All language subtitles for The.House.That.Dragons.Built.S02E07.1080p.WEB.H264-DragonHallZ

The scale is unlike anything
I've ever seen before.

But that set's a beautiful set.

Come on.

We set fire to a lot of people.

Everybody loves to fire
a scorpion. 'Cause why?

You can kill dragons!

Emma never complained.

I was freezing.

Spoiler alert...

I ride a dragon.

Episode 207 begins on a
beach, a desolate beach,

and Rhaenyra meets Addam of Hull

who, somehow, has claimed
the dragon Seasmoke

that belonged to
Rhaenyra's husband, Laenor.

How did this happen?
Who is Addam of Hull?

The opening of 207, we had
always set on the beach.

We really wanted that
kind of vast landscape

that you have at Driftmark.

I swore after season
one that we were never

going back to a coastline again.

And we found ourselves
there for that scene,

thankfully, for
just a brief day.

Beautiful beach
when the sun's out

and we were filming
right on the tideline.

The problem there, of course,
is the continuity of the tide.

It doesn't sit and wait for you

so you're chasing down the
beach and back up the beach.

So when you're scheduling
a scene like that,

you have to work out exactly what
direction works for what time.

So you schedule based on

how the tide comes
in and tide goes out.

Now what we didn't anticipate

is that we were gonna be in
the worst of Welsh weather.

The rain was falling,
the wind was howling,

the sand was blowing,
the waves were crashing.

And the tide was comin' in quicker and
harder than we could've ever thought.

Let's go again! The
tide's coming closer!

You stand before the Queen
of the Seven Kingdoms

with a dragon of
House Targaryen!

I'd actually hoped for a storm

because you can just sort
of see it, can't you?

This sort of face-off.

I honestly loved it.

And it was the first time me and
Clinton got to shoot together.

Emma never complained.
I was freezing.

I filmed with Seasmoke the
day before I filmed with Emma

so it was really
sunny, beautiful.

I was running all day with
Seasmoke and it was beautiful.

And then,

the tide and the storm came
in for the scene with Emma

which really
influenced the scene.

You kneel quickly

for a man so suddenly elevated.

This dragon came to me.

It's a beautiful dragon
line to open that episode,

you know, in terms of wonderful,

you know, opportunities for our
dragons to kinda step forward

and kinda be part of that drama.

It's pretty big and
it's pretty vast.

You know, Loni put a lot of kinda
passion and prep into just establishing

an epic scale and look.

And then we had our
dragon performers.

We had our guys in blue
suits with a dragon head.

For all of the weather issues that
we had, it really did look epic.

And, I think, when you've got
two big dragons in there as well,

I think it's gonna be a
fantastic opening to the episode.

Do you think you can
get him to Dragonstone?

I can try.

One of the things I loved in 207

is that we had a lot
of different vignettes

that took place in
a lot of cool places

and one of those cool
places is the godswood,

which is at the
foot of Harrenhal.

That particular godswood is unique
because just across the God's Eye,

there's the Isle of Faces.

Like so if you know mythology, you
know that this island is important.

This is the godswood
that's fallen into disuse.

You know, we know that
Harrenhal was built

on a felled orchard
of weirwood trees

and then the weirwoods were chopped up
and used as lumber to build the castle,

which possibly led to some of the
experiences that people have there.

The Harrenhal godswood went
through various processes

of what it should be,
what scale it should be.

And so, ultimately, it
came back to the backlot

and it became part
of the ruined garden

with the weirwood tree
standing on a rockscape

at the end of the garden.

This is a much darker,
sort of more mysterious,

kind of almost, almost nightmarish
sort of version of the godswoods.

To evoke the Harrenhal
sort of vibe of,

"This is a ruined castle."

Unlike the Red Keep godswood which
was, generally, well-tended and kept

this one has fallen into
total, you know, disarray.

I mean, the first time
Daemon walks in there,

there's a bunch of broken
carts all scattered around.

I mean, it seems like
a back garden storage

for the people at Harrenhal.

It was a great dramatic concept.

Lake behind, rocks with
the walls coming up to it

and then these enormous great
roots from this giant tree

just breaking it all to pieces.

That was weeks and weeks and
weeks working with Conrad.

From a maquette to the real
thing, as it was polysculpted.

There's a metal
armature in there.

A lot of metalwork inside it to
keep those branches from falling.

We had quite a lot of real
branches in amongst there.

And then it's all taken apart
and it was transported down here

and then put back
together again.

There's also all the leaves.

They have to be painted
first into that color

then attached to those branches,
so lots and lots of work.

But that set's a beautiful set.

Our big visual effects
challenge is the godswood tree.

So they've built the base of the
tree and then we're extending it.

And again, what's
lovely about the show

is everything's so character-based
that even the tree is a character.

