Jonathon Barrass, the special effects supervisor on Game of Thrones, speaks in a new interview about working on the third season of the show.
The Game of Thrones production blog Making Game of Thrones has put up an interview with Barrass, in which he talks about getting into the industry and the different projects he worked on before Game of Thrones.
Notably, he compares his work on Thrones to Harry Potter, saying, “All the outdoor elements with the wind, rain and smoke. Very similar indeed.” He prefers television to movies though, he explains. “The pace is so much faster, and that suits me, plus with this show it still feels like a film when you see the finished product,” he says.
Barrass also reveals that his favourite SFX element is fire (he should feel right at home on Game of Thrones then!). He explains:
“I do like fire. I’ve been asked to do 20-foot rings of fire, with flames that reach 20 feet in the air. The firemen and I are great friends now, because first and foremost it’s got to be safe.” And as he reveals, “I don’t think many people realize that every fire you see, campfire, the columns in the throne room, it’s all SFX. It has to burn the same way all day. It’s really tiny things you’d never notice if it’s right – something as simple as ripples in the water, that has to be the same every take, because otherwise people do notice when it’s wrong.”
No surprise, Barrass reveals that his favourite character is Tyrion, and that his favourite episode to work on so far has been “Blackwater,” the big wildfire and fleet battle in the second season. “Even though it never stopped raining in the quarry, and Neil Marshall and Sam McCurdy threw stuff at us everyday, it was the best,” he remembers. “Down at Banbridge we had everything going on, air canons, water canons, water tanks, we had ships’ masts falling into water and stunt guys running everywhere. It was amazing.”
Read the full interview with Jonathon Barrass at the Making Game of Thrones blog!
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