All language subtitles for The.House.That.Dragons.Built.S01E08.720p.HMAX.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV

♪ (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

It is very impressive.
The detail was amazing.

It was just like
hours and hours of nerding out.

The prosthetic is gorgeous,
but awful.

If you get this wrong,
the whole thing's
really done for.

I'd have had his head as well.

We all had chills.

This is gonna be pretty epic.

It really takes on
a life of its own.

We wanted Daemon
to have a hobby on Dragonstone,

where he was collecting
dragon's eggs

for this incubator he's building

for what he sees
as the coming conflict.

Dragonmont is the volcanic mountain

on the island of Dragonstone.

And it's where the dragon's eggs
are incubated.

The challenge there was
to keep it mysterious enough.

It's just meant to hint
at the larger mythology

around where dragons
lay their eggs.

Jim basically took
an old set of a tunnel

and started working with Angus
and Visual Effects.

And that's all a very small set
that was brought to life

to look much more epic
than it was.

It's quite a small set,
but it's very tall,

and it's outside.

And it's got to have
action on it all the way up,

so it's quite a dramatic cliff.

And I have climbed up it.
It's great fun to climb up it.

We didn't want to copy
the Game of Thrones dragon egg.

But we came up
with a new version,

which is a lot sharper,
slightly bigger,

and very vibrant colors.

We've made about
20 of them in the end,

and each one
was slightly different.

Some of them
are quite lightweight.

But some of them,
especially in the egg kiln,

they have to be on fire.

So we had to make them
out of solid plaster.

The idea was that they incubate

in warm, hot,
volcanic mountains.

So Props and Special Effects
worked on this goo

that the eggs are incubating in.

Really, most of our work
is augmenting the fact

that this is a hot,
steamy environment,

and making the crevice
that we shot in bigger.

We're adding a lot of steam,

a lot of dust, and just trying
to make it feel hot and muggy.

When Katie and I
talked about it,

we first looked at Alien
because we both are fans.

But we wanted to find
something of our own.

It's gonna be very Alien-like,
where...

It'll make that noise
as it pops out to reveal itself.

Miguel and Ryan wanted it
to look like it was spewed
out from the dragon.

They wanted it to be
very organic looking
and very messy.

We worked a lot
with the Props Building Team.

And we came up with this idea
of an egg sack that would harden
on the outside.

And when you break it open,
steam comes out,

and the eggs are covered in goo.

They went through
so many tests of that thing.

It was a real delight
to see it get made,
and then put into action.

When we looked
at the final prototype,

we opened it,
and the steam came out,
and the goo was all perfect.

And I sent it
to Miguel and Ryan,
and we were all just like,

"Whoa, this is it!
This is how eggs come to be."

When Rhaenyra and Daemon
return to King's Landing
for the first time,

there were no words that were
gonna describe the difference.

But we needed to feel
the difference.

Geeta and Katie
did a really fantastic job

of showing a much more sparse,
austere King's Landing
and Red Keep.

Based on the note that,
"As the years have gone by,
Alicent has found religion."

I would say,
"It's nice to be home,"
but I scarcely recognize it.

Episode eight is six years later
than the previous episode.

We wanted to see it through
Rhaenyra's point of view

for the first time coming back.

And so, we start
with the Steadicam shot
that leads her into the space.

And then you open up to reveal
how empty it feels now,

how much colder and darker
than when we last saw it.

Speaking with Ryan,
Miguel, and Geeta,
we wanted to pare it down.

This was going to have
the influence of Alicent

when she's in her ascendency.

And it was a sense of her
stripping back the decadence

and taking on the influence
of the Grand Sept.

And we've introduced
these huge, stone, carved,

seven-pointed star elements,

which hang
in the grand staircase.

Rhaenyra sees a giant,
seven-pointed star
in the main hallway.

Gaudy, if you ask me.

Beyond episode eight,
we're into a more austere,
religious Red Keep.

Um, the fun and games
has gone out of the castle life.

So, for us, it was really
a case of just stripping back.

So we took all the artwork out,
we put in religious symbols,

and made it a lot harder place
to be.

Toning everything down a bit
from those early episodes

where it's looking
really flamboyant.

And really, those rich times of,
like, "This is the Targaryens."

Now,
to the slightly colder feeling

now Alicent's
taken over the place.

It was just getting
that feeling across

and making it look more simple.

I actually like the look,
you know, the new rooms.

I kind of like that
they're a little bit sparser,

and it's gone a bit religious,

more so due
to Alicent's influence.

It feels like a house
where somebody is dying,

in which case is very true.

But Alicent's converted it into
a place of piety and religion.

It has a feeling of kind of
piousness about it,

and a sort of erasure
of Targaryen history.

The Valyrian model,
that was interesting

because we've done
architectural models
in the past.

