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It's the movie magic behind the curtain.
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Explosions. There is a lot of explosions.
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The level of preparation.
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Those guys are puttin' their lives at risk
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on a constant basis.
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Three dragons, not two.
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That's gonna be a huge
thing for the audience.
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They're so clever, those guys.
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Once dragons get introduced that way,
there's no turning back.
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We've talked about this since
creating Daemon as a character
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is George always said about Daemon,
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"He's heroic and villainous
in equal parts,"
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and that's what makes him
fascinating as a character.
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Well, that was the first shot
of the whole season.
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- Set.
- Here we go. Cameras set and action!
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And we were the first actors there
because Mills was goin' off to do a play.
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So, we were just right into the sort of
nuts and bolts of it, really.
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There was a lot of conversation
ahead of time
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and also during the shooting
as to whether these were
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dreams we were experiencing or visions
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or something magical.
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Should we shoot it on different lenses?
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Should we light it
in a very distinctive way?
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Should we give it its own visual signature
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that would signal
to the audience immediately,
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"Oh, okay, this is a dream"?
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And the decision led,
of course, by Ryan and by Alan
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was that, no, we shouldn't do that.
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That we should shoot it as we would
shoot a normal scene
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and let the content of the narrative
make it apparent that it was a dream.
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I can't understand.
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This felt like a real way
to dramatize something
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very core to Daemon's character
that was going on with him.
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It's a throwback
to a scene from season one.
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In season one,
Daemon was sitting on the throne
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and Rhaenyra comes in to meet him.
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This time, we reverse that,
so that Rhaenyra's on the throne
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and Daemon comes in to meet her.
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It's Rhaenyra,
but it's the wrong Rhaenyra.
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The fact that it meant that we got
to bring back Milly delighted me
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because I adore her
and all that she brought to the show.
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And I really did know that the fan base
would really delight
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in, hopefully, the surprise
of seeing her come back.
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Feels like I never left,
which is what's kind of weird.
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It's nice to be back.
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And it was one of those very
"House of the Dragon" moments
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where we're doing the scene and, finally,
she comes down into a close-up
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which is sort of the crescendo
of what's goin' on between them.
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And she's radiant
and there's tears in her eyes
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and she's speaking
full Valyrian the entire time
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without stumbling in perfect accent.
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And we cut. Brilliant.
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So my brief encounter with her was great.
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And then I chopped her head off.
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Well, I loved that when I read it.
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I always wanted the dream sequences,
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or whatever you call them,
I was always pushing that
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they felt mad and horror-like as possible.
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If we're gonna go for it, let's go for it.
Great having Milly back.
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We really miss her.
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So much fun, I love Matt.
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Matt's such a sweetheart.
And he's incredibly talented.
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It was actually really nostalgic.
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I sat on the throne
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which is actually kind of lopsided.
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It's a throne made out of swords,
so it doesn't look very comfortable.
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- Don't listen to her, honestly.
- Go on.
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It was great seeing the warmth between
them because they know each other so well
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so, there was that.
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And I think they were both very happy
to get back together, even if violently.
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Very nice. And we cut. Very nice.
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It's a touch late to be
stalkin' about a strange castle
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putting its people to the sword.
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- You.
- I'm called Alys.
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Alys Rivers was definitely
one of the iconic costumes
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in that she's residing at Harrenhal
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but shouldn't really look
like she belongs there.
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...take one, and marker.
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We didn't want to lean
too much into the witch thing.
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She just needed to look like
a sort of strange member
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of the household.
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We wanted it to have this
kind of aged grandeur to it.
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And that the palette there
is purples and lavenders.
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When I saw that they'd cast Gayle,
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it was a dream come true.
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I always had a vision
of that porcelain skin.
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We embraced her paleness.
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When I read the book, I saw long hair,
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and we managed to pick
quite an inky raven color
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which, you know, is so beautiful against
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the complexion of her skin tone
and her eye color.
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And I don't think there's
anything witchy about it.
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Thirteen delta, take two.
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Gayle was very happy
and she looks fantastic.
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It's been a complete, complete pleasure.
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To feel embraced by the cast and the crew
was just really special.
