1. We'll Fix It In Post
Episode Ten: Valar Morghulis Commentators: VFX Supervisor Rainer Gombos and VFX Producer Steve Kullback David Benioff, Dan Weiss, and the fantastic ensemble of actors (whose characters are still alive) may be the faces of Game of Thrones, but one of the benefits of commentary tracks or any other features that pull back the curtains on such elaborate productions is that it introduces viewers to the unseen and woefully under-appreciated craftsmen and craftswomen whose work is simultaneously invaluable to the greatness of the show, yet largely overlooked by viewers. Oddly enough, when it comes to the VFX team responsible for Game of Thrones, you can't necessarily blame the viewers for not giving guys like Rainer Gombos and Steve Kullback their due praise because the fact that everything seems so par for the course in Westeros speak to just how great these guys are at their jobs. He's a bit tied up now with
House of Cards, but David Fincher would be a great fit to direct an episode of Game of Thrones because the show approaches visual effects in the same way he does: supplementing and expanding a world rather than fully creating one. Many regular locations in Westeros that we've gotten so familiar with and seem so natural are actually surprisingly less complete and more manufactured than we'd initially realize. For instance, while King Joffrey's throne room was constructed on a sound stage, the set was nowhere near big enough to create the entire thing. Computers were used extensively in the expansion of the throne room, increasing the height of the columns and windows and extending the room back to make it seem more cavernous. To fill up this digitally expanded room, the VFX team utilize digital extras as well. Whenever there was a scene that required extras - Ned's beheading, Joffrey's coronation, etc. - the crew would set up a large green screen and shoot the extras in various stages of milling about or standing. That way, no matter what the location or the scene, the VFX team would have stores of extras footage ready to be inserted anywhere if a location needed to appear more populated than it actually was. Winterfell, though now destroyed, also appeared as intimidating as it was because of a mixture of seamless digital extension (you think those pillars really go that high?) and matte paintings (you think there was actually a castle on fire in the distance as Bran, Rickon, Hodor and Osha fled?). The Houses of the Undying is one instance of a structure being entirely created for the show (sorry - there's no such enigmatic, monolithic structure standing in Croatia), but post work was also required to clean up the location as well. While the actual tower doesn't exist, the walls around it do and digital removal of the trees and buildings that rose above the wall was required to make the location seem more isolated. And the closing sequence between Sam and the White Walkers? Another seamless mixture of shooting on location, in front of a green screen and, you guessed it, replication and addition of digital extras. All in all, Gambos and Kullback say that Season 2 includes
875 VFX shotsand I challenge anyone to point all of them out. The fact that every shot, every building, every person and every blade of grass feels like they belong
exactly where they are is a testament to the flawless work that these guys do on a regular basis.