George R. R. Martin wrote a new post on Not A Blog, covering a number of issues. Among them is a short paragraph on the progress of filming:
The first week of shooting in Belfast went well, I hear, although the weather screwed with them a bit and pretty much confined them to the Paint Hall. Wish I could have been there.
He also promises to discuss Charles Dance and a couple of other castings, but won’t be able to write about every role, as there are way too many.
Hear Me Roar: It seems that we were right in assuming that all the action is taking place in the Paint Hall these days. Hence the lack of reports and sightings … we are only a week in, though, so I am sure more will come. We wish the team as many fair days as they need! No wonder GRRM cannot deal with every known role individually – the cast currently stands at 60 strong, and there are more speaking roles to come, albeit minor.
Loading ...
45 Comments
Typically, you schedule all the on location in the beginning so that if weather doesn’t cooperate, you can fall back to studio scenes, so this makes perfect sense.
Critical GeekQuote Reply
This is our 40th post this month, we have never had so many, and never more than there are days in a month :)
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
I do not think it is so odd that we do not get more info on shooting.
I would say it is pretty normal situation.
We were lucky enough during the pilot principal photography of the pilot, that we got GRRM in Ireland and that Castle Doune set was open to public.
Then, more luck with the “Big fake mum-direwolf” pic.
I just do not think, unfortunately, that we would be so lucky this time around.
Though I hope, we would have some reports despite everything.
As one of the “information-geeks” I have urge to make a little list of all we know so far:
- the shooting of the tournament scene is scheduled for the second half of august.
- the night-watch plot is scheduled to start very soon.
- Winterfell – nothing before September.
- No word on Malta yet.
Feel free to add some info forget.
The RabbitQuote Reply
The Rabbit,
No, not odd at all. We’re pretty lucky, considering. Thank you for the list!
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
According to Wikipedia Belfast gets “significant precipitation” on 213 days in an average year. :)
LurkerQuote Reply
Lurker,
Hmm… it seems Winter is coming.
MorlunQuote Reply
Ireland tends (recent years certainly) to have decent weather in late May/June then lots of rain in July (I think there were 2 or 3 days in July this year where it did not rain where I am), August can be better but the last August I could describe as HOT was in 2006. September is usually ok and then it’s Winter ;-) .
MormegilQuote Reply
watching the USMNT in the Milk Cup final on BBC-NI webcast the sky looked grey and foreboding the whole game. my kind of weather, grey and dreary. but the rain did hold off til the end. almost every game of the Milk Cup that i watched was the same, gloomy but no real rain.
WhoIsJacopoBelbo?Quote Reply
Is it possible they will film King’s Landing exterior shots in Malta? Isn’t King’s Landing supposed to be hot? Then again, this is tv. I guess they can make cold northern Ireland look hot and they probably don’t want to construct King’s Landing sets in Malta.
furreverQuote Reply
Interesting that there will be no Winterfell scenes shot until September. That means much of the pilot reshoots won’t happen until several months into the production schedule. I realize this is normal for filming movies and tv series (i.e. not shooting things in chronological order, but rather in location order). I guess despite me knowing this, I for some reason was just wrongly assuming the first thing they’d do is completely reshoot the pilot, but obviously that would be silly. Thanks for the info Rabbit!
furreverQuote Reply
furrever,
During this fan-coverage of the process of filming – I have learnt a bunch of stuff concerning the film industry.
Somehow, if you just watch films at home or in cinema, you just do not think about the complex process behind it.
The RabbitQuote Reply
furrever,
I researched online and apparently fall foliage for Ireland is September through October, so by November the trees are naked. Since the pilot was shot in Oct/Nov, I would think they would prefer to do the reshoots during that time, so the foliage matches. If I am not mistaken, it is fall in Winterfell and late summer in Kings Landing during GoT, so naturally all the exterior shots for K.L. and the tourney would be filmed in August when its still summer.
tysnowQuote Reply
Yeah, I’ve found it time consuming enough just to add the actors to my cast gallery. The way GRRM likes to write an entire post about an actor’s background, it’s not surprising he can’t keep up! I’m much happier knowing that he’s working on ADWD.
LexQuote Reply
Do not know if this was brought on the WIC earlier, but I found something:
It seems that the firm who will make the armours for our knights and lord is Artisan Armours Ltd .
Found it via CV of Gillian Simpson, art designer, who worked as a prop maker for the pilot.
The RabbitQuote Reply
And confirmation via My space site of Mark Miller a “leather armour” specilaist perhaps he was responsible for the Sean Bean s cosutume we are staring at everyday.
The RabbitQuote Reply
furrever, I’m as clueless as anyone here about their location plans, but your question reminded me of a nice detail in the DVD commentary for ROME. They shot a lot of outdoor scenes that were supposed to be hot sunny days on what were actually very cold sunny days, and it looked pretty convincing, but they had trouble with the actors having visible breath clouds. So they made the actors suck on ice cubes between takes; problem solved.
mummerQuote Reply
Ha ha, the first photo on their website is a breastplate…with nipples!
MongerelQuote Reply
Let’s hope they don’t use nippled breastplates in the series (especially since GRRM specifically mentions how useless those are). However, the other pics on that site look awesome (particularly the Saxon-style helmet!).
