Episode 5x09 Discussion

Ok as awesome as this is I'm mad they didn't do one for Shireen instead. Lord.

While I was hunting the other night for a new avatar, I went through Google Images and found a great photo of Davos and Shireen last episode when he'd just given her the stag he'd made.  But I didn't have the heart.  I just couldn't stand a reminder of any part of her storyline that episode.

In the episode 5x10 discussion, somebody had counted up the Stannis vs Ramsay troops. I'm curious if anybody did that for the Wildlings that Jon saved? Jon estimated that 5000 agreed to get on the boats, but the evacuation was in progress when the attack commenced so the number that actually survived should have been lower than 5000. I eyeballed it at a few thousand but I didn't take much time on my estimate and wondered if somebody had come up with a better number.

I'm on a train just now so I can't watch this

But I did show my parents a video of Daznak from youtube the other day. They did not jizz

It's true. Looking at the VFX ,  many times now, they did very good for the money. One notes even if they got 100 million for season 5 they probably could not have spent more than 12 million tops on episode 9. I could see places where the CGI could have been touched up, Dany's 'riding' Drogon has only passable composites. A couple are remarkable , one , side shot of Drogon's initial lurch forward and 'run', the 'helicopter shot' where he has raised his wings to gain 'air' for the take off, the Spring shot, the take off and the distance shot as seen from below, Dany looks fine in all those scenes. In fact was it Emilia or a stunt double in the lurching take off? Because one can see her take the impact of Drogon's jump, that looked great! I don't know Dany could have been computer generated or composited at this point. Needed more medium and long shots in the sequence , but that burns money fast! (A scene like is is where on wishes for a Peter Jackson budget!)
In any case, Nutter's long suit, it appears , is not action on a big scale. Remember he did do The Red Wedding, and that was just fine. But here the 'choreography' of the fight action was lackluster , even the 'gladiatorial' work that preceded it was , well pedestrian. If it had not for Miguel Sapochnik's Hardhome I would have recommended they should have gotten Neil Marshall back.
There was a real need for knack with 'Big Action' scene composition Sapochnik was right on the money in episode 8. He should have done 9!
(You know there was another fumble this season Jeremy Podeswa , Ep 5, the fight with the Sand Snakes. That one has even more awkward choreography than Daznak. )
Editing. What up with that? I not sure all the jumpiness and pause-y-ness in Daznak could have been corrected but sure could have been a lot better.
It was odd , Hardhome had a different editor.
I consider the sequence Very Good (some of it excellent) but I would have loved to see what Sapochnik or Marshall would have done with it (for that matter Peter Jackson or Guillermo del Toro, Sam Peckinpah would probably busted the budget!!)

She was. 
I would like to see what green contraption she was riding. She mentioned in an interview a 'bronco' or something like that.
She looked fine in the medium shots , except for the initial mounting*, once aboard looked ok, the running take off looks fine.
Either that's a CGI figure version of her, Emilia composited in, or Emilia's double (stunt or otherwise) composited in I can't tell.
After leaving the ground the composite , in the air, looks 'under budgeted' , I don't know if they ran out of money or what. Even the superimposed Meereen looks off. It all works well of enough, but needed more attention to detail.

*I liked Emilia's double take at seeing Drogon's spikes. It's like yikes spikes! But she is wearing her Dothraki riding leathers underneath the gown.
* Never could figure this in the book , Dany seems to 'leap' on to Drogon when he lowers his head. (They didn't seem to have time for the Drogon dragon 'squat' in the show sequence.)
* I like the low rider profile for a mounted Dany. All the art I see of the Valyrian dragon riders make them look like they are mounted in a sedan chair! Even tho there is no sedan chair. Some seem to have some kind of saddle , but the saddle does not look functional. Needs work.

It's not clear until the details are known if that is actually a CGI'ed Emillia, or a computer superposition of a real person Emilia or other wise, at least PIXOMONDO has not revealed it.

Yeah the mature Valyrian dragons are way big! There are paintings of Balerion at the right size. George has said Dany's dragons are to get that big. 
There are paintings and drawings of Aegon riding Balerion , some Balerion is too small, one has the huge Balerion but Aegon seems to be standing , that does not look right. Some have a sort of saddle that does not look right too. Don't know what the solution is!

I like those too. 
You know they say that the dragons will be bigger in season 6, but I wonder how much bigger? 
Never have figured from the books just how fast they grow , tho Drogon seems to be approximately the size in the Dance.
I remember people having a problem with the on page Drogon , but when he shows on GoT and Dany mounts him he actually does seem the size of the book Drogon. From season 3 to season 4 all the dragons seemed to more than double their size , they could double in size three more times.

Idk, I still think even with that longer video that they're being pretty tight-lipped about the dragon flight which makes me think that maybe a lot of it was actually done in the studio. Except the moment she climbs aboard and one of the close up shots of her looking back as Drogon is running forward. Maybe they'll do a separate feature on that because let's be honest, you watch a video on the making of Daznak because you're interested in seeing the flight, not because you want to know how they shot everything else. This is like the biggest cock tease ever.