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Matt and I got to have the experience
of meeting each other for the first time.
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And he's such a generous actor,
and just so fun to work with.
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She's a fabulous, fabulous actor,
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and I think she's created
a really great character.
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Here, drink this.
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You'll need your sleep
if you're to win this place to your side.
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Rook's Rest is the biggest thing that
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"House of the Dragon"
has mounted, to date,
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in terms of the size
and expense of a set piece
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and we needed to get it right.
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Rook's Rest, for us, is a big setup.
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You never quite can understand
how big something is
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until you really turn up on the day,
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and you see the size of the operation.
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Stand by, guys, stand by to shoot.
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And this is a big operation.
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Rook's Rest was our biggest obstacle
of this season for sure.
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We were shooting down
in the home counties.
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We had 500 crowd in total,
four different houses.
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So, we had Rosby, Stokeworth,
Darklyn, and Hightower,
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all in different looks,
in different stages of the battle.
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Oh, it was brilliant.
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- It's alright?
- Yes, that was great.
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Good, good, good.
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That was a complicated scene. Big battle.
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Dragons, dragon fire, horses, dead people.
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Complex, logistical thing to put together.
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What should be a small campaign
to take a small keep
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turns into a kind of watershed moment
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that tilts the war.
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We experienced what it really is like
to unleash dragons for the first time.
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Dragon!
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Advance!
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Thankfully, we had Alan Taylor,
the veteran filmmaker on "Game of Thrones"
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and countless other shows to do it.
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Alan came to it and really brought
just kind of another level of scale to it.
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Working with Alan's fantastic
'cause he's one of those directors
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who knows what he wants
before he gets there.
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The thing with Rook's Rest
is that Alan storyboarded
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Rook's Rest really,
really carefully in advance.
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Shout out to Jane Wu,
our main storyboard artist,
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because I was collaborating with her,
that designed the action,
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both in the air and on the ground
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and sort of shaped it into the story
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that we wound up shooting and telling.
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And then I was shown Bourne Wood.
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Bourne Wood is a bit of a popular location
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because it goes back to "Gladiator" days
and Ridley Scott.
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So you think, "If Ridley Scott chose it,
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then it's gotta be pretty good."
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And it is.
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I had been out there before
'cause we had,
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I think we had scouted it in season one.
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It was pointed out to me, and I just said,
"Oh, we have to come back here."
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We needed a tree line
and we also needed an open space
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and a ridge where
the castle could be based.
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So we did look at
a number of different places.
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And Bourne was the winner.
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King Aegon!
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You really felt like you were at a battle.
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You know, what was so amazing
is that it felt like
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we were talking about it
for such a long time,
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Alan and I, and Freddie and Ryan.
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It felt like we were in endless
conversations about it
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and watching previs,
and talking through each beat
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of every single scene,
and then you finally get there
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and it's just this incredibly iconic set.
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It's like one of those moments,
me and Freddie were talking about it,
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where you go like,
"Ah, this is pretty amazing."
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I mean, the battles
in episode four, I think,
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are probably gonna be
water cooler conversation
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for quite some time.
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I never really thought it was
a battle until I got there
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and saw the scale that
we were bringing with us.
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So, you know, four battering rams
moving across the field
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and more horses than I can count,
all in full armor.
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Not just the riders, but the horses.
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Three or four houses with different livery
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and different banners
and different insignia
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all marshaling together.
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Sadly for them,
most of them are there as dragon fodder
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and they don't know it.
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It was a much bigger dress time
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for set dec when we had
various army encampments.
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We did all the tents and the bivouacs
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and our fabulous drapes department
made all of those for us
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and then, props department
put them together.
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Rook's Rest was a logistical issue for us
to make sure we had enough bodies,
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we had enough dead horses,
we had enough war machines
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and that we could move 'em around.
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It's a big location,
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multiple cameras
shootin' in multiple areas.
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It was about havin' the right crew there
that could cope with
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rushing things from one area to the next.
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We had our main unit working for us
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and a sizable
splinter unit working for us.
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Any of the larger kind of
stunts or tricks and flicks
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were led by Rowley Irlam,
the stunt coordinator.
