1
00:00:06,464 --> 00:00:08,717
The Dance of the Dragons
is fully kicked off.

2
00:00:10,385 --> 00:00:12,846
Everything just feels like it's times 10.

3
00:00:13,346 --> 00:00:15,015
It's like we grew the town.

4
00:00:16,391 --> 00:00:17,934
Well, Ryan said to me at one time,

5
00:00:18,018 --> 00:00:20,186
"It's much more 'Games of Thrones-y'."

6
00:00:20,562 --> 00:00:21,688
What am I allowed to say?

7
00:00:22,313 --> 00:00:23,898
I've never eaten so much Manchego.

8
00:00:23,982 --> 00:00:25,525
It gets messy.

9
00:00:25,608 --> 00:00:27,986
It's good to be back in the saddle.

10
00:00:50,633 --> 00:00:53,470
Okay, guys, we're rolling sound.
Please be quiet.

11
00:00:54,095 --> 00:00:56,181
And action!

12
00:00:59,017 --> 00:01:00,352
It's a bit of a dance, this.

13
00:01:03,813 --> 00:01:05,397
-What the hell?
-Well...

14
00:01:06,733 --> 00:01:08,193
It's gonna get hot.

15
00:01:08,860 --> 00:01:10,070
It was wonderful to see everyone.

16
00:01:10,153 --> 00:01:11,488
Nice to be back on set,

17
00:01:11,571 --> 00:01:13,490
to be aiming for something
that's bigger and better.

18
00:01:13,573 --> 00:01:14,783
Feels good, you know?

19
00:01:14,866 --> 00:01:18,745
I work with such amazing
and beautiful people.

20
00:01:18,828 --> 00:01:20,997
This is the best cast
that I've worked with.

21
00:01:21,081 --> 00:01:24,417
We're all such a unit.
I love them so much.

22
00:01:24,501 --> 00:01:25,919
-Is this BTS?
-Yes.

23
00:01:26,002 --> 00:01:28,588
Hi. Welcome.

24
00:01:29,047 --> 00:01:32,342
First day back was like that summer
when you leave school

25
00:01:32,425 --> 00:01:34,636
and then you come back
and all the boys have got, like,

26
00:01:34,719 --> 00:01:36,221
trousers that don't fit properly anymore,

27
00:01:36,304 --> 00:01:38,431
and all the girls are,
like, a foot taller.

28
00:01:38,515 --> 00:01:40,892
Just exactly like being in "Harry Potter."

29
00:01:40,975 --> 00:01:43,561
And it is your second year at school

30
00:01:43,645 --> 00:01:45,438
and you've got a better wand.

31
00:01:46,731 --> 00:01:48,692
It wasn't as if we'd been away, really.

32
00:01:48,775 --> 00:01:51,735
It felt kind of like we'd had
a couple of weeks off.

33
00:01:51,820 --> 00:01:54,531
It's like ya never left.
You know, it's like coming home.

34
00:01:54,614 --> 00:01:56,366
'Cause you walk and you go,
"Yeah, this is my house.

35
00:01:56,449 --> 00:01:57,325
I know this place."

36
00:01:57,408 --> 00:01:58,618
Felt like a long time coming.

37
00:01:58,702 --> 00:02:00,704
It's been great to be back with the gang.

38
00:02:00,787 --> 00:02:03,373
This is genuinely my favorite cast
I've ever worked with.

39
00:02:10,505 --> 00:02:12,298
The scale of season two has been

40
00:02:12,382 --> 00:02:15,051
above and beyond
my expectations, at least.

41
00:02:15,135 --> 00:02:17,971
Everything about it is massive.
It's like this room is massive.

42
00:02:18,054 --> 00:02:20,473
There's nothing in it that's small

43
00:02:20,557 --> 00:02:22,726
apart from some nuanced acting,
which is nice and small.

44
00:02:24,269 --> 00:02:28,356
Your imagination almost doesn't allow you
to think a set could be this big.

45
00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:30,275
It's bigger, it's badder.

46
00:02:30,358 --> 00:02:31,526
We've got more dragons.

47
00:02:31,609 --> 00:02:34,446
We've just taken it
to a 10 in every department.

48
00:02:34,529 --> 00:02:35,739
Dragon!

49
00:02:37,574 --> 00:02:39,993
Yeah. It's massive.
We had two main units.

50
00:02:40,076 --> 00:02:42,912
So you're shooting two movies,
every day, all at the same time.

51
00:02:42,996 --> 00:02:44,914
It's very similar to a big film,

52
00:02:44,998 --> 00:02:48,543
but the fundamental difference
is there are five directors.

