[No Spoilers] Daniel Minahan and action sequences.

[Loras]

Before I start off on something of a rant, let me qualify my post by saying that I do not think that Minahan is a bad director. He has directed some of my favourite scenes of the series - including Viserys receiving his golden crown, the end of Septa Mordane and some of the Varys/Ned dungeon scenes.

He also butchered my favourite scene from the books - the scene where Ned confesses to Cersei, which should have been one of the most memorable scenes of the series but isn't. So it might be that I just hold a grudge.

But I am beginning to wonder whether Minahan really struggles to direct action sequences. His style when it comes to action is to pepper the viewer with lots of rapid shots - which I find pulls me out a scene.

Am I the only one?

Minahan directed three episodes in season one: ‘A Golden Crown’, ‘You Win or You Die’ and ‘The Pointy End’. I have always thought that he struggles with action, particularly in the GRRM penned ‘The Pointy End’. His framing of Arya killing the stable boy is (for me) the worst moment of the entire show so far, it took me completely out of the scene. He also seemed to struggle with the Wight attacking Mormont at Castle Black. He seems to get quite glitchy during these scenes – and cuts about all over the place.

We see this style of direction again in this episode and it pulls the viewer out of both the cold open and the episode’s climax. When Sam is running through the snow we are treated to this dark, foreboding snow storm – we know why he is running and we are willing him to be ok. Then he is attacked by the wight and the camera jumps all over the place. It is a mess. Dragging us out of the horror of the scene while the director plays with camera angles. Then the wight is suddenly set on fire... great... and Mormont is standing right beside it?! The direction is really poor, which leads me to be disappointed in the cold open.

The action at the end is equally poor and choppy. I hope the idea for Barristan wearing that ridiculous cloak to attempt a classic bait and switch was not his idea. This would have involved that Barristan and not the little girl was the assassin. Anyway, the fight with the manticore was just messy – sloppy even – direction. We hardly see Dany get pushed for a start. Again it drags you away from the action and the importance of the sequence.

I sincerely hope that Minahan does not have much action to direct in the next episode. He just needs to leave the camera alone. Pick an angle and stick to it. Rant over – until next week I imagine.

Please tell me that I am not alone in this opinion? The man did some beautiful work in this episode - I just think his action sequences are poor.

[Ran]

The Pointy End scene was the result that torrential rainstorms meant that they had, literally, ten minutes to set up and shoot the scene with Arya and the stableboy. Not Minahan's fault.

He did what I thought was fantastic work with the duel between Bronn and Vardis, and Robb fighting the wildlings. Very visceral.

The Sam scene... is not great. But to me, it's not great because the writers (who were doubtless looking at the budget) decided to go with a pretty soft opening, and then the difficulties of filming in Iceland where you basically have vast snowy spaces and... well, not much else. His options for having Mormont and company show up in the nick of time were limited. (That said, I would have had a Night's Watch archer take it out with a fiery arrow from a distance.)

[BlackTalon]

The Selmy/Manticore scene was weird ... he smashes the wooden ball out of Dany's hands, then we see him getting choked out by Ser Jorah ... then all of a sudden Selmy is back and stabs the manticore, pursues the girl and reveals himself to Dany as if he and Jorah hadn't been fighting just ten seconds earlier o_O

[Loras]

The Pointy End scene was the result that torrential rainstorms meant that they had, literally, ten minutes to set up and shoot the scene with Arya and the stableboy. Not Minahan's fault.

Ah, I was aware of the storms during the filming, but not that it had hindered this scene in particular. I still think it would have been much better as a continuous shot from one angle - it is the jumping between angles that brought me out of this scene.

He did what I thought was fantastic work with the duel between Bronn and Vardis, and Robb fighting the wildlings. Very visceral.

Bronn and Vardis, I thought was excellent. The best fight scene of the first season - but if you look at the camera work throughout the scene it is very organic. You feel like you are following the fight around the hall - which is essentially what happens.

My main issue is with the fast cuts that disjoint the action sequences.

The Sam scene... is not great. But to me, it's not great because the writers (who were doubtless looking at the budget) decided to go with a pretty soft opening, and then the difficulties of filming in Iceland where you basically have vast snowy spaces and... well, not much else. His options for having Mormont and company show up in the nick of time were limited. (That said, I would have had a Night's Watch archer take it out with a fiery arrow from a distance.)

The other thing to take into account for this is the extensive use of CGI in this scene. It is really strange though to not direct John Bradley to look up at Mormont saving him. For me, this is the reason the cold open falls flat.

