by C. A. Taylor
DAVID J. PETERSON (LINGUIST): Jacob Anderson is without a doubt the best performer I have ever seen when it comes to working with a created language. Literally, of everything I have seen or worked on, he is the best I have ever come across. I was also really taken by Emilia Clarke, who did such an amazing job with the intonations. This is a language that has a very distinct rhythm that is quite different from Dothraki, and she just nails it. The way she puts it together, it sounds like full sentences and clauses and in precisely the right way. That’s the main thing the actor has to do with a created language to really sell it.
Jon Snow trades his black cloak for wildling furs.
PART ONE
beyond the wall
* * *
“If we don’t make it, if we don’t warn them down in the kingdoms, before winter’s done, everyone you’ve ever known will be dead.”
— Lord Commander Jeor Mormont
The land of Westeros is in upheaval. North of the Wall, Jon Snow is on a mission to meet the mysterious Mance Rayder, leader of the huge wildling army. At the same time, Snow’s comrade on the Night’s Watch, Samwell Tarly, is trying to return to the Wall with separate news that could change everything: the legendary, horrific White Walkers not only exist but are moving south as well.
Unbeknownst to Jon, his two youngest brothers are traveling north with the gentle giant Hodor and the ever-loyal Osha. They find themselves following Bran’s dream visions and guided by their mysterious new companions, Meera and Jojen Reed, who have more to show Bran than the direction.
Ygritte (Rose Leslie) travels with a wildling party.
THE WILDLINGS: A BRIEF HISTORY
“We don’t call ourselves wildlings, we call ourselves free folk. We don’t bow down to perfumed lordlings whose great-granddaddies won some battle no one can remember no more.”
— Craster
Rattleshirt (Edward Dogliani) stands guard in Mance Rayder’s wildling camp.
thousands of years ago, when bran the builder began the construction of the wall, he divided more than a country. He forever divided the people. North of the Wall, without rule of either sovereign or lord, the tribes and clans known as the free folk remained, and they have continued to survive, living in numbers without record.
Predated only by the mysterious Children of the Forest and descended from the First Men, they have lived in Westeros thousands of years longer than the southern kings, who arrived with the invasion of the Andals, a mere sixty-five hundred years earlier. As such, the free folk take great pride in their freedom, and they do not recognize the claims of sovereignty from south of the Wall—indeed, they do not kneel to anyone, and they follow only their own chosen leaders.
Elsewhere, the free folk are known derogatively as the wildlings. Many consider them to be crude and ill-educated, almost savages. Despite their border raids beyond the Wall and skirmishes with the Night’s Watch, the wildlings pose little threat to the kingdoms of northern Westeros, with whom they have maintained an ancient feud. Their scattered, primitive society isn’t seen as a cause for real concern.
Now, though, a new winter is coming, and the wildling clans have gathered together to create an overwhelming force, led by a mysterious “King-beyond-the-Wall,” a deserter from the Night’s Watch and a legendary ranger: Mance Rayder.
MANCE RAYDER
“Do you know how I got moon worshippers and cannibals and giants to march together, in the same army? I told them we’re all going to die if we don’t get south.”
—Mance Rayder to Jon Snow
Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds) was originally a member of the Night’s Watch who was wounded by a shadow cat attack during a patrol in the Skirling Pass. Mance was taken to a wildling village for healing, and his shredded cloak was mended by a wise woman using scarlet silk—a great treasure for her and a generous gift to bestow on a ranger. However, when Mance returned to the Wall, his repaired cloak, shot through with red, was taken from him, for it was no longer the black he had sworn to wear. As the sun rose the next day, Mance left the Wall, and the Night’s Watch, and headed north—all for the freedom to choose his own cloak.
Now, in the land that stretches out beyond the shadow of the Wall, he has become a leader of the wildlings. Mance is bringing the warring tribes and isolated clans together with a single purpose: to survive the fast-approaching winter, and the deathless walking nightmares that are arriving with it, by crossing the Wall—perhaps the only thing that can withstand their relentless onslaught.
Mance greets Jon Snow.
CIARÁN HINDS (MANCE RAYDER): The scale of Game of Thrones continues to get grander and wider. It’s an epic world, so heavily influenced by alliances and treaties. Everyone in it has a nature, be it good or bad, driven by every motivation, from fear and lust to power and greed. There’s a mystery I appreciate. There are no guarantees where anyone is going to end up.
I think the wildling people needed someone to lead, and Mance is the most gifted among them. I don’t think he considers himself king. He believes in the idea that the wildlings do not kneel. Right now he’s driven by pure desperation. All of these people are in danger of being wiped out. He knows it will lead to a fight, but in his mind it’s simple: we’re coming over no matter what—because what’s out there, behind us, is worse.
