Last season the visual effects for Game of Thrones was handled primarily by two VFX studios, Screen Scene and Blue Bolt, and both did a fabulous job. This year, due to increased VFX work, these two smaller studios have had to bow out and Thrones producers went searching for a larger VFX studio to take over. It appears they have found their replacement.
Ran from Westeros.org did some digging and found that VFX studio Pixomondo appears to be taking over the special effects work for Game of Thrones‘ second season. Not only is the show’s logo prominently featured on their home page, but they mention working on Thrones in this press release.
Pixomondo is an international visual effects company boasting 24-hour production capabilities, sharing projects across a global network of 11 facilities in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Berlin, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Beijing, London, Munich, Burbank, Toronto and Hamburg. Founded by CEO Thilo Kuther in 2001, Pixomondo has created visual effects for more than 30 feature films including Hugo, Super 8, Fast Five, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, 2012, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Ninja Assassin and Sucker Punch. The company is currently in production on upcoming features including Red Tails, Snow White and the Huntsman, and TV series including Terra Nova and the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. In addition to visual effects, Pixomondo delivers the full range of creative, production and post services required to produce design-driven storytelling for commercials and special venue projects.
Here is Pixomondo’s showreel:
Winter Is Coming: Sounds good to me. I haven’t actually seen any of their work but it seems like an impressive list. Given what Screen Scene and Blue Bolt were able to do on with less manpower and (probably) a smaller budget, I’m anxious to see what Pixomondo can do this season. Although, I’m not gonna lie, I am a bit nervous about fully CG direwolves.
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188 Comments
This is their show reel?
Do they do anything that looks real? Seamlessly blends in?
I did notice the Shadow work on that car commercial spot.
But look at the CGI wolf at 2:46… doesn’t look that good. And the dinos on Terra Nova were weak IMO.
Last year, the effects were pretty damn good. Have to keep up the quality.
Honest JerkQuote Reply
It doesn’t look like a wolf cause it’s not a wolf :P As for me, pretty amazing.
eitatetaataQuote Reply
I was truly impressed by last year’s work and I never thought much about the change this year after hearing it was going to happen. However, now that I know it’s the same company that did Terra Nova I am a bit scared.
I thought the Terra Nova VFX were some of the worst “big budget” VFX I have seen. Most episodes were mediocre FX wise and many were outright terrible. There is a difference between creating dinosaurs on Terra Nova and the work on Game of Thrones, but I am a bit worried about the Direwolves and dragons now……
That said, I have faith in HBO and if they chose this company I expect they will do brilliant work, the kind associated with Game of Thrones high standard set last year…. I hope.
darquemodeQuote Reply
Yeah, the CG wolf didn’t look that good.
But the films in that list had good FX, and if the shots in their reel were actually theirs (as opposed to “here’s a movie we worked on”), it could work. Then again, the Terra Nova FX weren’t really that good and they spent months on FX postproduction.
If Pixelmondo focuses (with both manpower and whatever amount of money HBO gives them) on direwolves and dragons, with Blue Bolt doing the awesome CG backdrops they did on S1, it could work very well.
DreyesboQuote Reply
I don’t know. I thought their showreel was pretty impressive. I haven’t seen Terra Nova, so can’t really speak to the VFX there. But I thought the creature in their reel looked pretty good, texture and lighting-wise anyway. Animation was maybe a bit stiff, but then again it’s hard to judge from such a brief shot.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
Honest Jerk,
I have to agree.
All the VFX in their reel jump out at me and say ” Hello, I am a visual effect!” and that is never a good thing in my book. VFX should be inconsipcuous and not noticed. That is the entire point of VFX. To create something that appears to be real… not to draw attention to itself for looking unreal.
I do not think the season is ruined or it will be a step backwards, but I am honestly put off by this announcement. I trust HBO quite a bit …. I hope to be proven wrong.
darquemodeQuote Reply
That highlight reel looked pretty darn good to me. The shots with the dragonflies and any shots with people looked great; they clearly CAN put out cinema-quality effects. The only concern, as other people have pointed out is that the CG in Terra Nova wasn’t that good on what was probably a pretty big budget.
Then again, Terra Nova isn’t half the show in any way that Game of Thrones is, so here’s to hoping the CG follows that trend.
Fan # 1231412Quote Reply
The one think that the showreel made me think is that the vast majority of that were pretty impresive techno-modern effects. Cars, engines, light displays… most of it with made for commercials. GoT needs another kind of VFX altogether.
In any case, there’s nothing we can do about it, is there?
OT: Re-watching the show with friends theses days. God, what an impressive Tv show this is. And what a marvelous cast, specially the children. As WiC likes to point out, there were SO many things that could’ve been wrong on the show thats the final result speaks volumes on D&D and HBO’s talent.
CaedesQuote Reply
Why did they decide to go with this awful concept of CGI direwolves? Is it that hard to find some trained dogs? It’s not 100% necessary for the direwolves to be a huge, the story could easily be told with wolf-like dogs. The only thing really important is that the Stark children have a very close and special relationship with these animals.
JamesQuote Reply
Honest Jerk,
super 8
2012
both had solid CGI.
DouchebaccaQuote Reply
Man, all the car chases and water effects are going to look great! ;)
dizzy_34Quote Reply
The fire effects in The Red Baron segments ( use the links on the rightside of this page http://www.pixomondo.com/web/feature/index.htm ) look amazing, and those are very important this season. The effects in Hugo were also very well done. I’m not worried about this choice.
Ours is the FuryQuote Reply
James,
apparently you didn’t watch the 1st season…where they had major trouble getting the dogs to participate properly…and therefore barely made an appearance?
DouchebaccaQuote Reply
I thought it was a great showreel, and I have no concerns with this studio being able to match or exceed the quality of last year’s effects, it’s just that some of the effects are going to be more difficult going forward. Lot of shows have convincing CGI backgrounds: that’s just standard. Convincing CGI creatures is a whole other thing, and I think that anybody who is realistic would probably not expect CGI wolves or dragons to be completely real looking. As much as I liked the work with the dragons in the last episode, I still thought they looked slightly CG, so that’s the quality I expect for them going forward, which is still very good. Wolves will probably be harder, but they just need to be smart about how they do this stuff: keep the number of shots of CGI creatures minimal (I think two or three short scenes for the dragons could do for the whole season), and probably do them in dim lighting. But I don’t know why anybody would think this FX studio couldn’t match the effects of the first season: this is probably a step up as far as the resources these guys have. I mean, ASAIK Pixomodo was picked to take over the FX duties because they can handle the increased load, and the previous guys couldn’t.
JackSparrowQuote Reply
Please tell me this is a joke…
TerraNova has the worst creature effects I´ve EVER seen.
Xena had better creature effects, and that was fifteen years ago.
NickQuote Reply
I was really impressed by last season’s effects! But I think that Pixomondo will do such a good work, or better (they have an impressive list, I saw 2012 and it was filled with great visual effects)! And I have faith on HBO, they know what they are doing, Pixomondo must do a good job :) And in the video, I don’t believe that it was a direwolf, at 2:46… I liked the effects presented on the video!
RobbetQuote Reply
Douchebacca,
The dogs they used in season 1 are not the only wolf-like looking dogs in the world. They could have found better trained dogs for season 2 so Jon Snow wouldn’t have to go journeying beyond the wall with a cartoon.
JamesQuote Reply
I’m no expert, but the alien creature in Super 8 was pretty good, I thought. (Even though who knows exactly what that vfx company worked on). I expect bad CG in TV is directly related to budgetary constraints; ie the econo-package gets you fake-o just good-enough dinosaurs (or dragons). It’s weird about the concept of CG wolves though: It seems like a lot of money wasted on…. just big dogs which won’t look great.
Epic stromboneousQuote Reply
I really like the showreel. That gigantic tapir (?) looked very very good to me (thinking on direwolves here). Scorsese´s Hugo looks great too.
andreaQuote Reply
Must admit the Terra Nova connection is a bit worrying as a lot of the SFX on that do not look great but the Show Reel does look good overall.
MormegilQuote Reply
If Pixomondo is good enough for Spielberg and Scorsese, it would be hard for me to say with a straight face that they aren’t good enough for GoT. I’m just going to continue to trust that the people behind the show know what they’re doing. They didn’t let me down last season.
GreatjonQuote Reply
Terra Nova is just a bad show, period. I don’t think these guys should be judged entirely by it.
PremislausQuote Reply
WTF at all the people saying their work is terrible, seriously? Pixomondo is quite big and not bad for a television series. Plus, you can’t really predict how all the effects will turn out from just a showreel (newsflash: this kind of display is supposed to be somewhat over the top and full of action, which does not mean it is going to be the same for the series). A different project requires a different briefing, and HBO series usually go for more ‘subdued’ effects anyway. Until we see some actual finished scenes with their work for GOT, there’s no need to be irrational over it, that’s just embarrassing.
starriedQuote Reply
Amen to this.
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
I think their credentials are pretty solid. Looking at their filmography list it appears I’ve seen most of the movies they’ve worked on. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixomondo ) Of the ones I saw, some of them had very good VFX elements and I don’t remember any that stood out as poor. As far as the Terra Nova dinos are concerned, I thought they were pretty solid for television. They’re far better than any SyFy original movie.
In the least, there is no reason to believe they won’t be on par with or exceed season one. Landscape and architectural elements aren’t as difficult to make look very nice. This company apparently has a better ability to create the wolves and dragons. I don’t think big wolf-looking dogs would be good enough for me even if they were trained well because of the imagery the books created. A real wolf wouldn’t be able to mow through a battle field killing dozens of fully armored, sword wielding, hardened warriors. This is a fantasy series – it needs “actual” dire wolves imo.
