PRODUCTION HOUSE OF THE DRAGON
N ow in its second season, Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon follows the dramatic fall of House Targaryen as the family fights over King Viserys I’s rightful successor. “This whole season is about the start of the big civil war, the so-called Dance of the Dragons,” begins Vanja Cernjul, DOP on episodes 6 and 7 of Season 2. “There are some epic battles, and it seems like it’s much bigger than Season 1 in terms of both the story and scope,” he claims. In his words, likely the ‘last person on Earth’ who hadn’t seen Game of Thrones , Cernjul came to the project with ‘a lot of catching up to do’. As a longtime friend of episode 6 director Andrij Parekh, Cernjul says he jumped at the opportunity to shoot on the show. “Being part of the worldbuilding process is something that I enjoy a lot – trying to find the logic of the world and how we can contribute to that logic as cinematographers,” he shares.
WEATHER WOES Set approximately two centuries before Game of Thrones , House of the Dragon exists in a somewhat less-developed Westeros but features many of the same locations – including King’s Landing and Dragonstone, where King Aegon II and Queen Rhaenyra are based respectively. The King’s Landing sequences were shot in Spain, while Dragonstone is made up of various north Wales locations. “That was one of the wonderful things about the original series – all these locations they went to,” argues Cernjul, while the pandemic restricted location-based production on Season 1 of House of the Dragon . “We spent far more time on location,” he says of Season 2. “You can see it.” While filming on location can produce a greater sense of realism, there are obvious challenges too, like sticking to a schedule, shooting with a condensed crew and adapting to unexpected weather.
Cernjul shot episode 7’s opening sequence on a beach in the Isle of Anglesey. “Director Loni Peristere and I worked closely with the first AD, Toby Ford, in scheduling shots so we got the best light,” he recalls. “We came up with a solid plan, where we grouped shots according to the sun’s position. Then we discovered there were huge tidal changes. That added more complexity because not only did we have to be in a certain place according to where the sun was, but we also had to react to what the tide was doing,” he explains. “It became this complicated chart.” Ultimately, the sun’s position didn’t matter much as the weather that day was rainy and foggy (“Of course, right?” he laughs). But the show’s rigid schedule didn’t allow for changes, forcing Cernjul and his crew to press ahead. “When we showed up on the beach in the morning, we realised that it was the best possible weather for the scene.
DOP Vanja Cernjul gets immersed in House of the Dragon, explaining the intricacies involved with a series of such scope
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