Never at this scale.
I mean, this model is huge.

Eight meters long.
That's a massive model to make.

I think we could've gone
a bit bigger, to be honest.

What happens is if
you're a showrunner on a show,
you say,

"Wouldn't it be interesting if
there was a model of Valyria."

And then you show up on set,

and it's a city
in its own right.

Viserys is not into dragon riding.

He takes up
a more intellectual pursuit.

The idea is that he's gone back
to all the old texts and maps

and has painstakingly
recreated it.

It is truly wonderous
what you've built.

It's sort of
like Viserys' train set.

It's his little hobby
that he has, that he escapes to.

The King's model of Old Valyria
was a huge exercise, in itself.

It starts small,

and it gradually gets bigger
and bigger,

and takes over the apartment.

We were trying to decide what
he would have made it out of.

So, what are his tools,
what is he making it with,
and what scale is it?

Because ancient Valyria
is a dragon town,

so everything is big.

And I brought a pumice stone
from my bathroom.

That was my reference!

And just the pigmentation
in that,

and the darkness,
the different texture,

and depth you could get
from that.

So then,
we latched onto pumice stone,

which is a much softer,
more volcanic stone.

And it ties into Dragonstone
and Dragonmont

and the volcanic nature
of that island.

I only pour over the histories
and provide the plans.

The stone masons
built the structures.

The whole thing was drawn up
by our concept artist,

and put into workable files,

so that they could
just print out the blocks.

And then, some of it,
they sculpted freehand as well.

So, it was a mixture.

It had to look handmade.

But obviously, we couldn't make
an eight-meter model
out of pumice.

So we had to come up
with a technique

of making it quickly, but also
give the finish of pumice.

The 3D printers were our little
soldiers in the background,

working for about
two months, 24-7,

printing out
hundreds of buildings.

A lot of the buildings
were so large,

they had to be made
in small components,

so we had to glue 'em
back together again.

All the main buildings,
they're sort of 3D printed.

Take about 24, 48 hours for
that one building to be done.

We've done it all in
PLA plastic on these machines.

So the beauty is with a machine,
you do get a hard edge finish.

But then, we can go over it
with textures and finishes

and paint effect to make it look
like pumice stone.

The 3D print's got
about three or four layers
of plaster over it.

So we had to soften up
the edges, window frames,

all that sort of stuff, just so
it looks more hand-carved.

It just grows and grows
and grows.

It gets bigger in each episode.

There's over 200 pieces.

I think I'm the only one
who knows where they go, so...

It was made in five stages.
Each stage had A, B, C, D and E.

And then, we made it
so it's joined together
without any seamline.

It was an amazing piece
that became five separate units

that we could put together,
but also take apart.

It was always
in about six or eight pieces.

But then, schedules change,
and that piece is in,
that one's out.

It's all gotta be mobile,

but all go together
and look like one piece as well.

As the King is getting older,
he can't spend as much time,

but he wants to finish it,
so it becomes a bit more blocky.

Right near the end
of the season,
he hasn't touched it.

So, it's got cobwebs on it
that are quite heavy over here,

just to give it
a bit of age to it.

It's only when
we finally got it all on set
and all dressed in

that you really stand back
and see the work we've done.

And that's very, very rewarding.

It's an integral part
of our story, which is,

although Viserys is very much
a progressive Targaryen,

he yearns for
the Valyria of old.

Looking, in some way,
to understand something
that he can never quite grasp.

Nearly 20 years ago
in this very--

One of
my favorite scenes we did was

when Paddy did the long walk
to his throne.

It's quite an empty set,
but it really works.

Paddy's entrance
in that scene is really huge.

Nobody's expecting
the King to come,

and then he arrives,

and he's this little person
who can barely walk
to the throne.

So, it was really exciting
shooting that entrance.

What was so shocking was that
he had lost so much weight.

And we wanted it to feel
emotional and real.

It was about a man, a father.
It wasn't about this ghoul.

For Paddy, just the physical way
that he performed the role,
I really commend him.

It was a real undertaking
as an artist.

She's fabulous.

She's serving
Targaryen realness.

One of the first things I talked
to Miguel and Ryan about

was the King's cane.

This is a dragon,
which is 3D printed.

We know that the King
has a reverence for dragons,

respects them, but does not want
to wield their power himself.

So he holds it backwards,

because this is
a family heirloom

that he has started to use
as he ages.

First he gets the cane,
then he gets the mask.

And the two together are
sort of symbols of opulence

that he pulls towards himself
to not lose his power.

I must admit my confusion.

I do not understand

why petitions are being heard
over a settled succession.

The King's mask,
which I've been working on
with Geeta very closely,

it's 3D printed and then plated.

The mask covers half his face,

as closely to the look
that he had when he was strong.

We had to get the King's head
as a 3D image,

and we created a mask
that had to hide his disease.

