Text/Guo Jing
In the tense atmosphere of the pre-war situation laid by the second episode, Game of Thrones s08e03 magnificently presents this war of the century before our eyes. The episode follows the closed narrative mode of the second episode, and in the time of up to eighty minutes, it completely shows us the whole picture of this epic battle of ice and fire from the beginning to the end. The production cost of a single episode of the episode is more than 15 million US dollars, and the investment is comparable to a movie!
The episode chose to open with a long shot. From the subjective point of view of Sam's panicked walk through the city, we saw the troops around him in a tense and orderly preparation for battle. The camera then methodically dispatches to Tyrion and Bran's subjective point of view, increasing our sense of immersion. And in preparation for the battle at the beginning of this episode, the camera also has the ingenuity to increase this pre-war tense atmosphere through the endless dark pictures of the night: the invisible late night dark place, the unknown is always the most terrifying.
The return of the pre-war red-robed priestess Melisandre and several fire spell casts once again highlighted the grand theme of the battle: "The Battle of Ice and Fire." "A battle of life and death! Of course, the flame is also the main or even the only source of light in this episode. According to HBO behind the scenes, in order to highlight the atmosphere of war in the dark light at night, the filming time of this episode was all selected at night, and it took about 55 nights to shoot.
Unlike many traditional TV dramas and American dramas that create a night through the method of post-color grading picture processing, this episode really chose to shoot at night, which can be described as a very low cost. Of course, this nighttime light environment has also been complained and complained by many fans who "can't see clearly". But overall, the episode's night scenes are still very much in line with Quan You's consistent dark aesthetic style.
Tracing back to the source, as early as the classic Hollywood era of the last century, this dark ambient light shooting style and the use of smoke and shadows have become the mainstream expression of film noir. The use of smoke in this episode and the presentation of smoke in the battlefield environment also have the same stylized characteristics of film noir.
In contrast, the dark lighting of this episode is more Kubrick's style, in the 1970s, In Kubrick's famous film "Barry Linden", in order to show the oil painting style of the medieval royal palace, Kubrick used pure candle fire as a dark light source for filming. This game uses the same approach to inherit this style of shooting. This adds a bit of epicness to the episode.
The plot rhythm of this episode is equally remarkable. From the preparatory stage of the war to the beginning of the war between the two sides to the end of the war. Shooting a complete war scene in a super long period of eighty minutes is an unprecedented attempt for the entire history of cinema. This episode is a good implementation of the scene scheduling of the war drama. On a macro level, this episode chooses to use a single character perspective to bring into the battlefield environment, thereby promoting the overall development of the plot, on the other hand, this episode also uses the panoramic and overlooking God perspective many times to show the chaos of the battlefield and the cruelty of war. Through the fusion of the two viewpoints, we can create an orderly plot development mode in chaos.
In the "chaos" of war, in order to avoid the audience's visual fatigue of long-term fighting, this episode chooses to use special effects scenes to create a second battlefield (the dragon's battle in the sky), as well as adding the narrative mode of the suspense film (Arya stealth scene), and the scene in the cellar and other "calm" and detailed plots to answer the rhythm of the tension. In the final ten minutes of the final stage of the war, when the balance of victory in the war was completely tilted in favor of the Night King, the film chose to use a beautiful symphony "The Night King" as the soundtrack to end. The rhythm of this soundtrack also fits with the reversal and ups and downs of the entire plot, which can be described as a highlight of this episode. And this soundtrack is also the longest soundtrack in Game of Thrones. It is also from the famous composer and film and television score producer Ramin Jawadi.
(Note that spoilers are involved below)
And the biggest reversal in this episode: the death of the Night King. It was eventually executed by Arya. The Valyrian steel dagger that Arya used to assassinate the Night King was the same weapon used to assassinate Bran. The lies made up by Littlefinger for this knife also became an important fuse of the war between the Lion family and the wolf family. In a way, it was this knife that caused the war across Westeros. And today, this knife also ended the war. It's also full of fatalistic heroic epics: where to start and where to end. Of course, this knife will also become an important plot line, because so far, we do not know the specific source of this knife and who the owner is.
The end of the third episode and the death of the Night King also largely shifted the theme of the entire "Game of Thrones" from the height of the primitive human desire of survival and death back to the focus of The Game of Thrones. This also represents the basic end of the story line of A Song of Ice and Fire. What remains is the fighting and war between the living.
After all, humanity's thirst for power has never stopped. How could this not be the primitive desire of mankind?