53
00:02:48,626 --> 00:02:51,046
We've made the slightly crazy
but efficient choice

54
00:02:51,129 --> 00:02:52,422
to block shoot the entire season,

55
00:02:52,505 --> 00:02:53,465
which means we have two units

56
00:02:53,548 --> 00:02:55,133
shooting continuously,

57
00:02:55,216 --> 00:02:58,011
five different directing teams,
four different DPs.

58
00:02:58,094 --> 00:03:00,388
And that's how we started.
Then, now, we've got two units,

59
00:03:00,472 --> 00:03:02,515
plus a splinter unit,
plus an elements unit,

60
00:03:02,599 --> 00:03:05,101
and sometimes, units are splitting
into two to accomplish more things.

61
00:03:05,769 --> 00:03:08,688
My brain would short out and I would
just give up trying to grasp it all.

62
00:03:11,816 --> 00:03:14,861
It's huge and it's just
the level and the scale of the sets,

63
00:03:14,944 --> 00:03:17,572
the number of crew, the catering figures.

64
00:03:17,655 --> 00:03:21,493
There's no one unit
that seems to be having a easy time of it.

65
00:03:21,576 --> 00:03:23,453
For me, it's script beget plan,

66
00:03:23,536 --> 00:03:25,413
beget schedule, beget budget.

67
00:03:25,497 --> 00:03:27,749
When you work that system
and you have a collective,

68
00:03:27,832 --> 00:03:30,335
everybody is putting
every minute of every day

69
00:03:30,418 --> 00:03:32,629
into improving that narrative.

70
00:03:42,389 --> 00:03:45,100
As a director, you're not quite sure
what you're going to be handed,

71
00:03:45,183 --> 00:03:46,601
and you look for the things
and find the things

72
00:03:46,685 --> 00:03:48,353
that you know are gonna
be personally satisfying.

73
00:03:48,436 --> 00:03:50,647
And I got to go back to Winterfell.

74
00:03:50,730 --> 00:03:52,190
I didn't really ask why
'cause I was so happy to do it

75
00:03:52,273 --> 00:03:54,109
that I just went with it.

76
00:03:54,192 --> 00:03:56,152
Hearing that music and seeing Winterfell

77
00:03:56,236 --> 00:03:58,279
be revealed over the mountains
and then going to the Wall,

78
00:03:58,363 --> 00:04:01,700
it's hard not to get emotional,
even as a salty, old veteran like me.

79
00:04:02,534 --> 00:04:05,412
Walking on the Wall,
being surrounded by Starks,

80
00:04:05,495 --> 00:04:07,247
that was one of the best moments.

81
00:04:07,330 --> 00:04:09,708
It's such an iconic part
of this whole world.

82
00:04:09,791 --> 00:04:12,085
We definitely wanted
to be faithful to the look

83
00:04:12,168 --> 00:04:14,754
that had been established there,
but there are differences as well.

84
00:04:14,838 --> 00:04:16,505
Like, the grade for "House of the Dragon"

85
00:04:16,589 --> 00:04:18,382
is quite different to the grade
for "Game of Thrones,"

86
00:04:18,466 --> 00:04:20,218
but you still want the fans to

87
00:04:20,301 --> 00:04:23,763
get that little buzz of excitement as well
that we get from shooting it again.

88
00:04:31,187 --> 00:04:33,148
We definitely did not want
to reinvent the wheel

89
00:04:33,231 --> 00:04:34,899
with the Wall and Winterfell.

90
00:04:34,983 --> 00:04:38,236
That was such a sort of fond
memory for all the audience.

91
00:04:38,611 --> 00:04:39,696
We've tried to do justice to it

92
00:04:39,779 --> 00:04:42,073
and bring it back as they remember it.

93
00:04:42,657 --> 00:04:44,701
So it had to have that
"Game of Thrones" look,

94
00:04:44,784 --> 00:04:49,956
and we went back to see how they did it
and get that feel as closely as we could.

95
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:54,002
That was necessary to hold within
the scriptures, if you like.

96
00:04:54,085 --> 00:04:56,129
Quite a part of that set,
actually, is digital,

97
00:04:56,212 --> 00:04:59,507
so we'd done all of those
drawings prior to shooting.

98
00:04:59,591 --> 00:05:01,926
The whole opening was
really heavily previs'd.

99
00:05:02,010 --> 00:05:03,803
You know, it's a huge wall.

100
00:05:03,887 --> 00:05:06,848
You need to make sure that
we kinda get a sense of that.

101
00:05:06,931 --> 00:05:09,267
And we do have some assets
that have been kept

102
00:05:09,351 --> 00:05:10,935
from "Game of Thrones"
that we can work with,

103
00:05:11,019 --> 00:05:12,854
but, of course,
you always develop on them.

104
00:05:13,730 --> 00:05:15,732
Visual effects moves quite quickly.

