone through a lot because it got completely smashed up by Aegon.
05:45I'll kill them! I'll kill them all!
05:49But the pieces, I think, are so beautiful.
05:52I mean, it's the same with everything in the show.
05:53I think this production really celebrates craftsmanship and things made by human hands.
06:00And so all of this has been sculpted.
06:03It's nice, I think, for Viserys, it was maybe a reminder that even great dynasties fall.
06:10And so it's sort of, you build something to humble you.
06:12I think it's interesting that Rhaenyra brings the object back.
06:16A reminder to him, I think, that even great dynasties fall.
06:22And I wonder if she's seeking the same lesson.
06:28We very much used Game of Thrones as the starting point
06:31and the reference for the throne room and for the throne.
06:33But in the style of embracing and expanding,
06:37we played with the proportions a little bit
06:39and we extended the throne itself.
06:43The throne room is probably one of the most iconic buildings
06:46we inherited from Game of Thrones.
06:48We wanted to preserve the feeling and the familiarity of the throne room for the audience.
06:53But one of the briefs I had from Ryan was that he wanted to introduce statues
06:57into the throne room of previous kings.
07:00And those had to be arranged in a corridor in a column
07:03so that they were constantly looking down on the person who was occupying the throne at the time.
07:08So we went through various design processes
07:10but we always ended up with this sort of forest of columns.
07:14And that was starting to interrupt the sort of shots we wanted to take.
07:17So I had this idea that we would combine the statues with the columns.
07:22And that's how we proceeded.
07:24And then because the statues were also part of the structural column,
07:28symbolically they were holding up the legend and the history of the Red Keep
07:33and in particular the throne room.
07:42So this is the grand staircase which is the central hub of the Red Keep.
07:47And it's the main circulation area.
07:49And to be honest the biggest design element of these stairs
07:52was the depth of the stair and the height of the stair
07:56so that people can walk up and down this safely and elegantly whilst talking.
08:00Your Grace!
08:03The atmosphere is fraught.
08:06I think it's best you do not stray again.
08:10And we can take a journey this way through to the courtyard
08:13which serves again as the main entrance into the interior of the Red Keep
08:17and it allows daylight to come in from the ceiling above.
08:21From the balcony here,
08:23this is where young Rhaenyra chose her protector, Mr Kristen Cole.
08:28Be welcome, Sir Kristen.
08:32We've built a huge bonfire in here which is great when Rhaenyra takes over the castle again.
08:39So to show that we've had all sorts of fabrics being thrown down over the balcony
08:45and they all sort of accumulate here in a beautifully dressed but untidy pile
08:50and then eventually that'll go off and there'll be set fire too.
08:55It's quite magnificent that you've got the height, you've got the two floors.
08:59It's something that's quite unusual when you're building a set.
09:02I think the design of this was about getting the proportions of these arches
09:05so they reflected the reality of these sort of places
09:08and then that determined the height of the outer staircase
09:12because we had to land on the corridor above here
09:14and that gave us 14 steps with a big landing and then another 14 steps.
09:1914 steps being about the maximum you can ask anybody to walk up and down elegantly.
09:26As we walked down the corridors we've embellished these frameworks here
09:30with some really lovely tin tiles to give a little bit of extra depth and texture
09:35because originally in season one we had some erotic art
09:39and because of the changes of rain and when Alicent was here
09:43she was disgusted by all of that.
09:45She became more puritanical in the decor of the whole red cave didn't it?
09:50So she stripped it of all of that and so when we came back in for Rhaenyra
09:56we decided that we would put something else within those frameworks
09:59to give it a bit more depth and tones within the stone walls.
10:08We're now entering a new set of chambers which began its life in season one
10:12actually as the young Rhaenyra's chambers.
10:15This is where young Rhaenyra escaped the red keep
10:18to take a night out on the town with her uncle Damon
10:21and then this is the panel which opened and led her to the secret staircase
10:26which took her out onto the exterior of the red keep.
10:33This is also the room where Alicent had her secret affairs
10:36and it was Kristen Cole
10:38and we introduced these almost as a confessional element to it
10:42because they had their nights together and then filled with remorse and regret
10:46and so these served to give that atmosphere of confessional
10:50and they're also fabulous things to shoot through
10:52and also reflected in the window shutters
10:54where we get all this beautiful dappled light coming in
10:57which gives the warmth to the room.
