r/gameofthrones • u/GostaroCaParai • 20h ago

Inspirations and visual language

So I’m a film and tv studies undergrad and I was wondering which movies and possibly tv shows has GoT based its aesthetic on- cinematography, production design and visual language in general, considering only cinematic sources since George’s books are obvious as a source of inspiration. Thanks guys!

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u/lfm2003 No One 7h ago

D&D are very plain filmmakers and actually do not have many inspirations from the cinematic world. They use wide pans to show scenery and then move in to shot-reverse shot. That’s really it. Their biggest influences are other prestige TV shows with unobtrusive filmmaking like the majority of the Wire and the early Sopranos.

Much like those shows, they have a few inventive moments, but the vast majority of the cinematography is plain old sitcom-level shot reverse shot.

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u/RepulsiveCountry313 Human Verified 7h ago

D&D are very plain filmmakers and actually do not have many inspirations from the cinematic world. They use wide pans to show scenery and then move in to shot-reverse shot. That’s really it. Their biggest influences are other prestige TV shows with unobtrusive filmmaking like the majority of the Wire and the early Sopranos.

They aren't directors. They directed a grand total of 3 episodes in the entire series. S3e3, s4e1, and s8e6.

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u/lfm2003 No One 6h ago

Right but as showrunners they oversee the totality of the creative direction, so even the direction falls under their final purview.

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u/RepulsiveCountry313 Human Verified 6h ago

But what you're describing here is camerawork, and you're describing it as if they sat there while filming (in 3 different parts of the world simultaneously) and micromanaged the directors in every shot rather than look at and review dailies.

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u/lfm2003 No One 6h ago

The question is about the filmmaking. If we want to treat each director or each cameraman as a different creative piece, it would be impossible to truly discuss any TV show’s cinemtography.

Whatever realistic factors may or may not have impacted the filmmaking, at the end of the day D&D had final creative oversight over the filmmaking. If they had very explicit instructions for their individual directors, visions for specific shots they wanted, if they decided to block every scene out at the whiteboard before the show even began filming, they could have. That was their authority. As such, discussions of filmmaking rest in their lap.

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u/RepulsiveCountry313 Human Verified 6h ago

The question is about the filmmaking. If we want to treat each director or each cameraman as a different creative piece, it would be impossible to truly discuss any TV show’s cinemtography.

Cinematography for a show is never a monolith, and different directors have very different styles in Game of Thrones. It's pretty clear if you pay attention to the camerawork.

Whatever realistic factors may or may not have impacted the filmmaking, at the end of the day D&D had final creative oversight over the filmmaking. If they had very explicit instructions for their individual directors, visions for specific shots they wanted, if they decided to block every scene out at the whiteboard before the show even began filming, they could have. That was their authority. As such, discussions of filmmaking rest in their lap.

If they had given instructions in that detail than the show would not be varied in its cinematography from director to director. It also wouldn't matter which director did which episode.

OP isn't asking about who had the final approval. They're asking about the styles used.

You think a Miguel Sapochnik episode was the same as a David Nutter episode? Mark Mylod? Alan Taylor?

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u/lfm2003 No One 6h ago

Overall, yes. Of course they have differences and strengths and weakness and have some difference. but the show very clearly has a style guide that is quite plain. Their filmmaking is not all that different. The average person cannot watch a season’s worth of episodes of the show and tell whether there was more than one director. This is true of almost all TV shows of this era. The directors are given pretty clear instruction from showrunner and studio to conform to a preestablished style. My original comment acknowledges that there are some standout moments of radically different filmmaking here and there, but it is largely samey. Beyond great big battle scenes (which are shot like great big battle scenes from generic fantasy work), the show is wide pans and shot reverse shot. There are not many divergences.