105
00:05:16,608 --> 00:05:19,277
There was the backlot set,
which is up on top of the Wall.

106
00:05:19,361 --> 00:05:20,945
It's so cleverly built,

107
00:05:21,029 --> 00:05:23,782
that most of what we're
seeing is just the sky

108
00:05:23,865 --> 00:05:26,326
until you go out on
the kind of outlook pieces

109
00:05:26,409 --> 00:05:28,661
and then that becomes our world.

110
00:05:28,745 --> 00:05:30,663
It's a pretty contained set
once we're in it,

111
00:05:30,747 --> 00:05:31,956
from a dramatic point of view.

112
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:36,711
You know, we're adding the Northern view,
which, you know, we all love and fear.

113
00:05:36,795 --> 00:05:38,630
What does it keep out?

114
00:05:39,422 --> 00:05:40,340
Death.

115
00:05:41,216 --> 00:05:44,010
To get it right was important,
so we used all the references

116
00:05:44,094 --> 00:05:46,346
that we could from the original build.

117
00:05:46,429 --> 00:05:48,598
We thought we'd try
and give it what it deserved

118
00:05:48,682 --> 00:05:51,726
in givin' it an icy feel to it,
which we did with wax.

119
00:05:51,810 --> 00:05:55,271
It's amazing how much fake snow and stuff

120
00:05:55,355 --> 00:05:57,607
can really make you
get in the mood for it.

121
00:05:57,691 --> 00:05:59,776
There was a couple of times
where me and Tom,

122
00:05:59,859 --> 00:06:01,653
who plays Cregan,
were trying to do our lines

123
00:06:01,736 --> 00:06:04,406
and, you know, you just get
a couple of snow up the nose

124
00:06:04,489 --> 00:06:06,783
'cause it's just snow everywhere.

125
00:06:07,909 --> 00:06:12,414
I wanted my snow to be a little bit whiter
because their wall is older.

126
00:06:12,497 --> 00:06:13,957
So, I wanted it to be newer.

127
00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:16,584
You have to stipulate like,
"I want icicles,

128
00:06:16,668 --> 00:06:18,169
I want bit there and a bit there,"

129
00:06:18,253 --> 00:06:20,588
and you go down
and tweak it durin' the day.

130
00:06:20,672 --> 00:06:23,633
And then we will dress it with, like--
make it sparkly and all that kinda stuff.

131
00:06:24,509 --> 00:06:29,014
What we have on the van there is
a Krendl that's an agitator.

132
00:06:29,097 --> 00:06:30,390
So we put the product in there,

133
00:06:30,473 --> 00:06:32,392
the agitator kinda
breaks it up and stuff for us.

134
00:06:32,475 --> 00:06:33,685
Got a water tank

135
00:06:33,768 --> 00:06:35,937
that pumps the water down
to this nozzle here.

136
00:06:36,021 --> 00:06:37,856
Paper will come through then as well.

137
00:06:38,189 --> 00:06:39,733
Test the water.

138
00:06:40,275 --> 00:06:41,192
Good.

139
00:06:41,276 --> 00:06:46,197
So we got a 300-liter drum,
tanks there as well that we use, so.

140
00:06:47,115 --> 00:06:50,493
I'll probably use one or two of them,
depending on how big the dress is.

141
00:06:59,878 --> 00:07:02,255
The main changes really
have been different people

142
00:07:02,339 --> 00:07:04,883
have moved into different spaces
with the change of regime.

143
00:07:04,966 --> 00:07:07,719
There was a thinking in how
we distribute those apartments.

144
00:07:07,802 --> 00:07:11,348
Obviously, when Helaena became the Queen,
she would inherit the Queen's apartments.

145
00:07:11,848 --> 00:07:15,185
When it was Alicent's reign,
it was quite monastic

146
00:07:15,268 --> 00:07:17,562
and minimal to support her character.

147
00:07:17,645 --> 00:07:20,148
And now, Helaena,
who is much more dreamlike

148
00:07:20,231 --> 00:07:23,568
and of the natural world,
has actually scrawled

149
00:07:23,651 --> 00:07:26,196
what we could respectfully
call "graffiti" on the walls

150
00:07:26,279 --> 00:07:29,157
to illustrate her thoughts,
her thinking process.

151
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:31,201
Just as any writer or artist

152
00:07:31,284 --> 00:07:33,870
might make notes in a book
or a sketchbook.

153
00:07:38,541 --> 00:07:40,960
Helaena sees and perceives
the world in a different way

154
00:07:41,044 --> 00:07:42,420
and cultivates different things

155
00:07:42,504 --> 00:07:45,423
out of day-to-day interaction
than perhaps you and I would.