Look at how atmospheric the opening is until that point: dark, snowy, no visibility. I loved the shot of Sam running and the wight over the shoulder - but it all falls down after that point.

I agree that a flaming arrow would have made much more sense.

[WTFSalami]

The Selmy/Manticore scene was weird ... he smashes the wooden ball out of Dany's hands, then we see him getting choked out by Ser Jorah ... then all of a sudden Selmy is back and stabs the manticore, pursues the girl and reveals himself to Dany as if he and Jorah hadn't been fighting just ten seconds earlier o_O

Yeah I still haven't figured that out. Why wouldn't they show us a shot of Selmy pushing Jorah to the ground? It was really strange how one second you see Jorah holding Selmy back, and then it cuts to Selmy walking as if he'd never been touched to stab the manticore. Very weird sequence of events. It didn't help that the CGI manticore looked really bad. Not sure why a real scorpion couldn't have been used for that shot, but oh well.

[pleonasm]

I hated the opening sequence. It needed to accomplish one key thing:

1. Demonstrate that the White Walkers (The Others) are threat not just to the Nights Watch, but potentially the entire realm.

Instead we get a heavily green screened scene with Sam and Mormont standing around with some bloodied extras. I don't blame the director as much as I do the writers. It was a no win scenario. Yes - I understand the constraints of budget, but even if they couldn't show the full battle, perhaps they should have focused in on the chaos of the Night's Watch in full retreat. A night scene, in the woods, with lots of quick action (Rangers getting massacred, full on panic, etc...). Mormont amazed at the sight of Sam alive running at full speed away from a threat.

The manticore assasination attempt was pretty lame in the book as well. This might have been the time to rewrite that scene so its the creepy girl, whispering she is sorry, who then attempts to attack Danny and then is subsequently killed by Selmy. Would have been far more dramatic and compelling.

[Loras]

Yeah I still haven't figured that out. Why wouldn't they show us a shot of Selmy pushing Jorah to the ground? It was really strange how one second you see Jorah holding Selmy back, and then it cuts to Selmy walking as if he'd never been touched to stab the manticore. Very weird sequence of events. It didn't help that the CGI manticore looked really bad. Not sure why a real scorpion couldn't have been used for that shot, but oh well.

The whole sequence suffered because of the bait-and-switch. Thinking that Barristan was the assassin because he was wearing a big black cloak, when it was in fact the little girl. In fact, if it had just been played normally and Barristan was costumed like everybody else, then most of the sequence would have been fine.

The quick cuts were really confusing at this point - what actually happened? It moves far too quickly. It doesn't even look like Dany was pushed to the ground!

Ran... I don't know if you can help me with this but...

Is the Brienne and Jaime fight in the second episode? If so, I am worried for how it is going to turn out visually.

[Aapo]

Looking back "drama scenes" like Tywin/Tyrion and dinner between Joff, Cersei etc Minahan was brilliant. Lighting, different angles and focus points gave thrilling athmos. I also enjoyed prologue / Sam scene despite the fact that this wight was more like 28 days later ADHD-type compared to previous guys.

Selmy/Manticore assassination ... ugh. Awful, rushed and fake as you have pointed out how Selmy is at one point grabbed by Mormont and suddenly killing that poor CGI manticore. Selmy's speech later on made me forgot that bad taste.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

The Selmy/Manticore scene was weird ... he smashes the wooden ball out of Dany's hands, then we see him getting choked out by Ser Jorah ... then all of a sudden Selmy is back and stabs the manticore, pursues the girl and reveals himself to Dany as if he and Jorah hadn't been fighting just ten seconds earlier o_O

I thought the same. In my head, Jorah let him go in order to save/help Dany but Selmy got there first. And all of it happened faster.

[Bearsblood8]

Moved to appropriate thread...

[Reposado]

The Selmy/Manticore scene was weird ... he smashes the wooden ball out of Dany's hands, then we see him getting choked out by Ser Jorah ... then all of a sudden Selmy is back and stabs the manticore, pursues the girl and reveals himself to Dany as if he and Jorah hadn't been fighting just ten seconds earlier o_O

that was very weird. it also made it seem as if the assassins are thinking too hard. seems very easy to approach dany with a knife. and that such an attempt would have a much greater likelihood of success than the completely unmenacing bug

[Cas Stark]

I hated the opening sequence. It needed to accomplish one key thing:

1. Demonstrate that the White Walkers (The Others) are threat not just to the Nights Watch, but potentially the entire realm.

