The big reference was Akira KurosawasRAN.
Interestingly one of the things I noticed is that staging of these battles through the years has changed dramatically.
Back in the day youd see these huge aerial shots of horse charges and there were two big differences.
Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
First, it was all real no CGI or digital replication.
Nowadays youd never get away with that, and nor would you want to.
I was interested in what it must feel like to be on the ground when that sh happens.
A moment of clarity?
What goes through your head when you are right in the thick of it?
After Hardhome, there was a lot of happy campers in theGame of Thronesoffices.
But there was also a sense that we somehow had to make BOB bigger and better.
Most of all, it means choosing a point of view.
Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have said the team looked to real-life historical battles for staging this.
What specific battles or tactics did you draw on?
Initially we based BOB on the battle of Agincourt which took place between the French and English in 1415.
The strategy and tactical aspect was a key thing for David and Dan.
I also did a bunch of research into Alexander the Great who was legendary in his strategic battle prowess.
That said at some point you oughta put all the research down and tell a good story.
I also really liked the visual of a wall of Bolton red and white crosses on the shields.
It felt very fascistic and graphic.
My understanding is that adding horses makes everything harder.
What was the toughest part of that?
Everything takes about 50 percent longer.
Horses also get bored and spooked and some perform better than others.
They also need an entire separate field to rest in.
Oh, and they sh and piss all the time.
They would fart and pee a lot, often in the middle of [star Kit Haringtons] lines.
What was the biggest overall challenge about puling this off?
For example: The number of days to shoot it, where we shoot it.
What happens if it rains?
How do you feed 600 people every day?
Dont get me wrong, I personally dont have to decide that stuff.
But the creative decisions I make are heavily influenced by simple practical concerns.
It becomes a bit like a bonkers math equation.
The other real challenge was the schedule.
After a few hours and a fair bit of guesswork we said 28.
They said we had 12.
Suffice to say, something needed to give.
That is to say, wed be shooting without a script.
But I couldnt move forward without their consent and they were in L.A. at the time.
I hadnt even worked exactly out how Id do it, I just knew we need a Plan B.
When Ramsay played his hunting game with Rickon, was Jon Snow his true target there?
Rickons death is all just a ploy to bait Jon, and its incredibly successful.
Shifting to Meereen, we get a triple-dragon action sequence, which weve never had before.
Well it helps having Joe Bauer and Steve Kullback (VFX supervisor and producer).
So I tried to approach it in the most elegant, epic, big-movie way I could.
We talked a lot about how to shoot the dragons so that they didnt stand out as too fantastical.
I also pushed for the idea of allowing the dragons to constantly break frame.
These things should be so big and fast its hard to keep up with them.
Lots of time filming is just trying to fit a square peg into a round hole like that.
Without talking specifics, obviously, what in general excites you about next weeks super-sized finale?
That it feels equally as epic as episode 9 … but for completely different reasons.
Keep reading: Sapochnik also weighed in onstaging Ramsays final scenes(the producers wanted blood).
More Battle of the Bastards coverage:Read our exclusiveexit interview with Ramsay Bolton actor Iwan Rheon.
Heresour deep-dive recap with our thoughtson Battle of the Bastards.
Sophie Turnerreacts to her final Ramsay scene.
