Forget Robb Stark, the unwashed masses are the heroes in filming season two of Game of Thrones.
It seems that HBO is pulling out all of the budgetary stops for the next season of Game of Thrones. While the first season wasn’t exactly done on the cheap, now that the show has won all kinds of awards as well as received acclaim and high ratings there is less of a risk in investing more money in the production. The team is filming in Iceland for the segments north of the Wall, and there will be a lot more extras in the crowd scenes. Wrangling all those extras is a difficult endeavor, but this little promotional video shows exactly what it takes to put on a leather jerkin and step into Westeros.
These guys and girls have to get up before 5 am each day of filming to get ready. There’s all kinds of preparation that goes into making these people look like they are the poor urchins of King’s Landing, or the noble ladies in Renly Baratheon’s court, or the men of the Night’s Watch. The costumes and accessories are labeled with a unique code generated for each extra the day before, so that when he or she shows up there is no doubt as to which costume is who’s.
After that, there’s the boredom and discomfort of waiting around in costume for the shot they are in to be filmed. I’ve worked on a film set before, and it’s a bit like being in the military. “Hurry up and wait.”
The best part of seeing all these extras get ready for being in season two of Game of Thrones is that they suffer through all this because they are fans of the show or the books and they just want to be involved in any way they can.
All the promotional videos popping up have really got me excited for when season two premieres on April 1st. Expect to see coverage of each episode here at The Escapist after it airs.
Published: Feb 21, 2012 11:34 pm