156
00:07:45,507 --> 00:07:48,760
She has graffitied her walls
with her dreams,

157
00:07:48,843 --> 00:07:49,761
and we think it really imbued the place

158
00:07:49,844 --> 00:07:52,222
with a great deal of character for her.

159
00:07:52,305 --> 00:07:56,142
Helaena was fantastic.
Her character was engaging.

160
00:07:56,226 --> 00:07:58,103
You know, the fact that her anxiety

161
00:07:58,186 --> 00:08:00,814
and her walls of graffiti and graphics

162
00:08:00,897 --> 00:08:04,192
sort of exposes the life
that she's going through

163
00:08:04,275 --> 00:08:07,112
and her only way of escapism.

164
00:08:09,698 --> 00:08:12,701
I introduced these
really beautiful cabinets,

165
00:08:12,784 --> 00:08:14,160
which I bought in India, actually,

166
00:08:14,244 --> 00:08:15,995
they were high up
in this kind of, like, room

167
00:08:16,079 --> 00:08:18,790
that I wasn't allowed to go to,
covered in dust and dirt.

168
00:08:18,873 --> 00:08:20,750
And the people were saying,
"You can't go up there."

169
00:08:20,834 --> 00:08:24,546
And I was like, "I've spotted four
of these cabinets, and I want them."

170
00:08:25,130 --> 00:08:27,173
When you tilt them open,
they're really pretty

171
00:08:27,257 --> 00:08:29,759
with all the lovely
butterflies and insects.

172
00:08:29,843 --> 00:08:31,386
Just so many insects.

173
00:08:31,469 --> 00:08:35,140
I got to work with these crickets
in these little wooden cages.

174
00:08:35,222 --> 00:08:38,434
They were making quite
a few escapes, actually,

175
00:08:38,518 --> 00:08:39,477
which was quite fun.

176
00:08:39,561 --> 00:08:43,773
Just loads of embroidery,
like, so many spiders and owls and bats

177
00:08:43,857 --> 00:08:46,776
and kind of just
creepy, cool Helaena things.

178
00:08:49,863 --> 00:08:52,907
We had this dilemma,
well, where do we place Alicent?

179
00:08:52,991 --> 00:08:56,244
And it seemed that there
was a kind of nice irony

180
00:08:56,327 --> 00:08:58,955
that she would end up
in Rhaenyra's apartment.

181
00:08:59,539 --> 00:09:03,335
Interesting scene as that's where
Rhaenyra lost her virginity.

182
00:09:03,418 --> 00:09:05,128
And then that's where
she's having sex with Cole.

183
00:09:05,211 --> 00:09:07,422
They both had sex with Cole
in the same room.

184
00:09:09,716 --> 00:09:12,302
Sweet irony.
It's all very, very messy.

185
00:09:12,385 --> 00:09:14,596
The Red Keep is a very incestuous place.

186
00:09:15,013 --> 00:09:18,391
The Princess Rhaenyra
is brazen and relentless,

187
00:09:18,475 --> 00:09:21,478
a spider who stings
and sucks her prey dry.

188
00:09:22,604 --> 00:09:24,189
We changed a little bit of the furniture,

189
00:09:24,272 --> 00:09:27,233
but we wanted it to be apparent
there was a constant memory

190
00:09:27,317 --> 00:09:29,361
of Rhaenyra being in this room,

191
00:09:29,444 --> 00:09:33,323
so we kept the architecture
and the position of furniture.

192
00:09:36,534 --> 00:09:38,119
In Aegon's apartment,

193
00:09:38,203 --> 00:09:40,330
we decided that that would
pretty much stay the same.

194
00:09:40,413 --> 00:09:43,667
He wasn't the man who was interested
in decoration or furniture,

195
00:09:43,750 --> 00:09:45,627
so he just moved in.

196
00:09:46,628 --> 00:09:52,676
Gone are all the histories and books
because Aegon thinks he doesn't need that.

197
00:09:52,759 --> 00:09:56,638
Him wearing the crown
is enough for him to rule.

198
00:09:57,514 --> 00:09:59,224
There is a new sheriff in town,

199
00:09:59,307 --> 00:10:04,020
and Aegon's reign as king
is very different than Viserys,

200
00:10:04,104 --> 00:10:06,940
and the way that Viserys obsessed about
history and legacy

201
00:10:07,023 --> 00:10:09,859
is not something that is on Aegon's mind.

202
00:10:14,823 --> 00:10:16,408
-Your Grace.
-Good day.

