Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/916056
Given that Dragonstone started life in the show as a series of cave-like rooms, it was important to me that the audience chamber grow out of the cave. I wanted the walls be able to soar into the digital effects castle that had been established. The triangular shape with the top lopped off became a very useful repeatable image of power and allowed the space to look like it was standing on its tippy-toes. Working very carefully on the concepts and later on the finishes with the plasterers and painters, a Brutalist cathedral was built for the show. A warship called The Silence Built at the same time as the Dragonstone audience chamber, The Silence represented an entirely different set of problems. It was required to be so much bigger than the boat that we usually use in the show, and as scripted was much bigger than we could afford to build. Similar to the warships of the Romans, The Silence had to ram its opponent and a corvus, a large spiked plank, would descend onto the deck of the opposing ship so the Ironborn men could run aboard. We looked at various ships throughout history, from Japanese medieval warships to those of the Roman navy. Art Directed and hand-drafted by Hauke Richter and conceived and built in Maya and ZBrush by Philipp Scherer, The Silence took shape with a massive kraken on the naval ram, an extrapolation of the Ironborn house sigil. Due to its very short build time, the ribs, as well as the kraken sculpture, were CNC cut, and arrived in kit form. With the expertise, experience, and patience of our local boat builder and head sculptor, it was hastily constructed. Concreting a quarry into the frozen lake The frozen lake sequence of episode six was to take place "beyond the wall," with part of it to be shot on location in Iceland, and with a very specific fight sequence involving many stunts and visual effects to be shot back in Belfast. By literally concreting a quarry, we were able to create our own "frozen lake" and capture most of the scene as live action by painting and snowing the surrounding cliffs. The central island was specifically designed to accommodate the scripted face-off between Jon Snow and his men, and the undead wight army. It was built as any other set, with a lumber substructure and a hard plaster finish. Art Director Nick Wilkinson braved all elements in supervising the set, and the snow team worked for weeks and weeks to turn the Belfast quarry into a frozen landscape. A. Dragonstone audience chamber, plan and elevations. Drawing by Assistant Art Director James Spencer, Rhino model detailed in Autocad. B. Dragonstone audience chamber. Concept drawing by Nick Ainsworth, Maya model rendered in Photoshop. C. View through the 17- foot entrance gates to the completed Dragonstone audience chamber. Art Director: Phil Elton. Photos by Deborah Riley D. THE SILENCE. Concept sketch done in Photoshop by Philipp Scherer. D C