After the credits rolled on the final episode of Game of Thrones ever, fans still had one treat left to sample: The Last Watch, director Jeanie Finlay’s inside look at the filming of the last season.
It was a warm goodbye to a show fans had invested a lot of time and thought into over the past eight years, but while it featured a bit of facetime with the big names behind the series — your Kit Haringtons, your David Benioffs, etc — most of it was focused less well-known members of the team, like long-time extra Andrew McClay. Why did Finlay choose to zero on on these people?
Speaking to HBO’s Making Game of Thrones blog, Finlay revealed that some of her marching orders came from the top. “Everyone who appears in the film is someone who either I just fell in love with, or did a job that was so quintessentially Game of Thrones that I just had to put them in the film,” she said, probably referring to the show’s “head of snow” Del Reid, who has the most Game of Thrones job ever. “ Bernie Caulfield asked me to make a film about the final season but to focus on, I think she put it, ‘the people at the back cutting the vegetables.'”
"For every person you show, you’ve got to work out why working on GoT means something to them. Otherwise it’s like, who cares? I want to be moved by people. I think all of my films are populated by characters who are a bit surprising. When I met [extra] Andrew McClay, I knew, “I’ve just found the guy who’s going take us through the whole film.” And when I met [director] David Nutter, pretending to be a dragon and fake growling with Kit [Harington] and Emilia [Clarke] I just knew I had to know more about that man."
Obviously if you see someone pretending to be a dragon you film him, whether he’s directing a show about dragons or now.
Finlay also points out that the more traditional behind-the-scenes stuff is pretty well covered by other videos, and she’s right. Between the Inside the Episode features and the Game Revealed series, we have all the information we want on how these episodes were brought to life, with more likely coming on the special features in the upcoming season 8 home video releases. I enjoyed spending time with the people who made the sausage, so to speak.
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It may have taken someone like Finlay, who wasn’t overly familiar with Game of Thrones before coming on to direct the documentary (besides the familiarity through osmosis you really couldn’t avoid with the show being as big as it was), to bring that kind of perspective. “I want people to feel like they could enjoy the film even if they didn’t have a history with Game of Thrones,” she said. “And I want those who are fans to feel the hundreds of easter eggs and tiny treats we’ve hidden inside the film and to get the chance to say goodbye. And fall in love with these amazing people who allowed me to spend time with them.”
Of course, even though she came in as an outsider, it didn’t long for Finlay to get used to the splendor of the Game of Thrones production, to the point where watching the show now feels like watching “high-budget glossy home movies.”
"A part of you is entranced by the story, but you’re also watching thinking, “I was there” or “this looks different” or “Wow, look what they’ve done with the CGI.”…Plus, my daughter is in the final scene as an extra. So I was over the moon to see her on screen. I can’t watch the show without feeling those things now."
Her daughter is one of the wildling children who go beyond the Wall with Jon Snow in the last scene of the series, if you’re wondering.
The Last Watch is part of the upcoming home boxset releases, one for season 8 and one for the whole series. As for Finlay, her most recent work apart from The Last Watch is Seahorse, a documentary about a transgender man’s path to parenthood.
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