Quite possibly the best episode of television to air in 2024 was "The Red Dragon and the Gold," the fourth episode of House of the Dragon's second season. In that episode, Rhaenys, Aegon and Aemond Targaryen all took to their dragons (Meleys, Sunfyre and Vhagar) and fought in the sky in an epic battle the likes of which I never thought I'd see on a TV show. But they pulled it off, thanks in no small part to the help of special effects studios like Pixomondo and Rodeo.
Both studios have released behind-the-scenes videos detailing just how everything came together, and they're all worth watching. Pixomondo's latest video goes behind the scenes to explain what it was like actually filming the actors on set as they rode their bucking bronco dragon rigs, which themselves are controlled by software. Ditto the cameras. Watch below to learn about dragon-mounted cameras vs dragon-to-dragon cameras, the influence of Top Gun: Maverick, and more:
Pixomondo has been releasing lots of videos detailing everything that goes on behind the scenes to put this Game of Thrones prequel show together. Check out another video on the pre-visualization process:
And another that drills down on the Battle of Rook's Rest sequence that defined "The Red Dragon and the Gold":
It took a village to pull off the Battle of Rook's Rest onscreen. Check out Rodeo FX's video on bringing that and other dragon moments to life throughout the second season of the show:
I can't express enough admiration for the people working on these episodes; some of this is really boundary-pushing stuff. As James Thompson, Agile VP and Capture Supervisor and Pixomondo recalled from when he first saw the Battle of Rook's Rest on the big screen: "It's TV. That's crazy."
A third season of House of the Dragon is in the works and will probably air on HBO and Max sometime in 2026. We can expect the same kind of visual extravaganza whenever new episodes start to air.
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