Warning: The following post contains major spoilers from episode nine of the first season of Game of Thrones. Run away now if you don’t want to be spoiled. Don’t even scroll down; there are pictures that will ruin everything. Just run away! Run away! But come back for the next posting!
*Spoiler space…you’ve been warned!*
“So pretty,” I gasped as I watched a major character being executed on the show Game of Thrones. No, I don’t find killing pretty, but the way Alan Taylor directed that scene was just gorgeous. It wasn’t what he showed that made it spectacular, it was what he didn't show.
We come into this part of the scene with the roar of the crowd, the screaming of the doomed man's eldest daughter and the chaos of the nearing execution.
He then looks forward. The sound is slowly fading away.
We see the reverse, see what he sees: The crowd, all chanting for his death. Since this shot followed a close up of Stark and now are seeing what he's seeing; we feel as if we could be in his place.
The sound has dropped out and silence has now fallen. The absence of sound seems to duplicate what happens to us in real life in moments of extreme danger and stress. It’s like he’s going into shock and we are going right along with him.
We are closer to him now and low…as if we are part of the crowd, but so much more intimate. We still feel very empathetic to him.
Crown shot again. This could be the last thing he ever sees. Still there is silence. It makes it eerier. So many people, yet he and we hear nothing.
Low close up of him again. The pacing is slow, the moment is being dragged out, the waiting for the ax to fall is excruciating.
Reverse, he’s looking for his other daughter, Arya, he saw in the crowd earlier. Does he want to be connected to his daughter for one last time? Does he not want her to see what’s about to happen? Does he want both?
Back again to him…the moments feel like years. The despair in his eyes is screaming out.
The shot of his back, with his hair parted just right so our eyes seek out the skin on his neck. A reminder that in a few seconds his neck will no longer look like that. We are reminded of the danger to him and our anxiety increases.
Also, the silence is broken with just the sound of Lord Stark’s deep breathing. We, as the audience, truly feel as if we might be up there on the block with him.
We finally see the executioner and the sword as he practices the swing. It could happen any moment now. We are on the edges of our seats.
Close up of the youngest daughter, Arya, somewhere in the crowd: We now to switch to her as the storyteller. It’s a down shot so she feels small and vulnerable.
Back to Stark. Notice we are now farther back from him. He is no longer the storyteller; he is the catalyst for the pain his daughter is feeling.
The time is here! The sword is on its way.
And it’s through! His breathing is gone and the sound of a swing sword is so striking (pun intended) due to the silence that surrounds it.
And here is the beauty of the shot. It's so fast, the SFX are so simple, so understated. No blood, no head rolling around, just our eyes seeing a sword pass through a neck. Our minds fill in the rest in a way that no camera shot could ever do.
We are with Arya again. She knows what just happened.
Her eyes open. There is no sound. Stark's breathing is gone, as is he. Again, we feel as if we are in shock with the lack of sound, but this time with Arya.
Reverse shot, we see what she sees. It’s a flock of birds above her. The soft sound of their flapping wings is all we hear. It’s such an interesting choice to show the beauty of a flock of birds and not Stark’s head rolling around on the ground. We see life, not death, but not in some hopeful way. It’s like her brain is overloaded and all she can focus on are the birds. Again, the shot tries, and succeeds, in mirroring real life. How when something horrible happens, sometimes our brains just shut down and focus on one small detail because that’s all it can handle. It’s seeking refuge.
Back to Arya.
Her eyes close. We can almost feel the emptiness that now fills her soul and her life.
And cut to black. It could almost act as a reverse shot of her eyes close.
The director Alan Taylor could have shot the scene for the chaos of the moment. He could have filled it with blood and gore to shock us and overwhelm our senses, but he went for the quieter route, the more personal one. We really feel the anxiety of Stark and the sadness of Arya. By focusing on the emotions, the scene reaches a whole new level that leaves everyone gasping at the end and leaves us film buffs whispering, “so pretty”.
The whole scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR1s_tZxp9c
What are your thoughts on the scene? Was it successful?