203
00:10:16,491 --> 00:10:19,202
Because, in the Council Chamber,
most of the camera angles

204
00:10:19,285 --> 00:10:20,954
are looking towards the big window,

205
00:10:21,037 --> 00:10:22,288
looking out across the view,

206
00:10:22,372 --> 00:10:23,623
we ended up, first season,

207
00:10:23,707 --> 00:10:26,292
with a lot of visual effects,
which, obviously, is very costly,

208
00:10:26,376 --> 00:10:28,837
so we decided to go
a slightly old-fashioned route

209
00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,339
and put a scenically painted
backing in there

210
00:10:31,423 --> 00:10:34,175
by this brilliant artist
called Steve Mitchell.

211
00:10:34,259 --> 00:10:39,305
And if you go right up close to it,
it seems to be just a blur of splodges.

212
00:10:39,681 --> 00:10:41,474
And then when you step back
to where the camera is,

213
00:10:41,558 --> 00:10:45,020
it just comes into focus
as a view across King's Landing.

214
00:10:45,103 --> 00:10:46,938
It's a technique that's
been used for many years,

215
00:10:47,022 --> 00:10:50,275
and it's persuading people
that it's still a good way

216
00:10:50,358 --> 00:10:53,069
to do a in-camera view out of a window.

217
00:10:54,738 --> 00:10:57,574
A lot of times in the series,
we're looking at maps as top shots

218
00:10:57,657 --> 00:10:58,616
looking down at the table,

219
00:10:58,700 --> 00:11:02,037
and often, because of that,
they don't get serviced, in a way.

220
00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,414
We just thought it was
interesting to see the map

221
00:11:04,497 --> 00:11:06,875
in a y-axis space versus an x-axis space.

222
00:11:06,958 --> 00:11:09,627
So it was just a more interesting
visual way to dramatize the war

223
00:11:09,711 --> 00:11:11,796
and got people up and moving around a bit.

224
00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:14,174
Those council sessions
can be challenging to shoot

225
00:11:14,257 --> 00:11:16,926
because everybody's
sitting down, sipping wine.

226
00:11:21,806 --> 00:11:24,392
I was trying to pitch that the map that

227
00:11:24,476 --> 00:11:26,770
Otto Hightower brings
in the Small Council Chamber

228
00:11:26,853 --> 00:11:30,190
is something that sits on the table
and is potentially being put together

229
00:11:30,273 --> 00:11:31,816
as, like, pieces of ivory.

230
00:11:31,900 --> 00:11:33,735
And the first time I showed it to Ryan,

231
00:11:33,818 --> 00:11:35,528
his initial reaction was, "Yes, I love it,

232
00:11:35,612 --> 00:11:39,074
but, please, can you make it
like World War II map?"

233
00:11:39,157 --> 00:11:42,035
We've had our concept artist working on
making it a standing-up map.

234
00:11:42,118 --> 00:11:43,870
All of these areas of Westeros

235
00:11:43,953 --> 00:11:47,374
are gonna be split into
separate sets of ivory based on, like,

236
00:11:47,457 --> 00:11:50,669
the geographical elements of Westeros.

237
00:11:52,003 --> 00:11:55,548
They expect to march quickly,
meeting little resistance until they reach

238
00:11:55,632 --> 00:11:56,883
the Riverlands.

239
00:11:58,802 --> 00:12:01,554
We just talked a little bit,
the early days of design,

240
00:12:02,055 --> 00:12:05,517
had a little input, and then she did
a beautiful job of evolving that

241
00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:08,853
and made it into
the stunning piece that it is.

242
00:12:08,937 --> 00:12:10,814
It's an amazing bit of dressing.

243
00:12:10,897 --> 00:12:12,899
It's an amazing action prop
is what it actually is,

244
00:12:12,982 --> 00:12:15,193
biggest one that Ellie
or I have been involved in.

245
00:12:15,276 --> 00:12:17,278
Logistically, there's a lotta times
it has to move

246
00:12:17,362 --> 00:12:18,863
and there's a lotta manpower
involved in doin' it.

247
00:12:18,947 --> 00:12:20,573
It was a lump.

248
00:12:20,657 --> 00:12:22,951
It was made for real
and it was very heavy.

249
00:12:31,793 --> 00:12:34,754
The Red Keep had a 400% extension.

250
00:12:34,838 --> 00:12:37,007
The general consensus was,
from legacy players,

251
00:12:37,090 --> 00:12:38,425
the courtyard was small.

252
00:12:40,635 --> 00:12:44,723
The number of scenes, season one
didn't justify that scale of build,

253
00:12:44,806 --> 00:12:46,474
so this season, we've been able to do it

254
00:12:46,558 --> 00:12:49,436
and it links directly into
the King's Landing streets,

255
00:12:49,519 --> 00:12:51,855
which we had done digitally last year.

256
00:12:53,648 --> 00:12:56,234
And it's really given scale and depth

257
00:12:56,317 --> 00:12:57,610
to that run of street.

