that he doesn’t believe it’s necessary to be able to see everything, because “it’s more about the emotional impact.” Instead, he chalked up the complaints about the episode’s darkness to the distribution methods and viewing situations out there. The quick-cut editing of the battle sequences occasionally produced an undesirable level of confusion, though that may have been the point. And as Joanna Robinson noted at Vanity Fair, the filmmakers made clever use of light - particularly in the form of fire - to symbolize hope for humanity, whether it was evaporating at the start of the battle in the failed Dothraki charge or (briefly) returning with Melisandre lighting the trench.įor the most part, director Miguel Sapochnik - who also directed the Game of Thrones episodes featuring the Battle of the Bastards and the massacre at Hardhome - was able to convey the story beats and character moments clearly enough, using brief shots of people like Jaime, Brienne, Sam, and Tormund to let us know they were still alive amid the carnage. He added that Game of Thrones’ showrunners “decided that this had to be a dark episode” because they wanted to “find a unique way of portraying the story” compared to the previous daytime battles. “Everything we wanted people to see is there,” said Fabian Wagner, the episode’s director of photography, in a Wired U.K. which were lit only by candles, lanterns, and torches. Anyone unsuited for combat hid underground in the castle’s crypts. But the Night King stayed true to his name this time, laying siege to Winterfell under cover of darkness (and enveloping the castle in a chilling fog that made it difficult for Daenerys’ two dragons to navigate the skies). That was exponentially more true for “The Long Night.” Most of the previous fight sequences on the show - Hardhome, the Battle of the Bastards, the “ loot train attack” - took place during the day. Opening that window would definitely let more light in. With the arrival of colder weather, the people of Westeros kept their shutters closed to battle the chill, even during the daytime - which made it much more challenging for the show’s cinematographers to illuminate interior scenes, according to McLachlan. The interview was published during Game of Thrones’ seventh season, by which point winter had come to the world of the show. “ to make these sets and locations feel as if they’re absolutely not lit by us, but only by mother nature or some candles or what have you, so that it feels more naturalistic albeit enhanced in some cases.” “We’re all very much on the same page where we’re trying to be as naturalistic as possible,” McLachlan explained. In a 2017 interview with Insider, cinematographer Robert McLachlan noted that he and the show’s other directors of photography had changed their lighting philosophy following the first season, which he said had “a lot of unmotivated backlight.” (The phrase refers to artificial illumination, lighting that doesn’t have an actual in-world source in the scene.)
Longtime Game of Thrones watchers may have noticed that the show darkened over the years - and I’m not just talking about the subject matter. Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO The intended reason Game of Thrones looks dark Was it the fault of a creative decision to prioritize low-light photography? Is modern broadcast television and streaming video technology poorly equipped to handle dark, fast-moving, action-heavy footage like scenes from the Battle of Winterfell? Do viewers just need to properly calibrate their TVs?Īfter extensive research, the answer I’ve come to is: all of the above, and because of that, most people may never see Game of Thrones the way it was meant to be seen.ĭaenerys and her entourage explore Dragonstone, the abandoned island castle, in season 7. Based on behind-the-scenes footage, that was intentional on the part of the filmmakers. In fact, it was so dark that viewers had a tough time making out the terrors in question.
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One of the most intense episodes of Game of Thrones’ eighth and final season, “ The Long Night,” was dark and full of terrors.
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