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...battering ram dropping down, yeah?
That's where it goes from.
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I worked with Rowley many times before.
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His field of operations was close to mine
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so he could send me images
and I could watch takes
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and ask for adjustments if necessary
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but he also embellishes things
and raises things.
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And then guys doin' the arrow hits,
you can come a little bit closer
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to the battering ram, please.
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The huge setup there with
the big burns of dragons.
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So Meleys would be flying through
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and setting fire to people.
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We can do things in CGI,
but actually shooting
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real people doing these things,
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it just gives it another
level of authenticity.
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That was kind of our big number.
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There was a lot of stuff
done in the tree line.
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We did a lot of fire work there.
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We burned eight people
on a battering ram with a strafe.
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Every time there's a dragon strafe,
it's just so much fun.
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Dragon roaring flame is different,
but when you're in the field and it...
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it's quite exciting.
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I've never seen another human
so happy to burn people alive,
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let me tell you.
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So we should do another one
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- at 45 degree, then, yeah?
- Yeah.
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We set down 20 (indistinct),
which we bury in the ground
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and special effects
basically ignites the flames.
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So you end up with
a sort of 12-, 15-foot fireball.
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Please clear behind the barriers!
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We had eight of my guys in there.
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They're all covered in, like, really
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flammable accelerant gel.
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I, personally, would turn and run
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but they just stand there
and it just comes towards them
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and they're engulfed in it.
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We ended up doing these garments
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which had burns built into them,
so you've got a shirt like this
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with the burn makeup on it
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so you could, literally, pull it on
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without having to do an application.
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We are, and we should be, quite good
at settin' people on fire by now.
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00:12:47,976 --> 00:12:49,811
The big dragon fight
that's happening in the sky,
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a lot of it was shot
on something that's a cross
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between a Volume and a blue screen stage.
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This was buck 2.0 this year.
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I mean, they did learn
from the first season and improve it.
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00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:02,532
It can be programmed in ways
that the other one was not.
242
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So, to simulate the flaps of wing movement
and sudden changes in direction.
243
00:13:06,619 --> 00:13:08,496
It's very animal-like.
244
00:13:08,496 --> 00:13:10,874
You know, almost feel
the breath of the beast.
245
00:13:11,541 --> 00:13:14,753
The camera's adjustin'
to your movements as well.
246
00:13:17,589 --> 00:13:19,007
We did it slightly differently this year.
247
00:13:19,007 --> 00:13:22,093
We have a robot camera.
248
00:13:22,844 --> 00:13:25,930
We worked out a plan to attach the camera
249
00:13:25,930 --> 00:13:26,931
to the buck rig
250
00:13:26,931 --> 00:13:30,352
and having the movement
match to the buck.
251
00:13:31,853 --> 00:13:34,981
And the two working
together can provide almost any angle.
252
00:13:36,941 --> 00:13:39,861
The way World War II dogfights were shot,
plane to plane,
253
00:13:39,861 --> 00:13:42,447
most of our stuff is shot
dragon to dragon.
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00:13:42,447 --> 00:13:45,909
You want the camera to feel like it's,
essentially, on another dragon.
255
00:13:47,702 --> 00:13:50,914
And three, two, one, action.
256
00:13:52,791 --> 00:13:56,378
The buck work, all of my--
only memory of the buck work
257
00:13:56,378 --> 00:14:00,507
is a large amount of wind on the face.
258
00:14:01,216 --> 00:14:02,300
The Rook's Rest work,
259
00:14:02,300 --> 00:14:04,928
this saddle's throwing itself around
all over the place.
260
00:14:04,928 --> 00:14:07,430
- Action.
- Angos Meleys!
261
00:14:08,056 --> 00:14:10,934
The most critical
character work has to happen,
262
00:14:10,934 --> 00:14:13,019
you know, while bein' slammed around.
263
00:14:13,603 --> 00:14:15,563
The quality of performance
you're used to with her was all there
264
00:14:15,563 --> 00:14:18,274
even though she's being flung
around on a bucking dragon
265
00:14:18,274 --> 00:14:19,901
and chased by a robotic camera.
