8. The Wolves of Winterfell
Episode One: The North Remember" and Episode Ten: Valar Morghulis Commentators: Co-executive producers/co-creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss (Episode One), VFX Supervisor Rainer Gombos and VFX Producer Steve Kullback (Episode Ten) Ever since Episode One of Season 1, wherever a Stark has gone a direwolf was close behind. In Season 1, the creative team had the benefit of using real dogs as believable fill ins for the direwolves since the duration from the beginning of the season to the end would not have been long enough to see the young animals grow into what should be their intimidating wolfish size. However, Season 2 sees the Starks and their wolves having grown a little bit older and a little bit bigger. Despite their similarities, dogs and wolves are still two entirely different breeds of mammal, specifically evidenced in how huge full grown wolves tend to be vs. full grown dogs. Therefore, the option of continuing to use dogs for the Starks' direwolves was taken off the table, but it was also obviously too dangerous to shoot with real wolves. Benioff and Weiss admit to toying with using entirely CGI animals, but they, Gombos and Kullback all admit to wanting to stick with something real since A) viewers would be so used to the movements of real animals that entirely CGI creations would be painfully obvious and B) it would've been far too expensive considering how frequently the Starks with still living direwolves appear. The compromised they all settled on was a combination of real animals and digital enhancements. The direwolves -
real wolves, by the way - were shot on a green screen in Los Angeles with forced perspective in multiple angles and actions at a higher frame rate. Viewers will notice a slight other-worldly quality about the wolves, which is a result of the animals being scaled up and slowed down in post-production on account of a "Benny Hill" look when played back at normal speed. True, when it came time to shoot the actors still had to react to a tennis ball at the end of a pole, but at least when swapped out in post, what was replacing that tennis ball was something real.