♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
My goal, whenever I produce,
whether it's on something small or big,
is to create that family.
You engender an atmosphere
where everybody does their best work.
BERNADETTE CAULFIELD:
The success, the safety of it, and the joy in it
is really what I always try to instill.
CHRIS NEWMAN:
the better it is. There's no doubt about that.
I love building things. I love the fact that we build.
I love the fact that we create.
I love the fact that we get to explore new places.
You know, travel to Spain and Croatia and Iceland.
All that's fantastic. But, quite honestly,
the best part of the job has been working
with the people here.
It's stunning to see the journey, really.
All those early mornings,
and all our hard work, and all these things we built,
actually make it to the screen.
It-- It's so rewarding.
It's been eight seasons for a reason.
There's all these characters' stories
that have all got to be told.
(YELLS)
The journey of
how to rise to that occasion.
Before it hits the screen, it has to come off the set.
And, you know,
I'm lucky enough to have had one of those pivotal roles,
to capture those moments.
(YELLING)
SEAN SAVAGE:
(SWORDS CLANGING)
SAVAGE:
(CLAMORING)
SAVAGE:
(SHATTERING)
SAVAGE:
the ice lake.
So many surprises.
-(RUMBLING, CRASHING) -(PEOPLE CLAMORING)
SAVAGE:
to shoot all those epic, epic scenes.
(SWORDS CLANGING)
(PEOPLE YELLING)
There isn't one shot, I don't think, on
where we're not involved in some form.
Anything that's got quite a lot of destruction in it, that's the best part.
(FIRE ROARING)
(WIGHTS SHRIEKING)
Whether it be flaming swords...
smoke...
the falling snow, to the fire...
to the rain...
The Wall explosion.
(EXPLOSION ERUPTS)
SAM CONWAY:
(DRAGON ROARS)
Covering people with blood. (LAUGHS)
(CROWD CLAMORING)
The nature of the story of
and the-- and the landscape it's set in
has really thrown it at us.
Tonight, we fight!
SAVAGE:
snowstorms, wind.
Those, technically, have challenged us
to our sort of limit, I'd say.
(WIND WHISTLING)
♪ (GRAND MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
I arrived in Belfast for the production of season four.
And I think my greatest achievement that year
was the Meereen audience chamber.
And when I saw that structure,
I suddenly realized just how fantastic
the people are who work here. And...
what an incredible thing to get to build.
All we ever wanted to do was to be able to
take an audience somewhere that they've never been before.
(RUMBLING)
TERRY PALMER:
That just turned out fantastic. It, you know, even now,
talking about it, I'm getting-- the hairs on my arms stand up.
CONWAY:
and it was only one take for the one big, long strafe.
What was scary was getting the timings right
with the cable cam,
'cause that had to remain in shot the whole time
as it was going over,
so we had to match their speed throughout the whole run.
The most nerve-wracking part was actually pressing the button.
(EXPLOSIONS POPPING)
JOE BAUER:
on a motion-control rig,
so that, uh, we would then have real fire.
And if we believed the fire, then we'd believe the dragon.
(FIRE BURSTING)
We did 20 fire burns in one shot during Loot Train.
That was the shield wall and everyone getting hit.
(FIRE BURSTING)
(EXPLOSIONS POPPING)
DIRECTOR: One! Two! Three!
We burned more people than anybody else, basically.
(FIRE ERUPTS)
But it was kind of the biggest thing at that point
Game of Thrones
Our goal was to make sure that we can make it the best
it can be on-screen.
(RUMBLING)
(DRAGON ROARING)
(HORSE WHINNIES)
SAVAGE:
of those eight years was,
it's a scene within the Battle of the Bastards,
when Jon Snow is forced to the ground and then trampled.
And this seemingly immortal hero of ours
looks like he's close to the end.
It's something that Miguel Sapochnik,
the director, put into the show.
It wasn't entirely scripted like that.
Kit went to ground, I stood over him,
and these stunt guys piled in.
(GRUNTS)
You had to see that the light closed up,
sort of, on Kit's face, and at that point,
I just urged Kit to get off the ground
and stand up again.
And I think you can see that's it's--
it is a true struggle.
(GRUNTS, GASPS)
BoB was, by far, the biggest single scene
in the show.
CREWMEMBER: Action!
SAVAGE:
solidly for 23 days,
and the ambition that Miguel had was a huge challenge.
(ALL SHOUTING)
So, each year, it got bigger and bigger and bigger.
-Cut. -We only had six wights filming season four,
but that was a huge thing for us at the time.
Cut to Hardhome the following year, it just exploded.
(WIGHTS SHRIEKING)
BARRIE GOWER:
people are quite aware with how extensive it is.
We had so many patient actors sit in our chair
for, like, four, six, or eight hours
since 3:00 a.m. or whatever in the morning.
So, by the time you usually step on set to do a rehearsal,
we've already pretty much done a full day's work.
-So, to then film...
GOWER: ...and to have our fun on set making sure
everything's not falling off people for 12 hours,
people are quite unaware of the length of time
and the process that goes into these things.
(GRUNTING)
For visual effects,
it comes down to the individual shots.
Every shot defines a method, a technique.
STEVE KULLBACK:
we were looking at six and 800 shots
in a given season.
(DRAGON SCREECHES)
KULLBACK:
It was a remarkable demand on our team.
(EXPLOSION)
PALMER:
your heart is definitely in blowing stuff up.
CONWAY:
you know you've done a good job.
(EXPLOSIONS ECHO)
Game of Thrones
and you think you can see the horizon,
and you get to the top, and there's another horizon.
I'm quite glad to know that I'm seeing the last horizon.
The journey is complete.
I've been 100 percent living this show year round for five years.
I'm not kidding. We've done more than 10,000 visual effects shots.
CAULFIELD:
I think a lot of it surprises us
because you're just running as fast as you can.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE SHOUTING)
CAULFIELD:
was put towards that effort.
KULLBACK:
where a bunch of insanely creative people
come together to pull out something that none of us
thought could be done, would be done, should be done,
but this is certainly very memorable. (CHUCKLES)
RILEY:
to be able to have a front row seat at--
at how they make this thing.
What a great thing to be a part of.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
It's only gonna be every once in a while
that you get an opportunity like this in your career.
Game of Thrones
We're just overwhelmingly grateful
just to have been part of such a huge success.
(YELLING)
CONWAY:
all the build-up, all the design,
fabricating, testing, you know, all the time spent
has just all paid off.
PALMER:
and you know, it's fantastic.
(ROARS)
ROWLEY IRLAM:
and I have enjoyed every moment of it.
It's nice to say, "I did that. That was mine."
(YELLS) You wanna fight?
SAVAGE: Game of Thrones
It's the right time, right place.
It's a legacy of mine,
which, you know, I'll carry forever.
(CHEERING)
This crew had the passion to do it.
They are so proud of what ended up on that screen,
and we'll always have,
you know, each other in our hearts.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