A new video launched by HBO offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the making of the visual effects in Game of Thrones. Steve Kullback, the HBO show’s VFX producer, begins the video by calling his work much more than a job: “It is a way of life.”
Featuring, among others, Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Sophie Turner, the eighth and concluding season of Game of Thrones will be premiered on April 14 (April 15 India time on Star World and Hotstar). The previous seasons are being streamed on Hotstar.
“Things need to be shot faster and they need to be turned around faster,” Kullback said in the video. The stunning effects and sets are the result of the efforts of numerous supervisors, editors and concept artists, he adds. “There is a lot about working on a project like this, it is like joining the circus,” Kullback explained. “We move 10,000 miles away from home, put up our tent to put on our little show and then we tear the tent down and move it somewhere else.”
The biggest challenge was to define the workload and meet expectations, supervisor Joe Bauer added. “From the scripts we have a general idea of what we are doing, but for us it comes down to the individual shots and every shot defines a method,” he said. “All eyes are on us and we are trying to do things that no one has done before. We have done more than 10,000 visual effects shots.”
The death of Daenerys Targaryen’s dragon Viserion in the seventh season finale was an “amazing moment” to create, Kullback recalled. “We are contributing what is effectively a character in the show that needs to behave in a way that elicits an emotional response from the viewer,” he explained.
The show’s ending is going to cause an emotional impact on the team, Bauer added: “It’s going to be a big life change for everybody.”
Also read:
Reading list: 25 articles to keep you occupied until the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ lands
Watch: How the ‘Game of Thrones’ prosthetic team created the Night King and the wights
‘Game of Thrones’ final season will have the ‘longest consecutive battle sequence’, says ‘EW’ report
Jon Snow actor Kit Harington on the GoT season finale: ‘Everyone was broken at the end’