Some new blog posts from both George R. R. Martin’s Not A Blog and HBO’s Making Game of Thrones this evening. First, GRRM:
I’ve left the winds and rain and mud of Belfast behind, and I’m now on sunny Malta in the middle of the Med. Sorta. Actually, yesterday I was on the streets of King’s Landing watching Yoren school Arya in being a boy, and today I was way out east on the edge of the Dothraki sea, as Dany tended her stricken sun and stars.
I’m seeing some great stuff. Really truly. We have an AMAZING cast, and it’s a privilege to see them in action.
Okay, okay, not everything is idyllic. There were torrential rains on Malta last week that washed away a whole Dothraki camp (missed that), and back in Belfast two of our actors have taken a dislike to each other and got in a fight that left one of them bloodied… but other than that…
More when I get home… if I can find the energy…
Second, the MGoT post, courtesy of Steve Marzolf:
The precise architectural elements of Castle Black have already spawned a lively discussion online but let’s not forget about the…ahem…”interior design” skills of the Night’s Watch. Set decorator Richard Roberts gives a snapshot of the castle’s vibe: “It had to look greasy and grungy and cold and as disgusting as possible. And I’m seeing it with all the extras in and the actors look great ’cause their teeth are rotten and they look…unwashed for years, so, it was foul, it was absolutely foul. And it literally does stink up there. We’ve got pigs in there, you’ve raw meat hanging up…I was there this morning, and it was absolutely disgusting. It smelled foul and looked foul but that’s how it should be, so we’re happy.”
Winter Is Coming: Whew. A lot of news for one day. Nice to hear from George. Sounds like he’s been pretty impressed by everything so far. A shame about the storm though, I’ve heard they are a bit behind schedule in Malta and that the rains were a part of the reason. Hope things get sorted out there. Funny bit about the “actors” that got into a fight. I’m thinking he’s talking about a couple of the dogs working as direwolves.
And many thanks to MGoT for linking back to us here at WiC. Ensuring that all of Thrones fandom knows we have the craziest readers, ready to debate even the most minute details! In all seriousness though, it’s great to hear that the Castle Black set is as grungy, grimy and smelly as it should be. Also a new name to add to the crew list, Richard Roberts, who’s set decorator credits include Hollywood blockbusters such as Wanted, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Da Vinci Code and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. More talent, everywhere you turn.
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19 Comments
Sounds really good, although I never thought of Castle as filthy and gross as he describes (but don’t mind that at all).
The thing that keeps me most thinking now is how they’re planning to handle the enviromental thing in Malta. Let’s hope they can clean their mess and can keep filming there in the future.
KnurkQuote Reply
Hope it wasnt real actors! But it seems unlikely that GRRM should be a rat on his own show.
*SPOILER*
Another thing i have been thinking about is how the show is going to look like from viewers that havent read the books. Sean Bean is probably the biggest name for the series since LOTR and alot of fantasyfans might tune in becouse of him _ONLY_(i really mean might) What will happen to poeple who havent read the books after the baelors sept scene/episode? Will they still watch it? IMO they really need to angle it so that it is the children that is the main characters _NOT_ Edward Stark. Just an opinion. Pls let me know if my thoughtprocess and grammar is correct :P
danderQuote Reply
dander,
Well. By the time that scene occurs it will be very late into the first season, so hopefully, by then the viewers will have seen many other great story arcs and memorable characters to keep them interested, don’t you think? Alas, if there are people who ONLY care about seeing Sean Bean on screen and have little interest in the compelling drama of the series then they may decide to stop watching after the scene at Baelor’s Sept, unfortunately.
And I’m sure you meant Eddard, not Edward ;) hehe.
Cutter Allen KilgoreQuote Reply
I never imagined Castle Black as filthy gross in my head either, but I guess if you have a large castle with not many men to keep it up, it would get pretty dirty. Especially if you’re keeping animals inside and if most of your force is a bunch of untrained teenage boys and dottering old men. I just hope it stays realistic and doesn’t turn humorously cheesy onscreen. Dirty and depressing is fine. It is the Wall, after all, a pretty undesirable location to most Westerosi.