LexQuote Reply
Mongerel,
I believe those nipples were mentioned before :) but we couldn’t find the photo again. Good that we have now :)
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
A new ADWD update!
http://grrm.livejournal.com/
LexQuote Reply
Oops, here’s the specific link:
http://grrm.livejournal.com/169899.html
LexQuote Reply
It sounds as though GRRM has been making a lot of progress on ADWD this month (despite his trip to the Clarion workshop). Maybe he’s feeling inspired by the start of filming on the TV show, and also because he’s seeing a light at the end of the tunnel?
Glad to hear he’s removed a few chapters and POVs from ADWD. I’m all for a shorter and more concise novel. Also, he says he now has 100 pages written for The Winds of Winter! (Although let’s not get too excited about that, since a similar situation happened with FEAST/DANCE and we’re still waiting…)
LexQuote Reply
It’s cute (in the grrm post) about the three “Fred” chapters. Isn’t “Fred” a fan or colleague who won the right to be a killed-off character in the book?
MongerelQuote Reply
No, that’s Pat. The “Fred” comment refers to a major character, most likely Jon Snow.
LexQuote Reply
Ah. Thanks, Lex.
MongerelQuote Reply
Can I just say that I hardly consider Gendry, Walder Frey, the Greatjon or Kevan Lannister to be “minor” roles? The Greatjon and Kevan might be, for this season, at least, but they don’t stay that way. Gendry and Walder become VERY important later, so I am quite anxious to see who they cast for these roles.
Josh ParkerQuote Reply
Josh Parker,
Roy Dotrice for Walder Frey!
LexQuote Reply
I too would love to see Dotrice as old Walder Frey. I have the audiobooks, and his voice is exactly what I always imagined it would be for that character. He really turns on the slime. And he would certainly have less taxing screen time than Pycelle. Hell, the Late Lord Frey gets hauled around in a litter and sits a throne; his might be the least physically demanding role of the entire series.
The only issue might be that if Roy can’t work this year then he can’t work season one … and in my view season one needs Walder Frey.
I think we would greatly benefit in having the Greatjon too. “Your meat is bloody tough!” is too sweet a line to just drop. And as a few of you have already pointed out, Robb needs someone to bounce orders off of.
We already know Gendry is being cast. They just haven’t found him yet (to our knowledge).
Kevan Lannister I could see being handed off to season two. Easily.
Fire And BloodQuote Reply
Fire And Blood,
Frey is a hard one to cast, he has so few scenes but is such a pivotal character… who can convey the arrogance, entitlement, and pride of this character in such a short screen time…
Damyrn of DorneQuote Reply
Isn’t there supposed to be filming in Morocco too?
When is that supposed to be? Just curious.
LugezQuote Reply
Lugez, They switched Morocco for Malta. Or Malta for Morocco, whichever way the expression works correctly :) They found the conditions there better, reached an agreement, so that’s it. Probably filming Dany scenes some time later, and in a block.
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
Damyrn of Dorne,
Ian McDiarmid?
He played senator Palpatine in Star Wars.
durandalQuote Reply
I wouldn’t be suprised if they do most of Kings Landing on a set, with green screans for distance. This gives them control and allows them to fall back on that when the weather isn’t what they want. Also Belfast looks more like the north then the warm south of KL. I bet they shoot a bunch of plates all over the place though.
seanQuote Reply
With regards to the malta shoot, a friend was telling me that it should be starting shortly and he was asked to go there for three to four weeks.
Oh and hi everybody! What a great website. :)
DrNickQuote Reply
Is your friend working as an extra there?
LexQuote Reply
Anyone see the new clues up at Not a Blog? Looks really hard this time.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
DrNick, interesting, thanks for the info. Does anyone who knows more about filming schedules think that 4 weeks is enough to film all of the Dany scenes?
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
durandal,
I’m not sure if Ian is old enough… I suppose make-up can help with that :D
Damryn of DorneQuote Reply
Just spoken to me mate. No he’s not an extra, he worked on the pilot and was asked if he’d be interested in going to malta in september (no specified date) for three or four weeks. He said to add that that may not be the total length of time for shooting but only his involvement. I’ll see what else I can wheedle out of him!
DrNickQuote Reply
Thanks DrNick for the information!
The RabbitQuote Reply
Nice, thanks for the report! Let us know if find out anything else.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
And the stuff in Malta might just be exterers, as they could consevably also shoot all the tent intereres on soundstages.
seanQuote Reply
A crazy idea just poped-up in my mind.
Is it possible that they are going to shoot some Winterfell scenes in Malta, along with Pentos scenes?
We have info that WF scenes are going to be filmed in September, and it would not be a big surprise that one of the castles on Malta becomes WF instead of Doune Castle.
The RabbitQuote Reply
I doubt it, The Rabbit. Malta’s geography is too unlike anything you would find in the North. I’m also fairly certain that they will only be filming SOME of the Dany scenes there. Unless they are shipping a bunch of Dothraki extras to Malta from NI, which I highly doubt, then they are definitely going to be filming parts of the Dany storyline in NI. Which leads me to believe that the 3-4 weeks might be the entire Malta shoot.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
Winter Is Coming,
Yeah, I am pretty sure that only Dany s scenes in Malta will be Pentos scenes.
There are enough grass in Ireland to have Dothraki sea there.
Fo WF – I thought about some castles, not much of external shooting..but maybe you are right.
The RabbitQuote Reply
One Trackback