258
00:12:57,694 --> 00:13:01,531
One of the magical things about Jim's sets
is that once you're on them,

259
00:13:01,614 --> 00:13:02,866
you can forget you're on a set.

260
00:13:02,949 --> 00:13:07,162
You can walk around for a good 10 minutes
before you see a scaffolding tube.

261
00:13:07,245 --> 00:13:09,831
It makes it possible to do so much

262
00:13:09,914 --> 00:13:13,918
without mounting the incredible costs
that come along with filming on location.

263
00:13:16,296 --> 00:13:18,340
So far, we've done
our King's Landing scenes

264
00:13:18,423 --> 00:13:22,886
in a beautiful medieval town
in Spain called Cáceres.

265
00:13:22,969 --> 00:13:24,596
The problem with shooting
in beautiful cities

266
00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:25,889
like Cáceres and Trujillo

267
00:13:25,972 --> 00:13:28,850
is these are World Heritage Sites,
so you can't throw horse crap

268
00:13:28,933 --> 00:13:31,728
and mud all over the street
and set things on fire.

269
00:13:31,811 --> 00:13:34,272
If you wanna do that kind of thing,
you have to build your set.

270
00:13:34,356 --> 00:13:37,776
So, what we did this year is we expanded
our King's Landing backlot set.

271
00:13:38,860 --> 00:13:39,694
Nice.

272
00:13:41,279 --> 00:13:43,114
It had been my ambition on this season

273
00:13:43,198 --> 00:13:46,826
to build part of King's Landing,
so the point was to make it

274
00:13:46,910 --> 00:13:49,371
seamlessly connect to the real place.

275
00:13:49,454 --> 00:13:52,332
Hopefully, we've done that
with the look and the style.

276
00:13:57,587 --> 00:14:00,548
I'm told you bear
a mislike for the Hightowers.

277
00:14:00,632 --> 00:14:02,509
Fuck the Hightowers.

278
00:14:02,592 --> 00:14:04,177
The boldest thing that
I think we did there

279
00:14:04,260 --> 00:14:06,596
was decide to give the last
10 minutes of the episode

280
00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:08,890
over to these two characters
that we had never met before.

281
00:14:09,599 --> 00:14:11,643
Knowing that you're watching
"Game of Thrones"

282
00:14:11,726 --> 00:14:13,311
and you don't know what
is going to come from you,

283
00:14:13,395 --> 00:14:14,771
from where, hopefully, is the fun

284
00:14:14,854 --> 00:14:17,774
and the horror for the audience
that's yet to come.

285
00:14:18,608 --> 00:14:19,984
I was also given to understand

286
00:14:20,068 --> 00:14:22,612
that you possess a unique
knowledge of the Red Keep.

287
00:14:22,696 --> 00:14:26,366
Maegor's tunnels.
Great big rat's nest, it is.

288
00:14:27,867 --> 00:14:29,744
I know them better than
the shape of my own co--

289
00:14:31,454 --> 00:14:33,248
We have all these monumental sets.

290
00:14:33,331 --> 00:14:35,792
We have Dragonstone,
we've got the Red Keep,

291
00:14:35,875 --> 00:14:37,544
and we've got Driftmark.

292
00:14:37,627 --> 00:14:41,965
But the most intense reaction
the crew had to a set

293
00:14:42,048 --> 00:14:44,884
was when we shot the sewer
for "Blood and Cheese."

294
00:14:44,968 --> 00:14:46,511
I'd never really thought
about Maegor's tunnels,

295
00:14:46,594 --> 00:14:48,930
but we had to explore them,
we had to represent them.

296
00:14:49,014 --> 00:14:51,474
Jim Clay did an amazing job
of building some mini sets,

297
00:14:51,558 --> 00:14:54,102
and then sort of incorporating
into the larger set of the Red Keep.

298
00:14:54,185 --> 00:14:56,563
It's always great to do
a sewer for an art department.

299
00:14:56,646 --> 00:14:58,565
Mike Dawson put in the water

300
00:14:58,648 --> 00:15:01,651
and it was absolutely flowing
like a mad river.

301
00:15:01,735 --> 00:15:03,361
The sewer is probably my favorite set,

302
00:15:03,445 --> 00:15:05,905
my easiest set,
the prettiest set, I think.

303
00:15:05,989 --> 00:15:07,115
I know it's a sewer.

304
00:15:07,198 --> 00:15:09,659
We wanna delay
that first fluid dump, mate,

305
00:15:09,743 --> 00:15:11,661
just until they're
slightly deeper in there.

306
00:15:13,663 --> 00:15:15,331
We didn't get much of a brief on that.

