1st HBO Preview, 12 Sept 2010

[Bubs]

I actually appreciate the 'wiggyness' -- makes me think TPTB are trying to stay as close to the detailed character descriptions as possible. I suppose Tyrion could be a bit 'uglier', but I was just happy to see him as a blond ;D

Edit: http://winter-is-coming.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/22.jpg ~ Dany's hair looks more blonde in this screenshot. I personally prefer the silver-white color from the still ^_^

[The Mance]

I think much of this footage was taken from a few days of documentary crews following the shooting of the PILOT EPISODE around.

It seemed to me like it was mostly footage of the Hand's Tourney, and Cat and Tyrions dash to the Eyrie.

The Hand's Tourney set is just appalling, especially the seating where Sansa and Littlefinger are.

I would have to agree with this. It had a very temporary, cobbled together with twigs and branches feel, so hopefully there is quite a bit more to it than the bits that we saw. I would expect Kingslanding to have at least a semi-permanent grandstand and jousting arena made by actual carpenters with actual milled lumber. If Ned was appalled at the expense of having a tourney, he'd be absolutely apoplectic if that was all he got for the money.

Why is Viserys pissing about with a sword in what looks like a fighter scene.

I actually thought he was supposed to be an Other at first but the setting was all wrong. Tall, lean, pale, holding a sword?

Over all, though, I was very happy with the look and feel of everything I saw. Not exactly what I was expecting, but I suppose my mental image of some of the people and places in westeros is probably much more lush and extravagant than they actually are, or at least more so than needs to be depicted in the series.

Also, who do these pictures depict?

Jon at the Wall?

Robert's ex squire? (Ser Hugh?)

Littlefinger, Sansa, and....?

[corund]

I can already tell what my greatest worry will be for this series: it will get the Rome treatment. This series will probably prove to be too costly to produce and we will get short-changed as the series goes along. Hopefully the producers will keep what happened to Rome in mind.

Yes, i have the same worry, too costly to go over 1 or 2 seasons. :_(

[Trebla]

They appeared to be showing scenes from a few different episodes. One scene was the skirmish near the Eryie; looked like Tyrion running and then falling next to Catelyn. I like how Catelyn looks. Another scene looked like Ned walking away from Robert while Robert shouts after him. That would be the scene where Ned resigns. Dunno if like how Addy looks. Still wonder if they are going to make him appear much taller.

Sansa looks like a redhead but no Bran. Wonder if the shots of the kids mugging for the camera was from the pilot?

Lena Heady looked wonderful. She has that beautiful Cersei smugness.

I'm okay with Dinklage not having the Tyrion-look right away. I bet they concentrate more on him being a lonely dwarf rather than being ugly. He'll have plenty of time to sit in the prosthetics chair after season 2.

It is nice to see costumes and scenery but this summer I learned the hard way that all of that is pretty minor compared to plot and acting. I'm still scarred by what M. Night did to The Last Airbender. :tantrum:

[Lady Cheesevillage]

First, I loved very bit that I saw. I am beyond excited for this and think the production looks amazing.

However, I'm one of the nit-pickers about the eyebrows., not because the look of Dany and Cersi doesn't match what is my head, but because it's just a personal pet peeve of mine with film make-up in general. Yes, eyebrows should be darker than natural hair color on most blondes and redheads. (With brunettes natural eyebrows tend to more closely match hair color and are even occasionally a shade or two lighter since they're shorter and may bleach more quickly in the sun or from facial care products.) But, they should be in the same general shade family. But having eyebrows (or beards) that from a completely different shade family tends to look unnatural and draw attention to a wig or dye job. It's kind of like the old "does the carpet match the drapes?" question but less gross.

The eyebrows I see in the Dany stills and in the brief glimpse I get of Cersi don't seem to be in the same shade family as the hair. This could be a monitor color issues since I see some folks saying that Dany's brows look like a darker silver to them. To me, in that still, they look black -- or more accurately charcoal grey. It seems a quite different color family than her hair, and screams wig/dye job.

That said, I still think she looks freakin' gorgeous and I'm excited to see her portray this character. This is just a personal gripe of mine as someone who has spent years doing stage make-up. (I'm a lot more forgiving of dark/different color range brows for stage actors. There you really DO need the extra feature definition that heavy brows lend. On screen -- especially in HD -- that's less of a concern and can easily be solved by going darker in shade than the hair, but keeping to the same color family.)

/make-up geek-out

ETA: Compare some pictures of two fairly famous blonde actresses - Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) and Hannah Murray (Cassie from Skins). Evanna's brows bug the heck of me. They're obviously plucked and painted in with the wrong color of brow pencil. Hannah's match her darker roots almost perfectly. (I also love that they don't over-pluck her. But that's a whole bag of worms with me.)

[jurble]

Lannisport is Beijing, clearly.

edit: whoa what, what am I replying to? I swear to raptor jesus there was something about the Lannister men wearing samurai uniforms or something

[Yoadm]

The problem with making eyebrows too light, I've heard, is that they can get lost on the face which makes it seem less expressive. Actors use their eyebrows to help emote. If you can't see the eyebrows - or they are even just less visible - it can affect how the performance is perceived. That was apparently an issue for Jason Isaacs in the Potter movies - after the first one, they stopped dying his eyebrows so he could get the most out of his performance.

Uhm, so blond people with white eyebrows can't act as well? What about old people with white eyebrows? I wouldn't consider Iam Mcellen a bad actor :). Honestly, I was a bit put off by the eyebrows, it simply felt like cheap hallmark fantasy.

