The latest season of Game of Thrones had countless massive moments, but the biggest of all was undoubtedly the Battle of the Bastards, the showdown between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton and several thousand troops and horses. And while Game of Thrones has a pretty massive budget, it still can’t field even a fraction of those armies for real, leaving the heavy lifting to companies like Iloura, an Australian visual effects company.
We’ve already discussed some of the details on how much work went into creating this battle, but sometimes it’s easier to show than tell. So feast your eyes on this VFX reel from Iloura that breaks down how all the components from the Battle of the Bastards came together to create one of the most intense sequences in television history.
The quality of Iloura’s work created some unique issues for the production team, as they had a hard time keeping track of what they’d filmed and what was computer generated. “We constantly needed to review Iloura’s shots side-by-side with the photography because it was hard to remember and even harder to see the difference between what was shot and what was added,” Game of Thrones VFX producer Steve Kullback said.
It’s hard to think of a better compliment to the quality of your work than that. Well, maybe an Emmy. And it just so happens that the Battle of the Bastards episode was submitted for Emmy consideration in six categories, including visual effects.
