The House That Dragons Built

Here we go. Rehearsing. Quiet!

So you can look down. And then you go even closer to the edge.

-Okay. -Yeah?

We'll get these barriers back in.

Work very carefully in this area here, please.

Alright, hold the water.

Quiet, please. Roll sound.

Rolling!

Rhaena.

This season, we return to these iconic sets.

It's just lovely on the first day

to walk in and have all these memories flood back.

And at the same time have the challenge

of shooting House of the Dragon.

Season Two, we had the exterior of the Eyrie.

And this season, Ryan thought it would be great for the audience

to bring the original Eyrie interior back.

It was very exciting getting to rebuild that iconic set.

We haven't really gone back to the well

of building an original set from Thrones since Season One.

I took it as it was originally designed.

I changed some of the palette a little bit because of the years of difference.

I just wanted to darken some of the decoration

so it didn't feel edging on the fantasy world.

Jim did a great job at reproducing that center hall.

That was quite a big build, actually,

and quite complicated.

The treads were all circular.

It was like a butterfly staircase effect.

They were massive steps.

We all know what that door is in the middle, that Moon Door.

There was a lot of tension to keeping faith with Game of Thrones

in terms of the design.

The Moon Door, it was just thrilling

'cause I loved those iconic moments in the book,

especially when Tyrion has his duel for his trial by combat.

And there where Bronn gets to shine for the first time.

That door to the moon is scary to everybody

that's seen it before and knows what it's about.

It's such a big deal from Game of Thrones.

The biggest thing that the prop-making team

needed to do was recreate the big throne.

Gavin, our prop maker, actually made the original one

for Game of Thrones.

So, he at least had a head start on what it needed to be.

And then a great long-time friend,

Steve Mitchell, painted this fantastic mural,

which hadn't existed on the original set.

It was the history of the Eyrie and its rugged environment.

Interesting set to think about how to block something

because it's so different.

-And this-- -That's good, yeah.

-Back here, yeah? -Yeah, yeah.

If I go, bang...

How does Daemon talk to Lady Jeyne?

They're so far apart.

And it was this circular space.

I really wanted to use a circular track because it's quite a sort of odd space,

and it's a little bit trippy.

We wanted to pay homage to that.

So, we're doing checks, we're shooting.

And action!

I had thought never to see you in the Vale again,

Prince Daemon.

And who could ever fail to be charmed by your...

warmth?

Cut!

Full rehearsal, with camera.

So, these guys are gonna go straight on.

Lean, mean, fighting machine, boys.

Nice and quick, you know? 'Kay?

Tumbleton in Episode Four.

I wanted to think about what this place was like before.

So, I thought we could have this hare hopping through this field

and the camera goes up and reveals the whole of Tumbleton.

So, we have this really peaceful environment

and then we hear...

Keep going!

And then we cut into what's happening.

Background!

Basically, it's sort of the Nazis entering France

during the Second World War

and taking over this place.

And action!

Go, go, go!

Cut! Great. Lovely. Thank you.

Look at this place, guys.

Oh! And that door is genuinely that heavy.

This is the most incredible set I've ever filmed on.

I think it's one of the most incredible sets ever built.

It's three-quarters of an acre. It is literally a whole town.

It's the biggest set we've ever built.

As anybody that's read the book knows that Tumbleton plays a major role.

And we wanted to introduce it in a big way here

that made it really satisfying.

Right from the very first steel frame,

that went up for where the gates are, the main gates,

you are like 40-odd-feet high.

It is twice the size of King's Landing.

It's a big build.

A lot of tube. A lot of fittings.

The footprint of the set,

it's 75 meters by 140 meters.

4,300 sheets of 18-millimeter plywood

25,326 meters of four-by-two timber.

And then, my favorite one

is 800,000 screws.

I was thinking, will the details

ever stop coming from the windows to the shutters?

One of our biggest challenges

is making those roofs in a way

that we could just drop them on afterwards.

Taking it up.

Luckily, we start shooting on set, tomorrow, on Saturday, inside.

Actually inside the weather cover which is currently leaking.

The waterproofing wasn't great.

But it's alright now.

Going for a take now. Appreciate you all being here today.

And let's go for one. Thank you. Here we go!

Walking onto Tumbleton was an incredible experience

because you just suddenly feel like you're in another country.

The brief from Ryan was that, "We want to make this feel

like a sleepy French market town."

And that architecturally, it should have elements

that distinguish it from King's Landing.

Geographically, it needs to feel that we're further south,

in the hotter climes.

So, we went for a more, sort of Mediterranean look

than we've done before

on some of the other exterior builds.

So, we did some research.

We went down to Puglia in southern Italy

and those iconic conical-shaped roofs.

And I came back and started to draw and model those.

They started to look a bit hobbit-like when we did them.

So, we've adapted them to our own purpose.

We had lots of conversations about how much it should

or shouldn't appear like a fortification,

because that's a really important story point.

It should feel like somewhere any of us could live.

We got to show it for the first time as the town that it was

before it gets occupied by the Hightowers.

It's a farming community.

It's very parochial.

It's very different to King's Landing, which is an urban, buzzy city,

and it's beautiful to watch the difference in the costumes.

We wanted it to feel really idyllic in terms of its color palette.

So, it's all harvest tones, all cottons and linens.

The people that live there, the work that they do,

we like the idea of an olive farms.

Nice area here, which is the...

Claire's olive press area.

Claire Richards did an extraordinary job

just dressing it and making it feel like

a place where normal people live.

Real a piece of stone.

Shipped all the way from India.

Fully practical.

I think olive pâté for lunch.

The new elements that we were creating,

I took inspiration from being in Cáceres,

and Trujillo,

and the old towns of Rhodes and Greece,

where you've got that kind of crumbling of stone,

but then you've got all these lovely pockets of details.

Just feel the gravel under your feet and look at the walls around you.

You really feel like you can open every single door and go in.

And down every alleyway there's details.

It was on such tight timeframes that we had to be working in there

alongside our construction team,

and literally, as they finished an area,

we were moving into that area and dressing it.

There's so much to do there.

What is this?

I remember one scene stepping out and looking around

and not seeing a blue screen.

You couldn't see anything that could indicate

that you weren't in a real town.

It was such a special experience for me

to be able to immerse myself in, in such a rich way.

Alright, let's reset, please.

-Okay, resetting. -Thank you, guys. Resetting!

Apple, Mark.

Standing by! Standing by!

Thanks, guys. Set's clear!

Let's start to clear and lock it off. Thanks, everyone.

Clearing, please!

Here we go.