Instead we get a heavily green screened scene with Sam and Mormont standing around with some bloodied extras. I don't blame the director as much as I do the writers. It was a no win scenario. Yes - I understand the constraints of budget, but even if they couldn't show the full battle, perhaps they should have focused in on the chaos of the Night's Watch in full retreat. A night scene, in the woods, with lots of quick action (Rangers getting massacred, full on panic, etc...). Mormont amazed at the sight of Sam alive running at full speed away from a threat.

The manticore assasination attempt was pretty lame in the book as well. This might have been the time to rewrite that scene so its the creepy girl, whispering she is sorry, who then attempts to attack Danny and then is subsequently killed by Selmy. Would have been far more dramatic and compelling.

The manitcore scene was lame in the book, but the editing for that sequence was very strange...if they want to remind us that Selmy is still a badass...why not show how he gets away from Jorah instead of the weird cuts? Manitcore was very strange looking.

[Pinkie Baelish]

Bronn/Vardis was great, but I also felt that the shots during Robb and the wildlings was a little bit off. Ditto with Dany's assassination attempt. But apart from that, I felt that pretty much every other scene was just fine. It's just the fast cuts during his action sequences that bother me a little. They don't really gel well with the show's overall filming style. Compare Robb and the wildlings to any of the fighting sequences in Blackwater. The latter feels more at home with the show's camerawork.

Offtopic, but IMO, the best action sequence director the show has used is Neil Marshall. They should just get him to direct any battles from now on. And judging by her work in Breaking Bad, I think Michelle MacLaren will be able to pull of action scenes really well. I can't wait to see how the bear pit scene is directed.

(Hell, based on her work in BB, I wouldn't be surprised if Michelle MacLaren uses POV shots during sex scenes :D)

[The Dragon has three heads]

I can only hope we get some flashbacks to the fist in the form nightmares or something...

The Jorah/Selmy faff was like...uh...ok...

Editor/continuity guy nut have been napping

[victim]

The opening scene was a fault with the writing. I would have preferred if it happened like this:

- Sam is running.

- He finds the fallen Nights Watchman, who turns into a Wight before his eyes.

- The Wight attacks, and Sam falls to the ground, terrified.

- The Wight is set on fire from behind by Mormont.

If they had of blocked it like this, it would have made more sense in terms of everyone coming from the same direction. It was just a little confusing.

I had no problem with the Barristan/Manticore scene.

[cade]

The cutaway from Jorah restraining Barristan to then the very next we see of Barristan is him stabbing the Manticore was so bizarre, can't understand the rationale for that, and it totally took me out of the scene. I also agree with many other criticisms of Minihan's work. On a positive but offtopic note, I'm super excited to see David Nutter's work on the final two episodes of this season. He's one of my all-time favorite tv directors.

[Runaway Penguin]

The Manticore scene suffered from leaving out Belwas, as it was he who fought with Mormont and Selmy had ground to himself. Fighting with staff would also be more catchy than knifing the manticore IMO...

[Loras]

The Manticore scene suffered from leaving out Belwas, as it was he who fought with Mormont and Selmy had ground to himself. Fighting with staff would also be more catchy than knifing the manticore IMO...

The cutaway from Jorah restraining Barristan to then the very next we see of Barristan is him stabbing the Manticore was so bizarre, can't understand the rationale for that, and it totally took me out of the scene. I also agree with many other criticisms of Minihan's work. On a positive but offtopic note, I'm super excited to see David Nutter's work on the final two episodes of this season. He's one of my all-time favorite tv directors.

Yeah, it was all a bit messy and confusing. The staging of the entire scene was a bit suspect though.

I am very excited to have Nutter back, he did a great job last year. Also Alik Sakharov - his episode was wonderful.

I am a bit worried for episode 2 though... spoiler from the promo:

It looks like Minahan is directing the Brienne/Jaime fight. I really hope he does a good job.

[Throng of Mice and Mire]

I was weirded out by Selmy's teleportation abilities too. One second he's being held by Mormont, the next he's stabbing the manticore. So obviously a shot of him escaping the bear's clutches is missing.

But then what is Mormont doing? Is he just standing back and watching this Obe-Wan impersonator advance on Danny with a blade? Its not like Selmy even seemed in much of a rush. They either forgot to shoot some stuff on the day, or its just a terrible job of editing the scene together.

[I do not sew]

Am I the only one who thought the manticore looked awesome? Loved the false face, the vibrant colors. Very cool.