The Costs and Logistics of Making Game of Thrones

[boojam]

Read an interview with D&D today, they said GOT could only support 10 episodes.

Not sure what that means. HBO burned badly by ROME? I heard in the long run that was not so.

Too much of a burden for for D&D?

I don't know how expenses contract things now days, but D&D hinted at HBO shooting seasons 3 and 4 as one production, now that would be efficient but expensive.

It all seems to come down to HBO's resources, I have no feel how successful GOT would have to be to get , say, two 12 episode seasons, too big a chance? Would D&D need another producer?

New Line placed a bet of 300 million on LTOR and made nearly , gad!, three billion, world wide.

(By the by there was a lot of pick up after the initial three film shoot.)

Why I always ask the question just how well is GOT doing in the non north American market?

[Dark Rider]

The cost concerns me, because I really liked Rome and HBO ending up slashing that down to two seasons. The second season felt really rushed to me like they were trying to fit in way too much for one season. I wouldn't want to see them try to start trying to do two books a season or three books a season. That would seriously harm the book to screen translation to me.

HBO has a habit of killing my favorite shows. Deadwood and Rome I loved. True Blood I couldn't care less about and I gave it a shot by watching one or two episodes meanwhile that seems to be the show with no end. I think Boardwalk Empire is going to be toast after season three unfortunately.

[boojam]

The cost concerns me, because I really liked Rome and HBO ending up slashing that down to two seasons. The second season felt really rushed to me like they were trying to fit in way too much for one season. I wouldn't want to see them try to start trying to do two books a season or three books a season. That would seriously harm the book to screen translation to me.

HBO has a habit of killing my favorite shows. Deadwood and Rome I loved. True Blood I couldn't care less about and I gave it a shot by watching one or two episodes meanwhile that seems to be the show with no end. I think Boardwalk Empire is going to be toast after season three unfortunately.

The idea , not confirmed for sure, is to do two seasons in one production shoot. Not entirely common in the film world, tho LTOR spent a whole year doing all three novels as a single shoot and then assembling three films.

The success of Fellowship gave Peter Jackson the freedom to go back and do some fix-up.

This may have been done for a TV series , can't think of one off the top of my head.

[Francis Buck]

The cost concerns me, because I really liked Rome and HBO ending up slashing that down to two seasons. The second season felt really rushed to me like they were trying to fit in way too much for one season. I wouldn't want to see them try to start trying to do two books a season or three books a season. That would seriously harm the book to screen translation to me.

HBO has a habit of killing my favorite shows. Deadwood and Rome I loved. True Blood I couldn't care less about and I gave it a shot by watching one or two episodes meanwhile that seems to be the show with no end. I think Boardwalk Empire is going to be toast after season three unfortunately.

The thing is, HBO has learned a lot since then. Both Deadwood and Rome made a ton of money later on in DVD sales, and they were also both fairly early ventures into the hour-long drama revolution that was started by The Sopranos. In addition, I'd imagine that Game of Thrones is more popular than both of those shows, especially on an international scale (or at least, if it's not yet, it probably will be soon). So unless the show all of a sudden sees a major, inexplicable drop in ratings during the third season (which, honestly, I think the opposite is going to happen), then I believe HBO will continue full-steam ahead. They've already openly stated that they think they could have a "juggernaut" on their hands, or something along those lines. The huge amount of marketing they're putting into the upcoming season seems to support that.

[Padraig]

Read an interview with D&D today, they said GOT could only support 10 episodes.

Not sure what that means. HBO burned badly by ROME? I heard in the long run that was not so.

Too much of a burden for for D&D?

I don't know how expenses contract things now days, but D&D hinted at HBO shooting seasons 3 and 4 as one production, now that would be efficient but expensive.

It all seems to come down to HBO's resources, I have no feel how successful GOT would have to be to get , say, two 12 episode seasons, too big a chance? Would D&D need another producer?

In that interview they effectively put to bed the rumour about filming 2 seasons in a row. It takes a full year to write and produce 10 episodes. They can produce more episodes but they can't write more. You can talk about extra producers and writers but there is a danger of a drop in quality control. And yes, costs go up too. 10 episode seasons work. Why change that? (If you were HBO anyhow).

In fact, the length of a season is a red herring since they have started talking about adapting the full series and not individual books. So if they can't fit a full book into 10 episodes, they can delay it into the next series. They have admitted that aSoS will span more than 1 season. And they have mentioned that they pushed some material from aCoK into S3.

[boojam]

In that interview they effectively put to bed the rumour about filming 2 seasons in a row. It takes a full year to write and produce 10 episodes. They can produce more episodes but they can't write more. You can talk about extra producers and writers but there is a danger of a drop in quality control. And yes, costs go up too. 10 episode seasons work. Why change that? (If you were HBO anyhow).

In fact, the length of a season is a red herring since they have started talking about adapting the full series and not individual books. So if they can't fit a full book into 10 episodes, they can delay it into the next series. They have admitted that aSoS will span more than 1 season. And they have mentioned that they pushed some material from aCoK into S3.

I think that is the reasonable conclusion.

I would ask tho, how did Heller do a 12 episode season of ROME? That show , for me, was spot on.

Was it because there were 6 producers? Because Heller wrote about half the episodes.

They did have the resources of Cinecittà in Rome, which are considerable.

O well 6 or 7 or more seasons of GOT is fine with me! Even at 10 episodes.

Going to be some reinterpretation , all the child actors will be adults, but that's ok with me, I have always kind of wanted George to go that way.

[CrypticWeirwood]

And they have mentioned that they pushed some material from aCoK into S3.

Did they? I had thought it was the other way around, that they were pulling in material from Storm into the second second, which is mostly Clash.

They have certainly said that they have no commitment to mapping one book per season, and that in future it will be done less that way. I know Mr Martin has said he expects Storm to take two seasons, but I wonder how much of that isn’t his hoping for a bit of breathing room for writing. The writers have said that they intend to present Feast and Dance temporally interleaved. Good! Those books need all the dramatic refactoring they can get.

I have my doubts that that will work out to two full seasons, because there is a lack of dramatic arc and climax that will leave viewers with as aching a case of blue balls as the books did. So I would look for the end of those pulling in battle action from Winds, the ice battle and the fire battle, for its actual finale.

Whether that puts them at the end of their sixth season I have no idea. It’s going to take an unprecedent level of sustained hype and actual viewer interest for HBO to be willing to continue paying $6–7⁺ megabucks per episode.

[Padraig]

]Did they? I had thought it was the other way around, that they were pulling in material from Storm into the second second, which is mostly Clash.

They have done both. It all suggests that things are very fluid.

And D&D have also said that aSoS will take more than 1 season. Recent comments seem to suggest 2 seasons but i'm not sure is that what they really mean. 1 and a part of a 2nd seems more plausible to me.

A lot of shows do maintain interest over a lot of seasons. Look at Mad Men recently. GoT is a bigger challenge of course but it is certainly going about maintaining a high degree of interest in the right way.

Was it because there were 6 producers? Because Heller wrote about half the episodes.

Possibly. D&D are writing 7 and might be a lot more involve in the day to day operations of the series. HBO seems to put their trust in the showrunners.