And we had to make it match

his crown as well,
that he was wearing.

It had to have that sort of
brassy, gold look to it,

so we ended up plating it
in brass,

and it's got
that expensive look to it.

Many fittings we had
for that mask,

but it was worth it.
I quite like it.

There's a sort of
Phantom of the Opera
element to it.

It's a great visual.

And hopefully, the reveal
will be shocking for people.

The gold mask took many,
many months of development.

The mask, in the end,
represents the teamwork
that we all had in making it.

The combination
of various prosthetic makeup,

the VFX that Angus and his team
are planning to do,

Paddy's performance,
and then this gold mask,

I think, makes it such
an iconic character.

Allow it.

Do not forget yourself, Vaemond.

Vaemond's petition
of the King in the episode
is a bit of a kangaroo court.

But when
Viserys shows up and says,
"I'll sit the throne today,"

you know that things are turning
around in Rhaenyra's direction.

Her children are bastards!

EMMA D'ARCY:
Wil, who plays Vaemond,
very beautiful in that scene.

It's exciting when characters
who bite their tongue

finally just say
what has been eating them.

Daemon wants to cause chaos

because he can and
that's his attitude to things.

He's got a very, quite clear
moral compass.

And you're either in it,
or you're out of it.

Daemon never forgets a slight,

and I think he's been waiting
years to take it out.

I love that moment where Daemon
just melts out of the background

and Vaemond's head disappears.

He can keep his tongue.

He lops his head off.
That was pretty shocking.

In the end,
Wil did just about everything
for that stunt.

And Ryan and Miguel
wanted Vaemond to be
completely taken by surprise.

And so, those are things that
drove how we shot that scene.

It was
a really fun scene to shoot.

And the beheading
is a great collaboration between

VFX, Prosthetics,
Special Effects, and Stunts.

We're just tryin' to give him
a sort of signature kind of...

Something dynamic.

And it comes out of nowhere.

We'll put Wil there
and get him to do his fall,

and he'll drop down
to his knees.

And then, we'll put a C-stand
there with a tennis ball on it,

for Matt to come up and...

...just miss.

And then,
we'll comp the two together,

so it will look like
he's cutting his head in half.

Daemon slices through his head
just above his jaw,

and we have a practical body
dropped into frame in camera,

and the top section of the head,
which lies to the side of it.

We had a generic body mold,
which is the same size as Wil.

And we got a side scan of Wil
in the desired expression.

And we got a print of the head,
created a plasticine head,

cut it in half, and we sculpted
all the mouth interior,

to the bottom
of the top of the head,
had to sculpt a separate tongue.

I had to go into this booth,

which has, like,
about 300 cameras.

And then, I had to stand
in different poses,

so that they can do all the...

And then, at the end of this,
"Could you do some dead faces?"

I'm like...
"What's a dead face?"

"Like-- Like you sort of--
Like that."

And I just--
I just kept cracking up.

I couldn't stop laughing.

Okay, and that was lovely.
I'm still running.

The decapitation itself
is VFX-heavy.

There are various clean plates
that Angus and his team will be
shooting with Wil in camera.

So, we're creating
the post effect, basically,

of the body dead on the floor.

The prosthetic
that we have for it is awful.

Gorgeous, but awful.

Which includes his tongue
and his entire bottom jaw.

So, we're just making that
slightly more gruesome.

It's already incredibly gruesome.

The work was unbelievable.

If you look at the scene,

you think it's Wil,
and it's not.

The dummy was the most life-like
thing I've ever seen.

Like, the teeth and tongue...

All you wanted to do
was just, like...

But there was someone
stood guarding it from us
wanting to play with it.

When I first saw... me...

it was just so bizarre,
and so surreal.

'Cause it's like, "How many
times do you actually get to be
involved in one's own death?"

I think it's one of the great
Game of Thrones beheadings,

and a pleasure
to be a part of it.

- Disarm him!
- No need.

When I first spoke
with Miguel and Ryan about
the banquet scene in 108,

they talked about
The Last Supper,

and how they got
so much inspiration from it.

So, Katie and I designed
the table to be set up like
The Last Supper.

Final tribute.

It created a lot of challenges,
because we had visual effects
around Viserys,

but it also brought a specific
character to that scene.

D'ARCY: The changes that happen
over the course of that episode,

happen around
the pivot of Viserys.

The idea being that,
Viserys' physical condition
is marching in parallel

with the condition
of his family and his reign.

So, as one degrades,
so does the other.

How good it is
to see you all tonight.

The banquet scene
breaks down into sections.

We are shooting
around the table.

There's a dance sequence
and a fight sequence.

Jace! That's enough!

We've had three or
four days to shoot that scene.

There's a lot of cast in there.

And we've got four cameras
in there.