266
00:14:23,405 --> 00:14:25,407
Fuck me sideways.
267
00:14:32,414 --> 00:14:35,750
Fire in three, two, one!
268
00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:42,132
We have a set on the backlot
pickin' up lots of different elements
269
00:14:42,132 --> 00:14:43,883
so we don't have to go for a CG approach
270
00:14:43,883 --> 00:14:46,219
because, of course, real fire looks real.
271
00:14:49,014 --> 00:14:51,933
It is mental, yeah. I wanted to go bigger.
272
00:14:52,851 --> 00:14:54,561
Because we've got Vhagar,
273
00:14:54,561 --> 00:14:57,564
I really wanted to go dirty burn,
274
00:14:57,564 --> 00:15:00,025
you know, like,
an intense burn and big burn.
275
00:15:00,025 --> 00:15:02,193
And it is horrific.
276
00:15:07,741 --> 00:15:10,118
And it goes 50 foot maybe.
277
00:15:10,118 --> 00:15:11,369
It's a weapon of mass destruction really.
278
00:15:24,466 --> 00:15:26,843
I think the most showstopping moment
279
00:15:26,843 --> 00:15:30,013
is when the two bigger
dragons engage in the air
280
00:15:30,013 --> 00:15:32,182
and it comes to a death spiral.
281
00:15:32,182 --> 00:15:33,808
What Alan did was went back and actually
282
00:15:33,808 --> 00:15:36,728
did a bunch of research
around birds of prey
283
00:15:36,728 --> 00:15:38,021
and how they fight with each other.
284
00:15:38,521 --> 00:15:40,857
Alan was really keen
on this kind of ritual
285
00:15:40,857 --> 00:15:43,276
where they lock talons
and they spin around.
286
00:15:43,943 --> 00:15:47,530
A lot of the work was dumped on previs
'cause you can have two dragons spiraling
287
00:15:47,530 --> 00:15:51,826
in a kind of triple-axis turn
to the ground blowing fire
288
00:15:51,826 --> 00:15:55,080
but it takes a lotta work
to work out what that really means.
289
00:16:09,469 --> 00:16:11,971
I kept trying to protect
that as the "nuclear event" in the story.
290
00:16:13,682 --> 00:16:16,810
Storywise, is the kind of
the turning of the tides
291
00:16:16,810 --> 00:16:20,563
in terms of what kind of war
people have experienced.
292
00:16:20,563 --> 00:16:23,525
The idea was that Cole has been
broken by this experience
293
00:16:23,525 --> 00:16:24,901
and he's basically been
completely knocked out.
294
00:16:24,901 --> 00:16:26,569
And when he wakes up,
it's to a new world sort of.
295
00:16:26,569 --> 00:16:30,782
And the world had to feel almost surreal
in its level of devastation.
296
00:16:32,409 --> 00:16:34,494
You've got people crawling along.
297
00:16:34,494 --> 00:16:37,914
We had amputees with their legs
burnt off, with arms burnt off.
298
00:16:38,581 --> 00:16:40,834
People walkin' around on fire.
299
00:16:42,002 --> 00:16:44,796
Waldo and his team created
300
00:16:44,796 --> 00:16:47,257
the Dust Man, as we called him.
301
00:16:49,050 --> 00:16:50,010
When I, you know, went to touch it,
302
00:16:50,010 --> 00:16:52,971
it was just a really intricate affair
where you had to time it just right,
303
00:16:52,971 --> 00:16:54,597
touch it with just
the right amount of pressure,
304
00:16:54,597 --> 00:16:55,765
so they could pull it.
305
00:16:56,975 --> 00:16:58,268
Yeah, it was pretty amazing.
306
00:16:58,268 --> 00:16:59,853
Every time they had
to reset that, I was like,
307
00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:02,230
I don't envy them.
308
00:17:02,689 --> 00:17:05,025
Just sort of crumbles into ash,
that was a way of saying,
309
00:17:05,025 --> 00:17:06,568
whatever you thought
you knew about soldiery
310
00:17:06,568 --> 00:17:09,654
has been burned to a crisp
and you're on your own.
