One of the main directors of photography on Game of Thrones recently sat down and openly discussed his approach and craft to making movies.
“I remember walking on set—into the throne room—and thinking, ‘I’ve got no idea how to light this,'” said Fabian Wagner, a cinematographer on Game of Thrones. “It’s so big. It’s such a different scale. And then, as it always does, it just happens.”
Wagner revealed that his first episode was on Season 4, The Law of Gods and Men, after the Game of Thrones writers watched his previous work on Sherlock. Since then, he has worked on some of the show’s biggest episodes including “Hardhome”, where he describes it as one of the most difficult set-ups he has experienced with so far.
“It’s almost a military organizational project,” Wagner says of the GOT on-set process. “You have to really know what you’re doing every day for 16 days to achieve everything you need to achieve.”
Wagner also discusses his techniques such as frequently lights night for day, avoiding lighting exteriors, and shooting on Arri Alexa and Cooke S4/i lenses.
You can check out the video below.
