Battle scenes in Game of Thrones were one of the most crucial parts of the story, and there was a point when the show could not afford to execute colossal war sequences. When the project was released, the producers and showrunners did not expect it would blow up big-time, hence the limited budget.
In the penultimate episode of Season 2, fans witnessed the epic spectacle of The Battle of the Blackwater, also known as the largest battle in the War of the Five Kings. Fans remember this as the fight between King Joffrey Baratheon and his uncle, Stannis Baratheon.
How Game of Thrones showrunners afforded The Battle of the Blackwater scene
Game of Thrones did not portray massive wars until they decided to do The Battle of the Blackwater. David Benioff and Dan Weiss believed they had to give the audience what they deserved to see, as well as depict a sequence that remains faithful to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.
In their conversation with Vanity Fair, Weiss revealed that they were quite nervous about the whole plan of making The Battle of the Blackwater. At one point, they wanted to turn it into a land fight or do it off-screen, but that would have ruined the narrative. They had to do what was necessary:
We begged and pleaded with Mike Lombardo. We were negotiating. We had a big conversation about how many boats could we do.
The former HBO programming president eventually agreed to allot an additional $2 million to film the battle scene, which also required one more week of production. Martin was the writer for the episode, and he had to scale down the story to fit the budget. It’s a shame that we did not see many of the wonderful aspects found in the novel, but they had to compromise—otherwise, it would not work out.
Another interesting change made by the showrunners was staging the battle at night. This saved them lots of money for the visual effects because it did not have to be super detailed since most of the screen was dark.
Focusing more on the characters rather than doing wide shots also saved the show loads of fortune, so it not only created an engagement with the audience but also saved the time and effort required to showcase hundreds of ships and soldiers.
The Battle of the Blackwater sequence was a good decision
The studio’s decision proved to be a wise one as Game of Thrones gained immense popularity from this point. Surely, their investment in The Battle of the Blackwater doubled their revenue as the series ended up becoming one of the most-watched series in the history of television.
Even with a tight budget, the showrunners made a strong battle scene that did not heavily rely on special effects but rather on solid scriptwriting. As mentioned, Martin was still involved during this particular season, so that truly helped to maintain the essence of the story.
Game of Thrones is currently available to watch on Max.
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