Game of Thrones cinematropher defends dark ‘The Long Night’ episode
As we wrote over at the link here, one of the central criticisms we had for the Battle of Winterfell is that for at least the first part of the episode, it was incredibly hard to see any of the action that was going on. It did get better as the episode went along — it was at least clear to us as to who died throughout, but it was a tough go early on, especially those on the west coast who were watching an East Coast feed and couldn’t block out sunlight too easily.
For some more Game of Thrones video discussion, check out our take on this past episode below! If you enjoy this, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for more news. Meanwhile, remember to check out our official playlist.
Yet, we also do understand why the episode was filmed as dark as it was. For starters, it was night. Also, this did amplify some of the fire and the other effects when they were present. It was an inconvenience, but we wouldn’t say that it severely impacted our overall enjoyment of the episode. It was just frustrating at times.
What’s also frustrating is how director of photography Damien Wagner described this episode, and the reaction to it in a new interview with Wired UK:
“A lot of the problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly … A lot of people also unfortunately watch it on small iPads, which in no way can do justice to a show like that anyway … Game of Thrones is a cinematic show, and therefore you have to watch it like you’re at a cinema: in a darkened room… if you watch a night scene in a brightly lit room, then that won’t help you see the image properly.”
We do get a good bit of what Wagner is saying here, but one of the problematic ideas that is present within it is the notion that for a lot of people out there, it’s somehow easy for them to sit down with a top-dollar TV that can actually be tuned and displayed properly. People often watch on what they’re given, and sometimes, that means that they don’t catch everything that viewers with a 65-inch 4K TV do.
As we said, we do think that a lot of this will blow over, mostly because we don’t think that there will be another super-extensive fight sequence at night coming up. Beyond just that, we also do think that Game of Thrones does tend to be one of the most beautiful series on all of television.
For some more news when it comes to the next Game of Thrones…
Be sure to visit the link here for a preview for what lies ahead! Also, let us know what you think about some of these comments below. (Photo: HBO.)