‘Game Of Thrones’ Cinematographer Explains How Red Wedding Scene Was Shot

Even as HBO‘s Game of Thrones marches toward its end, there are some scenes that have endured and still get people talking – even years later. One of those scenes, the infamous Red Wedding, is still one of the most shocking moments on the series.

Business Insider got a hold of cinematographer Robert McLachlan and asked him to reflect on filming the scene for season three’s ninth episode, “The Rains of Castamere.”

I was aware that the Red Wedding was gonna be a big deal, and we wanted everyone to be incredibly shocked by it — those who hadn’t read the books. And the nice thing about the way they approach the filming on that show is that it’s not you do all your prep work in one block and then sit down and shoot like crazy for two or three weeks, like you do in most episodic television. Your schedule is sort of scattered throughout. So I had a lot of time to really chew on how I was going to approach it. The lighting, it’s kind of built into the production design so that part was easy. But I also wanted to heighten it.

McLachlan’s trick to heighten the moment involved drawing out the start of the bloodshed for as long as possible and changing up the lighting.

I really, really didn’t want to tip our hand to the viewers that anything bad was gonna happen, and quite the reverse: I wanted to make them think absolutely for sure they were gonna get the happy ending that everybody was really dying for. So I got the art department — with the blessing of the producers and director David Nutter — to overload the banquet hall with candelabras and torches so that it was, if not by Disney standards, certainly by “Game of Thrones” standards, very bright.

Even though the scene may have been brighter than usual, the extra lighting certainly helped to highlight all the red that started to flow.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres July 16, 2017. The series stars Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish, Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth, Carice van Houten as Melisandre, Rory McCann as Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, Conleth Hill as Varys, Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy, John Bradley as Samwell Tarly, Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth, Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane, Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark, Jerome Flynn as Bronn, Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont, Hannah Murray as Gilly.

Source: Business Insider