..That and the relatively drab costumes. I didn't notice anyone else mention it but, after reading Martin's descriptions of how people (especially the nobility) in westeros dressed, it was a bit of a dissapointment. Hope Im wrong, though.

[Commodore]

Wasn't blown away by the costuming, but didn't hate it either. Dany and Viserys look fantastic though.

However, Loras' helmet looks like a failed shop class project, just awful. He is supposed to be elegant and impeccably dressed.

[jurble]

..That and the relatively drab costumes. I didn't notice anyone else mention it but, after reading Martin's descriptions of how people (especially the nobility) in westeros dressed, it was a bit of a dissapointment. Hope Im wrong, though.

Costumes seemed fine to me imo, but that bench Littlefinger and Sansa were sitting on looked way too ghetto. King Robert and his family's sitting area were really poor looking too.

[Yoadm]

Costumes seemed fine to me imo, but that bench Littlefinger and Sansa were sitting on looked way too ghetto. King Robert and his family's sitting area were really poor looking too.

Well, I don't know, it felt cheap. It was one of the reasons I had mixed feelings with the preview (which I stayed up for till 4:00 AM, I live in Israel). Remember how Martin described the dresses and suits of the Lannisters, the Starks, everything? They were distinct, interesting. Here, it felt a bit drab. Even Tyrion and Robert, which you would have expected to be at the top end of the 'fashion' line, seemed to be in their pejamas.

[jurble]

It might just be the desaturated look.

[Bubs]

Regarding the tourney set, could they be taking The Tudors route and adding details with CGI?

[redxavier]

Looks great and really increases the anticipation but... and there always a but with these sorts of things... I'm not totally sold on a few of the design choices.

The armour in particular - I don't get how Hugh's armour looks normal and fabulous, and then the apparent Kingsguard armour looks fantasy and weird. Their helmets for instance just isn't a design that works well in 3d.

Loras' helmet looks pretty cool, but the angle makes it look warped. I just can't see where his face is supposed to be since the neck appears too long.

But most worrying is the inconsistency of armour styles. Hugh's and Loras' look like they're both from the same high medieval kingdom. Gregor's and Sandor's look like they're from an earlier darker age. And the Kingsguard look like they're from Dungeons and Dragons.

And apparently there's another completely different armour style with samurai-style coloured lamellar plates...

[Yoadm]

It might just be the desaturated look.

I hope so..

[Trebla]

I think people have to remember what GRRM hs constantly said: this is an ADAPTATION. They are't going to have every little detail from the books. HBO has hired people to give this show it's own feel.

[Dryvus]

I'm pretty psyched up for it now. But the lack Kingsguard cloaks do get to me. What is Barristan supposed to leave in Joffrey's courtroom when he leaves the continent? And the imagery of the Hound in a white cloak was something I really enjoyed.

But I'm certainly going to reserve judgement until I actually see it on the screen.

[Balefont]

But I'm certainly going to reserve judgment until I actually see it on the screen.

This.

And I'm totally excited. <grin>

[Sekhmet]

Gee, so many nitpicks and I don't think we can tell many of the critiques made from these little clips. I'm with Trebla, this is a new thing. Based on one of our favorite things. But it cannot be the book. And if things change a bit? I'll enjoy it anyway. Actually, the condensation of the book without changes could be dreadful and boring.

Someone said they were more concerned about the actors and scripts and directing. I'm with them.

So Tyrion is handsome in our standards. I don't think that would always be considered so. I'm looking for Dinklage's wit, sense of humor, irony, and sarcasm. That's what really makes Tyrion in GRRM's books. Dinklage knows what being a dwarf is all about. I'm sorry Peter if you think of yourself in the politically correct term of little person.

Wigs and costumes can be distracting. But I think that HBO is going for dark ages and not renaissance. I'm kind of with them.

So, characters are "aged up". I think that a real misnomer. Characters are aged as they should be for this HBO production.

A friend thinks that the beheading shot should be reshot because Bean had his own hair and not the wig he's wearing for production. I think this is even small stuff since the wind was blowing and even the closeup was relatively far.

I'm not sweating it. I've not seen a bad HBO series.

[jurble]

I'm sure Peter would be happy to know people think he's too handsome for a role.

[All-for-Joffrey]

There is a difference between disagreeing with someone and hopping on a thread to make inane comments like "X looked fuggin' stupid." I half expect the R-word to be tossed around along with f*g and g*y." Came across to me as prepubescent. When someone simply states, "I thought Tyrion could have been truer to the story," well . . . much different.

Truer to the story isn't very specific. In fact that would have been a perfect example of an "inane comment" because it doesn't specify how I feel Tyrion could be truer to the story. Tyrion is described as ugly in the books, hence I said I thought he should look uglier (although the point was raised that this may just be due to people's perception of him being a dwarf and that he might not actually be as ugly as described -- something to pay attention to on a reread). So retarded, fag and gay are now synonymous with ugly, which is a pre-pubescent adjective to use? Uh huh...

ETA: And I didn't say anything along the lines of "x looked fuggin stupid." In fact I clearly said the opposite, I said I didn't think Tyrion was ugly enough. Plus I initially started that post as its own thread and it was condensed in here with all the other threads about the pilot. And even if it hadn't been, it's still on topic and perfectly relevant to the thread. You're grasping at straws here.