Half MyrishQuote Reply
Sounds good to me. I always grumble about fantasy or medieval series where the characters are perfectly cleaned and have whitened teeth.
KanaQuote Reply
I like that they’re erring on the side of foul where the Night’s Watch and Castle Black are concerned. It’s not as though the Watch is overflowing with military discipline, right? I’ve seen my brothers’ bunks in sleep-away camp, there is no doubt in my mind that loads of men crowded together at the edge of the known world can and would make a significant mess of themselves.
And anyway, I think this disgusting state of affairs can serve interesting purposes from a visual-storytelling perspective. The living standards of Castle Black will now always be judged by the audience against this original condition– if things get cleaner and more orderly, or even worse, we’ll have great visual pointers as to what’s going on before a word of dialogue is even spoken.
Castle Black is also a great contrast with the other new locations the characters find themselves in. King’s Landing may be exotic and bright, but does it hold any of the real warmth and belonging for Ned, Sansa or Arya that Jon finds at the Wall? And how does it compare with Dany’s new “barbaric” life in the Dothraki Sea? There’s a ton of possibilities when each setting is so distinct, and I’m happy the Powers That Be seem to be taking advantage of that.
InkasrainQuote Reply
Hope it was shaggydog that started the fight! that would be some awesome method acting
LaughingTreeQuote Reply
LaughingTree,
Good observation :D
Busy busy day, indeed. And more to come.
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
I reckon any “medieval” setting would be revolting compared to modern day standards. I found it really hard to watch The Pillars of the Earth as was far to clean; perfect white teeth, no rushes on the floor etc, etc. Plus the costumes and architecture were anachronistic. God, I’m such a sticklet for details! (Samurai Lannisters, not-very-white Kingsguard, cough, cough)
MurfQuote Reply
“…as it was far too clean”, woops.
MurfQuote Reply
Any news on the stolen banners?
Petter Kristian VikestadQuote Reply
dander,
Remember Star Wars – A New Hope? Obi-Wan died and this was a huge scene in the movie that really made feelings to Darth Vader and the rebellion that much stronger. Can you imagine how the movies would have felt without this scene? I think this would make me jump out of my seat if I were a viewer and did not see it coming.
SteveQuote Reply
It was Peter Dinklage and Conan Stevens who got into a fight.
SockMonkehQuote Reply
SockMonkeh,
how is Conan doing?
barklarQuote Reply
Oh, snap. I hope Conan’s all right.
Ser_GQuote Reply
Bloodied.
SockMonkehQuote Reply
Petter Kristian Vikestad,
Looks Like Parris has some leads and has put the word out that if the banner is returned in a week to the production office then all is forgiven. Full Post Below
I want to let folks know what we have learned about the disappearance of the large quartered standard that went missing on the night of the Belfast Moot.
After several confidential messages about actions people either saw at the Moot or heard about the Moot in the following days, here’s what I can say publicly about what may have happened:
A person who was working on the Castle Black location shoot came to the Moot under the general invitation we had sent out to all members of the cast and crew. This person is not familiar with the BwB, they had never been to a Moot or other BwB event before, and perhaps did not realize what they were experiencing was a very special event.
It seems that at some point late in the evening, the large standard – I do remind you all that there is another, smaller, standard with one House sigil sewn to a backing fabric is missing – had fallen off the wall, where it had been hung up with Blu-tac, since we could not damage the bar’s walls. Now, Blu-tac is a wonderful substance, and a lot of it had been stuck on to the fabric and then the standard was hung up on the back wall of the room we were using, but even Blu-tac can fail, and fail it did.
For reasons I won’t go into deeply, a person who was very very drunk decided that if no one hosting the party noticed the banner had fallen, it meant we didn’t care about what happened to it, and some time later, he picked it up, concealed it in some manner, and left the party.
