By Carlie Tanner.
This week BRWC was invited to celebrate the release of ‘GoT’ Season 3 on Blu-Ray and DVD, with some added exclusive behind the scenes bonus features.
Held in the quirky and colourful Soho Hotel along with some red and white wine served, whilst being pleasantly surprised by a beautifully crafted ‘Red Wedding’ cake made specially by Choccywoccydoodah.
It didn’t seem long before we were all anxiously waiting in the screening area with even more delightful surprises to come.
Ian Fullerton (The UK Marketing Director for HBO) introduces the special screening and invites the lovely Maisie Williams (Arya Stark, one of my favourite characters) on stage.
She is greeted with some Q&A about her character in the TV Show:
“You spend a lot of scenes with The Hound, Rory McCann. Is he an actor that you found yourself looking up to?”
“Well, I’m only five foot, so I’m used to looking up at everyone!”
“The Rains of Castamere provoked a lot of reaction. Were you surprised by that?”
“I liked that people were taping their friends seeing it for the first time! It was absolutely brilliant! There was one that I watched where a woman was curled up on the floor, with a blanket, crying. Then her little dog comes over and starts trying to comfort her and she’s just like sobbing “not now”. It’s fantastic. I did a Vine as well, after that episode, and the response to that was crazy and it went viral. People were tweeting me about that for months after. It was heartbreaking and really sad, but you know you’ve done it right when the audience are crying!”
“HBO released a trailer for Season 4 a few weeks ago. There’s a really great teaser of Arya Stark wielding a sword above her head, can you talk a little bit about your training?”
“When I first started my training in Series 1 I had a great time doing several hours each week. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was kind of a challenge. In the books, Arya is left-handed, and I’m naturally right-handed, so in the series I’ve learned to do everything – sword-fighting, pouring a drink – left-handed. Which at the time was a great idea, but now I regret it! As you saw, there’s more sword fighting this year, which I’m really excited about. I had a great time with Needle again!”
“Can you say anything about Arya Stark, and her journey in Season 4?”
“This year we see a change in the relationship between Arya and The Hound. She’s definitely not trying to kill him anymore and he’s putting up with her. They’re not friends by any means, but they’re trying to get on a little bit better. He’s still unpleasant to her and shoots her down whenever she gets sassy. Those scenes were fun to do. Arya is becoming a different character. We saw that a little at the end of last series, she’s definitely toughening up and learning a lot from The Hound. She’s still keeping her previous training from Syrio, but I feel like she’s now also getting influences from The Hound after being with him for so long.”
The hour long screening we’d finally been waiting for finally started. This gave us an insight to the making and behind the scenes of Season 3. This went as far into depth as the ideas behind which costumes were used for which scenes and what they symbolised. The TV series Director and Writer David Benioff talks us through the Red Wedding episode;
Describing how he wanted the audience to fully believe that Rob Starks plan for his family to go Moulder Fray’s Castle was going to happen and succeed, creating the build up for the very ending of that episode that shocked us all.
“Show them how it feels to lose someone they love” is quoted by Rob Starks mother giving the intention that the Stark family will not lose again.
The CGI and effects shown are unbelievable, being shown the challenges they had with some of the sword fighting scenes and how difficult it was doing this in the rain which such heavy costumes.
It was great learning so much about what happens behind the scenes for one of my favourite TV Shows.
We were reminded of how much the Red Wedding tortured us even though we tried preparing ourselves for the emotions to come.
I personally look forward to Arya’s character in the next season.
She’s been through some really difficult times in her life at such a young age but that hasn’t stopped her fighting for what she believes in. In Season 1 and 2 we’ve seen her adapt and survive in the world where men are considered the more dominant gender and enjoyed watching her grow into an independent, brave young woman. Arya as a character is one of the key reasons I watch ‘GoT’ because she never fails to surprise me. She’s the wild card of the Stark family.
Now that the 14 minute preview for Season 4 has been released, we can now look forward to what is next to come onto our screens.
Game of Thrones The Complete Third Season is available on Blu-Ray and DVD as from tomorrow and Series 4 starts on Sky Atlantic in April.