ClobQuote Reply
Super 8 had good effects so it’s very clear that the studio can deliver. Still, anyone that expects a CGI wolf, on a TV-budget, to look fully realistic is having completely unrealistic expectations.
It’s also not particularly productive to say how well the CGI worked in Season 1 because the difficulty of the effects will be vastly different. ‘Not even the same kind of show’-different.
And remember the most important rule when watching movies/shows: A great experience lies 50% with the makers and 50% with the viewer. If you’re not imaginative enough to get past less than great special effects, then you’re not good enough to be entertained. Go in with decent expectations so you won’t be disappointed.
James,
It’s not just the ability to train the dogs, having to do forced perspective shots every time they used them would still be very limiting in what kinds of shots they could do. I never saw any outcome to be realistic, other than that the more grown direwolves would end up being CGI.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Regarding Bluebolt, it was a mistake… sorry about that… It was an old announce for the first season.
You should update the article.
ShelobfxQuote Reply
Are you guys fucking kidding me ? You are judging the company just on one show but ignore all the others ?
JohnQuote Reply
Dragons and Direwolves are all well and good however I’m interested in how the shadow babies are going to be pulled off. I hope they are sufficiently creepy and don’t look cartoony.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
I think they have really good particle effects, integration and rendering but unimpressive animation.
They’ll probably do great on fire FX and whatever else that’s needed for the battle of Blackwater but I’m really worried about the direwolves and the dragons. The living/organic work in their reel definitely isn’t their forte. I hope they can pull it off with the limited amount of time they have.
But I’m still eager as fuck to get a peek at the final result.
HottenatorQuote Reply
For those who are worried by some of Pixomondo’s work, you have to take into consideration the budget of shows like Terra Nova.
The effects in that show aren’t anything special, but the show’s budget is likely quite a lot less than Game of Thrones.
The more money the show has, the more time and effort can be spent on the VFX. Also, the show’s producers and directors will demand a certain level of quality that I’m sure is much higher than Terra Nova.
JasonQuote Reply
What? That TV show was produced by Steven Spielberg and you think it’s low budget?
The special effects in Terra Nova were downright terrible. This is terrible news as far as I’m concerned. And their movie portfolio isn’t all that impressive either.
Edit: just checked their reel and I’m unimpressed. Very flashy but everything looks fake and obvious and plastic. Good CG and good VFX is subtle, lifelike and seamless, not over-the-top and in-your-face. If anything that reel made my confidence drop even more.
MorriganQuote Reply
Terra Nova’s budget was less than Game of Throne’s and there were 3 more episodes.
KevinQuote Reply
I dunno, everything in that video looks very plasticky. I am not reassured.
KGQuote Reply
Even if Terra Nova was the only item in the company’s tool chest (which it isn’t, not by a long shot), it wouldn’t really be a good indication of what they can do. Network shows, budget or no budget, run things differently than HBO does. We really had no idea what to expect from the visual effects teams in season 1, and while some effects were better than others, the smart use of talent and not trying to throw effects in viewers faces every 5 minutes gave them an overall realistic feel that didn’t feel like effects at all. I wouldn’t say the vfx in season 1 were impressive, but they were very well handled. How the effects are used and directed, and how the teams are managed and integrated into the schedule matters a lot.
I am worried about the cgi direwolves, no question. But the news of which team will be handling them I don’t think is really very indicative either way. The bad cgi wolves in the Twilight movies were made by Tippet Studio, who has a very long history of great special effects. Their best bet is to keep the number of shots low enough to be able to spend time on making the effects look good and not have to cut too many corners.
I have no doubt that they have artists capable enough to tackle the effects, but time limits and logistics (need to get this model rendered by X, so that it can be composited by Y, so that it can be color corrected by Z) are a big issue.
salukQuote Reply
This could really go either way I guess, they have had some great cgi and some not so great cgi (The Terra Nova stuff actually distracted from the story, or lack thereof lol)
That being said, I’ll wait to see the finished product to judge. They have the potential to do this really well, so let’s just hope for the best.
John-Michael LelievreQuote Reply
Their four biggest projects were Fast & Furious 5, Sucker Punch, Terra Nova and Red Tails are all of the big flash and bang over the top variety. And often times the SFX in them suck pretty badly.
Certainly not the subtle and seamless sort of SFX that this show needs to sell the fantasy as gritty reality. I am honestly worried.
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
Oh ok. Thanks for the clarification.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
Spielberg’s name in TV doesn’t mean much. He’s not an exec producer the way Dan & Dave are: I can guarantee you there is another exec producer (or maybe more than one) who is the actual showrunner on ‘Terra Nova’. Also, the budget is going to have more to do with the network producing the show, and there aren’t many shows that are going to approach the budget of GoT. Looking at any FX company’s worst effort isn’t going to tell you much: every FX company is going to be involved with movies (or shows) that have crappy FX, just because those movies/shows won’t have the same budget and time to produce top notch FX. FX companies aren’t going to turn down the jobs just because of that, they’ll just produce what they can within the perimeters of the job. ‘Terra Nova’ has probably a lot less budget, and is probably a more action/effects driven show, so a lot more CGI work for creatures on a smaller budget. Any show/movie is going to be able to have better looking FX if they can limit the complex stuff to a smaller amount of screentime. And as far as realism, just follow the link Fury posted (http://www.pixomondo.com/web/feature/index.htm), and click on the link on the righthand side for ‘The Red Baron’ Berlin, and you can see some of their work creating backgrounds.
JackSparrowQuote Reply
Ironman and Game of Thrones… Pixomondo is going to work with both Starks lol
Juanra Castiñeiras de SaaQuote Reply
Kevin,
To really be accurate we would have to know the budget for Terra Nova’s VFX budget not its overall budget… likewise for Game of thrones.
Thrones has more sets, locations, actors wardrobe etc. Much of its budget was spent on other aspects of production.
Terra Nova was touted as a special FX series that would have the best FX ever on network TV…. FX to rival movie releases. Not Blockbusters obviously, but still. Terra Nova did not have nearly the amount of cast or set locations or wardrobe expenses to eat up its budget like Game of Thrones did.
I would not be surprised if Terra Nova spent a higher percentage of its overall budget on its VFX than Game of Thrones despite having a smaller total budget.
darquemodeQuote Reply
2012 is my guilty pleasure movie. I mean, it’s schlock and the levels of destruction are beyond ridiculous, but the destruction is impressive. It’s disaster porn of the highest quality.
GoT is in capable hands.
Alexander DubrovskyQuote Reply
This……………………underlined.
The viewer who falls into the category of having less than 50% of invested imagination, has a degree of logic blocking there ability to fully connect with the fantasy element on screen. Therefore , often unconsiously, drawing a mental line around any small differences between the real and the created. Thus reducing the enjoyment taken from the whole experience.
Having been in a scene with a direwolf, and having at least 50% of invested imagination, I am not worried about how they will look post production. Au contraire, I am totally looking forward to it. Possibly even more than the Blackwater.
Each direwolf has a definate personality, and HBO know that a lot of viewers and fans will come to look on them as real, within the context of the story. Thats one of the reasons why HBO will want the beasts to look amazing. They would not, imo, hire the guys at Pixomondo ,unless checked out a cgi direwolf sample from them, and been impressed.
Relax people, don`t worry over things you can not change. From what I have seen, the direwolves are physically BIG, and scary and have a LOT of pointy teeth. Also their fur is very thick and stands up around their neck and shoulders when they get pissed off.
Please don`t ask me how I know , I have probably said too much already.
Hopefully next season I will be in a scene with a dragon………:)
Two FeathersQuote Reply
As long as the direwolves etc don’t look like Terra Nova quality. I can live with this.
Jordan HealeyQuote Reply
That’s awesome! I work in television, and we did a project with Pixomundo last year. It came out top-notch and looked great. Very good compositing and rotoscope work. Seamless.
DaveBQuote Reply
Among other things mentioned previously, note that they have Massive. Those who were disappointed by the small crowds in several scenes in the first season should be pleased.
Also, given the short production timeframe and the likely large amount of visual effects shots required for S2 I expect their around-the-clock production capability will prove to be very important.
James BrookesQuote Reply
As a lot of people have already said here, I concur that the VFX in Terra Nova were subpar. Nothing looked too believable at all.
And Game of Thrones seasons 2 requires mainly castles, boats, and fires as their VFX, and granted that’s not some stuff you see in Terra Nova.
The eerie Paris train station, giant clockworks, and recreation of Georges Melies’ settings they did for Hugo (Cabret) was pretty great though, I just so the movie this week end, and definetly didn’t look cheap.
Let’s hope we get this team working on GoT and not the one who did Terra Nova ^^
Ser Jean-RalphioQuote Reply
Honestly guys, this is a showreal. It’s meant to be in your face and not very subtle. Half the stuff done is for commercials so don’t freak the fuck out when it doesn’t look mind blowing. The effects for movies like Sucker Punch (which is meant to be over the top) were very impressive. It’s not like they made all these effects over the top just because they wanted to. I’m pretty sure the director’s of the films wanted those kind of big budget effects. So why do you actually think they’re going to go all Michael Bay explosions just because they can?
I for one am happy to have a team that is capable of showing large scale scenes. But if you guys like seeing Robb ride around with 20 guys or Drogo’s 100 man Khalasar then by all means bring back Bluebolt.
So lets just shit all over this company because they’ve worked on shows with low budgets and therefore the overall CGI outcome was less than great.
SamQuote Reply
Jordan Healey,
I’m sure they’ll look good. Like another poster said, HBO will most likely want to see their design for direwolves/dragons so they can approve it. I can’t see them investing this much time, effort, and money to look at a CG direwolf and think, “well that looks like shit. alright send it to production!”.
