‘Game of Thrones’ Behind The Scenes Featurettes Tease A Bloody Season 4 [Videos]
As the season 4 premiere of HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones rapidly approaches, the press machine for the show is in full force, with special advance screenings showing in select locations, magazine covers and interviews being released, and several behind the scenes featurettes documenting the show’s hardworking cast and crew’s dedication to the beloved story written by George R.R. Martin.
Yesterday, the official YouTube channel for Game of Thrones released featurettes for weapons and training, costumes, directing, and preparing for the royal wedding between King Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell.
Thrones star Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, said, “Months and months ago we started doing stunts and started training for this year because there’s a lot more physical stuff to do.” The weapons master behind Game of Thrones, Tommy Dunne, talks about how he designed a double sided axe to serve as a “sword catcher” for the battle with the wildlings beyond the wall, who have warred with the Night’s Watch and Castle Black for hundreds of years.
Probably the coolest part of this Thrones featurette comes when Dunne talks about the team of 16 that he had trained on how to operate a catapult. In these modern times, just how badass does that sound?
In the costumes featurette, they interview costume designer Michele Clapton, who was presented with the enormous task of not only designing costumes for the very large cast of Thrones characters, but also for the royal wedding, which required a certain uptick in opulence and grandeur fitting for a king as excessive in his need for showing off as Joffrey is.
Of particular note in this video is the golden hand that Jamie Lannister sports after having his sword hand unceremoniously lopped off in Season 3.
The royal wedding featurette will be something exciting for foodies, as they delve into the massive preparations needed to create a feast worthy of Game of Thrones’ reputation for decadent descriptions of what the characters are eating. Karyn Booth, the set’s Home Economist, talks about having to prepare 30 massive pies for filming the scene where Joffrey cuts open the pie to release a slew of doves. The royal wedding feast took five days to film.
In this last featurette, the various directors from Game of Thrones Season 4 talk about how the cast has really upped their game for this new batch of episodes, which covers the second half of Martin’s third book A Storm of Swords.
What did you think about these behind the scenes videos from the show? There’s only a little more than a week to go before the premiere! Will you be throwing a Game of Thrones themed party?