And, yes, I think
there is a face

that people may or
may not recognize

but I'm going to require
you to go to the videotape

and figure it out for yourself.

There's a new face in there.

I don't know if I'm allowed
to talk about who the face is.

Yeah, we've got quite
a famous face in there

that might be recognizable.

- The face on the weirwood tree is...
- George R. R. Martin.

Yes, George.

Is it? I didn't know that.
Oh, that's good. I like that.

Which Ryan wanted to do
as a bit of a tribute

and the idea was that it
gradually started to disappear

back into the bark of the tree.

The brief was to make
it feel enough like him

but you're never really sure.

The idea is that
you don't look at it

straight away and say,
"That's George R. R. Martin."

You do a second take
and say, "Ooh, is that?"

This is really cool,
guys. Thank you.

The dragonseeds come into the
Dragonmont, which is this huge cavern

with, I guess, what could be described
as a mounting block, 10 meters high.

The scale is unlike anything
I've ever seen before.

You go into these huge sound
stages and they've built a gantry,

a perfect, huge gantry.

And at the end of
that, there's a dragon.

It's not actually a dragon there.
They do that post-production.

In 207, we're
working with dragons,

so a lot of the preparation
that we did was looking into

how do we burn people,
and how do we eat people?

And that was a collaboration
that began in visual effects.

It was the "Why did I ever
take this job" moment.

"What was I thinking?"

Massive cavern, dragon the size
of a jumbo jet so no hiding here.

And then, 45 dragonseeds
on a platform

that was off the ground by
at least a story and a half.

Well, we wanted it to start
in a similar way to 206

so you know that you're coming
to a place you've been to before.

Then, when all
hell breaks loose,

and the dragon starts burning
everybody and eating everybody,

then we wanted to feel
completely different

and switch to
something very dynamic.

Most of that scene
was shot handheld.

It's a massive scene, and
it was just hugely enjoyable

to plan that with Loni.

We had a very detailed storyboard
and very detailed previs

to know where the dragon is
and what the dragon is doing.

You can previsualize
with your lenses,

your camera, your blocking, and
then, when you arrive on set,

everyone knows
what they're doing.

We had a big, blue
proxy nose made

for Rhaenyra to interact with.

Not only we just build this head,
we also had puppeteer animating it,

looking exactly what's motion
dragon, what's the motions gonna be,

so the actor can actually
interact with it.

They're a character themselves.

And Loni got them performing,
bending down, subjugating.

It was extraordinary to see

Emma D'Arcy put their hand
on the blue screen buck,

knowing that when you
see it in all of fandom,

you will be like, "That
is one of the scariest,

coolest moments I've ever seen."

Because you know what
Emma D'Arcy felt?

You know what Rhaenyra felt?

They felt power.

What this is gonna be is when Rhaenyra
turns around and looks at the seeds,

it will evoke that exact
poster frame of Rhaenyra

in front of the dragon.

Who among you would be first?

Someone's gonna die today.

Someone's gettin' set on
fire, and I'm so excited.

- It might be you.
- It's not me.

Spoiler alert...

I ride a dragon.

Historically, in
"Game of Thrones,"

what makes the dragons real
is that our fire is real.

We continue that legacy, so
when you see this episode,

it is not CGI fire
that you are seeing.

It is real fire with our real
actors in front of the real fire.

And that was done through
very meticulous planning

with the stunt team, with
the special effects team,

hair and makeup, and wardrobe
to figure out how are we going

to burn this many people?

Basically, all of the
smartest people in the room

are deciding how to
shoot people on fire.

And we're just muckin' about.

Three, two, one, action!

It's a big, big fire event,
and there's a lot happening.

There's the full burn
mask, which is a pretty

spooky-looking thing
when you see it.

That's not really camera-ready.

So those ones, we definitely
have to do a face replacement.

A kind of half-burned mask.

They're actually, like,
they look fantastic,

so we're having to do
very little to those.

When we're doin' the partial burns
and people aren't being engulfed,

we'll just apply sort
of silicone bald caps

with pre-painted on and pre-sculpted
burns that cover their ears.

And then we've got a piece
that covers their neck

and we have some pieces
to cover their faces,

so we're keeping all this clear

which should not be
in the fire anyway.

So you get to see the fire just
lickin' up around their ears,

around the backs of their heads.

And it looks like, "How
are they tolerating it?"

But it does the job, at least for
the 15 seconds they're on fire,

and then, obviously,

the guys with the fire
extinguishers come in.

In 207, we burned 45 seeds
in various different ways.

The biggest of the burns,

we had a 16-man burn that
happened all at once.

And in that burn, we see Vermithor,
essentially, unleash his biggest blast.

But that particular set
is five meters in the air.

