Game of Thrones location shooting in Croatia started yesterday, with the Free City of Braavos springing to life in the small town of Kastel Gomilica. Maisie Williams was reportedly on hand to begin filming season five, and Kastela.org captured several images of the sets, production crew, and costumed extras in the area.
Many locals from the Kastela area have signed on as extras this year as well, reports Kastela.org.
In the A Song of Ice and Fire world, Braavos is known as a city of waterways, with islands, canals and lagoons, and that atmosphere is being captured in Croatia. It is expected to be a major location in season five.
There are a few more photos of the location so be sure to visit Kastela.org‘s gallery.
A local snapped these pics as well, after stumbling onto a “Braavos market” in their hometown:
Love the ‘no photos’ sign at the corner of the pier 🙂
But great pictures anyways, I’m so excited for season 5.
Love the small boats! 🙂
Love the motor boats and modern clothing all mixed in! Does anyone recognize anyone in costume? Oh I cannot wait for all of this to start!
Based on this and the photos from that other post (not sure how to do spoiler markup so will leave it at that) it seems like they’re doing much more filming on actual water this year than they have in the past, when it’s always been CG. It was convincing enough, but it should look that much more authentic this time around IMO.
Braavos looks spectacular–let’s give a hand to the set designers and costume designers – it has a really unique look which will make it both a memorable new location and quickly easy to identify.
Judging from these shots, Braavos is going to look amazing and pretty unique. Can’t wait to see certain actors in and around the new sets.
Looking forward to Cat of the Canals!
This looks awesome.
I was picturing Braavos with a bit more fog and a bit more grey but hey, I’m rather pleased with how it turns out. Maybe we’ll get some CGIed fog too.
Holy Shit Braavos is even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined, just missing a little fog and some courtisans 😉
Damn it ! I thought I saw someone with blue hair in the first photo 🙁
Waiting for some pic for Arya :)!
Looks great, as usual. So excited for this storyline. Maisie’s gonna kill it!
outdoorcats,
They use CGI water because building a fully functional medieval ship, one that can actually go on water, would be ridiculously expensive. They built a single ship model and put it on land, surrounded by green-screens, and they redress it to look like many ships (Theon, Stannis, Daenerys, Arya, etc). They are filming these boats on water because they are small and cheap—they have done it in the past. If season 5 includes scenes with actual ships, the water will still be CGI.
Bravoos looks great, by the way.
The man on the dock in the fourth pic below the cut reminds me of Kevin Nealon…
Let’s hope not! XD
Braavos looks incredible!
I am excited to see the finished product with all the VFX added!
This pic from the the site though: http://cdn.winteriscoming.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/kastel-gomilica-maisie.jpg
You can see Arya and that Braavosi captain from last season’s finale in that little boat 😀
Come on season 5, I need you…
LukaNieto,
I know, but I don’t remember any scenes on the actual water, small boats or no, in the show’s past, except some shots (from land) of characters rowing in and out of shore. And shooting on actual water makes for a great visual, IMO (I’m a big fan of the film All is Lost, for instance).
I think I just found my next holiday location. Those old houses look amazing and the sea is beautiful. Pretty sure they’ll make it look a bit darker and damper in post-production though. Can’t wait to see the finished version on my screen!
The contrast between the set/extras and the high rise buildings in the background is just brilliant!
Ragman’s Harbor,
I’m confident we’ll get fog and typical Braavosi weather. That sort of thing is usually cgi’d in later.
The Braavos set looks spectacular.
I can’t wait to find out what they will do with Arya this season! I confess her story in Bravoos in the books was a bit of a let down for me, that’s a part of the story where I expect to see (and welcome) changes. Especially if we get a chance to have Jaquen again. 🙂 But the thing I’m looking forward to the most : seeing Maisie in NEW CLOTHES. She’s been wearing those horrid, dirty rags for 3 seasons now, how bad must it stink? 😛
Lion of Night,
I don’t think we’ll see fog in Braavos for now.
Marta,
Really? I loved the Braavos storyline – subtle yet interesting & think it is leading to something major soon.
So agree that we need to see Arya in a new frock!
The Arya/Braavos storyline was one of my favorites. In fact, there were a couple of times,
where it was all I could do not to skip ahead to the next Arya chapter.
Everyone seems to have a favorite story line, though, and others they didn’t care for as much. Whereas some loved the Iron Island stuff, it didn’t do much for me.
I think the Braavos set looks phenomenal!
Arya is one of my fav characters, and I loved her time in Braavos. And Im another fan who had to go back to the end and check to see what happens to her; I could only continue reading the book until that! Anyway, the place looks just how I imagined it. Can’t wait to see it all in action!
Ah, that’s why you didn’t post the other photos yesterday. Because there were better ones to post today. Awesome stuff.
Fourth photo from the bottom, I think that’s “Cat of the Canals” in a brown dress with a basket on her back and carrying a basket in her hands…….. 😉 (next to the guy in the white tshirt and hat) She’s hard to see because her clothing is so drab.
Kat of the Kanals! Looks awesome.
Shouldn’t there be a bunch of peacocks running around?
SusieQ,
I don’t think that’s Maisie. Doesn’t really look like her, too big I think.
jentario,
It isn’t her. The scene they were shooting was her being rowed in by Ternesio Terys. As per this photo. http://cdn.winteriscoming.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/kastel-gomilica-maisie.jpg
Some more Braavos pics off of reddit.
The second is of a marketplace set.
Nymeria Warrior Queen,
+1. Loved Arya’s story and the discovery of Braavos. Hated the Iron Islands.
Daario Naharis rereborn.
@SuetheFury & AsharaD
I answered your queries about Lemore in the original thread.
On a different note related to this article, there are several scenes involving Arya and the waif both wearing similar white clothing and hats. There are many reports on this around the web, which I can also confirm.