Day 2 in Dubrovnik Brings a Change in Weather for Game of Thrones

Dominican Monastery Game of Throned Dubrovnik 12-15-16
Photo: TheDubrovnikTimes.com

Yesterday cameras rolled with the stars of Game of Thrones in Croatia, as Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Hafthor Bjornsson filmed on the city walls of Dubrovnik. On the same day, we saw filming taking place for King’s Landing in an entirely different European city, in the rain in Cáceres, Spain. The gray skies hinted the season-ending promise that “Winter is here” would be on full display in season seven.

Today, shooting has started up again with director Jeremy Podeswa on the set in front of Dubrovnik’s Dominican Monastery. The Dubrovnik Times brings us the latest images, confirming that winter has indeed come to Westeros!

On the set, we can see a snow machine working to generate fake snow, with flurries in the air. The location in general looks to be another part of King’s Landing, with Lannister banners hanging by the monastery walls.

Game of Thrones Filming Snow Jeremy Podeswa
Photo: TheDubrovnikTimes.com
snow-machine-winter-game-of-thrones
Photo: TheDubrovnikTimes.com

There’s a day of filming left in the city; however the Times reports the the GOT stars have already left the city, so the shooting may be like today’s, and not require any actors.

Podeswa is the director of the first and the last episode of the season, and there’s no indication yet which episode this is from. Note that we didn’t see any sign of snow during the filming yesterday on the city walls. That’s not a hard confirmation either way, but does make it seem more like this could be from the finale.

If it’s cold enough to snow in King’s Landing, that tells us something else: it’s cold enough for White Walkers.

script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js">
Sue the Fury
Susan Miller, Editor in Chief of WatchersOnTheWall.com

33 Comments

  1. Winter is Here, mofos!! I can’t wait to see snow in King’s Landing. I’ve nothing to back this up, but I’m guessing snow starts falling in the capital (LEAKS):

    in the season finale to coincide with the Night King breaching the Wall. Could make for a powerful scene.
  2. What are they even filming at? Looks like they are just spraying snow on the director, lol.
    And since you guess they were filming for ep 1 the other day and ep 7 today, is that something the directors often do? Film for different episodes from day to day?

  3. What happens to the Stark House words when they are proven right and winter does come 🙂 .

    On topic, it will be so exciting to see snow in KL for the first time.

  4. Snow beginning to fall in King’s Landing as one of the closing scenes in the finale would be a great way of emphasizing that shit just got real. It was a wonderfully eerie moment in the books.

    leaks

    It would hit especially hard if it’s either right before the closing sequence or even included in it.
  5. Mio:
    What are they even filming at? Looks like they are just spraying snow on the director, lol.
    And since you guess they were filming for ep 1 the other day and ep 7 today, is that something the directors often do? Film for different episodes from day to day?

    I know that they don’t shoot sequentially – which means that there are a lot of characters who have been on set for long after the filming of their death scene has been completed.

    And given that they are only shooting in Dubrovnik for two or three days, they will get whatever they need in that time, regardless of which episode the footage is required for.

  6. Flayed Potatoes,
    H.Stark,

    Good find! I spotted Matt Shakman in those photos as well. That would place this scene in Episode 4 or Episode 5.

    Leaks

    Sam and Gilly supposedly leave Oldtown for Winterfell in Episode 5. The two of them seem to be dressed for traveling – Sam has a thick cloak, and Gilly is wearing a long-sleeved dress. This scene could be their departure.
  7. Jack Bauer 24:
    So the scene with Euron will be rainy and then another scene will be snowy?

    I reckon they need to get shots for multiple episodes while they’re on site. Yesterday’s ‘parade’ was episode 3… Then Podeswa with snow would indicate episode 7 as mentioned. Much time will pass between the rainy scene and the snowy.
    It can rain and snow during the same day though so it wouldn’t be absurd.

    Mylod, Shakman and Podeswa all there getting some shots for KL and/or Oldtown scenes makes sense.

  8. Pigeon:
    Thank goodness Gilly still has some nice civies.

    Yeah, after four and a bit seasons in a sack, she FINALLY got a pretty dress halfway through season six. Great to see she has what appears to be another new outfit this season.

  9. How can it be the finale when Cersei’s hair is as short as it was in s6’s finale and Little Sam looks at least a year older that he was last seen in those Sam and Gilly photos ep 4 or 5)? Are they not going to bother with continuity or passing of time for certain arcs? Unless they film scenes for both the premiere and finale in Dubrovnik.

  10. sebaciel,

    Yesterday scene’s was most likely the premiere with Cersei, Jamie and UndeadMountain. Today is most likely the finale with Sam and Gilly. It’s the same director for the first and last episode as stated in this article.
    They never film by order, they film location by location so they don’t have to keep redoing sets. I imagine a fare bit of time is gonna pass in this season between the first and last episode considering it seems like there is a lot characters traveling between lot’s of locations that would take weeks but are not being actually shown in the show.

  11. Mel,

    John Bradley and Hannah Murray were filming in Caceres today with Matt Shakman (episodes 4 and 5), not in Dubrovnik with Jeremy Podeswa.

  12. sebaciel,

    Maybe she wants it short or maybe yesterday was ep 1. At first I thought yesterday was

    Jaime and Cersei looking at Dany and co. arriving or looking at them leaving before Cersei tells Jaime she won’t send troops and he leaves her. Since they are looking at the water or something? That would be ep 7 though. Maybe its Euron arriving in his ship in ep 1 that could also be it, maybe they are just talking or maybe its something completely different in ep 1.
  13. regarding photos – it’s where Cersei fell to her knees approaching the Red Keep during her Walk of Shame. remember it like it was yesterday…. and the snow is finally here!

  14. Christmas week is coming up , I suppose production shuts down?
    So then production starts again next month and runs through February?

  15. Boojam,

    I’m interested as to when they’d hope to film in Iceland if they want to have any daylight.

    I live at 60’38″N and today the sun rose at 9:25 and set at 15:07, and for the first hour and last hour, the sun is so low on the horizon it’s effectively twilight. Reykjavik in Iceland is 64’08″N so they have even less daylight at this time of year!

    Daylight will start creeping back after winter solistice (21 December) but it only becomes noticeable towards the end of January/beginning of February. End of February is suddenly much lighter. (Sunrise/sunset times follow a sine/cosine type curve).

    The production might want to have the icy winter darkness of Iceland in January – it’s the “long night” – but for practical purposes (i.e. any light for the cameras to catch), I’d think February is a better bet. There will be more daylight.

    Another considereation. If it’s freezing, well below zero (Celsius), it’s more difficult for the actors to deliver their lines, move their lips, work their face, act. Because the cold ambient temperature freezes your face. We saw that in S2 and S3 when some of the acting, filmed in Iceland in the glacier areas in October/November, was a bit “wooden”, or should we say, “frozen”. Those “north of the Wall” scenes were amazing and beautiful cinematographically but maybe the acting suffered a bit?

  16. talvikorppi,

    I’m sure the production team has done their research. I believe they said mid January. They probably want it to feel like the long night is coming. Considering the Wolf Quarry where they had filmed with the fake snow i’m not sure how much actual acting itself will be done in Iceland could be for more Cinematography purposes instead of using CGI.

Comments are closed.