Special effects in the world of Westeros
One of the big factors to pulling this series off is going to be nailing the special effects. You could have a great script and some great acting, but when you see some cheesy CGI it just pulls you out of the world and makes you realize you are watching a television show. Ran over at the Westeros forums has a great post detailing how they could make competent CG effects without breaking the bank. Namely by using techniques that are illustrated in the above comparison shot taken from the BBC special Heroes and Villains: Attila the Hun. Check out the whole post for more links and discussion regarding the effects.
Winter Is Coming: The good thing is A Song of Ice and Fire doesn’t require as many CG effects as many other fantasy series’ would. The pilot especially shouldn’t require too much in the way of CG shots. You have the Wall, maybe an Other and probably some renderings for establishing shots and some digital touching up to do. I doubt that the direwolves will be CG since they are only pups in the first episode. As to the rest of the series, you have a couple big battles, the dragons and very small amounts of magic. So far at least, nothing too outlandish. HBO should be able to devote enough money to the effects so that they look quite professional and believable.
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