SamQuote Reply
Kevin,
Terra Nova is one of the most (if not the most) expensive network shows on television. According to reports the pilot alone cost between $10-$20 million dollars. Granted some of this was due to the bad weather in Australia during its filming. Also the pilot was originally scheduled to air in May 2011 but had to be delayed until September because of problems with the FX (hmmm…). Subsequent episodes cost $4 million per episode as compared with around $3 for a one hour broadcast network drama.
The pilot for GOT was reported between $5-10 million and season 1 total budget between $50-60 million. So working out the numbers (depending if you use the higher or lower number) it would appear that each GOT episode (except the pilot) cost about $500K to $1 million more per episode then Terra Nova (but TN wins for total budget since they had 3 more episodes in the season).
No idea if Season 2 has a similar, larger or smaller budget but hopefully the extra million per episode will be put to good use in the VFX department!
Also lets not forget that BE wiped the floor with GOT at the emmy’s in the VFX cateogory…while the vast majority of season 1 FX were excellent there were some less then impressive shots that failed to live up to the scope and scale of the story.
Chump Force 1Quote Reply
Did they do the dragons in Suckerpunch?
Yes please. :)
Arstan WhitebeardQuote Reply
I think they are in good hands. I actually liked Terra Nova, but never having seen a real dinosaur myself, I don’t have anything to compare it to.
RipleyQuote Reply
Now I saw this (a Terra Nova CGI fish…): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVDrgKrH_GY – and I am a bit scared. We must have faith, though ;)
eitatetaataQuote Reply
I’m not sure it’s possible to make decent looking CGI wolves. As I’ve said before, it’s only possible to make decent looking dragons because dragons don’t exist. OTOH we all know what a wolf should look like, down to the tiniest detail.
So anyway, even if this company was the best of the best, the wolves will still not look realistic. And in my opinion, realism is the only thing that will work for GoT. A hint of “cartoony” will ruin the entire feeling of the series. It’ll pull you out of the show when you see them.
For my part, I agree with James’ post. I’d rather have shrimpy wolfish dogs (get some that can be trained this time) than CGI wolves of any kind.
userjQuote Reply
Happens I know a guy working for that company. Havent been in touch for a while though. Let me see if I can find him on facebook…
G_LeeQuote Reply
The effects for Terra nova were close to laughably bad! Not only do the direwolves need to be drastically better, but they’re also harder to do than dino’s.
I can’t help but worry.
sjweningsQuote Reply
Yeah, if there were car chases in GoT i would not worry, but let’s just hope it turns out better then terra nova :(
kitaQuote Reply
one thing that disappointed me with season 1 was the lack of epicness of the scenery buildings and headcounts. I imagined the tournament to be bigger with more head counts the pitiful handful that was present. I also imagined the 40k+ horse tribe to be much bigger
oicQuote Reply
oic,
We all wished for LotR-like scences, but its just not realistic. Consider that Jackson had a budget of like 300 Mio $
G_LeeQuote Reply
I don’t get how they can’t do the direwolves like they did hobbits in LOTR. You don’t need to use CGI wolves to make them look big.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2oktJQfkH8
UkkoQuote Reply
Too bad that Weta workshop is busy with the hobbit..
StevenZoetaQuote Reply
Reading their web site I think it is important to note that they have crowd generation (think Lord of the Ring battles) in their toolkit.
NilsQuote Reply
You guys worry too much. While Terra Nova didn’t have the best CGI ever, it was still pretty good CGI for network television. The thing is they are a big company (670? employees) with multiple teams. Depending on the VFX budget, the company has the manpower to do pretty awesome CGI on a tight schedule. Smaller companies such as Blue Bolt just can’t handle the workload, unless they skip such content as Blackwater completely in the show.
And you really should not judge the company based just on the dinosaurs in Terra Nova. Go watch some of the movies the company has been involved in, especially Sucker Punch.
And like Two Feathers said, HBO did not pick them randomly. No one in their right mind would hire a company without first asking for them to submit a sample on how their Direwolves/Dragons would look like.
FlourideQuote Reply
Here is the dragon scene from Sucker Punch for comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1jZuou_7MA
Not the most realistic I’ve seen, but I don’t think realism was the main focus of the VFX in Sucker Punch. I’m a little concerned about how well this studio will adjust to a show with the organic feel of GoT, but will wait and watch before passing judgement. Terra Nova does not inspire confidence (WOW on the CGI fish!), but perhaps the decision makers of that show have much lower standards than HBO or the GoT directors. HBO shows typically have high quality VFX, so that is encouraging.
Jaqen H’GharQuote Reply
Wow, some people really freaked out over this!
userj,
I agree with that completely. The first realistically-looking real-world fury animal has yet to be created by cgi, and it would take a divine intervention to have it happen for GoT (or any big-budget movie or tv series in the near future). So I’m not expecting the direwolves to look ‘real’ and I’m just hoping that their appearances will not be too off-putting while watching S02.
Yes people, go watch those videos!!! Looks like they only have to change the colour of their fire ;-)
As other people have mentioned, I think it’s really important for GoT that the CGI department now has the capabilities to do big crowds, as that was definitely most lacking last season, so this sounds good:
I don’t know how it works in CGI land, but I do hope(expect) that the new studio will have access to the stuff done by last year’s studios.
Tar KidhoQuote Reply
Ukko,
Because using forced perspective severely limits the kind of scenes you can create. Especially when using dogs instead of people. It would also break the continuity since the mother of the cubs wasn’t just a large wolf, it was also more thickly built than a normal wolf.
The fact remains, we can’t expect to get fully realistic direwolves and even though we can’t it will still work for a good viewer. I guess the bad ones will complain about it to no end though, which is annoying.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Tera Nora FX are cheesy because the entire show is cheesy IMO. The entire show doesn’t have the appearance of trying to look real. It’s more of an overly bright flashy colors version of what it should have been. Who knows? It could have been fox who wanted the dinos to look the way that they do.
Super 8 FX = Legit.
RyanQuote Reply
Is it very costly to work with the company Weta Digital? Too bad they have not chosen the company of Peter Jackson
julandroQuote Reply
I read the press release and I said “and now the comments will be flooded by people who think Terra Nova is bad.” Wow, never been more right.
Look, Terra Nove is poorly written, but 90% of the dinosaurs have looked really good. Occasionally you will find the “we ran out of time/money” scene, or the “we let the intern do this” scene, but for the most part, the show looks amazing and has easily been the best looking show on TV this season. (disclaimer: no, I have not seen EVERY show)
I don’t know if these commenters are the same ones who bashed the video game graphics because they just have impossibly high standards for GoT-related stuff and expect it to be the best looking thing the world at all times, or if they are just the type who see dinosaurs and instantly say NOPE, FAKE because they cant enjoy sci-fi/fantasy without their rational minds ruining it for them, but sheesh people, you sound more ridiculous than usual.
stevelabnyQuote Reply
And as for those of you asking for WETA, try having a cup of reality in your lives. Since the LOTR trilogy put them on the map, they have only worked on the biggest of the big movies. One does not simply walk into WETA and get them to do your special effects. This is still “just a TV show”.
stevelabnyQuote Reply
Hmm, hit and miss. Hugo and Super 8 have good FX but Terra Nova is just awful. My feeling therefore is that it is going to depend on how much HBO are stumping up. Companies will always perform to the paycheck. More money means more time devoted to the project and therefore a better outcome.
So I’m sure Pixomondo have the capacity to produce amazing FX but whether we get them will depend on money… as ever.
I’ll be very interested to see what they do with the Direwolves. Fur is notoriously difficult to render well in CGI, the dragons will be easier and will probably look better. I think the inability to render fur was the reason Blue Bolt had to be dropped for Season 2.
HouseLarkQuote Reply
Just one other point: It’s not just the quality of the CGI that’s important here, it’s how the actors and directors handle it. If you watch Red Letter Media’s reviews of the Star Wars prequels you see the problems that arise when directors don’t give actors a good idea of what is supposed to be happening in front of them when using CGI. The killer scene is when Ewan McGregor fails to react in any way to something swinging four lightsabers at him – not even a gentle flinch.
If the directors are on the ball and the actors do as half as good as we believe they are then they can help to sell FX that might be a bit unrealistic.
HouseLarkQuote Reply
The fact that they can do a good job with fire and crowds has me very excited about the Blackwater. I also hope they can use the crowd multiplication technique on other scenes and really up the overall scale of the show. I’m also pretty confident we will get decent looking dragons. And I’ve already resigned myself to less than stellar CGI wolves. As long as they don’t look horrible, I’ll be okay with it.
I see what you did there.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
You people need to calm down.
I don’t know if I have any fellow 3D artists here with me, but I am one. My reaction to the showreel was the exact opposite of what most of you are thinking. If they’ve got the talent/reputation to land huge chunks of shots on blockbuster movies, they’re almost certainly capable of handling GOT (or at the very least, do as good of a job as the smaller studios did last season!).
As for decent looking Dire Wolves… just forget about it now. It’s not going to happen. Look at the “Wargs” in LOTR… one of the weakest effects of the entire movie series… look at the wolves in The Day After Tomorrow… abysmal! Who were those effects done by? Ah yes, Weta Digital and Industrial Light and Magic… the two best VFX studios on the planet.
It wouldn’t have mattered WHO they chose, the odds of having ultra realistic Dire Wolves in GOT is nearly zero. Our only hope is that the directors use what CG wolves we get judiciously, and in ways that might minimize the fact that they don’t look the greatest.
As for what the show mostly needs; digital painting, set extension, digital sets, digital crowds, fire/smoke/etc. effects, and so on, I see no reason to believe Pixomondo isn’t capable of pulling that stuff off.
OKENOQuote Reply
Industrial Light and Magic also worked on Super 8. I can’t tell who did what. Though I recall an article that mentions ILM did the train crash. The creature seems right up ILM’s alley.
