Miguel Sapochnik on directing “Battle of the Bastards” and maybe returning for Season 8

Miguel Sapochnik has only been with the show for two years, but already he’s become a star. Directing “Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards,” and “The Winds of Winter” will do that for you. His work on “Bastards” earned him his first Emmy nomination, for Outstanding directing.

The New York Times chatted with the director about all of this, and pretty much everything he said is worth repeating. For example, here’s his take on the tone of Game of Thrones, and how he conceived of it when he was the new kid on the block.

"When I was coming onto “Thrones,” I was looking for “What’s the formula here?” There was a very David Lean kind of approach to it. It was traditional, in a way, and it was naturalistic in some respects, even though it was fantasy. It’s part of the function of the storytelling, which is presenting a world that has fantastic elements but not making a big deal out of it. When I first heard that idea, I struggled with it a bit, but I realized there’s a certain logic to it that I like. Then, because of the nature of the episodes I had to do, that idea had to evolve."

David Lean, by the way, is the guy who directed sweeping historical epics like The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago. It’s a lofty comparison to make, but I can see where he’s coming from.

Soon enough, Sapochnik found his comfort zone while directing the wildling-vs-wights battle scene in “Hardhome.”

"You couldn’t do “Hardhome” and not go hand-held. We didn’t have the time to shoot that size of show without having the freedom to move around with a camera and get a bit loose, and also, creatively, to help form the feeling of the chaos. It became a conscious choice that happened once the fog comes rolling in, and the White Walkers appear. It helps set up the panic the Wildlings are experiencing."

According to Sapochnik, his experience on “Hardhome” made directing “Battle of the Bastards” much easier. Hence Emmys.

Speaking of that episode, it was as logistically complicated as you think. For example, Sapochnik was charged with the impossible task of “

aving 3,000 horses running at each other,” despite the fact he only had 70 horses, and the fact that it’s illegal for horses to touch each other. His solution:

"You would have one guy run into the frame, and then the horse rider would pull the horse, which means make the horse fall and lie down on its side. Later we would digitally superimpose another C.G.I. horse and make it seem like it had impacted the live one. Pulling horses down, you can do. It’s about turning their necks in a certain direction, and then having two guys with a rope wrapped around the front two legs — they pull the rope, and then it allows them to fall very painlessly onto a bedded mulch base, so they’re falling into a soft surface. But horses are quite smart, so after a couple of times, they won’t let you."

Horses, man—they’re prima donnas. The dragons, represented as they are by little green balls on the ends of 14-foot polls, were easier to direct.

One of Sapochnik’s obstacles was very unexpected: the sun. “[W]hat I didn’t realize is the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west,” he laughed. “So the direction you shoot in the morning, and the direction you shoot in the afternoon, are opposite to each other, and we had to completely change the schedule to accommodate where the sun was at any one point. Sometimes we would have to start with the end of a sequence.”

But obviously, it all worked out in the end. In fact, some of these obstacles made the episode better. The prime example is Jon Snow almost being trampled by his own men. Originally, the script called for something else (still not sure what it was), but the field of battle was thick with mud, and Sapochnik had to improvise. “So I consulted with [showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] and said, ‘I think I can complete the sequence if I can go off script and shoot this idea instead, because it’s more containable and it’s not dependent on the weather.’ And they said yes, and it ended up being a very personal moment for Jon Snow in the midst of all of that chaos.” And a great moment was born.

As for “The Winds of Winter,” Sapochnik fingered the moment when Daenerys makes Tyrion her Hand as his favorite moment. “[W]e shot it very simply,” he said. “We felt like we had managed to do something that was visual but really was a very intimate scene between two people.” He also revealed that Tommen’s suicide, which the New York Times interviewer really loved, was shot exactly as scripted by Benioff and Weiss. “One of the most interesting things was trying to work out how long to have him offscreen before he came back. It’s something I’d never done — how long do I stay on an empty frame?”

Lastly, Sapochnik gave a whiff of a hint about coming back for Season 8. He’s not directing anything for Season 7, but surely the producers will want this guy to return, right? “I’m getting a little breather, but hopefully I’ll be back,” he said. Yes, please.