Game of Thrones cinematographer Robert McLachlan on shooting “Eastwatch”

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We all know how dangerous the fictional world of Game of Thrones is, but Director of Photography Robert McLachlan admits that the behind-the-scenes production can get pretty hairy, too. McLachlan is a twice Emmy-nominated cinematographer and a GoT veteran, having lensed eight episodes, including “The Rains of Castamere” and “The Dance of Dragons.” His last two installments were season 7’s “The Spoils of War” and “Eastwatch.”

McLachlan sat down for an interview with Insider where he talked about Kit Harington nearly sailing off a cliff, why the series is visually getting darker and the crew’s reaction to the tsunami of leaks that have plagued HBO. First of all, he talked about the thrill of being brought on to shoot such an epic fantasy world:

"It was a no-brainer. Nobody becomes a cinematographer to shoot police procedural shows or hospital shows or sitcoms or God knows what else—you become a cinematographer to shoot big, epic scope projects like [Game of Thrones] with beautiful sets and incredible actors and incredible writing and scope."

McLachlan speaks about the immense beauty of the show sets, and the producers’ ability to maintain “an uncommon amount of loyalty” from their crew members, who keep coming back year after year. As for the show visually growing darker, he agrees, saying there was “a lot of unmotivated back lighting” in the first season, and how the cinematographers have moved towards much more naturalistic lighting since. A medieval-type world world be darker, with day interiors only lit by whatever natural light could enter, and we all know how little night illumination candles and torches actually provide.

“In season seven, of course, winter is here,” McLachlan says. “For the day interior in Winterfell or Castle Black or Eastwatch, in the past we had the shutters open out of necessity so that some daylight could make its way in. That was your primary lighting source. There was this rule there that nobody in this world would burn candles in the daytime because they’re a luxury item. They’re far too expensive.” But with freezing winter here, nobody in their right mind would keep the shutters open. “It really makes it a lot harder for a cinematographer to justify some naturalistic light in there without so overdoing the candles or the fire or what have you,” he adds. ” … It has gotten darker.”

Filming outside, the cinematographer has next to no control over his or her environment. McLachlan uses the “Eastwatch” scene where Jon meets Drogon as a case in point. It’s an intimate scene that took three days to shoot and the lighting had to look consistent. Standing on the edge of the scenic northern Irish cliffs is an exercise in praying for decent and consistent weather. Of course, that rarely happens:

"The first day we were filming on that bluff, it was overcast and absolutely perfect in terms of character for Dragonstone. Overcast [weather] makes very flattering light for the actors so they look good no matter which direction you’re looking. As soon as the sun starts popping out, you’ve got a problem if it’s coming in at an unattractive angle."

By all accounts, it was a tough scene to shoot. The location was remote, so all equipment “had to be carried up by hand,” McLachlan says. “One of the hallmarks of Game of Thrones is that they won’t shy away from an amazing location—no matter how hard it is to get to. We go places on that show that no show I’ve ever been on, even big features, would even think about going. This was one of them.”

In fact, the Dragonstone cliff location became dangerous for everyone involved, especially Kit Harington, as McLachlan relates:

"The problem both days was that there was a howling gale blowing, and it was blowing towards the ocean off the land. In fact, it was blowing so hard that we had to put a safety cable on Kit Harington when he was meeting the dragon because his cape, which is very heavy fabric, was about to turn him into a kite. We were afraid it would blow him right off the cliff. I’m not kidding. It was that windy … There was a health and safety guy measuring the wind speed. A couple of times it dipped too high but then it receded again. But if it had stayed up there, they were going to pull us all off the cliff."

Wow. That adds a whole new perspective to that scene. Even the popular internet GiF of Jon throwing his cloak up so it flaps like dragon wings isn’t quite so funny now, considering both he and the crew were holding on for their dear lives at certain points in filming.

McLachlan says the wind made the cliff scene the most difficult “Eastwatch” scene to shoot. His favorite shooting location was by far the King’s Landing’ catacombs where Tyrion and Jaime Lannister have their tense reunion. “I loved working on that set,” he enthuses. “It all exists there in Seville, Spain. We just had to black the roof of this vast series of arched colonnades over. It’s actually where they built the Spanish Armada hundreds of years ago.” His description of lighting the set truly reads as an artist painting with atmosphere and light:

"It was all pitch black inside. Then it just became a question of spotting a few torches around in the right places so that you got lovely sense of depth and pushing some smoke in. I use smoke all the time if I can, partly because it’s justified on a show like this from all the torches and candles, but also because it gives it more of a Renaissance painting feel. I think that subconsciously transports the viewer to the period and the time and the place.”"

Macall B. Polay – HBO

As for set leaks, McLachlan says the GoT crew does their best to hide things, but some are simply unavoidable. “Sometimes the grips help by putting up a big sheet of fabric or something,” he says, but security people patrolling the perimeter “can only go so far.” The GoT sets are surrounded by paparazzi with industrial-strength zoom lenses on their cameras:

"We were shooting on that Dragonstone beach, which is Zumaia Beach in northern Spain. On a very far distant hillside you could see these little specks over there. But when we looked at them through the lens on our camera, you could see they all had huge, long telephoto lenses. There’s not much you can do about that. It was too big a space to put a shield up so that they couldn’t photograph them."

McLachlan and the crew were surprised at how the paparazzi manged to get photos of the sets in extremely remote locations, such as the beach where Ser Davos and Tyrion drag their boat up onto the beach and Gendry fights the Gold Cloaks (the crew constantly battled the changing tide in this sequence.) “Two miles across the water, there were some guys with telephoto lenses and a boat,” he says. On the other hand, he and the crew were pleasantly surprised when images of Cersei’s double making her walk of shame (“Mother’s Mercy,” S5/Ep10) through “the heart of the Old Town in Dubrovnik” never surfaced in the press.

As for all the leaks in general, McLachlan says “It’s a bit frustrating, but you know what? What can you do? I mean you do what you can.” Production has a tight, challenging schedule, and they can’t fret over the impossible job the security team has to tackle. ” …the rest of us put our heads down because usually we’ve got much, much bigger problems to deal with, like trying to get all the shots we have to do in a very short day.”

And like trying to prevent your star actor and his crew from being blown off a high Irish cliff.

McLachlan won’t be returning for season 8, but he feels immensely lucky to been involved with Game of Thrones as much as he has. He attends American Society of Cinematographers’ clubhouse meetings “and there’s 100 guys there who’d cut off their arm for a chance to do one episode of Game of Thrones. For me to have gotten to do eight episodes and chunks of several others, I’m very, very fortunate, and I’m quite content.”

Next: Valar Morghulis: Who’s most likely to die in “Beyond the Wall”?

Robert McLachlan has also shot episodes of Westworld and Ray Donovan. Here’s a list of his cinematography awards and nominations, including his two Emmy noms for “Mhysa” and “A Dance with Dragons.”

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