Epic 8 minute bonusQuote Reply
stevelabny,
But HBO has good status. Many renowned actors and directors migrated to HBO. Why a company like “weta” can not make an exception?
julandroQuote Reply
julandro,
Well, the main reason is because they are currently working on two movies called the Hobbit, but chances are, even if they weren’t working on Hobbit, they probably would prefer the extra money from the big movies rather than TV. And movies tend to have a longer production schedule than TV.
Also, I’m not certain, but I don’t know if they have offices outside of New Zealand, so there might also be a logistics issue for either side.
stevelabnyQuote Reply
James,
dire wolves are bigger than any dog breed. if you watched the first season you saw the dead mother dire wolf. she was huge. her head was almost as big as a man’s torso.
Jaison CorleoneQuote Reply
i just hope they look at the VERY least a bit better than the wolves in the twilight movies. they don’t need to be in a ton of scenes. grey wolf is barely in book 2, lady is dead, nymeria is MIA. shaggy dog is pretty much only seen in shadows. summer, if casting is complete, won’t be seen much either since i see no one cast as the reeds. that leaves ghost who will be surrounded by white so that should make him easier with white on white.
Jaison CorleoneQuote Reply
stevelabny,
Thank you for explain. You are right.
julandroQuote Reply
This.
First of all, last year’s effects were sensational, truth be told. Everyone agreed the dragons were great. You barely notice the naked 13 year old underneath the lizards. My granduncle had a stroke during it, and I attribute that to the realism of the dragons. (He’s fine now, but mind the gap old timer–here be dragons ;).. Also: The moondoor, eh? Ah, the Moondoor; ah, Bach; ah, caviar with crackers! And the blood squirts. Truth be told, I get a goosebump just remembering the red squirts. And I don’t know but I think Dinklage had the best forced perspective shots since Fellowship scenes in Bag’s End, truth be told.
Secondly, based on the showreel, I am having overpriced pre-ordered geekgasms just from the quivering anticipation of seeing more better dragons! And! Huge direwolves. The CGI dogs will not look good, truth be told, and everyone knows that. And they will be expensive to do anyway. Yeah, quivering like a delicate flower waiting for the bee to come eat it.
Since time immemorial with meager beginnings (Taxi Cab confessions was shot out of a taxi cab which was HBO’s full time job) HBO has grown into the best TV channel that has ever existed. Truth be told, this is because HBO stole a magic dagger and killed Zoso The Dark One. Now HBO possesses His dark magic. Pixomundo must do a great job. This is why I have totally faith in HBO. Just my two cents worth.
Epic pinaforesQuote Reply
Pretty impressive stuff.
I’m sure GOT won’t have the budget of a special effects orgy like 2012 but I’m really hoping for a serious injection of BIGNESS into the series. Scenes like the Dothraki wedding, Vaes Dothrak, the Stark and Lannister troop camps and the Hand’s Tournament seemed so piddling and small scale when pushing just a few more buttons could have made them genuinely grand. They were a distracting disappointment. Storm’s End, the developing dragons, the direwolves, the wildlings encampment and especially Blackwater will need someone who’ll write large… extra large. Sucker Punch was an atrocious movie, but what a fantastic LOOK it had. I wants me some of that!
ChrisQuote Reply
They did do Jane and the Dragon… my kid used to love that show.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
Weta doesnt just do ‘big’ pictures, they did quite a bit of concept work on Daybreakers, which was modestly budgeted. But yeah, they gotta be super busy right now with The Hobbit. Christopher Lee and Ian Holmes had to film their scenes in England, which is insane!
CarcinogenQuote Reply
The wargs in LOTR were not that great, despite all the other great stuff that WETA did. I agree with everyone who said it’s impossible to do good CGI wolves, it sure looks that way. I’ve never seen a CGI wolf in any movie that looked remotely real. I hope that the terrible dinos in Terra Nova were only the result of a tight budget though. Even the dinos in Jurassic Park look much better and how old is that movie? At least I’m sure the Massive software will finally give us epic battle/crowd scenes in the upcoming seasons.
LailaQuote Reply
What are you talking about? It was like a Moulin Rouge/Pussycat Dolls burlesque music video for 2 hours but with guns and emo sensibilities. Nightmarish? No, the opposite of nightmarish.
Epic pinaforesQuote Reply
James, You’re an idiot if you think the direwolves could be normal dogs, they’re supposed to be the size of a fucking pony. It would be a serious disappointment to anyone that actually READ the books.
danaQuote Reply
I thought that the beast (tapir?) looked really good, better than most of their showreel TBH. I hope they specialise in animal fur or something like that and that that’s why HBO hired them.
LalaQuote Reply
LOL! sadly i’m in the same boat. its just such a hilariously rediculous awfully wonderful specticle. Can’t stop watching it when its on. Its just so obnoxious.
DouchebaccaQuote Reply
Epic pinafores,
So where do you get your drugs? And…if you won’t tell me….can I have some?
Joshua TaylorQuote Reply
And I don’t know but I think Dinklage had the best
Epic pinafores,
Dinklage had forced perspective shots? Why would he need them, isn’t he short already?
LalaQuote Reply
It all boils down to choices. Though there were rumours that the budget for this season has been increased, D&D chose to keep it at 10 episode length. They probably realized this season would take even more special shots than the first. As much as HBO rocks in terms of production values it is still a TV production. They don’t have a 100million to toss just at the special f/x like some of the blockbuster movies, so any comparison with those is just plain silly.
If there was any gripe about the first season is the lack of activity from the wolves (which were more or less used like a background fixture), not to mention some epic battle scenes. Well you can’t have it both. Do you want an epic Blackwater? Do you want more Direwolf interaction? If it all came down to it, I’d rather see mega battle scenes over “realistic 3d wolves”. Seriously, the wolves could be 8bit nintendo level graphics and it wouldn’t phase me. As long as they look “somewhat” believable, you all should look forward to the rest of the stuff and not gripe about how shitty the wolf will look when you freeze frame it at 1080p on your giant monitor.
Battle > Purty wolves… that’s my 2 cents.
DrfunkQuote Reply
OKENO,
it seems you’re the only one who knows about the subject so I ask: whatever beautiful dog + forced perspective: Is this possible? is better or more doable than CGI? I don´t even know if they are two different processes.
andreaQuote Reply
andrea,
It’s possible (if you accept that the direwolves are much thinner than their mother was) but only in a very limited way since every scene including a direwolf would have to be made so everything can be in the right perspective. That would be really, really hard with an animal.
With CGI it will not look perfectly real (forced perspective might not look real all the time either) but they can do pretty much any kind shots they would want that’s within budget.
If there’s anything we can be sure of it’s that D&D have looked at every possibility and decided on what was the best option available. It’s unlikely that any of us fans are more interested in them doing the best job possible than they are themselves, it’s just that we have the “luxury” of completely unrealistic expectations.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
thanks. I understand now.
I really don´t (in this aspect at least). As Wic said: “As long as they don’t look horrible, I’ll be okay with it”.
andreaQuote Reply
WhatOKENO, said.
When it comes to visual effects …
I think we’re gonna get what we need, not what we want.
Tywin’s Bastard,
Just so. D &D want to give the best presentation that can with what they have….and they want quality more than we do.
surfKrakenQuote Reply
Just went to Best Buy, and as I had guessed, they were saving the Game of Thrones samplers for Boardwalk Empire, which was lined up in nicely-decorated Blu-Ray treasure trove: http://yfrog.com/oeg6adcj. Got mine with the excellently-priced Boardwalk release, and have just checked it out – the quality is absolutely stunning in 1080p.
You can see every little bit of grime on the walls, every little speck of dust, and every little splatter of blood. Phenomenal job. You are missing out a lot if you don’t check this show out in Blu, it blows the HDTV versions out of the water completely and into the ocean.
The Lightning LordQuote Reply
Even if they used forced perspective with the real dogs, they would continue to be a pain to work with and because of that we probably wouldn’t get to see much of them again (as it was the case with season 1). Lots of people involved with the filming said one of the worst and most difficult parts were working with the dogs. I just can’t understand how people can worry or get upset over something we haven’t even seen yet.
starriedQuote Reply
Those wargs were made what, in 2002? 10 years is a lot of time when it comes to technology.
OzQuote Reply
I think you’re missing the point a lot of us are making. I’m not saying that they should put more money into CGI wolves at all. What I’m saying is that making decent CGI direwolves is not possible so they shouldn’t even try it.
The question is what would you rather have – too-small real animals, or terrible shitty looking cartoony things (“8-bit nintendo graphics”) that are the “right” size? Because that’s the choice here. Not between a good Blackwater and good direwolves.
I say that HBO should not include anything – CGI, costume, set, etc – that pulls you out of the story due to its cheesy fakeness. At they very least I hope that they minimize CGI as much as possible and use real animals and forced-perspective for any close-ups. There should be nothing that looks cheap or tacked on – it should all be seamless.
Of course in any case we aren’t making the choice – HBO already did.
The problem of course is that while this is an impossible task, people will still complain no matter what becuase they don’t bother to think about the difficulty of putting animals on TV. Everyone should be ready for 1) minimal use of the wolves like in S1 because of the difficulty of animal actors and the expense of CGI and 2) cheesyness whenever CGI is used. There is simply no way to do lots of wolves well.
userjQuote Reply
andrea,
I wasn’t trying to imply that you have unrealistic expectations, in case I gave that impression. It was just a general view on the how fans can differ from the actual creators.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
userj,
But if they would be using dogs for the grown direwolves, and just forget about that the mother looked nothing like that, they might as well have cut them from the story since there would be nothing special about them and they wouldn’t be featured much (as it was in Season 1 due to the hassle with the dogs).