10:59And we've only used really light linens on the windows
11:02because the fretwork is so beautiful that when it's lit
11:05it really gives a warm patterned texture to the floor
11:09which is really lovely.
11:19And this is the council chamber of the red keep.
11:24It's probably one of the most important areas of the red keep
11:27and certainly the most filmed I think.
11:29The influences were kind of Romanesque architecture
11:33and in particular I'd looked a lot at St. Bartholomew's Church in London
11:37and taken reference from these enormous columns and these huge arches
11:41as sort of a powerful room that we're in
11:44with all the important decisions of state which are taken here.
11:48We've seen some quite amazing scenes in here.
11:51This is where King Viserys admonished his brother Daemon
11:54when he was misbehaving with the gold cloaks
11:58and then poor old master of the coin played by Bill Patterson
12:01was murdered in this very seat here.
12:04This is the dominant window so we look in that direction a lot of the time
12:08and outside there is this amazing back cloth painted by a hugely talented man
12:13called Steve Mitchell who painted this thing single-handedly
12:17and it serves as a view across Blackwater Bay.
12:24Because we started in here and created the world of the dragons in season one
12:29I was allowed to be influenced by dragons at some point within the Red Keep
12:33so I started with some of the lighting that I introduced with the dragons
12:37and within the sculpture of the torchers
12:41and then went with the valerian colours of the steel
12:44which worked really well within this environment
12:47and then I moved on to the table and the chairs
12:51and I was inspired obviously by the architecture and the beautiful curves
12:55which you can see as you look through the backs of the chairs
12:58and you can look through the base of the table
13:01it's very much in keeping with that shape
13:04and I think it really complements it
13:06especially when you get some lovely shots that are really low
13:09and the lighting's beautiful through the windows.
13:13I really, really do like this table
13:15I mean it wasn't the one that we initially made at season one
13:18after watching the series
13:20we then realised that it looked a little bit flat
13:22so we decided that when we came back to do season two
13:25we'd put a lot more texture into it and get that depth in there
13:28so that when you actually shoot it
13:30you can see that it almost looks like a stone top
13:33and then we embellished it with the lovely valerian steel corners as well
13:37so I think it looks a lot stronger, a lot sturdier
13:41and a heavier piece of furniture that goes really well with the chairs.
13:44We had a lot of discussion didn't we about the shape of it
13:47Yeah
13:48so that the dominant end, the biggest end was the king's
13:51and then we could take shots from the king's point of view
13:54and all the characters were narrowing in towards the end
13:57so we could see them clearly
14:00and then I had this idea that I wanted to do some really grand chandeliers
14:04and have them lit with flame
14:06so I wanted to do a lot of flame in this project
14:10because the candlelight is great
14:12but also because there's so much fire, blood and fire
14:14it's really good to have it within the lighting in the set
14:20there's so many battles being planned throughout the story
14:23that we brought this in to plot the route of Christen Colwood
14:27Yeah, so this is Westeros
14:28and this is the journey that they go through
14:30the Stormlands, the West, the Crowdlands, the Riverlands
14:32and there's little magnetic discs that we can place on here when it's in action
14:37This war will not be won with dragons alone
14:40not with dragons flying behind armies of men
14:53These sets are obviously incredibly detailed
14:57and you sort of see that at every level
14:58you only have to look at surfaces to notice that
15:00every object has a degree of accuracy and craftsmanship
15:04that just lends like a real depth I think to the work
15:08certainly to one's experience as an actor like occupying the space
15:11but something that I think is really nice about
15:13working on a show over a number of years like this one
15:16is that you know this huge building stays up
15:19so it has been standing for I think going on four years now
15:23which means that it has its own history
15:25and so you know the crew, the cast, the production team
15:29have occupied these spaces
15:31and I was really struck coming back here
15:34that I have memories in these rooms
15:38that brings so much texture
15:40and kind of emotional material to the work I think
15:44The air is thick with ghosts
15:52Thanks for joining us AD
15:53It's been great having you here at the Red Keep
15:56See you next time
15:57Bye
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