4. Incredible Iceland
Episode Six: The Old Gods and the New and Episode Seven: A Man Without Honor Commentators: Episode writer Vanessa Taylor, Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Rose Leslie (Ygritte) (Episode Six), Co-executive producers/co-creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss (Episode Seven) There were more lands of Westeros to explore in Season 2 and thus, more locations that needed to be added for shooting. Aside from Craster's Keep, anything north of The Wall was shot in Iceland; or, as it's been referred to by those who have been there, Heaven on Earth. It might not have seen like Heaven on Earth to the cast and crew, of course, because shooting took place hours outside of the quaint capital city of Reykjavik - where more than half the country's population lives - in the uninhabitable glacial area of the country. where 0% of the population lives. Iceland is located so far north that the sun never goes down at the peak of summer and never comes up at the peak of winter. December isn't
quite the peak of winter, but it was toeing the line enough where the cast and crew had only 5 hours of daylight during which to shoot each day from 10AM - 3PM and it wasn't as though everyone could just camp out on the 10,000-year old glacier every night and day. Everyone had to make the multi-hour round trip to and from the location everyday. Harrington describes the daily routine as 'up at 6, on set by 8, film by 10, back to the hotel by 4, drink by 4:30.' You see, just because there was a hotel, that doesn't mean that there was civilization nearby. Harrington says that there was 'nothing anywhere' so the primary means by which cast and crew kept themselves entertained after shooting was to drink at the hotel bar until it was time to go to sleep. In order to mix up the apparent monotony of drinking every day, Benioff and Weiss report that some crew members would actually chip off bits of the glacier and take them back to the hotel just to be able to say that the ice in their glass was 10,000 years old. I did previously mention the multiple VFX shots required in A Man Without Honor in the scene between Jon and Ygritte and while those shots did take place in Iceland, the effects were needed simply for the purpose of correcting the weather. With the exception of the shot looking down on Mance Rayder's camp, no CGI was otherwise used anywhere in scenes north of The Wall. Those beautiful vistas, vibrant blues, towering mountains and breathtaking skies were all brought to you courtesy of incredible Iceland.