Game of Thrones

By Cat Taylor

It’s the last week of filming the second season of Game of Thrones in Belfast. Everyday, someone else from the cast and crew wraps for the year, and “goodbye” is probably one of the most spoken words of each day. For most people the last week is a combination of desperate tiredness and already looking forward to the possibility of Season 3.

The last scene shot of the whole series is one with Bran, Hodor, Rickon and Osha. Of course, the weather in Northern Ireland has chosen to bid us farewell in its usual schizophrenic way. When I arrive in the late afternoon, just in time for the final few shoots, we are at the top of a hill overlooking rolling green fields that could be right off of a postcard. Soon though, the sky darkens and clouds roll in on strong winds, and in minutes we are being battered by pounding, freezing rain.

The final cut is called and everyone claps and cheers. We start to hug when our first AD calls for one more shot and, giddy with the false high, we all stand back to clear the frame. This time it is a wrap and we all have a glass of champagne (or for those of us driving, just a sip). It’s completely surreal – six months have passed in an instant.

The production office is becoming deserted. Desks that were stacked with files and the latest script revisions are now pushed into corners and stacked high with boxes.  For those of us who will be staying on to go North of the Wall, we have a few manic days to close off things in Belfast before packing all the socks in the world and heading to Iceland.

For a super nerd like me, what happened to Jon Snow and his crew is some of the most exciting and intriguing occurrences in the series. That, and the scope for creating new yo’momma jokes is just endless. We’ll be filming in three locations on the island, in some remote locations.

Can anyone say quad bike to work?

By Cat Taylor

Anyone who has lived through the festival season knows that the key to surviving in style is preparation. And while there is no need for a stash of Valyrian steel in the tents of Glastonbury, there are certainly things that make the rules of surviving festivals the same as surviving filming.

1. The field is full of tents, and positioning is everything. Avoiding horse dung, flooding, high winds and steep slopes is the ideal.
2. Wellingtons or hiking boots are a must to avoid swamp foot. There is high risk that your foot will get stuck in the inches of thick and churned up mud. Socks will be the most important thing about your day.
3. A smart crew member will avoid the portaloos at all costs, using honey wagons at base, or bushes if no lights are shining (and they happen to be male).
4. By the third day, wet wipes become a human rights issue.
5. Phone signal will drop in and out intermittently, usually just before you’re supposed to meet or call someone.
6. Sun on the field will make it all seem worthwhile, even if you are helping push a 4x4 out of the muck.
7. Security will spend a good deal of time explaining what is happening and why, sadly, passers-by aren’t allowed behind the scenes without a pass.
8. The traffic to and from location will be dreadful as everyone tries to arrive at the same time.
9. Finding the coffee hut and biscuits is like finding the Lost Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
10. Occasionally, Snow Patrol swing by. It’s a lovely surprise to reveal that the producer’s guests for the evening are some of Belfast’s finest home grown talent. 

By Cat Taylor

One of the greatest things about working on a show like Game of Thrones is that you are surrounded by beautiful things so much of the time. The costumes are gorgeous, the sets are so detailed you can always find a new facet when you look hard enough, and even the armor and weapons are beautifully finished. The cast isn’t too hard to look at either!  On some days though, the most beautiful thing is the scenery that we are surrounded by.

By necessity, the locations that we shoot at tend to be remote – it wouldn’t do to pull back from the gates of Harrenhall and see that the courtyard is built in the car park of a Pizza Hut. It’s also hard to weave the authentic medieval sound of a Boeing 777 arriving from Newark into the story line. Our sound and camera teams are exceptional (and we’ll be meeting them later), but that’s a lot to ask of anyone.

Just getting to these far-flung places can be a challenge. Tiny roads and large trucks are not always the best combination, and we can certainly be guilty of causing our own mini traffic jams as the crew makes way down roads used primarily for tractors and sheep. Sometimes there is no signal for phones or email, or the nearest shop is a few miles away. The crew lugs kit down paths the trucks can’t get to, and they run cables from the gennys out to beaches, huts and even cliff tops.

Even so, I’m not sure there are many better ways to see Northern Ireland than filming on this show. We are able to have access to places that you just don’t visit in day-to-day life. We get to see some of the greatest sights in a unique way, and even on the longest drives, you see some spectacular views that make it all worthwhile.

This season alone we have been up and down the northern coast of Antrim and into the corners of the country. Filming only a few miles from the world famous Giant’s Causeway and in tiny coves that are so startlingly beautiful it’s distracting. We have filmed on cliff tops and beaches, taken over the grounds of stately homes, caves and even old quarries. In what used to be empty rolling fields, there are castles and battlefield camps. Woodland clearings become campsites full of wagons and horses. A Godswood is just off a dirt track on the way south from the city. It’s all amazing to see.