it is funny that we were very proud of
ourselves for doing this we thought we
were being very clever we thought this
was revolutionary television and we
killed our main character and then we
started season 2 we thought oh
we've killed our main character hi I'm
Alan Taylor director of this episode
Baylor's episode 9 of season 1 game of
Thrones and this is notes on a scene
the scene we're showing today is comes
at the end of the episode it's the
combination of several storylines what
we're seeing is the public confession of
Ned Stark who is lying but having
committed treason in order to buy off
his freedom and the safety of his
daughters and it doesn't go as he
intends if you want more backstory you
can google it it winds up being quite a
major event in the series and my
approach was to therefore cover it like
it was nothing it culminates in
something terrible that's about to
happen I'm sure none of you know about
that yet we had a very conscious choice
not to amp it up not to do
sensational shots but just to shoot it
as though we recovering dialogue and the
most horrible thing in the world happens
this is Arya Stark one of Ned's
daughters who is just realizing that
something's going on it involves her
father for me the scene kind of starts
here there's a little detail where she's
killed a bird because she's trying to
survive on the streets and here we see
her dropped the dead bird the bird
imagery is something that carries over
to later doing a scene like this point
of view was incredibly important and the
only way we found a structure it was to
think of it and this is something that
my DP said actually Alex Sakharov it's
really a story about a father and two
daughters and so we followed their
points of view through what to us at the
time was a big scene and the point of
view begins with aria here it's funny
watching it now and seeing just how
small and sort of rinky-dink the scene
is because Game of Thrones has gone on
to be very well funded by HBO but at
this stage of season one no one had seen
the show yet we had no idea if it had an
audience or not and we didn't have a
dime so this is the establishing shot of
the scene and I wanted to do it through
the daughters point of view but you'll
see the shot we used is kind of strange
it tilts up into the sky for no apparent
reason and then tilts back down to show
the real scene and the stage first of
all it's charming by Game of Thrones
standards now because we haven't not
nearly enough extras here the most
telling thing is that shot was designed
to show us the awesome architecture of
the Sept of Baelor which is this sort of
dome-like structure it covers the whole
square that we only lost in post so the
shot remains but not the structure my
watching now I see just how little money
we had at the time but it's I think it
still packs an emotional punch so the
scene continues from here once you've
established it with Ned Stark
being brought out
a structure for shooting a list to
connect him to his daughters so the only
time we sort of amp up the coverage was
pushing in on Aria and later on we do
the same shot on Sansa it's the only
time we do it kind of over-the-top crane
in shot everything else is more standard
coverage but the important thing was to
sort of position the two daughters and
watch the scene from their point of view
so as the crane shot completes itself we
tilt down to the crowd and you know we
couldn't afford those guys and Gemma
Jackson did an amazing job with what she
had but really the entire set is
consists of these banners I think we
probably argued over how many we could
afford and she built the stage that
we're on everything else's Architecture
from Malta I think we probably shot this
in two days it only became crazy in
later episodes
last episode I did was the frozen lake
battle and the last season and that was
crazy
75 days or something which you know as
opposed to your usual week or two so at
this point it was still it was not out
of hand it was not extremely I think the
scene is strong and the scene works but
it's almost entirely because of what
came before that we care deeply about
this guy we think he's the star of the
show we know he's the moral conscience
of the show and we care about his
daughters thanks to wonderful writing
and their great performances and so it
comes to this moment and all the works
been done already the audience really
cares about these people we did little
things to make it seem like he might be
saved I mean I think it's it's
unrealistic but we see Aria draw her
sword and we know she's badass and so I
think portion of the audience thinks
that she's gonna run up and lead a
revolution and people will you know save
her father and we knew we were messing
with expectations and structure and so
throughout the season you shot him as
though he was the hero and then we did
this sort of perverse thing in episode 9
it is funny that we were very proud of
ourselves for doing this we thought we
were being very clever we thought this
was revolutionary television and we
killed our main character and then we
started season 2 we thought oh
we've killed our main character and we
realized there's a reason why you don't
do that because you depend on the
audience being invested and carrying
through his season 2 and we do yanked
out you know they're one of their main
reasons for being there but for this
moment in the scene we still are
shooting this as though Ned Stark is the
big hero of Game of Thrones carrying on
Ned is doing the best he can we couldn't
afford the visual effects so that was a
real rock but it was a foam rubber rock
being tossed at his head nowadays that
