Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/916056
58 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2 0 1 8 Working in a Roman amphitheater in Spain Despite Italica, Spain, being founded in 206 BC, no modern city was built over it, and the ruins are relatively well intact. The nearby city of Seville was always the larger city, but in its day, Italica was home to the third-largest amphitheater in the Roman Empire. It seated 25,000 spectators. For Game of Thrones, it was our Dragon Pit. It was an honor and a thrill to be able to work in such a space. Within the mythology of the show, the House Targaryen had once used the Dragon Pit as a giant stable in which to house their dragons. As the dragons had died out, the space was left as an abandoned ruin. Italica had the scale that we needed, but also a giant hole in the ground from which wild animals had been released to the gladiators via a lift and trapdoor system that is long gone. Christina Moore, Supervising Art Director of our foreign unit, and Iain White, her Art Director, were responsible for transforming the space. They worked closely and carefully with an architectural conservation team to be sure the historic structure was not endangered in any way. I was very interested in the idea that The Hound, carrying the wight in a crate, arrive from below, Cersei arrive on ground level, and Dany make her entrance on her dragon from above. We therefore, had to design the space to work for the different arrivals, and more particularly for the council that was about to take place. Having so many main characters in the one space was unusual for us, and many different seating arrangements were tried before settling on the final version. The awnings served the dual purpose of providing shade, as well as protecting us from having to do digital set extensions in every shot. Sculpting the Giant Dragon Skull When David and Dan briefed me about the Giant Dragon Skull of Balerion that was to appear in the set called the "Dragon Skull Room," they specified that it should have the bone structure of a highly evolved creature. First created in ZBrush by Nick Ainsworth, the sculptors drew front and side elevations at full scale and a team of five sculptors carved the piece that was B A C D