I don’t quite get why you say that the choice is between using dogs and having 8-bit animations either. The quality of the animations should be enough for anyone with an imagination to stay immersed.
I just don’t understand why anyone would choose inconsistent story (which using dogs would be) over imperfect effects (which movie and TV history is full of).
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
I’m going to quote this, because I’d like to think this was sarcastic. I’d be very, very happy with big dogs. It would be way better than having cool!direwolves which are only in like 2 or 3 scenes (season 1 anyone)? I’d take quality over coolness every day
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
Dude, ffs look at the Twilight movies . Even though they are atrocious in term of story, they are big budgeted and succesful movies but the werewolves look like crap and those are recent movies .
JohnQuote Reply
Elena Amici,
I don’t really see the logic of your reasoning there. You said yourself that the direwolves weren’t used much in season 1, and the reason for that was because they used dogs. They wanted to show them more but even the short, simple scene with Eddard and Lady took hours to film so it wasn’t possible. They decided to switch to CGI in order to actually feature the wolves more, and in order to have them do what they should be doing (and continue to grow towards the stature of their mother).
Therefor the dog option is the option that would mean that we wouldn’t see much of them and where they would have to compromise in what they are seen doing. That in addition to that the dogs would suddenly lose several of the qualities season 1 showed us direwolves to have (making the story inconsistent).
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
The one HUGE advantage of CGI direwolves is that they should do exactly what they’re told. Provided that Pixmondo manage to come up with appropriately dire and wolf-like direwolves, and that these can be coaxed onto screen for a less-than-prohibitive fee, this should mean that D&D can call on them for any and every scene that they fancy inserting direwolves into. For the sake of argument, that could be every scene that had direwolves in the books. For that possibility alone I am willing to run the risk of these computerised critters falling short of the standards set by my imagination – especially when I weigh this against the alternatives. I think it’s almost a foregone conclusion that CGI direwolves will be better than the husky mutts that were used in the first series!
Canis dirusQuote Reply
Well I suppose in your mind we still live in the 70′s or 80′s where no CGI was available . Whether you want it or not there is gonna be CGI because in this day and age almost all the movies and tv shows are done with it .
JohnQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
I think having huge direwolves would be pointless, that’s all. There would be more opportunity to screw up with the CGI and I loved the quality of the show so far. And I think HBO loves it too, you know how they love to have the best shows on TV – so I don’t think (hope!) they are going that way.
Anyway, my point is that CGI!Direwolves would be incredibly expensive, and since they are not that important (well, the direwolves are, but their size is not that important) that money could be used to do something else. I’m saying I’ll be happy as long as the wolves are in, regardless of their size, and that I really, really don’t want to see crappy CGI.
Let me mak an example: it’s like the wall. It’s not really 700 hundred feet high, but it works just fine
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
don´t worry… I know!
andreaQuote Reply
Yes, I was defending Weta’s visual effects(which i think were amazing for the time), more than saying that wolves are impossible to recreate realistically using CGI.
OzQuote Reply
Elena Amici,
To me it’s better if they are really big if they are going to be as iconic as they are in the books. I also think that the difficulty of making the dogs do what they want makes it harder to really bring that special bond across as well. I didn’t have as clear opinion about it before season 1 but hearing from D&D about all the problems they had with dogs I understand that it wasn’t an ideal choice.
Then again I’m a person that can enjoy old movies that have special effects so I know I can immerse myself in anything I find interesting. I will never get immersed in something that has a bad story though, regardless of how it looks and sounds. Therefor I think D&D did the right thing, choosing something that will act just as they want but perhaps not look flawless. Story over visuals.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
I’d rather see no direwolves at all. No cheesy CGI please. I haven’t read the books and won’t miss them.
johnQuote Reply
I have to say, i am still a little “nervous” about the direwolves dragons mammoths giants etc etc concerning CGI. Ik has to be excellent my friends or else this tv adaptation is pointless
BalerionQuote Reply
I wonder why I didn´t see these anxieties about other problems in GoT
Cinematography is not the best, the writing is not the best. It´s fine, sometimes very well but not great or infallible but we watch it and enjoyed it anyway so…
Only the direwolves´s fur has to be perfect?
andreaQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
having cgi direwolves this year doesn’t necessarrily mean we’ll get them on-screen all the time. Even though it’s possible to make them do whatever D&D want, it still costs a lot of time and effort (both in setting up the shots and afterwards to blend in the cgi), hence money.
andrea,
err…Andrea…have you by accident missed all the ‘gates’ that have errupted on plenty of occasions? :-)
Balerion,
please don’t forget to put spoiler tags! There’s still people here who haven’t read the books…
Tar KidhoQuote Reply
Balerion,
Why would the entire adaptation be rendered pointless if the effects aren’t of the highest quality? The story is about the characters above everything else and there are tons of great movies and TV-series that doesn’t have effects that are that good by today’s standards (an ongoing process as technology gets better and better). I would say that if the show stands or falls with the quality of it’s effects then the story and characters can’t be that good.
I watch the show to see actors bring the characters to life and I never for a second thought that the special effects would be flawless because that was never going to happen with a TV-series. Especially one of this scope.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Tar Kidho,
;) true!
I shouldn´t write here while I’m doing something else.
Still I have the impression that not many people have complained about the writing (important to me) as much as wolf´s fur.
andreaQuote Reply
Yeah! Why hasn’t GoT been Sweded yet? Is Swede dead? Did it ever live?
Epic pinaforesQuote Reply
I’m not overly worried about the CGI and I expect the wolves will look chessy but I already know I’ll get over it…I just hope the scale of the show is greatly improved and that justice is done to the battle scenes…I’ve read the books and I’m much more interested in the ‘spectacle’ of it all…the actors are for the most part excellent and hopefully the ‘scale’ will start to match that…
Coltaine777Quote Reply
john,
Well if you haven’t read the books then you don’t understand their importance to the Stark children. The wolves are basically a part of them and become much more important later on. You can’t just write them out.
SamQuote Reply
Actually he is 6′ 5.” Movie magic!!!
KGQuote Reply
Maybe they should have brought GoT to the theatrical stage instead of film. Or, GoT on Ice. Or GoT the Musical. Daniel Radcliffe would make an excellent Lordling.
Epic pinaforesQuote Reply
look at Liam Neeson’s new movie called “The Grey”. It has CGI wolves and they don’t look bad. Granted they are not shown alot in this trailer but if our direwolves look as “real” as these then that would be awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfb0-U0ydj8
SamQuote Reply
Thw writing is great imo, maybe not the best but certainly better than most tv shows this days .
JohnQuote Reply
best than most could be but other shows have better writting. It doesn´t matter…I like GoT anyway.
andreaQuote Reply
Sam,
I highly doubt that all of that is CG. Especially the clip where you see the wolf standing still. The rest of the clip is far to fast to really judge the quality of the GC anyway. Also, it is a movie, not a TV show.
I personally stand in the “I dont understand what the big deal is” camp. Its a fantasy show. Guess what, its going to have parts that arent real. The Nolan Batman series is one of the best “Gritty Reality from Fantasy” examples we have, and their are plenty of things that require a little suspension of disbelief. I still enjoy the hell out of those, as I will GoT, regardless of wolf quality.
tekQuote Reply
OT: Here’s an interview with Tom Wlaschiha where he talks a bit about GoT:
http://www.teenfi.com/movies/Tom+Wlaschiha-11005-page2.html
And here’s a video of him (if someone wants to know what he sounds like speaking English): http://www.gettyimages.de/detail/video/tom-wlaschiha-on-british-films-his-role-and-nachrichtenfilmmaterial/134000409
LisaQuote Reply
Are you kidding me? These guys are ridiculous!!! Season 2 is going the blow away the sublime season 1. Life is good.
EthanQuote Reply
I really think expectations for the wolves need to be dialled down to zero. You might get something reasonable but it will still be obviously CGI. It’s just difficult to create any furry animal. The gold standard for that is probably Rise of the Planet of the Apes which was done by Weta but the budget for that would have been staggering. The best we can probably hope for is that Weta’s technology becomes cheaper and more accessible over time.
As I said, for Season 2, we just have to hope that the actors are good at working with CGI and directors give them good instructions as to what is happening. How the actors react to the wolves is almost as important as what they look like.
HouseLarkQuote Reply
tek,
I know it’s not the best example but I’m just saying it can be done right. And I agree with you. The quality of the CG direwolves really isn’t something to freak out over.
SamQuote Reply
andrea,
Yeah GoT is good but it has miles to go before it reaches Breaking Bad, Homeland, Mad Men quality in my opinion.
GoT is good because of Martin’s story and the cast. The show as a show writing is what needs to improve. I don’t know how many people would have thought at seeing Michelle Fairley or Lena Headey naked, but the show can still tell its story and maintain the HBO nudity/sex quota. I’m speaking of the sexposition scenes. Hello Ros! They stick out incredibly.
I’m all HBO in is bloody naked glory just don’t get gratuitous because it takes me out the story.
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
Apparently, they can all do better. Sigh… I thought the showreel was amazing, I’m very excited.
EdQuote Reply
PPPpfffftrtttttttt!!! (just spit my Pepsi all over my laptop) LoL!!
EdQuote Reply
The sad thing ’bout Terra Nova was that although it was advertised as being all about dinos and prehistoric stuff those were pretty bad… The best scenes (plot-wise and look-wise) were IMO those that were set in 2149.
As for the GoT and the direwolves I can only hope that they do them right (considering that it is a lot harder to make animals with fur seem realistic) even if it means to have them in a few less scenes… Also if they could make the wolves immovable in a few scenes (e.g. Ghost sleeping besides Jon or Grey Wind sitting besides Rob during a war council etc.) they’d probably save some money but still make their presence felt (which season 1 lacked).
