Game Of Thrones Directing
Each ten-episode season of Game of Thrones had four to six directors, who usually directed back-to-back episodes.[135] Alan Taylor directed seven episodes, the most of any director.[136] Alex Graves, David Nutter, Mark Mylod, and Jeremy Podeswa directed six episodes each.[137] Daniel Minahan directed five episodes, and Michelle MacLaren, Alik Sakharov, and Miguel Sapochnik directed four each; MacLaren is the only female director of the entire series's run.[138] Brian Kirk directed three episodes during the first season, and Tim Van Patten directed the series's first two episodes.[139] Neil Marshall directed two episodes, both with large battle scenes: "Blackwater" and "The Watchers on the Wall".[140] Other directors include Jack Bender, David Petrarca, Daniel Sackheim, Michael Slovis and Matt Shakman.[141] David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have directed two episodes together but were credited with only one each, which was determined after a coin toss.[77] For season eight, David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik, who worked on previous episodes, directed the first five episodes.[142] Benioff and Weiss were credited as both the writers and directors of the show finale "The Iron Throne".[143]
Production design
External video
video icon HBO promotional video detailing the research and design of the show's costumes, YouTube video
Michele Clapton was the costume designer for Game of Thrones' first five seasons before she was replaced by April Ferry.[144] Clapton returned to the series as its costume designer for the seventh season.[145] For the first three seasons, Paul Engelen was Game of Thrones' main makeup designer and prosthetic makeup artist with Melissa Lackersteen, Conor O'Sullivan, and Rob Trenton. At the beginning of the fourth season, Engelen's team was replaced by Jane Walker and her crew, composed of Ann McEwan and Barrie and Sarah Gower.[146][147] Over 130 makeup artists and prosthetic designers worked on the show.[148][149]
The designs for the series's costumes were inspired by several sources, such as Japanese and Persian armor.[150][151] Dothraki dress resembles that of the Bedouin (one was made of fish skins to resemble dragon scales), and the Wildlings wear animal skins like the Inuit.[152] Wildling bone armor is made from molds of actual bones and is assembled with string and latex resembling catgut.[153] Although the extras who played Wildlings and the Night's Watch often wore hats (normal in a cold climate), members of the principal cast usually did not so viewers could recognize them. Björk's Alexander McQueen high-neckline dresses inspired Margaery Tyrell's funnel-neck outfit, and prostitutes' dresses were designed for easy removal.[152] All the clothing used during the production was aged for two weeks, so it had a realistic appearance on high-definition television.[153]
About two dozen wigs were used by the actresses. Made of human hair and up to 61 centimetres (2 ft) in length, they cost up to $7,000 each and were washed and styled like real hair. Applying the wigs was time-consuming; Emilia Clarke, for example, required about two hours to style her brunette hair with a platinum-blonde wig and braids. Other actors, such as Jack Gleeson and Sophie Turner, received frequent hair coloring. For characters such as Daenerys (Clarke) and her Dothraki, their hair, wigs and costumes were processed to appear as if they had not been washed for weeks.[152]
Visual effects
For the large number of visual effects used in the series, HBO hired British-based BlueBolt and Irish-based Screen Scene for season one. Most of the environment builds were done as 2.5D projections, giving viewers perspective while keeping the programming from being overwhelming.[154] In 2011, the season one finale, "Fire and Blood", was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.[146] The visual effects crew consisted of both on-set VFX supervisors and concept artists along with visual effect editors in post-production.[155]
Because the effects became more complex in subsequent seasons (including CGI creatures, fire, and water), German-based Pixomondo became the lead visual effects producer; nine of its twelve facilities contributed to the project for season two, with Stuttgart the lead studio.[156][157] Scenes were also produced by British-based Peanut FX, Canadian-based Spin VFX, and US-based Gradient Effects. "Valar Morghulis" and "Valar Dohaeris" earned Pixomondo Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in 2012 and 2013, respectively.[146]
HBO added German-based Mackevision to the project in season four.[158] The season four finale, "The Children", won the 2014 Emmy Award for Visual Effects. Additional producers for season four included Canadian-based Rodeo FX, German-based Scanline VFX and US-based BAKED FX. The muscle and wing movements of the adolescent dragons in seasons four and five were based largely on those of a chicken. Pixomondo retained a team of 22 to 30 people focused solely on visualizing Daenerys Targaryen's dragons, with the average production time per season of 20 to 22 weeks.[159] For the fifth season, HBO added Canadian-based Image Engine and US-based Crazy Horse Effects to its list of main visual-effects producers.[160][161] Visual effect supervisor Joe Bauer said that the VFX team worked on more than "10,000 shots of visual effects" throughout all eight seasons.[162] More than 300 artists worked on the show's visual effects team.[163] The show won eight Creative Arts Emmy Awards for visual effects, winning for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in seven consecutive seasons.[164][165]
Title sequence
Main article: Game of Thrones title sequence
The series's title sequence was created for HBO by production studio Elastic.[166] Creative director Angus Wall and his collaborators received the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Main Title Design for the sequence,[167] which depicts a three-dimensional map of the series's fictional world. The map is projected on the inside of a sphere which is centrally lit by a small sun in an armillary sphere.[168] As the camera moves across the map, focusing on the locations of the episode's events, clockwork mechanisms intertwine and allow buildings and other structures to emerge from the map. Accompanied by the title music, the names of the principal cast and creative staff appear. The sequence concludes after about 90 seconds with the title card and brief opening credits detailing the episode's writer(s) and director. Its composition changes as the story progresses, with new locations replacing those featuring less prominently or not at all.[168][169] Entertainment Weekly named the title sequence one of the best on television, calling it an "all-inclusive cruise of Westeros"