Dracarys.
(DROGON ROARS)
STEVE KULLBACK:
and they need to be turned around faster
and this whole journey of
has been one of figuring out how to rise to that occasion.
JOE BAUER:
all the time. All eyes are on us,
and we're trying to do things that nobody's done before.
But showing up each year
with a new stack of things to do, that is fun.
It's much more than a job. It is our way of life.
(ICE CRACKLES)
There's a lot about working on a project like this
that's like joining the circus.
We move 10,000 miles away from home
and we put up our tent to put on our little show
and then we tear the tent down and move it somewhere else.
We have four supervisors
on the ground with us starting out.
Now we have 24 previous people, 3 additional supervisors.
KULLBACK:
multiple visual effects, editors,
and the team that works with me sort of in air traffic control
has grown to five and six strong,
and there's quite a bit of air traffic
to control at this point.
-(HORSES WHINNY) -(DROGON ROARS)
The biggest challenge for visual effects
is defining what the workload is.
From the scripts, we have a really good general idea
of what we're doing, but for us,
it comes down to the individual shots.
Every shot defines a method.
(DRAGON SCREECHES)
Seasons two and three, we were looking at
six and eight hundred shots in a given season.
Now we're looking at multiples of that
in a single episode.
It's a remarkable demand on our team.
BAUER:
because we've done so many,
but the one that's in my mind right now is the frozen lake.
Viserion does this strafe, which we follow,
and then we tilt up just in time for Drogon with Dany on his back
to land on the island,
and we're running with the wights toward the dragon.
And he strafes us and wipes us all out.
(VISERION SHRIEKS)
KULLBACK:
We're contributing what is effectively
a character in the show
that needs to behave in a way that elicits
an emotional response from the viewer.
It's a really special thing as a visual effects person
to be able to play that kind of a role.
You can tell when the animators get very excited
about what they're doing, and they start making
really gorgeous performance.
When the Night King puts his hand on the dead dragon,
and the camera's scraping right along the scales.
I mean, all of that had to look absolutely real.
What I'm going to miss the most is the daily creative exercise.
I'm not kidding.
We've done more than 10,000 visual effects shots.
I don't expect to ever be able to work with a group of people
who are as devoted and talented and determined
to do the best thing for this long.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime perfect storm moment
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.
What are we gonna miss about it?
Oh my God, all of that.
This is certainly very memorable. (CHUCKLES)
I don't know what the emotional impact's gonna be
when we finally deliver the last shot
'cause I've been 100 percent living this show
year-round for five years.
I think it's going to be a big life change for everybody.
(DRAGON ROARS)