American Cinematographer - July 2019 - 32

Season 3: Episodes 9 & 10;
Season 4: Episodes 4 & 5;
Season 5: Episodes 9 & 10;
Season 7: Episodes 4 & 5

32

Robert McLachlan, ASC, CSC:
Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss
had very high expectations for the Season
3 "Rains of Castamere" - aka the Red
Wedding - episode, and director David
Nutter and I were intent on hitting it out
of the park. We knew if the audience were
sure they were going to get the happy
ending they so badly wanted, they'd go
down that much harder when the rug got
pulled out. My goal was to visually lead
the viewer to believe they were going to
get the happy ending they were dying for.
There were three scenes in that
castle - the tense audience chamber
when Robb Stark [Richard Madden] has to
apologize and grovel, the wedding itself,
and the banquet where things go from
festive to horrific. In the first scene I
wanted the castle to be as cold and
gloomy as ever, so viewers would feel that
things could go either way for their hero.
Later, in the wedding scene, we introduced some warmer tones and a bit more
fill, and the mood lightens. But in the
banquet hall, I wanted it to feel as close to
a 'Disney movie' as the show would ever
get, in order to give the audience the
subconscious feeling that everything was
going to turn out great.
The problem was, though, that I
also didn't want it bright and happy when
the massacre began. So I had the art
department dress the set with around
July 2019

double the amount of candlesticks and
torches that we would normally have.
These would provide most of the light for
the scene, apart from some heavily
diffused and dimmed space lights high
overhead. With the producers' blessing, I
had the revelers pick up most of the
torches and candles and take them with
them to light the procession when the
time came to escort the bride and groom
out of the hall to the bedchamber.
Meanwhile, we dimmed the overhead
soft light till it was off, thus organically
and imperceptibly removing the light and
leaving us in ominous gloom.
I also had a couple of Dedolight
Octodomes off to the side for some
close-ups. The 5-foot and 7-foot units
were put through 12-by-12 pieces of Grid
Cloth. We added Half Straw gel on them
to warm them up and make them feel a
bit more golden. I generally only used
them when actors were too far from
candles to be adequately lit. I had to
watch [the candles] carefully, though,
because if one burned out on one side of
an actor, it would throw off the desired
contrast ratio!
Going in, I knew there'd be no time
for second takes when the mayhem
began. [We] doubled the normal ISO to
1,600 for that scene - in part so the
flames would retain more detail without
blowing-out while the shadows fell off
quicker, and to allow a 4-stop on the
Angénieux 24-290 lenses we used on a
couple of the three dolly-mounted
cameras.
ASC 100th Anniversary

equipment were provided by
Camera Revolution in London.
Lights were supplied by Panalux. In
addition to Alpha Grip and from
Garrett himself, grip gear was
procured from Arri Rental in
London, as well as such sources as
Belfast-based Balloo Hire, HSS Hire
and Beattie Crane Hire. Arri Rental
provided the camera package and
other gear as well.
"We had four 20-by-20 soft
boxes rigged on cranes 130 feet in the
air, serving as ambient moonlight,"
Wagner notes of the setups for
Episode 3. "Each soft box had 60
[Arri] SkyPanels. We would usually
put big silks underneath the soft
boxes, but we decided not to this
time. The wind in Northern Ireland is
too unpredictable over 55 nights, and
I knew that we would get some
tough weather - so we made waterproof housings for each of the
SkyPanels [in] each soft box, and
then diffused them inside. This way
they could stay up for longer, even in
strong winds."
Condors were used to suspend
the soft boxes - yet even with the
articulated lifts' enormous weight,
the wind was so strong that the rigs
had to be anchored to the ground.
"We hooked the [condors] onto
cement blocks that we buried in the
earth," Gates recalls. "Some nights,
though, the wind was so bad we
couldn't use them at all."
"We also rigged lights off the
actual set," Wagner says, "placing
Quarter Wendys on each of the
towers and outer walls, for when
high winds precluded using the soft
boxes."
In addition, three or four
cranes with Full Wendys, diffused
with Half Grid, played as side- and
backlight. "The night starts very still
and calm, with a cold, blue moonlight filling the sky," Wagner notes.
"We dialed in Steel Blue for the
SkyPanels and matched the Wendys
with filters."
Scissor lifts - which were easy

Photo by Macall B. Polay.

Robert McLachlan, ASC, CSC

Of Ice and Fire
American Cinematographer - July 2019

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