307
00:15:15,415 --> 00:15:17,459
They were just plowing
through the water and I thought,

308
00:15:17,542 --> 00:15:19,836
"I'm gonna go to town on this."

309
00:15:19,919 --> 00:15:22,964
They're all mad men.
It was incredible and kind of horrible.

310
00:15:23,048 --> 00:15:26,092
A medieval sewer.
I can imagine better places to spend time.

311
00:15:30,430 --> 00:15:33,391
We were like, "How are we gonna build
this tank effectively,

312
00:15:33,475 --> 00:15:35,143
quickly, portable?"

313
00:15:35,226 --> 00:15:38,855
So, we ended up buying
these concrete blocks that slot together

314
00:15:38,938 --> 00:15:41,024
and we built up a wall around it.

315
00:15:41,107 --> 00:15:44,319
We designed it so that
we had big pumps on one end

316
00:15:44,402 --> 00:15:46,571
makin' a flow down through the canal.

317
00:15:46,654 --> 00:15:50,700
And then I put in tip tanks, so it looks
like people are flushing water down.

318
00:15:50,784 --> 00:15:53,495
And there was multiple layers,
so you get, like, cascades.

319
00:15:53,578 --> 00:15:56,206
Then we opened it up for Malcolm
to come in with all these guys,

320
00:15:56,289 --> 00:15:58,750
and they built on top of it.
We didn't have one single leak.

321
00:15:58,833 --> 00:16:01,628
Which is very unusual
for any tank anywhere.

322
00:16:01,711 --> 00:16:04,297
That's massive, fully functioning pumps

323
00:16:04,381 --> 00:16:07,342
in there turnin' the water around.
It actually recycled water.

324
00:16:07,425 --> 00:16:10,011
They brought the tank in,
then we built the set inside

325
00:16:10,095 --> 00:16:13,181
using the tunnel from season one
with the water.

326
00:16:13,264 --> 00:16:15,392
The way the special effects
done their side of it,

327
00:16:15,475 --> 00:16:17,185
it looked fantastic.

328
00:16:17,268 --> 00:16:18,853
I remember turning it on
for the first time

329
00:16:18,937 --> 00:16:21,398
and everything was working
really, really good.

330
00:16:21,481 --> 00:16:24,192
And I thought,
"I'm gonna get a gold star here."

331
00:16:25,193 --> 00:16:27,821
I called Alan up and said,
"Would you like to come and see it?"

332
00:16:27,904 --> 00:16:30,115
And he just walked in. He went, "Ooh..."

333
00:16:31,032 --> 00:16:32,075
And that was good.

334
00:16:33,576 --> 00:16:35,787
And then, the production office
rang me up and they said,

335
00:16:35,870 --> 00:16:37,455
"Can we come and see the sewer set?"

336
00:16:37,539 --> 00:16:39,624
So we was turning it on
for, like, a guided tour.

337
00:16:39,708 --> 00:16:42,627
I think we were taking more people in it
than the "Harry Potter" tour at one point.

338
00:16:42,711 --> 00:16:43,586
I was really thrilled.

339
00:16:44,754 --> 00:16:47,716
We're shooting right here
for the sewer entrance.

340
00:16:53,722 --> 00:16:55,181
I mean, when they said,
"You're in a sewer,"

341
00:16:55,265 --> 00:16:57,183
I thought, "Okay, I'm gonna be up to here

342
00:16:57,267 --> 00:16:59,436
"in a swimming pool,
and there'll be green screens

343
00:16:59,519 --> 00:17:01,438
all around me, and they'll get it done."

344
00:17:01,521 --> 00:17:04,566
And then I get there,
and they've built a sewer.

345
00:17:04,941 --> 00:17:07,609
The water's waist-high,
carrying a dog and a torch.

346
00:17:07,694 --> 00:17:11,071
It's like, we're in a hangar
20 minutes from where I live.

347
00:17:11,156 --> 00:17:13,575
And here I am at the Red Keep.
Yeah. It's just-- It's bonkers.

348
00:17:14,117 --> 00:17:16,786
Okay, send the water, please, Tommy.

349
00:17:16,869 --> 00:17:19,122
I think PJ was excited
about doing these big spaces

350
00:17:19,204 --> 00:17:20,707
lit only by a torch.

351
00:17:20,790 --> 00:17:22,083
You know, we all watched
"The Third Man" again

352
00:17:22,166 --> 00:17:24,586
'cause anybody who shoots in a tunnel
has to go back and watch "The Third Man."

353
00:17:24,669 --> 00:17:26,046
It was great imagery, I think.

354
00:17:26,128 --> 00:17:27,172
That was a lot of fun.

