As fans eagerly anticipate the fourth season of HBO's hit medieval fantasy series, "Game of Thrones," producers have been keeping them up-to-date on special behind-the-scenes details, including a recent blog entry that promises plenty of dragon action and fire.
Today, Oct. 29, Cat Taylor detailed the process of testing dragon fire for season 4, which was worked on back in July in Belfast by an SFX team. Taylor described the day as cloudy, tourists passing by their truck unawares before 15 feet of fire shot into the air on command.
"The first time, no one really notices the flame. SFX have a tight control on the rig and the fire is only coming in short bursts to give the camera crew and VFX team a chance to calibrate and get closer to the outlets," she wrote. "Once the bursts come more regularly, a few begin people stop and point across the road and through the fencing. The flames, burning a hot bright orange are hard to miss - and that is what we want, because this is the dragon fire test for Season 4."
Twenty-two canisters and 400 liters of gas were used to create the special fire effects, which will surely look impressive on-screen.
The fictional dragons, of course, belong to Daenerys Targaryen, whose young hatchlings are steadily growing into strong, powerful creatures that breathe fire and act on her command. She is known as the Mother of Dragons after having traded the life of witch Mirri Maz Duur for those of her dragons, who hatched from her fossilized from the magic of the fire of Khal Drogo's funeral pyre.
Daenerys plans to use the dragons and her army of Unsullied to take back the iron throne, which means plenty of dragon action in the upcoming seasons.
Season 4 covers the second half of the book "A Storm of Swords" from George R. R. Martin's series, "A Song of Ice and Fire." When we last left off in season 3, Daenerys had just freed the slave city of Yunkai, having recently met and earned the loyalty of Daarios Naharis, whom she will have a romantic relationship with in the next season. Daarios has recently been recast and will look quite different when fans see him on the first episode of season 4 in spring 2014.
