Game of Thrones art director talks about filming locations and teases amazing scenes in season 7

In addition to all the gore, sex and wine, Game of Thrones has consistently been one thing : beautiful. Right from set design to the choice of location, to costumes and make-up and overall quality of production, the show never disappoints. Season 7 has been teased to be even more beautiful, as it is expected, given the fact that Game of Thrones bests itself every next season. Now another person from the production has added to this hype. Christina Moore, who has worked as an art director on the show since Season 3, delivered a lecture at the University of the Basque Country. She talked about how it was to create the world of Game of Thrones.

Season 7 spent quite some time filming in Basque Country, said Moore. She tried not to spoil anything, joking about it, saying, “My contract is written in blood.” However, she did say :

“All I can say is this was the longest time we’ve been filming in Spain this year, and we’ve done some really amazing, amazing scenes, so it’s going to be really exciting.”

She also talked about the experience of carrying the responsibility of working on a show of the magnitude of Game of Thrones, providing some insights into their decision making :

“We have a lot of different worlds in Game of Thrones, which are all supposed to be very distinctive in the way that they look. And quite often we are filming those in the same country, so for example we filmed some of the slave cities…in Morocco, Croatia and Spain. And we try and get something coherent across those three countries that will be distinct for that world. So we don’t want it to look like Spain or Croatia or Morocco. We want it to look like the world of Game of Thrones…That’s part of our job in the art department, to have a visual language that works for each distinct world. It could be to do with color, it could be to do with architecture.”

She also talked about another scene she worked on, the fight between the Mountain and the Viper, which happened in Season 4 :

“[It happened at] an abandoned hotel in Dubrovnik. It had been bombed during the war and was full of graffiti…We had to change it completely.

One of our challenges was to remove the Croatian shield that is located in the center of that courtyard and replace it with a mosaic with the shield of the Lannister . We did a great job but the day before the shoot we fell a storm and it was filled with mud. Maybe it was good, because it got an older look. I am very proud of that mosaic, the problem is that it only looks good when the prince’s head is crushed to the ground. And I think at that moment the viewers do not look at the mosaic.”

Talking about filming in Daznak’s Pit, in the ninth episode of Season 5, “The Dance of Dragons”, she recalled :

“I remember the heat and that 19 people were burned by flamethrowers. It was a difficult shoot, but the Spanish extras smiled through it all.

In the rest of Europe it is very noticeable that they do it for the money, but in Spain they are followers of the series that come with enthusiasm. That day we had to use 600 extras, who were singing and in excellent humor even though it was a scorching sun.”

She talked about a few more experiences. Check out the video clip of her talking, below :

We’ll be seeing more of the magic when Season 7 premieres, July 16th. What do you think about Moore’s experiences? Talk to us in the comments, below!

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