Exploring the Cinematography of House of the Dragon: HDR Grading, LiveGrain, and the V Stage LED Panels
House of the Dragon, the latest addition to the Game of Thrones universe, is a visually stunning and immersive series that brings the fictional world of Westeros to life. The show’s cinematography is a key component in creating this world, and the team behind it has executed it with skill and precision.
The series was shot by a number of cinematographers, including Fabian Wagner, David Franco, and Guillermo Navarro, who all worked together to create a cohesive visual style for the show. One of the most innovative aspects of the cinematography was the use of the V Stage, a state-of-the-art LED panel stage that allowed for complex and detailed virtual environments to be created. The LED panels were used extensively for dragon-riding sequences, and a hybrid approach was taken to filming these scenes, with blue LED panels used for wide shots and sky backgrounds used for close-ups.
between Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke, right) and Rhaenyra (now an adult and played by Emma D’Arcy). Copyright HBO
To supplement the interactive lighting provided by the V Stage’s LED panels, the top of the stage was rimmed with SkyPanel S60s, and shooting desk operator Danny Cunningham took over control of the LED panel luminance to expedite lighting changes. This resulted in a workflow that was five times faster than when they started, and allowed for greater flexibility and creativity in the lighting design.
Color grading played a crucial role in creating the show’s distinctive look, and colorist Asa Shoul worked closely with showrunner Miguel Sapochnik to develop a more neutral and less contrasty look for the show than the later seasons of Game of Thrones. Each character’s costume colors often represented their house, and the dragons were given specific colors to make them more easily identifiable in flying duels. To add a touch of the imperfect to the pristine Alexa 65 and Mini LF images, Shoul used LiveGrain and diffusion to break up anything that felt too digital or sharp.
One of the most important decisions made during production was to make the HDR version the primary deliverable. This decision was made because the HDR version is going to be the one that lives forever, and it’s the one that everyone will see on their newer TVs and iPads. The show was graded in HDR at 1,000 nits in Rec 2020 color, and a new LUT was created as a starting point to account for elements that were imperceptible on production’s SDR monitors. Shoul hopes to see the adoption of HDR monitoring throughout the entire production workflow in the future, to ensure that everyone is seeing the same thing and to make the viewing experience more immersive.
House of the Dragon is a visually stunning series that showcases the best in modern cinematography technology and techniques. From the innovative use of the V Stage to the careful color grading and HDR mastering, every aspect of the show’s cinematography has been carefully considered and executed with skill and precision.
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