would be a visual effect and we had
blood the visual effect and all the
actor have to do is toss his head but
this was the old days and with no money
so this is a piece of foam rubber
he tosses his head makeup artist runs in
from the side and puts red in his
forehead and we continue them the scene
I'd like to cover the entire scene on
actors so that they aren't just
repeating out little spots there they
have the whole scene to play we have
three cameras going at once so while
we're covering Joffrey's close-up we're
probably getting Songz's close-up or
series close-up at the same time we're a
three shot of them that's helpful
because the performances match across
different frames but it's just also the
only way to get through it seem like
this they're all so good we're also
ready for this big scene that we
probably did like three takes or
something of people this shots kind of
funded to jazz things up a little bit
sweep up around Aria as she reacts to
the crowd around her it sort of starts
to amp things up from what has been
standard coverage up till now
Joffrey calls for Ned Stark's head and
he summons Circle in pain who is a
played by Wilco a famous rock and roller
he was in a band called dr. feelgood and
he has one of the great faces of rock
and roll in great faces of cinema I'm a
huge fan of ed Sheeran my son's a huge
fan of nature and we went to see him but
when he turned up on the show fan
reaction was not so positive which is
odd not sure why but here it all started
with Wilco that great name and that
great phase circle in pain and
perversely he's using Ned Stark's own
sword which was really heavy didn't have
that many takes that he could pick it up
and swing it all of our weapons were
built by armors for the show I mean all
the ones that are featured this sword
has a has a history because in the pilot
we we seen Ned Stark chop off the head
of a a guy who's been accused of fleeing
the Nights Watch and he has a beautiful
line with his son saying the man who
passes the sentence should swing the
sword which is just an insight into
Ned's integrity and taking
responsibility and so for Bruce Lee it's
that sword that's being used to dispatch
him today of all the things we did one
things I'm most happy with is how we
handled sound in this stretch it sounds
the crowd drop out and a few things are
going on we lose the ambient sound the
crowd we go to Ned's subjective
experience we hear his breathing it
takes us into his head and that serve
extreme frame of mind you get into when
something terrible is about to happen
there's also a quality to this shot
which is hyper real there's something
about the lighting the focus on him it
is sort of uncanny and it's that way for
a reason because from this point on
we're using a layering of elements the
background plate of the architecture was
married to a shot of Sean Bean that was
shot on stage under controlled
circumstances so that we could chop his
head off this shot and it's become the
most important shot for me it's
I didn't mean to use it this way but the
last thing we seen Head Start look at is
the absence of his daughter so he knows
he saved her she's been taken away she
won't be captured she won't be watching
him die and so he's got that sort of
slight moment of redemption at the end
and just looking at beautiful and Sean
beans beautiful performance and what
he's capturing in his eyes as he gets
ready to leave this world and leave his
daughters still gets to me maybe because
I have two daughters Sean is doing
amazing performance on stage in Belfast
everything else in the frame is shot in
Malta including Circle in pain and the
swinging sword ice so he's basically
through through the air and we're
marrying that and we had a dummy a body
dummy that stopped at the neck and he's
swinging his blade in front of that
Sean's head was shot in Belfast his
performance was shot in Belfast and we
did in such a way that the camera was on
Ned and in the moment of his death the
camera boomed up very quickly which she
gave me effect over the head seemed to
roll forward so we could have dropped
the head like a watermelon and it was
decided that was just one step too
horrible so this is all multo this if
you frame through very slowly you'll see
the sword actually passes through his
neck so there's the blade it's just
passed through his head in a kind of
impossible way because we shot these
those different elements we commit to it
we see the blade actually passed through
but we don't stick around for the what
follows in the moment his death that
stops abruptly and we transferred to his
daughter aria is breathing and it's the
last time we hear in the episode is her
breathing on the edge of tears and we
hear the flutter of wings which is a
practical thing because there's birds
there but also what kind of transcendent
thing it's her breathing and her gaze up
to the sky and the sound of the wing
isn't the sound of her breathing that
ends the there's a Ned Stark is no more
she will be a major character going
forward we end the episode with her
breathing in her sort of desperation she
just looks up to the heavens and she
sees Locke of birds going overhead and
it's a scene that started with her
murdering a bird and it ends with the
birds are alive and her father's gone
the wave of reaction none of us saw
coming and especially for me seeing this
one and seeing online people react to
the death of this guy and the
demographic is recovered he ever you
know
ethnicity every economic category had
really invested in that stark and saw
him is there there guy
so it was that was amazing and beautiful