This is what 'Game of Thrones' cinematographer said while denying Long Night episode was dark
'Game of Thrones' season 8 episode 4 trailer.
The latest episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ has been a talking time ever since it aired. From being the most-talked-about episode of the season on Twitter to getting the season’s highest viewership, ‘Long Night’ has broken several past records for the show itself. Read who died and who survived the Battle of Winterfell.
* Spoilers ahead *
The episode has been a talking point for almost the entire week so far as Arya Stark killed the main evil, Night King, in the middle of the season without anyone anticipating as much. Apart from this, there has been a lot of talk around the show’s cinematography as many fans complained on the social media that the whole episode was too dark and most couldn’t see much of it. With the entire battle sequence filmed as such to show the attack in the middle of the night, the creators in trying to keep it real had very little to no light in many scenes.
Finally reacting to these, the cinematographer of the Battle of Winterfell, Fabian Wagner who has also worked for iconic GOT episodes like Battle of the Bastards and Hardhome blamed HBO for compressing the episode which led to poorer visual quality and hence the pixelation and muddy dark colours followed. He said, "[GOT] has always been very dark and a very cinematic show."
Fabian stated that the episode needs to be seen in a dark environment, like watching a movie in a theatre. He also added that before watching the episode, TV settings need to be adjusted.
He also said to avoid watching the show on the phone and explained that the showrunners and director wanted the battle scenes to be "intense, claustrophobic and disorienting," like in real life, but not confusing.
"We tried to give the viewers and fans a cool episode to watch. I know it wasn't too dark because I shot it," Fabian concluded. Also, watch the trailer of episode 4.