Andrija Andrew PQuote Reply
Oh and I’m not overly concerned about the dragons, they have been in quite a few movies in recent years and for the most part were done OK…
Andrija Andrew PQuote Reply
You missed my point. I don’t want CGI wolves because they will definitely look cheesy. Obviously I’m in favor of any CGI where it is possible to make it look realistic/good. Like for example all the CGI in S1 of GoT, Boardwalk Empire, or John Adams as some examples. Even dragons can be done well because 1) they don’t have fur and 2) they are imaginary so there’s no way they “should” look.
Overall making the show look high quality is of utmost importance – otherwise you’ll be back to 90% of viewers thinking it’s nothing more than fantasy camp garbage and changing the channel. I’d sacrifice screentime on the wolves to avoid the show being totally embarassing.
One thing I’ve thought of to establish the connection between the wolves and the kids is that for Summer and Ghost, most of the time they are actually not anywhere near their respective Starks actors. Bran spends most of his time with Summer _in_ Summer – hunting, running etc. They could use footage of real wolves, or even have a “first person perspective” where they shoot scenes looking out from Summer’s eyes. The worst problems come when actors are supposed to be acting while the animals are supposed to be doing something. If wolves are alone and can do things on their own time, it’s much easier to get them to do what you want.
userjQuote Reply
Josh Atreides,
I have to watch BB. Yes, I know it´s a crime… but I refuse to watch TV all day long. I may do it now that I´m on vacation. But watching tv while on vacation, that´s a real crime. We´ll see. I like Homeland, Justified, etc ( and can I confess that I like “Once upon a time”?)… but right now all my love is for Louie.
Besides some bad dialogues (GoT) the cinematography seems very flat to me. And yes, the cast is great.
andreaQuote Reply
Josh Atreides,
I think GoT was far less gratuitous with it’s nudity than HBO shows like True Blood. I don’t remember any nudity in GoT that wasn’t involved in a scene that was directly providing back story, or moved the story forward. Lots of HBO shows just show people having sex with no other point to the scene.
I also feel that readers complain far more about the Ros scenes standing out than the non-readers are, which seems to indicate that it’s not necessarily so much the writing as it is readers feeling insecure when the show goes off the book tracks (generally speaking).
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Wow! Look at that sentence! It’s worse than a Littlefinger monologue.
Epic pinaforesQuote Reply
Shouldn’t that mean that it’s certainly possible to get the wolves right? If you’re content with all the CGI in S1 then you’re content with some very obvious effects, like Bran’s climbing. Not that I think that’s bad since I, as said, think that’s part of being a good viewer.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
This is my favorite post in the thread I think. Well, to that point.
I am not expecting “realistic” direwolves in S2. I do expect big menacing (when necessary) beasts that will do the cool feats the story asks of them. The wolf in 300 looked totally fake. I didn’t care. It was cool and when I think of the scene in hindsight what I’m left with is that, not whatever critiques I could undoubtedly come up with if I were to suddenly be presented with a still image of 300 with the wolf.
I don’t care that it won’t look realistic. (It totally won’t.) But they will serve the story in the best fashion IMO.
I am optimistic, and I think my expectations are realistic here. I don’t expect anything close to perfection.
ZackQuote Reply
I don’t think CGI wolves are possible because they’ve never been done well. This is for two main reasons.
For one thing to get fur to look good is itself incredibly technically difficult. You need a budget way larger than GoT has.
Secondly, canines (such as wolves) are things that we are very very familiar with. We know instinctively exactly how they should look/move/emote/etc. To make them look realistic is therefore going to be almost impossible – anything that’s even slightly off will stick out horribly.
Inanimate things like backgrounds and so on do not have nearly the potential to look horribly cheesy as animate/living things do. Do you really think that Bran’s climbing looked cheesy? I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “obvious”.
userjQuote Reply
Red Tails hasn’t even come out yet, how can you make such claims about that movie? Flash and bang, over the top? It’s a movie by George Lucas about the Tuskegee Airmen in WWII. Maybe you included the movie in your negative statement accidentally? Or were you just making a point without actual facts to back it up? Did you just forget to mention The Invention of Hugo Cabret in your list of their “biggest projects”? What about The Green Lantern? What about 2012 and Percy Jackson & the Olympians?
If Pixomondo is good enough for George Lucas (as executive producer) and Anthony Hemingway (the director, who has also directed HBO series like Treme and The Wire), then they’re good enough for me.
LangkardQuote Reply
I’m ecstatic they have MASSIVE. GoT really needed this technology last year.
AnneMarie BowmanQuote Reply
You had me before “well, to that point”. Thanks anyway.
Augh… perfection.
andreaQuote Reply
userj,
That comes down to the definition of “well”. Since I’m a guy that can watch movies like The Terminator and stay immersed I don’t need it to be perfect (which it won’t be regardless of method so I guess that’s kind of moot). Therefor I prefer the solution that makes them able to tell the story the way they want to tell it. Since they’ve already tried using dogs and thought it was a bad experience I wouldn’t want to force that on them again.
As for realism in known creatures I don’t think it’s that much different since it’s often pretty clear when something is not physically correct. For example, very few dragons in movies would have been able to fly, especially with the way they are moving their wings. It’s pretty obvious but that’s the kind of things you have to disregard as a viewer in order to be entertained.
When Bran is climbing down after having spotted the king’s caravan the background does not fuse well with the rest in the shot. It stands out as being a special effect.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
That’s my point GoT is not using its nudity sparingly. We have shots of Esme’s assets while their trying to establish background and no book nudity like Cat or Cersei (for obvious reasons).
The show shouldn’t even have to compete with the others. Maybe now that it has decent critical attention it won’t have to play the T and A card to bring in the viewers. Look at Deadwood it made sex and nudity dirty and not at all sensual. That’s what they should aim for.
Also the lesbian/Littlefinger scene is a glaring eyesore in an otherwise fabulous episode. It’s scenes like that which make people not take it seriously as they might another show. I want GoT to be the Wire of fantasy not the HBO alternative to Spartacus.
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
AnneMarie Bowman,
Damn! Now that GoT has a VFX company with “Massive” this can mean only one thing … BRING ON THE BLACKWATER BABY! I just couldn’t resist.
I agree with Zack too, the wolf in 300 wasn’t realistic but it was badass, and that scene rocked. Direwolves like that one wouldn’t be a bad thing.
tysnowQuote Reply
Wolves as big as ponies aren’t going to look realistic even if all the biggest VFX-teams had 2 years to make them. As long as the CGI will be better than that terrible hound in Sherlock I’ll be fine (seriously, that looked like it was made in the seventies when there was no CGI).
KnurkQuote Reply
Sure, the wolves in Twilight weren’t great, but have any of you ever seen a better CGI wolf? The competition for that title may not be too stiff (and I’ve only seen snippets of Twilight) but I do believe they’re the best so far. Haters gonna hate, but I would not mind the direwolves looking like that. We can’t expect too much and the Twilight wolves seem like a decent example to try and live up to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGmT6CuG_Gw
They don’t look that bad.
Reverse NielsenQuote Reply
I agree with this post.
I know popular convention is to talk sh$% about it, just it’s Twilight, but they didn’t look bad.
EdQuote Reply
Knurk,
Ahaha, yes, it did. Not to worry, though–I think the budget should be slightly bigger for VFX in GoT than Sherlock, which is more about the excellent characters and writing. I love Sherlock.
Haha. I just didn’t want to get ahead of myself. As it turns out though I probably could’ve omitted that bit anyway :)
And I agree with the enthusiasm for Massive. THAT was perhaps the biggest failing of the first season, the lack of a truly epic scale from all the emptiness where astounding numbers of people should’ve been. So to hear that they’re tackling both of these issues, it really does reassure me that our show is in good hands.
ZackQuote Reply
Knurk,
Haha yeah that “hound” was awful. Still a great episode though! I love Sherlock.
John-Michael LelievreQuote Reply
So they have Massive. So what? We’ll have 50,000 little plastic lego dudes running around all shiny on a battlefield? Those samples were crap.
KGQuote Reply
The Terra Nova deal has got me a bit worried. I watched that show, and the VFX in it were a joke. I think GOT has about the same budget as that show too.
WesQuote Reply
To me, the importance of the direwolves is in the connection with the Stark kids, not their sheer size. So I’m with Elena, I’d rather settle for huge dogs in a few crucial scenes than bad CGI wolves.
As for 300, nothing in that movie was ever supposed to look real, so you can’t really compare it to GoT. And I sincerely hope their VFX budget is much higher than that of Sherlock, that wolf was laughable. And it did distract me, yes, especially because otherwise the show is great. So a bad effect sticks out even more.
LailaQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
This. Look, as fan, we had two options to hope for with GoT. Either a) they turned the series into Blockbuster movies, in which case, we would have gotten our awesome special effects, but the story would have been completely bastardized due to time constraints.
Or b), we get a TV show, where most of the story can stay intact, but we have to settle for subpar VFX sometimes. Personally, especially with source material like ASOIF, I’ll take option B every time.
However, an option c), where we get our story and movie quality VFX doesn’t exist, and that’s regardless of whether Pixomondo or any other studio was chosen. People need to start lowering their expectations.
Having said that, the VFX COULD become a problem that severely hampers the story. Forget about the wolves; as much as the purists like the cry about them, they’re not as essential to the story as some act. However…
How the hell they’re going to pull off a scene like Dany riding her dragon for the first time in ADWD on a TV budget (and not make it look like shit) is beyond me…
OKENOQuote Reply
Just purchased Boardwalk Empire Season 1 at my local Best Best Buy. Got the first episode of GoT on Blu for free! 2 things:
1) amazing resolution. Sound. picture quality. Wow.
2) They fixed the Credits for episode I!