It was only the next day that once semi-sober this person realized he may have done a Bad Thing.
Look, people often do really stupid things when drunk, and since that seems to be the case with this missing standard, we would like to ask that people in the crew and the extras, particularly those people who worked as extras on thursday and friday at the Castle Black location to spread the word that if the standard is returned now, there will be no repercussions.
My suggestions for returning the standard to the someone who can get it back into my hands are pretty simple:
1) put in in a box or large bundle – it wouldn’t fit in a large envelope – and mail it back to the production office, with a note asking that the office contact Parris and GRRM and arrange for it to sent back home to New Mexico.
2) if the person who has it and is worried about getting in trouble, give the standard to someone they can trust while off the set and production areas and ask that person to return it by mail or by taking it to the location shoot or production office with a note asking that it be returned to GRRM and Parris.
3) There are many members of the BwB who live in Northern Ireland or in the Republic. If the person who has the standard contacts one of the Bros by private message on the boards, or using a pubic email address that is listed in many of the Bros profiles on the Westeros forums, they can arrange for a hand-over by mail or in person or through a 3rd party. Any of the Bros will know how to contact me to make sure it gets back to where it belongs.
4) please emphasize when spreading the word about these developments that there will be no problems if the standard is returned immediately. That fearing some sort of retribution and deciding to just shove it into a trash bin will only cause harm and grief to many innocent people. The right thing to do is return the standard to a responsible person who can complete the hand-over to us.
If anyone else has some suggestions, please feel free to add them to this thread on the forum at Westeros.
I note that I leave early Friday morning Nov. 5th, to return home to New Mexico. I hope that by this time next week, we’re gotten the standard back, or know that it is being arranged to be returned.
Based on my hope that whoever has the standard really wants to do the right thing, I’m going to suspend my deadline for another week before I formally make a complaint directly to the GoT production and to NI casting about the disappearance of both standards. I do have enough information that I will not discuss on any public forums or LJ posts etc., that could pretty well reduce the pool of suspects to a handful of people. Included in that pool of suspects are those people who were working on the Castle Black shoot last week cross-compared with other information such as who who attended the Moot, who bought tickets for the charity raffle, and other information I will not discuss now. Narrowing the pool of suspects is helpful, but unless the standard(s) are returned to us, a lot of innocent people who do fit into the general parameters of what we know about the person who took the large standard will be tarred with being a suspect in the disappearance of personal property at a party hosted by GRRM and the BwB. That could affect their chances of getting further work on the production, even though they did not take the banner themselves.
I ask that all the GRRM forums and websites and FB pages and lj and other social media-thingys to update their original threads/posts about the missing standards please take this message from me and pass it on thru their own personal lists/forums/tweets/FB pages etc, so that it reaches as large an audience as possible. I urge people involved in the production to pass this message on as well, person to person, in hopes that whoever has the standard will hear that it’s ok to do the right thing and return it as quickly as possible.
Thanks to everyone who has written to me, in public and private conversations and messages about this incident. Thanks to everyone who has passed the word along to other GRRM-friendly media. I really appreciate all the kind and thoughtful messages that I have received in the past week.
with hope that soon the banner I made for George’s 60th celebration, a Feast of Love & Beauty held in Co. Leitrim , 2008, where we literally roasted a whole pig over an open fire and laughed the night away, I thank everyone who has helped me in this last week. It truly does mean a lot to both myself and George.
Parris
Crotalidian (Paul)Quote Reply
Glad to hear that some progress has been made in the banner situation. Lets hope the person who did it does the right thing andreturns it.
Raynette SchroederQuote Reply
I really hope a certain someone mans up and returns the thing. What kind of chickenshit would not step up and return the thing. It obviously means a lot to these guys and even if you did do it while drunk and incoherent, like he said theres plenty of ways to return it anon. If that someone is doing it just to have a cool souvenire…i hope you burn for it. I cant abide thieves, lets all chip in and hire a PI to track it down rofl, and deal with them Randyl Tarly style!
So all
Be a manQuote Reply