Game of Thrones editor discusses cutting together the Battle of Winterfell

The 2019 Emmys are stacked deep with nominees who worked on the final season of Game of Thrones. I mean, just look at the field for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series:

• Game Of Thrones — “The Iron Throne”
• Game Of Thrones — “The Long Night”
• Game Of Thrones — “Winterfell”
• The Handmaid’s Tale — “The Word”
• Killing Eve — “Desperate Times”
• Ozark — “One Way Out”

I mean, that’s half the nominees! Barring some kind of vote-splitting tragedy, there’s almost no way Thrones doesn’t take the gold when it comes time to give out the statues.

In anticipation of the big day, The Hollywood Reporter talked to Tim Porter, who edited “The Long Night,” about the process of of stitching together the show’s most spectacular action scene. “It was a constant search for the correct rhythm,” Porter said, “tension building, hope, fear, when to feel that all is lost and finding unspoken moments between characters that the audience could engage with.”

And all of that is by no means easy to do when you have an episode driven purely by action with very little dialogue. But Porter was more than up to the challenge. “Integrating all the pieces of the puzzle and individual battles across the episode was something that really appealed to me,” he said. “It meant finding the right recipe to keep all of the characters present. I spent a lot of time exploring ways of structuring and intercutting the sequences to find the balance.”

"For me it’s a feel thing, when something begins to flow, you know you’re in the right spot. It was important that this wasn’t simply a fast-paced battle episode, as “battle fatigue” can set in very quickly. The episode worked as three acts. The opening act slowly built the tension with the threat of the Army of the Dead’s imminent arrival, leading into wild action and mayhem, then slowing down in the final act with Ramin Djawadi’s amazing score synthesizing the intercut of the Night King’s entrance and our heroes fighting for their lives and ultimately Arya’s arrival and her slaying of the Night King."

Obviously, Arya slaying the Night King is the climax of the piece. While Porter made sure to check in with each character periodically throughout the episode, he and the producers purposefully wanted us to “lose” Arya after her meetup with Melisandre, “to take the focus off where she was, and what she was doing, until we see her entrance into the Godswood to save the day.” The idea, I presume, is that it would be more of a jolt when she reappears to shiv the Night King. If so, mission accomplished.

Really, Arya was a highlight throughout the episode. Another memorable moment came when she was avoiding wights in the Winterfell library. Per Porter, director Miguel Sapochnik wanted that scene to have a “survival horror” feel. “This sequence never really changed from the first time that I cut it. It was beautifully choreographed and shot — Maisie Williams (Arya) moves so well, silently dancing through the scene; the timing of her avoiding the Wights who appear at every turn was really impressive. We end the sequence with her running through the endless corridors of Winterfell pursued by frenzied Wights, not knowing her fate. The sequence played mainly without music, and the sound team created a fantastic auditory experience from her point of view.”

Besides Porter, Crispin Green is the editor on “Winterfell” and Katie Weiland on “The Iron Throne.” We’ll be rooting for all of them come Emmy time, although in my heart of hearts I hope Porter gets it.

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