KIT HARINGTON (JON SNOW): Having watched Ciarán in countless stage performances, I feel like he is one of our greatest living actors. He has such an intense stare. Those fantastically crazy eyes are perfect for Mance. I think Jon Snow utterly respects Mance. He knows this guy is incredibly clever and charismatic, enigmatic even. There’s an element of hero worship, but their meeting isn’t clear-cut. Mance even says so to Jon. I think Mance does want the power now that he’s got it, and Jon is worried about what will happen if they do all end up south of the Wall. Jon can’t forget about the thousands of years of tension and conflict between the wildlings and the northmen just because of one man’s words.
Mance Rayder played by Ciarán Hinds.
— building mance’s camp —
Concept design for Mance’s Camp.
* * *
On a lava field near Mývatn, Iceland, production designer Gemma Jackson and her production team needed just under a month to create Mance’s camp, as they battled the thick snows of an Icelandic winter. However, the main tent that is the focus of the wildlings’ camp was first built four months before in Belfast at the Paint Hall studio and was the setting for the first scene between Mance and Jon. After this single scene was filmed, the main tent was then deconstructed and moved to Iceland for on-location scenes.
Art director Ashleigh Jeffers designed the look of the wildling camp with the idea that the area would be devoid of building supplies. All structures would have been created out of salvaged or hunted materials, such as mammoth or whale bone. The wildlings are transient and on the move, and Mance’s camp would need to be packed and carried through the snow.
Evoking a rib cage, the skeleton of the main tent was made from carved pieces of polystyrene, which were layered with plaster to create the smooth shape and width of the bones. Each “rib” was then painted and aged to reflect the weathering of such an extreme climate. Making the bones took five weeks, and it took a further two weeks to put up the frame and dress it with the animal-hide walls, pieced together from a mix of different animal skins.
Once in Iceland, Ashleigh worked with the local crew to recreate Mance’s tent and the village around it. However, not all the tents you see on screen are real. To reflect the size of Mance’s following in wider shots, the VFX department replicated and extended the number of tents, showing the village fading out in the distance.
* * *
Icelandic extras prepare for a take.
ASHLEIGH JEFFERS (ART DIRECTOR): The process of the build in Iceland was no different from the construction in Belfast, except for the fact we were battling the weather. The first week there, we were stuck in the hotel—it was a complete white-out with snow drifts eig
ht feet up the windows. We had to call in diggers to excavate the roads through fifteen feet of snow. The crevasses on the lava field were hidden, and the rocks were brutally sharp. We lost one of the vehicles in one of the hidden valleys one day, but we loved all that adventure.
In the end, we got the structure up in a day, then the skins on the next day. We had to—if we had left it half covered, it would have acted as a sail and been ripped away by the strong winds. We had it lashed down with fishing nets that held it together. When the weather did come in, the snow and ice actually acted as our cement to hold it down. The main challenge was keeping it up until the shooting crew arrived and then clearing the snow. Ironically, when we laid the horse carcass set down a few hundred feet away, we lost all the snow. It melted and we had to bring more in—both fake and from a nearby drift.
Marks are laid down for Jon Snow’s entrance to camp.
[(top)] Mance Rayder and Jon Snow talk while traveling south. [(bottom)] In the Icelandic snow, the stunt team prepares to attack Samwell Tarly as he runs from the army of wights in the opening scene of season three.
— filming in iceland —
Extras begin their march into the snowdrifts of Iceland.
* * *
Game of Thrones has filmed in Iceland since season two, and the country has provided some of the most dramatic settings on the show. The original choice of Iceland was in no little part due to producer Chris Newman, who previously had both lived and worked in Iceland. In seasons three and four, the island was featured even more. The different landscapes within its shores provide ideal settings for the extreme lands beyond the Wall and, during summer, for the dramatic hills and valleys of the Vale. In all, Game of Thrones has so far filmed in seventeen separate Icelandic locations, including in national parks and on glaciers, up mountains and by thermal power stations, and even in lava fields. Despite occasionally being trapped in snowed-in hotels and having trucks buried by blizzards, all anyone ever says about shooting there is how much they love the people and the incredible landscape.
* * *
CHRIS NEWMAN (PRODUCER): If money were no object, you might consider filming in New Zealand in the winter, but it might not be the best use of funds. The alternative is to try to create something, but there is a limit to how much you can mock up to look like snow. After a few years you start to worry that things look fatigued on dressed sets. In Iceland, you can always find permanent snow—even if it’s icy and on a glacier—and still have good access by road.
Going to Iceland is not like traveling to a country with no infrastructure. Their economy includes sport tourism. We weren’t creating a filming structure in a totally alien environment. Plus, I knew the local crew could handle an indigenous shoot: filming Icelandic scenes with Icelandic crew. That’s the best way to go about it.
There are challenges. The journey times can be long and there are limitations to what you can do. You want to limit the number of actors, for example. You have to think about the amount of equipment you can actually get into each location. Then, you tend to use the landscape as a backdrop or canvas for intimate scenes, letting the scenery seep into the shot more organically. With large action sequences, you can sometimes lose the background to weather. You have to consider the available filming hours, too. If you have only five and a half hours in a day, you need to take setup times into account. Can you access the areas in the dark, and is it safe to do so?