311
00:17:09,654 --> 00:17:11,948
And we cut. Checking.
312
00:17:20,206 --> 00:17:22,375
I mean, I think it's a Pyrrhic victory
for both sides.
313
00:17:22,375 --> 00:17:24,461
The Blacks lose Rhaenys's dragon
and a dragonrider
314
00:17:24,461 --> 00:17:27,380
and one of Rhaenyra's
most trusted councilors.
315
00:17:27,380 --> 00:17:29,758
And the Greens,
we don't really know the condition
316
00:17:29,758 --> 00:17:31,176
of Sunfyre or Aegon, but certainly,
317
00:17:31,176 --> 00:17:35,722
Sunfyre is not going to fly again tomorrow
and the king is not in good shape.
318
00:17:36,181 --> 00:17:39,893
Well, I mean, all of Aegon's
worst fears come true when
319
00:17:39,893 --> 00:17:44,898
he's plummetin' to the Earth
after being hit by a ball of fire.
320
00:17:44,898 --> 00:17:46,358
Because they cross the nuclear line,
321
00:17:46,358 --> 00:17:47,567
it's been devastating for everybody.
322
00:17:47,567 --> 00:17:49,611
Both sides have lost something major.
323
00:17:50,904 --> 00:17:54,532
Oh, my God, massive loss.
What a disaster. Total disaster.
324
00:17:54,532 --> 00:17:56,826
Best fighter down and best dragon down.
325
00:17:56,826 --> 00:17:59,037
I mean, the whole thing's total chaos.
326
00:17:59,037 --> 00:18:02,707
But, yes, if you've gotta go,
going on the back of a dragon
327
00:18:02,707 --> 00:18:06,503
in the middle of the best, kickass fight
328
00:18:06,503 --> 00:18:08,505
that there's ever been,
is quite a good way.
329
00:18:10,340 --> 00:18:14,803
It's never nice. As particularly,
someone who is such a wonderful person
330
00:18:14,803 --> 00:18:16,846
and such a brilliantly talented performer
331
00:18:16,846 --> 00:18:19,140
and we've become very close
and very good friends
332
00:18:19,140 --> 00:18:21,017
over this short period of time.
333
00:18:21,017 --> 00:18:24,604
But it's an absolute,
absolute dream to work with her.
334
00:18:24,604 --> 00:18:27,232
So, it was a bit, like, "Oh, wow.
335
00:18:27,232 --> 00:18:29,067
Oh, that's really, you know,"
336
00:18:29,067 --> 00:18:32,153
but we're not gonna stop
being friends so, you know.
337
00:18:38,952 --> 00:18:43,915
To deliver these really
dynamic dragon flying shots
338
00:18:43,915 --> 00:18:47,669
and have those intercut with
this sort of drama and action
339
00:18:47,794 --> 00:18:50,588
happenin' on the ground,
it's comin' together to be
340
00:18:50,588 --> 00:18:52,924
a really incredible scene.
341
00:18:54,467 --> 00:18:57,303
I think Alan pretty much got,
an incredible
342
00:18:57,303 --> 00:18:59,431
battle sequence that he's put together.
343
00:19:00,849 --> 00:19:02,225
Really proud to be a part of that.
344
00:19:02,851 --> 00:19:07,647
You're in the middle of something so huge
that the kind of thing that, as actors,
345
00:19:07,647 --> 00:19:09,107
you don't get to do very often.
346
00:19:10,066 --> 00:19:11,901
Alright, mate. Thanks, Alan.
347
00:19:11,901 --> 00:19:15,405
You just have to pinch yourself
every so often that you're on this thing.
348
00:19:15,405 --> 00:19:18,742
I sincerely doubt I'll ever be
a part of this grand
349
00:19:18,867 --> 00:19:23,496
scene again for the rest of my career,
so I felt very, very lucky.
350
00:19:24,581 --> 00:19:28,460
It's the hardest thing that I've ever done
as a producer and a showrunner
351
00:19:28,460 --> 00:19:29,878
and frankly, as a writer.
352
00:19:30,545 --> 00:19:32,964
But I'm very, very proud of the result.