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
CGI direwolves will look like CGI direwolves. Because they’re CGI direwolves.
The important thing is that I’m gonna see Bon Iver and Radiohead on the same day, the day after I see Pulp obliterate everyone. Then, on Sunday, I’m gonna see At the Drive-In, get high as fuck for Snoop, return to the condo, and watch the first episode of the second season of Game of Thrones with the most gigantic shit-eating grin this world has ever seen.
the goatQuote Reply
Josh Atreides,
Sweet!!!
the goatQuote Reply
Josh Atreides,
Also, I love that you watched the GoT disc before the BE discs. Good work, ser!
the goatQuote Reply
Reverse Nielsen,
As a Twilight Saga fan I will step up and say for us fans the CGI of these wolves for us was a HUGE deal! (BTW this is about wolves so keep your twilight hate to yourself,we get enough of it outside of this forum,I like to think I can deal with adults in this forum!)
In New moon the 2nd movie they had to go back and re-touch the wolves up make them more ferocious. Each actor portraying they’re perspective wolf had the whole cgi suit on during filming. What they did here that was important to the story was to leave some “human” characteristics to each wolf once it phased from human form such as eyes and body type and fur color. I won’t go into examples of each wolf vs they’re human form because none of you I am sure know who is who.
For Eclipse the 3rd movie,the director David Slade used a diffrent CGI company and made the wolves much more fierce and large,meaner.
For the recent movie,honestly I am not sure just because I am pretty satisfied witht he way the wolves look and I think from movie 2 to movie 4 they have done a great job.
Now, the direwolves if I am not mistaken are supposed to be even larger,prehistoric right? Not these cute little furry dogs like Ghost of season one who looked like a cross between a husky and a chow! LOL!
Either way,I am sure the direwolves will look great. As long as they don’t look like Lycans(joke) or some freaky mutant wolf. I refuse to be a pessamist!
HildaQuote Reply
Josh Atreides,
Using it sparingly or not is a different matter from being gratuitous. And the book is more explicit than the show is, describing details about parts of Dany’s sex and so on so that some get surprised by how the show handled it is surprising to me.
Game of Thrones isn’t even remotely close to what they’ve done in Spartacus. And we hardly have to worry about people not taking it seriously. GoT is on a completely different level in critical acclaim and award nominations than virtually every other fantasy show that’s been created, and that was with the nudity. The increase in fantasy elements (in line with the books) is a bigger worry in that department.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
OKENO,
We are on the same page here and I completely agree about the two options that are available. It’s either focusing the effort more around the effects, or focusing the effort around telling the story just the way they want to tell it.
And when it comes to the reception of the general audience, who needs the people that criticizes fantasy for being just fantasy? We have plenty of people within the ranks of the fans that seemingly more than willing to criticize every little detail they can think of. The fans are at times worse than the detractors of the genre.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
They look fine when they are walking around even when next to Humans (fight scenes not so much) and if we get Direwolves looking as Good then that will be great but it’s all down to money and a TV SFX budget compared to a Movie SFX budget.
MormegilQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
Let’s agree to disagree on this one shall we? There’s a difference btw lesbian sex show carrying on during a pivotal character moment and someone getting out of bath naked or lying in bed topless.
I stand by my statement. It can be used in a better fashion. Even Rome didn’t have a scene like that.
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
Yes but more non fantasists = more money for HBO ergo more money for GoT. Why set a low standard when you can go higher.
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
the goat,
Naturally!
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
Josh Atreides,
What do you mean “even Rome didn’t have a scene like that”? Rome was hardly as explicit as Spartacus and you compared GoT to the HBO Spartacus alternative. I’m not arguing against that you don’t like it, I’m arguing against the comparisons you’re making as I think they are bad.
As for your second post you’ll have to clarify exactly what you mean by setting lower standards. The option to go for CGI is definitely not that so I’m not sure what you’re going for.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Just throwing this out there, as someone who’s worked in the field of computer animation: it’s a mistake to reduce the idea of good FX to money and technology. It’s NOT necessarily true that the more money you throw at something, the better it gets. There have been a number of Hollywood productions out there whose large CGI budgets derived from the fact that the animation was inferior and had to be redone, thus costing more money.
Likewise, there are such things as “passion projects” and movies that CGI companies can see as valuable springboards. LOTR is a good example: at the time, Weta wasn’t a big FX company, but they knew that LOTR was going to make their reputation, so they killed themselves making it look as good as they could (this, by the way, is an example of FX being redone and bumping the budget–when Peter Jackson had gotten the execs to have more faith in the project, he went back with more money and redid some of the effects.) GoT isn’t a game-changer from an effects standpoint, but it’s got enough buzz, and probably plenty of fans in the FX community, who will be legitimately excited to work on it. That can make a difference.
Another big factor in effects work, by the way, is time. This is another money suck: sometimes big FX movies require a short turnaround time to meet the pre-decided release date, and the animators get huge bonuses to essentially work around the clock. Being put on a more efficient, manageable schedule often produces work that’s as good, or better, without the expense. I have no idea what that means for GoT, it’s a TV show, but it has a long production schedule, so…if D&D have all their ducks in a row and have learned from last season, the schedule could make a difference in the quality of the FX.
PranksterQuote Reply
Prankster,
Are you suggesting that Pixelodomo has a one price for all you can eat perfect CGI? Are you suggesting that Pixeldomo thinks GoT is a springboard for them? Are you suggesting that D&D have learned something from season 1? I’m confused.
Epic The BallsQuote Reply
Ser, I regret to express your statement says more about you than about the show. Not to mention GoT sex wasn’t exactly beautiful lovemaking.
Epic The BallsQuote Reply
Epic The Balls,
I’m not specifically saying anything about Pixelmondo, who I’m not familiar with, I was just making a few points for people who seem to think that budget is the end all and be-all of determining FX quality. Also, that GoT is a rather prestigious project that may inspire people to do their best.
PranksterQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
I think you missed my point. But that’s not really your fault as I was texting my comments during my lunch break and really didn’t have the most conducive atmosphere for allowing my replies to go the distance.
With True Blood being the one exception, the bulk of the HBO dramas (Sopranos, The Wire, Rome, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire et al) utilize the portrayal of nudity and sexuality in a workmanlike fashion. Characters doff clothes and knock boots quite frequently on these series, but the majority of these scenes depict main characters amidst these activities with the air of normalcy comparable to a dialogue scene. On HBO characters are shown to us acting out every facet of their daily lives. This happens with such frequency that each sex or nude scene feels organic within the story and does not seem as if it were framed for the mere purpose of exploiting the naughty bits that are difficult to find outside the boundaries of cable television.
I think it is safe to say that HBO’s realism factor ie: violence, profanity, nudity and sexuality, depicted therein is common knowledge and a marketing factor that the network is very conscious of. True Blood and Entourage are a prime example of this. But the best of HBO, series like Deadwood, The Wire, the Sopranos and to a lesser extent Rome, portray sexuality as mundane or dangerous and is not afraid of exploring different sides of human sexuality such as fetishism, perversion etc. Interestingly enough, George RR Martin has done the same with sexuality in his novels. With the exception of a Ned/Catelyn conjugal scene early in the first text and perhaps the passionate moments between two other characters later on, sex in Martin’s books are in your face and explicit and whatever this may tell about the author himself, is explored in terms of banality and deviancy. There are very few romantic depictions of sexuality. And that makes sense as Martin seems intent on writing a very anti-romantic fantasy tale. Nay, the antithesis of high fantasy in general.
As much as sex appears in the text, one can easily lump it under the greater theme of genuine medieval depravity that Martin wishes to enforce. This can certainly be applied to Deadwood: was there ever an erotically charged scene from the Gem Saloon? Can you get any more nonchalant than a blowjob monologue? Are the women depicted as gorgeous, voluptuous women ( a matter for debate I suppose) clearly meant to titilate the viewer like that of Esme Bianca? Most importantly, do the women in Deadwood look happy with their station? Even on Rome where such decadence is expected, sexuality is shown as an everyday part of life, it’s one of the few exceptions where such indulgences were seen and heard all the time. It did take place in the Pre-Christian world of course. Furthermore name me a scene in Rome where a lesbian manual stimulation scene took place in full view of the characters and framed by the film makers for the audience to watch as a spectacle? The entire series was a spectacle of the age that it took place in.
No with the exception of the Dany storyline thus far the nude scenes in Game of Thrones are placed front and centre as just that,visual mini spectacles that laughably attempt to throw exposition at the viewer which to several critics of the series can not help but be put off from the show as it tries to build its complex world and draw the uninitiated into that world carries this out with a red-haired prostitute that Benioff and Weiss unfortunately see as a mechanism to impart such exposition.
And seriously, did they believe that juxtaposing Littlefinger’s monologue to a soft-porn lesbian scene which I will admit under certain direction (perhaps a little subtlety) could have been brilliant, would be taken seriously?
I love this series, don’t get me wrong but they can do miles better to fulfil their HBO decadence quota. I hope next season that the sex and nudity flow organically with the story and no longer appear in jarring staged scenes meant for the purpose of titillation alone.
Joshua TaylorQuote Reply
Had to do a page search through all the comments, see which ones had been made. Now, relates to two other movies bearing CGI wolves: Twilight (which was mentioned a couple times, some good comments and some bad — I’ve only seen the … first movie with them in it, whichever that is, and they looked fairly decent for what they were supposed to be).
The other movie I make mention of is Narnia, Maugrim and his pack. There were some live shots for sure, looked a fair bit like huskies, but though I can’t find any wiki articles or anything stating specifically any details, there’s a fair number of sequences in there that were well done that involved CGI wolves. The movie also had a lion, gryphons, beavers, foxes, etc. etc. etc. Yes, might have been a more high-class SFX production company, but it CAN be done and done well.
