I am naming my first daughter ALEXA.

Published in

New Media Photography

8 min readApr 5, 2016

The filming techniques behind hit television series Game of Thrones.

Setting the Stage

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and imagine a different world. This world is filled with dragons, magic powers, castles, wizards, and more.

This world is not Hogwarts from Harry Potter, but an even more outlandish setting where anything you could possibly imagine can happen. This is a world where medieval meets fantasy, where love meets deception.

This world is unlike anything you have seen before — this is the world of Game of Thrones.

Written by George R.R. Martin, this best-selling book series titled “A Song of Ice and Fire” has sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and has been translated into at least 45 languages. Impressive, right? However, the reason for my research on this topic is not to prove how awesome the series is (because my paper would only need to be a sentence to prove that); but rather a collaboration of sources explaining how the television series is made and my prediction on how the next season will be filmed.

I had you imagine this bizarre world earlier which is hard to do, but now imagine creating it….

Production

Development

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss read the first novel in the series, they knew it would be an instant TV success.

The two directors started to develop the series in January 2007. HBO acquired the TV rights to the novels, hired Benioff and Weiss to write and executive produce the series. The pilot reportedly cost HBO upwards of $10 million dollars, with an estimated budget for the first season of $50–60 million dollars US. Game of Thrones also has a per-episode budget averaging $6 million.

Behind-the-Lens

If you were to ask the average viewer how Game of Thrones was shot, they would probably have no idea but they would be thankful to whoever did know. Well until this project, I was one of those people. I figured lots of special effects were used, but other than that I did not know any specifics until I read an interview with Anette Haellmigk, one of the cinematographers in the series. The show shoots with the ARRI Alexa, which as Haellmigk says, “is a workhorse and an easy transition from film to HD. It is very consistent and user-friendly.”

Haellmigk grew up in Germany, so Arriflex cameras were commonplace (ARRI is headquartered in Munich). However, she expressed some minor concern at first in developing some of the episodes. Game of Thrones is renowned for its unique, yet consistent look. For example one of the main settings in the show, King’s Landing, is Mediterranean and warm, so the lighting needs to be similar throughout every episode.

Marco Pontecorvo, one of the cinematographic masters of the show, shared his viewpoint of the ARRI ALEXA cameras. In the article, Pontecorvo stresses of the remarkable latitude of the camera. At first, I was unsure what this meant. As I conducted more research, I realized that this means that the camera gave the film a nice curve, making it more realistic to the viewers.

Pontecorvo continues singing ALEXA’s praises in the article. He goes on explaining the dynamic range he was able to capture. Shooting with a high contrast ratio, with strong shafts of light and lots of shadow. During shots in Northern Ireland for example, the range could easily be from T2.8 to T22. This is where ALEXA’s dynamic capabilities stood out and the producers now did not have to stress when shooting in situations with extreme highlights and shadows.

Let’s do another mental imaging again… Close your eyes again and now picture yourself in a dark room, with the only light coming from candles. If you take a regular photograph, one might only see the candles in the picture.. However, let’s take this shoot up a level and say you have to capture even the most delicate details in the scene. After all, remember this is set in the medieval times so candles were used a lot in the filming of Game of Thrones

How would you accomplish this?

You might say, “Well the producers obviously controlled all the elements to manipulate the lighting,” and in most cases you might be right. But in a shoot as difficult and dynamic as Game of Thrones, the producers could not solely rely on their artistic eye. Instead, once again they found the solution with ALEXA.

Alik Sakharov, another producer on Game of Thrones, connected with ARRI to talk about his experiences. He said, “The colorist sent me a message and said that I obviously knew what I was doing because the image was perfect, but I had no idea what I was doing, I just relied on the camera!”

“I just relied on the camera!”

Viewing Rushes

Another big concern when shooting any television show or movie, is figuring out how to control your rushes. Well for any of you out there that were not familiar with the term (like myself) I will save you the small embarrassment of googling “rushes for dummies” on the Internet like I may or may not have done…. Instead, here is a screenshot of the definition.

As I learned, rushes are basically raw footage. So, it makes perfect sense that this is an everlasting question to Game of Thrones fans — how do you turn that footage into an Emmy award-winning TV show?

Sakharov explains in an interview with ARRI (previously referenced), that the first step was determining the recording solutions. The production team recorded to HDCAM SR and simultaneously to SxS cards. Next, the cards were plugged into the computer so in the proper look could be applied to the references and stills. Although this might be more of an orthodox method to viewing rushes, that was the daily routine of the crew. This eliminated some workflow so the team could focus more on the creative side of the projects.

Scene-by-Scene Breakdown

Watch this video and be amazed.

Yeah, that’s what I thought… Now let’s get down to busy. How the hell did they film this intense scene? Supervising producers, Luke Groves and Doug Campbell, weighed in on this question in this article from SPINVFX.

The climbing of the wall scene was comprised of over 80 shots. Spin was responsible for creating a 700 foot wall, which was a couple miles in length in real world scale. This wall held up from any distance and any angle, allowing the shot to be taken from almost any sequence.

The scene needed to be realistic, so it had to have the action play out in real time. The crew had cameras set up from several different ranges and scales, so shooting the sequences would create a “sense of scale and continuity over the sequence,” SPIN writes.

“The Ice Wall was one of the most compelling sequences for us. The 3D build provided the camera range required to deliver the drama and fear of the climb, and of course, the realism of the ice slide,” says Campbell.

To make the scene even more believable, expert climbers gave advice on climbing techniques in this article. However, some of the climbing approaches and tools had to be downgraded to seem more realistic to the time period Game of Thrones is set in.

Now I must admit, while conducting my research on this scene it appears this epic ice slide scene might not be completely realistic to a real-life situation. However, that is part of the magic and allure behind Game of Thrones… Sometimes life isn’t supposed to be 100% realistic. So, my advice for watching this scene: forget the facts and physics — just sit back and enjoy the genius and magic of Game of Thrones.

Next Steps

Hopefully this has been a beneficial read for you and your understanding of the filming behind Game of Thrones. For all of you who have not been a fan or follower of this show, there is good news: season 6 is released on April 24 (I am counting down the days…)

As a result of this soon release, I am predicting several things about the new season. Besides some of my character and plot predictions, I can now make an educated guess on the camera style that will be used thanks to the research I conducted throughout this assignment.

I believe the producers, directors, and cinematographic experts will continue using the ARRI ALEXA for the shoots due to its details in highlights, noiseless images in very low light conditions. ALEXA recommended ISO is 800.

I am predicting that some of the shoots will require several different sets. As in the previous seasons, shooting took place in Croatia, Northern Ireland, and anywhere in between. However, you face a problem with consistency in shooting in several locations.

When shooting scenes for King’s Landing (picture 1), there will need to be softer lighting; whereas when shooting scenes for the Wall (picture 2), harsher lighting should be used.

Handheld cameras might be used for battle scenes and other up-close and personal shoots, but crane and dolly will definitely be used periodically. Overall, I believe the season will follow similar characteristics from the previous successful seasons.

On April 24, I look forward to experiencing another world with you. Be prepared, for Winter is Coming.