355
00:17:27,255 --> 00:17:30,008
We got to chase these two guys,
follow these two guys,

356
00:17:30,091 --> 00:17:32,135
lead these two guys
through all these spaces,

357
00:17:32,218 --> 00:17:35,180
tramping through a sewer
with running sewer water

358
00:17:35,263 --> 00:17:38,224
and see parts of the Red Keep
we'd never seen before.

359
00:17:38,308 --> 00:17:39,809
It's just a DP's dream.

360
00:17:39,893 --> 00:17:42,979
The design team on this
have just surpassed themselves.

361
00:17:43,063 --> 00:17:44,981
We rarely double up on angles

362
00:17:45,065 --> 00:17:47,734
because of the opportunities
this set gives us.

363
00:17:49,611 --> 00:17:52,155
Because their mission is about subterfuge.

364
00:17:52,238 --> 00:17:55,241
They're trying to be secret,
but, obviously, the castle is dark

365
00:17:55,325 --> 00:17:57,911
and the space they're going through
is dark, so they're carrying the torch.

366
00:17:57,994 --> 00:18:01,623
The interplay of the firelight
bouncing off walls

367
00:18:01,706 --> 00:18:02,874
makes it really magical.

368
00:18:02,957 --> 00:18:06,461
I really wanted to lean into that,
so we kept the lighting of the set itself

369
00:18:06,544 --> 00:18:10,298
to a bare minimum,
so that as they move through spaces,

370
00:18:10,382 --> 00:18:12,550
you had a sense that you
were moving through the space.

371
00:18:12,634 --> 00:18:15,053
You never had a sense that you knew
where they were heading.

372
00:18:15,136 --> 00:18:17,972
You were discovering where they were going
as they discovered it.

373
00:18:18,056 --> 00:18:21,476
In terms of getting into character,
you don't really have to do very much.

374
00:18:21,559 --> 00:18:23,645
I don't have to say to myself,
"Okay, you're in a castle.

375
00:18:23,728 --> 00:18:25,689
Deliver--" Like, all that's done.

376
00:18:27,857 --> 00:18:30,026
We need to get our head and get out.

377
00:18:30,902 --> 00:18:33,154
We had to just not think of it as, like,

378
00:18:33,238 --> 00:18:36,741
we're going into film the most,
like, horrifying thing.

379
00:18:36,825 --> 00:18:39,953
Another heartwarming moment
from George R. R. Martin, everybody.

380
00:18:43,540 --> 00:18:46,751
This shot involved
a lot of different methods

381
00:18:46,835 --> 00:18:49,963
of moving the camera,
going backwards at speed,

382
00:18:50,046 --> 00:18:53,967
up and down stairs, spinning around,
trying to capture the performance

383
00:18:54,050 --> 00:18:55,760
from fear at the same time.

384
00:18:55,844 --> 00:18:57,679
Yeah, this certainly had its challenges.

385
00:18:58,430 --> 00:19:00,140
And by the time we come around,
we want him to be that--

386
00:19:00,223 --> 00:19:01,683
that far away from us.

387
00:19:01,766 --> 00:19:03,226
So she's going faster and faster.

388
00:19:03,309 --> 00:19:06,354
So when we come around, she's, you know--
we're seeing her head to toe there.

389
00:19:06,438 --> 00:19:08,648
She's-- We're-- She's getting--
She's going faster than us.

390
00:19:08,732 --> 00:19:10,316
-Yes.
-And we want it to be believable.

391
00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:12,235
Then when we come around here
and she's that far away from us.

392
00:19:12,318 --> 00:19:13,486
Yeah.

393
00:19:13,570 --> 00:19:17,198
SFX did an amazing job
making it look very atmospheric

394
00:19:17,282 --> 00:19:19,784
with all the rain
and the wind inside the stage.

395
00:19:21,745 --> 00:19:23,663
We got 10,000 liters
of water sittin' outside,

396
00:19:23,747 --> 00:19:25,832
ready to pump into the stage.

397
00:19:28,209 --> 00:19:32,172
We have to make sure that the landing area
for the water is sealed.

398
00:19:32,255 --> 00:19:35,133
We've got a membrane down,
we've got some sort of management

399
00:19:35,216 --> 00:19:36,676
so we can get some pumps in.

400
00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:39,971
And then, ultimately, it just
comes down to a lotta squeegees,

401
00:19:40,055 --> 00:19:43,266
a lotta labor, and some pumps
just pumpin' it out the door.

402
00:19:44,684 --> 00:19:48,229
It's a small piece of a large puzzle.
I think it's gonna look epic.

403
00:19:48,980 --> 00:19:50,565
That journey at the end of episode one,

404
00:19:50,648 --> 00:19:53,360
it's my hope that that
kind of lives in infamy

405
00:19:53,443 --> 00:19:55,195
through "House of the Dragon"
and its legacy.