While we may now know Game Of Thrones as a series that has big budgets, drama and amazing scenery and special effects – series one was a little different.
As the crew got to making the first series of the now-HBO classic, it turns out budgets were a little tight.
Guess you don’t know how much money you’ve got until you start making it, right?
And perhaps HBO were a little cautious to blow too much money on an extravagant foray into living rooms as one of the show’s directors Alan Taylor dished on how the famous episode Baelor came together.
You know, that time Ned Stark was beheaded. What a moment in our memories.
We’ll allow a short moment to reflect and cry if you need to.
Anyway, in a rundown with Vanity Fair, Alan explained what made up that particular scene at the end of the ninth episode which saw Ned leave the world – turns out it was all done on a shoestring budget.
‘It’s funny seeing how small and rinky dink the scene is because Game Of Thrones has gone on to become very well-funded by HBO,’ he said as he unpacked the moments.
‘No one had seen the show yet we didn’t know if it had an audience yet and we didn’t have a dime.’
As the camera panned across the ‘packed’ square, Alan exclaimed the ‘charming’ nature of the show’s beginning: ‘We had not nearly enough extras.
‘I see how little money we had at the time, but I think it still packs an emotional punch.’
He added ‘the entire set’ was consisting of five banners: ‘We probably argued over how many we could afford.’
What was quite surprising through was the lack of special effects. We guess this was before the time of the Battle Of The Bastards and Blackwater, the dragons coming to life and a whole bunch of White Walkers infiltrating the place.
In fact, things were so dire, they had to pelt Ned – played by Sean Bean – with an actual rock instead of adding one in post-production as is the way things are done now.
‘We couldn’t afford visual effects so that was a real rock, a foam rubber rock, being tossed at his head,’ Alan noted.
‘Now that would be a visual effect and we’d add blood and the actor would toss his head. But this is the old days with no money.
He added: ‘A makeup artist runs in from the side and adds red to his forehead and we continue the scene.’
The scene in question was a seemingly ground-breaking move to kill off Ned, who was arguably the main character of the show, before the first season was out.
Saying it was a ‘revolutionary move’ to them at the time, Alan added: ‘Then, “oh shit we killed the main character”.
‘You depend on the audience being invested carrying through to series two and we yanked out their reason for being there.’
Don’t worry, Alan, we definitely hung around.
Game Of Thrones series 8 premieres 14 April.
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