Colin PQuote Reply
Joshua Taylor,
I take it you write under two different names, given that your last post would be kind of strange if you didn’t. Therefor I’ll assume you’ve written everything that the name Josh Atreides has written when I type this post.
My original point was that I felt you were wrong when you compared the show to Spartacus, since that show has much more sex and nudity and have long sex scenes that are pretty much nothing else than just a very visual sex scene. The discussion has been a bit odd after that since you never commented on that point, but instead just made other points and comparisons.
I don’t see how the show deviates from the book in the kind of sex it has. Very few of the scenes are romantic but there are some, just like in the book. That Ros is shown as a pretty happy whore doesn’t break the feel of the books whatsoever as there are several whores in the book that seem very content with their lives as far as what the reader can see. A vital point is of course that they aren’t cheap whores tricking to filthy goldwashers in a town in the middle of nowhere, they are the ones generally catering to high born and other rich people. Martin’s books, as far as those individuals go, seem to have nothing in common with Deadwood either.
As for the Littlefinger scene I’ve heard and seen several non-readers think that scene was one of the best scenes of the season, often with the reason that they aren’t afraid of showing what can happen in a whorehouse (more than that they found it sexy) and they liked the odd contrast of the scenes themes, making it stand out from other shows. So even if it’s not my own favorite your feelings on the scene is clearly not universal (I’ve tried to be more objective than just going on my own opinions).
I don’t even see the point of you asking if Rome had that exact kind of specific scene. It’s kind of obvious that shows don’t go out of their way to copy other shows like that. The comparisons have to be made in spirit, not with a carbon sheet.
I’ll end with reminding you once again, the point of me answering you was to disagree with your comparison with Spartacus. The rest isn’t really that relevant to that point and I’ve just answered that because it’s fun to discuss. This is kind of off topic for the thread though as I doubt they’ll add any CGI sex scenes.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
You should have been around here when that scene first aired. I was certainly not in the minority with my objection to it.
The Littlefinger scene was something that may have gelled on paper but clearly comes off as Spartacus-esque (at least to me) in its finished product. That’s what my comparison to Spartacus suggests.
And there is striking similarity to the sanitary conditions of a mining town to that of a society based off of medieval Europe.
I appreciate you defending the show, god knows that I do. But i think this show can do better in the terms we are now debating. To me those scenes were meant to tell the viewer “We have boobs, and butt and masturbating lesbians look how hedonistic this culture is.” Many people I know who appreciate fine drama especially of the HBO variety found this scene obtrusive, as it prevented them taking the scene seriously. I fear that critics of the show who will write not very encouraging things to their readers will view this particular scene as a reflection of the show itself: “oh look nudity and sex, let’s legitimize it with good acting, a political/ personal Dickensian story template with dragons and ice zombies to make it a fantasy show.”
That said I concede that some critics are already prejudicing the show on the anti-fantasy bias alone, there are critics and people who see this as an immature series like True Blood or to a lesser extent…Spartacus.
Back to the LF scene: did HBO really need to bring in an adult film star (Sahara Knite) for that particular scene? Interesting that it was Esme doing everything…I wonder if that ‘s why they hired the porn star. Because i am beginning to wonder (for entirely non vulgar reasons of course) if it was simulated. I will also concede again that if done in a certain way (as seen on The Wire, the Sopranos and Deadwood) this scene could have been absolutely brilliant. If you think it was fine than that’s great for you. Maybe this will be an isolated scene that they will only do once. But I fear we may see more of them. Considering the Ros scene with Pycelle which is evidence of Ros serving narrative function as a possible spy, it may be that there is some purpose to Esme Bianca’s character. I will give her this, she is a brave and possibly quite talented actress. I just hope next season to see sex and nudity occur within the framework of the story and not a staged spectacle that to the discerning critic seems to be a mere parlor trick for roping the less cerebral of fans, those who want action and battles and boobs and find all this talking, talking tedious.
And yes this isn’t CGI related but when do we ever stay on topic on this site ? ;-)
BTW: my user name depends on whether I am logged into Facebook or not.
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
You can disable that by going into the Apps on Facebook and disconnecting the WinterIsComing.net app from your Facebook account. As long as you still Like our Facebook page, you’ll still get our updates in your News feed. The app just allows you to comment using your Facebook profile. :)
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
Also, my point with the Rome question refers the nagging fact that despite all of its moments of ancient decadence, the series never utilized the depiction of human sexuality in such an explicit and staged manner as Game of Thrones did in that scene. It reminded me of several scenes with John Hannah and Lucy Lawless on Spartacus.
To put a capper on this matter let me just say this: THAT scene took me out of the story. I am not a Puritan. I found it more ridiculous than titillating, more reaching for the True Blood demographic than ambitious. I got shit from my friends and family for it (people who watch HBO) and it is the one low point of the series so far me.
IMHO it is scenes like that which could prevent GoT from joining the ranks of the great television series of our time. Is that so wrong? That I wish the show to use its talent to the highest caliber of drama?
And in regards to the topic, the showreel is problematic but I won’t judge until I see the finished product. Someone brought up WETA and LOTR. For those that have seen the excellent and extensive documentaries included with the LOTR extended editions, you can see how every aspect of production was committed to bringing the world to life. Unimpressed by some of the footage we might have been, LOTR is proof positive that passion creates an excellent product. Budgetary restrictions aside here’s to hoping that Pixomondo share that same work ethic.
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
Direwolves don’t actually exist, so I can suspend disbelief and go with the flow.
I’m sure I’ll be satisfied with whatever they come up with.
I think people shouldn’t be so critical when filmmakers try to create things that don’t really exist. There are truly bad effects, and then there is the stuff that is a lot more convincing.
But we’ll never see CGI that looks as real as if these creatures existed.
Rant off
HollyoakQuote Reply
How do you feel about this islandic pony for a direwolf? Picture it with plastic vampire teeth.
Epic stromboneousQuote Reply
Josh Atreides,
I was certainly around as I’ve visited this site since it was newly created, although I mainly took part in discussions on the Westeros forums because the forum structure worked better for discussing things more in depth. There was lots of criticism against nudity on the show in general, but I’m also well aware that it’s hard to judge what the overall opinion is because even if the negative people are in minority they will certainly make sure they are heard the most. That’s how people behave on the Internet.
I still don’t feel it’s very Spartacus-esque but opinions are opinions, as our experiences of our respective friends’ opinions have shown. I didn’t even get a comment on any of the nudity from my most conservative friend. Lots of them think that Americans (when looking at the mainstream cultural environment) are hypocritical when it comes to responding to sex compared to how they respond to violence so they were relieved that the show treated those two subjects fairly equally. I can agree to a point with that since when I think about it it’s actually quite disturbing that many people are fine with violence but not with sex.
Personally I didn’t even think that much about the sex in that scene as I was focused on what the scene was actually about. I guess I don’t see sexual content as any more special than violence so I don’t get jarred about it. I can see why other people are though and I’ve never said it was wrong to have that opinion.
As for the adult film star I didn’t pick up on that. They brought one in for the last season of Dexter though and that was for a very brief and tame sex clip. Nothing special at all, even for a normal actress. Therefor I doubt it means much.
I do think it’s unnecessary to be afraid of the reception of the show though since we had scenes like that in season 1 and it’s certainly been popular in all circles; viewers, reviewers and award jurys alike. As I previously said, I’ve even seen a review where the Littlefinger-scene was pointed out as a positive and I don’t remember much about reviewers having a hard time with the sex on the show, so it seems pretty balanced.
All in all I guess I don’t care what they do with the nudity in season 2, as long as all scenes serve a higher purpose than that. Just as they did in the first one. I don’t watch for the nudity at all but I’m not bothered by it either.
I agree that we can only hope that the people working on the show are as passionate about it as the people working on the LotR trilogy, and that goes for all departments. That was a very special project though and an extremely high bar for everyone else. Jackson himself only had a handful of days off in several years time. I’m quite sure everyone is trying to do a great job on GoT though and everyone seem happy to be working on the show.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Epic stromboneous,
That, or just tape a bunch of cats together.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
hey all the people..
budgets:
1. game of thrones : $55-60 million
.SEASON 2 :expected budget: $65-75 million (source)
2. twilight new moon: $50 million
3. twilight eclipse : $68 million
4. sucker punch : $82 million
no 2 3 4 had the more CGI than the whole got season 1 ,and season 2 will be no exception… game of thrones is all about script, strong dialogues and strong characters, great landscapes (major)…wolfs, dragons and crowd, battle are all good (but minor) and we love that stuff but they doesn’t make even 1 hr of reel in full season….and so they hv enough budget to cope up with the CGIs the second season needed and they will deliver,they r HBO!!!
even with cgi direwolves this year doesn’t necessarrily mean we’ll get them on-screen all the time.(as i described above they consists “minor” part of the reel)
so if you want to watch great CGIs of dragons , wolves, ships, battles, gore, weight walkers, snow, HARRENHAL –buy original DVDs, merchandises and say no to piracy. THAT HELPS…
Jenish KachhadiaQuote Reply
and i bet that CGI wolves of GOT will be better than the TWILIGHT…
Jenish KachhadiaQuote Reply
I honestly would have rather seen them just keep using real wolves for the Direwolves. I don’t care about the size difference. I care about them looking real and being able to have a real connection with the Stark children.
Christina GmiterkoQuote Reply
Just watched Hugo 3D (which was a beautiful and amazing movie). Guess who did the gorgeous VFX?
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/01/pixomondo-hugo-vfx/http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/01/pixomondo-hugo-vfx/
MichaelQuote Reply
Michael,
Which earned them an Oscar nomination by the way. For those who understand german, here is a nice article (focusing on Hugo):
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/gadgets/0,1518,814035,00.html
ChristianQuote Reply