Inside HBO's Game of Thrones by Bryan Cogman

Author:Bryan Cogman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2010-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

DAVID BENIOFF: For us, from the very beginning of our preparations for the series, we knew season one would climax with two critical scenes: Ned Stark’s beheading and the birth of Dany’s dragons. Those scenes conclude the final two episodes of the season and mark a turning point for the entire story. In the case of the execution, Ned’s death signals a decidedly darker turn for the tale. Our intrepid hero, trying desperately to protect his family and preserve his honor in a dishonorable place, fails at both. Courage and honesty are not enough to prevail in a dangerous world.

SEAN BEAN: It was tough for me during interviews [promoting the show]. I couldn’t very well say, “Well, Ned gets his head chopped off in the ninth episode.”

DAVID BENIOFF: We were very lucky to have Alan Taylor directing. And we were very lucky to have Sean Bean playing Ned Stark. From the early chapters of A Game of Thrones, Sean’s face was the one I pictured in the role. He has a quality few actors possess: the ability to convey all the weight of a very hard life without saying anything at all. A lifetime of war and mourning left Ned a somber, quiet man, but he was still a family man, devoted to his wife and his children. He was a man you would trust with your life. He was not a man you kill in the first season of a series most people didn’t think would ever get made.

ALAN TAYLOR (director): There was really only one fort in Malta that was big enough to accommodate the scene, but when [director of photography] Alik Sakharov and I got there, our shoulders drooped because the sun was always in the wrong place. If you shot one way, you saw a modern city, but if you shot the other way, the sun was flattening everything. So Alik and I designed the shoot in such a way that we could basically chase the sun.

ALIK SAKHAROV (director of photography): We ended up shooting completely out of sequence, shooting around the square, all these different elements as the sun was rotating. Alan knew specifically shot for shot, setup for setup, what he wanted to do, so in the end, it all pieced together beautifully. It’s a seamless sequence and it’s all Alan.

DAVID BENIOFF: We see much of the execution through Arya’s eyes. We wanted the audience to believe what Arya believes: there must be a way to rescue Ned. The plucky little girl will somehow fight her way through the crowd and save Ned with the help of Needle, her castle-forged sword. We wanted the audience to think, “There’s no way they’re gonna let Ned Stark die. He’s the hero of the whole show.”

SOPHIE TURNER (Sansa Stark): This scene was one of the most upsetting scenes I had to film. I remember the first take, when I was screaming for Joffrey to stop, I began to cry without even intending to do so.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.