And there was a danger in
having people who were,

first of all, on fire, and
second of all, blinded,

because you have to be
to protect your eyes.

So for all of those very good reasons,
we did it outside on an eight-inch-high

approximation of the platform.

And we've created a safe environment
where we could use Tamar ignition devices

to put these people on fire.

Ready! And three,
two, one, action!

Okay, you just witnessed
a major burn on the set.

Open air this time, which
is a lot easier for us.

We put charges into the
ground to ignite the stuntmen

who were drenched in a fire gel.

On cue, we sequenced it so
it looked like a dragon run,

and it took them all
up nicely, I thought.

It looked very good, very hot.

And it worked amazing.

I got my hand shook by the
producer, so I'm good, I'm happy.

I'm gonna go home and go
to bed now. See you later.

Ten, 11, 12, out, out, out!

In 207, we claim two dragons.
Hugh claims Vermithor.

Ulf claims Silverwing.

These two claiming moments
are very, very different.

Hugh takes us on a journey
from the top of the gantry

down into the bowels
of the Dragonmont.

And what we wanted to do
is we wanted to sort of

distinguish Hugh's journey

from the mass amount of chaos
that happened up on the plinth.

We decided to do that
by taking away cuts.

I always love the subjectivity of
a great, well-staged Steadicam shot

that takes a single character
through an abyss of action.

We looked at the best of
the best of the long takes

that happened in action scenes,
and what made those scenes great

is that there's always
something happening in layers.

One of the challenges was that
Hugh is running in the scene

so just being able to run with
him and still see what's going on

because of the choice
of handheld camera means

that, also, you're going
to have a very shaky image.

We still wanted to
see what's going on.

There were so many moving elements
in terms of the size of the dragon

and the scale of the dragon

that we had... everyone had
to hit their marks precisely.

And we couldn't
cheat the framing.

And also coordinating that
with all the stuntwork.

We literally had stuntpeople

falling from the
ceiling, on fire,

which added the, as you can imagine,
another layer of complexity.

It's a tremendous amount of work,
and then, lots and lots of layering

and visual effects to
get it to come together.

It is very complicated scene
because it's all one shot.

So, in order to achieve it,

we had to split it to pieces
and do invisible transition.

Hugh runs along, he looks up,

the camera looks up to
see what he's looking at.

Vermithor's blasting someone.

We come back and that's
then another take,

comes around to the rock,
we look over the rock,

as we look at what
he's looking at,

and then come back down,
that's another take.

So we've designed all these
stitch points into the shot.

So it is a oner that you'll see no cuts in
that was made out of seven or eight pieces

that includes dragons,
burns, feedings,

and, eventually, a
bonding all in one moment

where Vermithor takes a
knee with a small man, Hugh,

who puffs his chest and says...

Come on!

Vermithor is called the Bronze Fury
because he's bronze and he's furious.

He's nearly the size of
Vhagar, and he is, famously,

one of the most vicious
dragons in the kingdom.

My background, I come from
visual effects and animation,

so any time I get on a blue screen
with actors with fake things,

I'm like, "Oh,
this is like home."

And I got to basically play
dragonriding with Tom and with Ewan

in the kind of
penultimate sequence,

which features Vhagar chasing
Silverwing to Dragonstone.

The main challenge for the
buck work this season was

we wanted to really add element
of handheld to the buck work

so that you feel like you're sitting
on the dragon with the rider.

So, we had to come up with a way

of shooting something
that feels handheld

but it's actually
remotely operated.

I'm working with
the ball tech's arm

that's sort of rigged
on top of a container

and then, we're
working with the buck,

and it almost feels like the camera's
attached to the dragon itself.

The buck is moving to
a set computer program

and the camera is
doing that as well

as it has already been
designed in the previs.

The putting the pieces
together was quite easy.

The fun part was actually
working with Tom and Ewan

to actually see the dragon.

We tried to create a sense
of a lack of anticipation

so when the dragon turns
right, it's like a trust fall.

They have to not anticipate
anyone being there

and then they have to
kind of counter that fall

with a drastic movement.

So when you see them, what makes it real
is this sense of, like, unpredictability,

despite the fact that we're
working in a very predicted manner.

You're effectively suspended in the
air on this mechanical bucking bronco.

You've got wind,
you've got atmos.

And you're in a
backbend, and you're 43,

and there's blokes shooting
leaf blowers at you.

- Fantastic hairdo now.
- Thank you so much.

And your work will
only make this better.

It's because you're worth it.

I am.

You get that beautiful tableau
of Rhaenyra and her dragon army

and, literally, the dragon queen
coming out of the Dragonmont

and we see that it worked.

Whatever challenges
were put to her

and whatever questions
she was faced with,

she was right in the end and was able
to assemble this army of dragons.