HBO won’t let Game of Thrones look ‘too dark’ ever again says insider
HBO reportedly took steps to ensure A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was not criticised for being excessively dark, following complaints about the lighting in earlier Game of Thrones episodes. Cinematographer Gustav Danielsson said the production aimed for convincing nighttime realism while retaining enough detail for viewers to follow the action.
The series was designed as a smaller-scale, more naturalistic Westeros story, with about 90% filmed outdoors in Northern Ireland. Danielsson and colourist Tim Drewett developed a film-like camera look and monitored shadow detail during filming, while HBO engineers also tested the images; a battle in episode five took at least two weeks to shoot and used mist, wind and visual effects to create an early-dawn atmosphere.
- HBO monitored darkness levels for the new Westeros series.
- The aim was realistic night scenes that remained visible.
- Most filming took place outdoors in Northern Ireland.
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Game of Thrones is a fantasy television series set in the fictional continent of Westeros, where powerful families compete for control of the Iron Throne. It became one of HBO’s biggest shows, but some viewers said scenes set at night, especially a major battle in its final season, were too dark to follow clearly on some screens.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is another HBO series set in the same world, based on stories by George R R Martin. It follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a wandering knight, and his young companion Egg, around a century before the events of Game of Thrones.
The new programme has a smaller setting and fewer large-scale political conflicts than its predecessor, but it still aims to show a medieval-style world where travel, weather and daylight affect daily life. How such scenes are filmed and displayed matters because streaming video can look different depending on a viewer’s television, device and internet connection.