It is a challenging scene
because all the characters
are there,

and they all, sort of,
have to have their moment.

But Geeta and myself
try to focus the scene on
the hero triangle of characters,

Alicent, Viserys, and Rhaenyra,

and how they are trying
to resolve

all the conflict that they've
had up until this episode.

A toast to our princess.

Eight actually is
one of my favorite episodes.

It's The Last Supper.
It's really Viserys' last stand.

It's the father
and daughter story

finding some resolution
and closure.

And unexpectedly,
there's a brief moment of,

"Oh, maybe things
are going to be okay."

My own face
is no longer a handsome one...

if, indeed, it ever was.

I thought it would be
interesting that anybody
who's cut by the throne,

gets this disease.

It's a kind of leprosy,
and it would be interesting

to see Viserys, over time,
slowly deteriorate and decay.

Viserys, I found,
to be a very tragic figure
in this state.

Paddy really brought some real
pathos to his portrayal.

It was six years
after the last episode.

And Viserys, his health
has deteriorated significantly.

Miguel and Ryan were looking to
settle quite a passage of time

between episode seven and eight.

So, Viserys' change
is quite extreme.

Father?

Who goes there?

From episode one
to his demise in episode eight,

there's probably about
six or seven different looks,

which progress
from something very subtle

to something
quite extensive in the end.

From subtle nuances
to his wigs, his hairline,

the actual
thickness of his hair,

to the pallor of his skin,
his skin tone,

ulcers, and things on his body.

We started with younger Viserys,
had the fuller hair.

And as he deteriorates,

that's when his hair got thinner
and starts to recede slightly.

And we start using
different wigs.

Then when we get to ep eight,
it is punctured hair
in a bald cap,

which Barrie and his team
made and punched the hair in.

Once it's all on Paddy,

then I would slice
all the hair up

and make sure we're matching it
to some sort of a length
that it would have been.

He would have, sort of, tried to
hold on to the little bit he had

and make it look like,
"Oh, bless him.

He's lost his hair,
but he's holding on."

Slowly, over a period of time,
you can see his sore is
festering underneath the skin,

so that then,
we're not just jumping into

a great big ulcer
that will appear.

There's a progression.

We just bring that, sort of,
little, extra bit of something
to it,

like a bit of sweat,

or starting to make
his hair greasy.

Little things.
And it brings it to life.

♪ Close your eyes
And give me your hand ♪

It's approximately a four-hour
process that we do with Paddy,

with his head and shoulders
make-up.

Some of it
is painted in afterwards,

so not even I know what
it's gonna look like in the end.

His dream.

The Song of Ice and Fire...

We also have some augmentation
from VFX as well, with, sort of,

cavities and various anatomy
on his face to help us along

to do things
we can't do practically.

We're creating what's called
a lighting stand-in
of Viserys' head.

And it's to help VFX
and their department

with the anatomy
and the internal cavities
of Viserys' face.

And we would shoot with Paddy.

He would have
the prosthetics on.

And you'd see we had
patches of green on his face

where we needed
to replace things.

And then bring out this head.

You could bring those in,

in the lighting
of the environment
that you were shooting in

and see what the reflections
on the skin looks like,

and what the textures
all look like under the lighting
on that day,

which gives you the perfect
thing to match to in CG.

We had to get a double in

to be the very thin version
of Viserys.

My plan, originally,
was that I'm gonna go
and lose a lot of weight.

But we jump around so much on
this show that I just thought,

"Stay as you are, you know.
We'll work it out another way."

We also have a double, Nick,

who we shoot on his body
as well.

He's got a much skinnier,
tighter frame,

and he's got
an incredible rib cage

that we shade into
with air brushes.

So, we shot those scenes,
both with Paddy in make up
and with a body double.

We have to combine
Paddy's performance

with the body-double's body,
which varies.

Sometimes it's very easy
'cause he's lying on the table.

Sometimes, he's actually
doing physical action.
He's getting up.

We've got to synchronize
those two shots together.

Milk of the poppy.

He's in so much pain,
that he's on the old
milk of the poppy.

I don't know why
I find that so funny.

They're always on
the old milk of the poppy.

Katie and Geeta
had an idea on the King's death,
to put him on quite a wide lens.

And in order to do that,
we had to get our technocrane
up to that height.

So there was this enormous
scaffolding rig built here
on the ground floor.

We got the technocrane
up to the first floor level.

And yeah,
it worked really, really well.

I walked
into the outer courtyard
on many occasion,

and would look up and think,
"What the fuck are they doing?"

And then, all was revealed
on that particular day.

And actually,
it was genuinely touching.

When we see Viserys for
the first time in this episode,
he's surrounded by family.

As we ended the episode,

it's significant in that moment
that Viserys is dying,

knowing that all seven episodes
before this were the struggle
between power and family,

here he is, dying alone.