No, DO adjust your set: Hard-to-see cinematography of final Game of Thrones season said to be result of incorrectly tuned TV colour balance // image source: HBO, as published by TIME
The show that has spent the past nine years forging a reputation for dark content, with its fair share of throat-slashing, eye-gouging, and skull-crushing, has now generated controversy for literally being too dark.
Speaking of the show’s latest episode, which features the epic Battle of Winterfell within the timeframe of a single evening, cinematographer Fabian Wagner has faced backlash over the difficult-to-see content. Speaking in an interview with Wired UK, he says the showrunners at HBO needed this to “be a dark episode. We’d seen so many battle scenes over the years — to make it truly impactful and to care for the characters, you have to find a unique way of portraying the story.”
Yet with such high production values involved in the shooting of “Game of Thrones,” with some episodes now being shot in 8K ultra high-definition, the ordinary viewer may not always see the benefits of this prestige equipment. So-called domestic screens, such as laptops and iPads, are not perfectly calibrated to view the content that is being streamed through them.
“A lot of the problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly,” Wagner goes on to say, explaining why scenes within the latest episode have appeared so dim and ill-lit. “A lot of people also unfortunately watch it on small iPads, which in no way can do justice to a show like that anyway.”
Known mostly for television – calling the shots on apocalyptic sci-fi “Survivors” and espionage series “Spooks,” before a smattering of big-budget film projects – Wagner’s subject matter does not always place much emphasis on sunny dispositions. His most high-profile credit to date is Director of Photography of DC’s “Justice League,” the tentpole instalment of a cinematic universe that favours moody (read: ugly) colour palettes to convey their supposedly ‘darker’ subject matter. It seems Wagner has an eye for the darker side of cinema.
As “Game of Thrones” nears the end of its final season, millions shall be keeping their eyes glued to the screen no matter how dark the footage is. Until then, why not dive into the unexpected history of one of the show’s leading men, with our piece on the punk-rock past life of Peter “Tyrion Lannister” Dinklage.
