Game Of Thones Docu-maker On Coffee Cup-Gate: “It’s A Miracle There Weren’t More Cups Caught On Camera”
Filmmaker Jeanie Finlay pulled a ‘Red Wedding’ to whittle down 950 hours of footage into two.
Jeanie Finlay was first exposed to Game of Thrones in, of all places, a storm. This was in April 2011. “I was stranded in St Louis because there was a tornado, so I saw it in my hotel room with the rest of the world for the first time.” While the British filmmaker was, pun unintended, blown away by the swords, sex and sorcery-packed fantasy series based on the books by George RR Martin, she didn’t become a superfan; work and family commitments demanded more of her time.
But little did Finlay know she would again encounter the award-hoarding juggernaut in yet another storm, this time it was the Beast of the East blizzards that swept across Europe last year. She was then up to her ears in a top-secret project: documenting the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, an epic assignment that required Finlay to soak up all things related to the show, and devote 14 months of her life following the massive production to Northern Ireland, Spain, Croatia, and Iceland.
The resulting work, The Last Watch, is no EPK-style behind-the-scenes featurette, but a fly-on-the-wall feature-length documentary which Finlay and her team spent seven months putting together in the editing suite, assembled from 950 hours of footage. “I wanted to make a film without interviews, so you have to shoot a lot of material,” Finlay, 42, tells 8 DAYS in a phone conference from London. “Editing was an enormous challenge, but it was a challenge I love because I got to write the film during the editing process.”
Since the documentary premiered last week (May 27), Finlay has received a lot of positive feedback. “Lots of people who have seen the documentary said they haven’t seen a frame of Game of Thrones but now they want to dive in. I think people have [no idea] about the scale of ambition and the amount of work that went into the show. The reason people love Game of Thrones so much is that it is so vast.”
What else does Finlay hope audience will take away from The Last Watch? “I would invite all of them to come to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and experience the real-life Game of Thrones landscape,” she says. “I hope they would find a connection to a show that was made so far away yet is dealing with universal stories of emotional journeys.” Here, she shares with us her memories of making the documentary and her thoughts on the ‘Coffee Cup’ controversy.
Snow out: Head of Snow Del Reid makes sure Westeros is ready for winter.
8 DAYS: You shot 950 hours of footage. How did you arrive at its current running time of one hour and 55 minutes? Is that a right length for a show that ran for eight seasons?
JEANIE FINLAY: When we started to edit the film, it became apparent that we had a lot of material and we could have made a film that was 12 hours long but I don’t think anyone would see a 12-hour film. I was very keen to do a standalone film rather than a series because the momentum of the film is about [a saga] coming towards the end. This is the longest film I have ever made. I felt that we have so much content and so many brilliant people [to showcase] that I want to do them justice, by giving them enough time to say goodbye fully. My editor, Alice Powell, always says the film will find its own length, and I felt that it did.
How did you decide who to highlight?
With all the films that I’ve made — this is my eighth feature film — I want to find an emotional connection with audiences. The people I chose to highlight are not necessarily the loudest or the most extrovert. They are people you might not usually get to meet but they can provide valuable insights. For example, when I first went on set, I could see snow everywhere but I had no idea that there was a man called Del Reid who brought the snow [to the set]. He was reluctant to appear in the documentary. He spent a lot of time saying no, no, no. He’s so modest. He didn’t think anyone would be interested in his story. But I think he is wonderful. He worked very hard and he’s very modest about his achievements. What he does is amazing; he does wonders. I wanted to put a spotlight on the unsung heroes, the 2000 crew members working on Game of Thrones.
Why did you include the table read where Kit Harington cried after discovering the twist in the Jon Snow-Daenerys relationship?
My job is always to think, what I am really, really fascinated by, and will that also chime with audiences? So when I knew that they were doing a table read, my immediate thought was: I have to film it! Oh my goodness, they never do this. The only other time they did this was in Season 1. Because these things are normally private, it wasn’t always going to be in the film, but I have to film this. I think it would be an emotional and completely different way of looking at the material. Because we knew Kit hasn’t read the script, my cameraman and I focused on [his reactions]. It felt like a couldn’t-be-repeated moment that I had to put it in the film: Actors reading in real-time and finding out what happens to their characters.
Iceman: Slovak stunt choreographer Vladimir Furdik also plays The Night King.
What are your favourite parts of The Last Watch?
I think that one of my favourite parts is when we meet Vladimir Furdik, the Slovak stunt choreographer [who also plays the Night King], and he talks about being in the shadows for 33 years. He was never in the spotlight. I was drawn to Vladimir, who plays a villain because he is actually a really sweet and modest man who has an interesting past in Czechoslovakia. He made a choice not to be [a gangster when he was a young man] and be a good person by working in [showbiz], and the irony is, [that led to him becoming] the baddest villain in the world. I love that small scene where he transforms into the Night King [in the make-up trailer] and walks out into set.
And the interviews you wish were in the final cut?
There is always footage you had to leave on the cutting room floor; it’s like the Red Wedding in the edit suite sometimes. I filmed two amazing women who made 500 loaves of bread for the big feast in ‘The Last of the Starks’. They made all the prop food on Game of Thrones. I also wish I could have shown more of the art department and the work they did on the sets. It became editorially problematic to try to tell too many stories because you want to weave an emotional personal journey, not a Wikipedia page of a checklist of things. There are always the ones that got away. But ultimately you have to serve the film with the best bits.
Days of blunder: Emilia Clarke ordered coffee during the big feast in 'The Last of the Starks' ep.
Speaking of food, let’s talk about the coffee truck aka the Heart Attack Van. Besides the signature snack Tiger Toast, what else would you recommend?
I love a Pear Picking Porky ice lolly when it's sunny, and a tray bake in the night shoots, especially "fifteens" which is a Northern Irish recipe that takes 15 of each ingredient. They are the sweetest thing I have ever eaten and perfect when you are filming. [There’s nothing like] filming in the middle of the night when you’re tired and hungry, and having a lovely hot drink from [coffee van manager] Leigh and having a little chat with her.
Can we talk about the controversial coffee cup blunder in ‘The Last of the Starks’ episode? Did you catch it with your cameras? That, and the mineral water bottles in ‘The Iron Throne’ ep? How did they escape being noticed?
I have no idea. I was just as amazed as you are. When the Coffee Cup-Gate came out, I was laughing a bit. Because everybody said it was Starbucks and I knew it was a catering cup that had come from craft services. It was not even Leigh’s coffee cup. But I have to [check] the footage to see if we captured it. To be honest, people were working for really long hours, so they need Tiger Toast and coffee to sustain them. It was kind of a miracle that on a show of this scale that there weren’t more coffee cups [caught on camera].
Photos: HBO
You can watch all eight seasons of the Game of Thrones and The Last Watch on HBO Go.
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