You don’t want scenes to look contrived. You want it to be believable that characters would stop and chat in a particular location. Filming in these locations helps the actors, too: You don’t have to act being cold. No one has to remind you to shiver.
A bonus is, of course, that local Viking societies can provide the perfect look for our wildling and Night’s Watch extras. The people of Iceland seem to enjoy having us there almost as much as we enjoy going there.
Hand-painted wildling costume.
— costuming the wildlings —
* * *
When costume designer Michele Clapton first considered clothing for the wildlings, she wanted to create looks that subtly distinguished a variety of peoples. The lands beyond the Wall are very expansive, and this would naturally lead to societal differences. Wildlings near the coasts would have armor shirts made from oysters or mussel shells, while those farther inland might have furs or, like Rattleshirt, might adorn their clothes with bones.
Wildling clothes would also be hand sewn. To mimic this, different types of hide are held together with latex thonging to make them appear lashed together. The toggles that work as closings are shaped to look like bone, but in reality these are cast and painted plastic. To make a single jacket takes half a day. Seamstresses use a ten-inch mattress needle to stitch the leathers together, protecting their hands with the same handguards sailors use when mending sails. Prepunching the hides could give the appearance of manufacture, which Michele is determined to avoid. The average jacket weighs approximately 81/2 pounds, while the heaviest are nearly 171/2 pounds, and that’s before the shells and bones are even added.
Each wildling coat is also hand painted with images similar to cave paintings, of mammoths and creatures that roam the icy lands. Headdresses and hats are made as organically as possible, with weaving and knotting to create the impression that they were fashioned out of materials found in the wild. Crampon-style blades made out of deer antlers, which wildlings could strap on their feet, are the ultimate winter accessory.
To armorer Tommy Dunne, the variety of wildlings also means a variety of weapons. Some would be deserters of the Watch, like Mance, who would have brought their own swords or knives, but even these would need to be adapted and shortened.
* * *
Antler made crampons for ice-walking.
TOMMY DUNNE (ARMORER): In five-foot snowdrifts it would be impossible to have a thirty-two-inch blade. As you drag it, it would just become an ice block and get heavier. I also thought of the wildlings more as a guerrilla force, attacking and moving on quickly, so we didn’t worry about the larger weapons used for sieges. I wanted to think of it as a return to nature, living off the land and the animals they hunt. Realistically, there would be very limited access to wood, so I looked at using antlers and bone for handles and weapons. We do use real bone, but only those antlers that are naturally dropped by the herd each year. We are lucky to have a good supply.
Intricate designs on the original design for Ygritte’s costume.
Concept art showing the scale of the Wall before Sam and Gilly attempt the climb.
— the wall —
episode 306: “the climb”
Wall climb concept art.
* * *
Built forty-five hundred years ago, the Wall is one of the most significant structures in Westeros. Standing around seven hundred to eight hundred feet tall and covering more than three hundred miles, the Wall was constructed to defend Westeros against the secret terrors of the North, the White Walkers, now long forgotten and turned into legend. As this happened, the Wall was slowly abandoned and let fall into ruin. Of the original nineteen castles along the Wall, only three are still manned: the Shadow Tower, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, and Castle Black. It remains, however, a daunting obstacle. In Episode 306, Mance and his wildling army travel toward the Wall, and Mance orders a small party to scale the Wall in preparation for his attack. This dramatic scene became one of the largest production challenges of season three.
* * *
ALIK SAKHAROV (DIRECTOR): It was very important that there was a sense that it was a continuous forward climb. When I first storyboarded the scene, I had about eighty VFX shots—too many by far. I wanted to see the abyss below and the vast empty sky as they climbed. It became clear quickly that I couldn’t work it that way. Then it became very subjective—it was all about the interactions of the characters. Words aren’t spoken, but you sense the tension. The most important thing for me was that we didn’t pull the actors up the Wall. Instead, they had to climb it. We needed to see the
exertion and the effort in order to sell it. The Wall had to have the space to accommodate all four climbers at once, so they were really all climbing together.
TOM MARTIN (CONSTRUCTION MANAGER): In the beginning we did tests on the look—some people thought it should be like a glacier; others wanted compacted snow and ice, as the Wall was supposed to be man-made. Once [production designer] Gemma Jackson agreed on the style, we built a basic timber frame and coated it in scrim and plaster for the foundation and to build up the shape. Then we sprayed on hot wax and handfuls of sea salt to create the look of crystallization. In the stunt tests it quickly became clear this was too thin. The test climbers were sometimes striking through to the timber frame. In the end, we completely changed the process. We did a full polystyrene sculpt with the plaster and wax, and as it was curing, we blew in small amounts of glitter to give it a snowlike shimmer. One of the best things was accidental: the salt crystals absorbed water and formed frozen droplets in the cool temperatures of the vast interior of the Paint Hall in winter, which actually made the surface cool to the touch for the climbers.
