INFORMATION

Belfast native gives his take on production

Belfast native gives his take on production

A user by the name of Rimshot has commented on an earlier post stating that he is employed by the largest casting agency in Belfast and has worked as an extra on many of the big productions in the area. Specifically he worked as an extra on City of Ember which was shot in the Paint Hall, which is where Game of Thrones will be setting up shop. Here is what he has to say:

Hello eveyone. I not familiar with the source material but I am very familiar with the paint hall, having worked on several productions there over the years. Im from Belfast and a member of an extras agency that regularly supplies extras/stand-ins/actors/crew for just about every major production that comes through our wee town!
If you want an idea of the kind of set that can be built in the Paint Hall then I suggest you rent City Of Ember. It was filmed in here in Belfast in the summer of 2007 and I worked on it for 3 weeks. The set built for it was one of the largest sets ever built for a film. I would often walk through its squares and streets in between shots and it never failed to amaze me. The guy that designed the set also deisgned the sets for Titanic so it was poignant that he built something in the very building that the Titanic was constructed.

Im looking forward to working on this production and I can assure you it is in safe hands!

Following up with that, I had asked if he had heard anything about dates of when the production would be starting. He responded with this info:

Can I just say that there is no guarantee that I will be working on this but Id say the chances are good as a production this size tends to use a large number of extras (City Of Ember used 400 extras on one day!). If I am working on this Ill try to keep you posted. There is another film (Universals Your Highness) being made in the Paint Hall first and then its GOT.

I dont have any info on exact dates as this hasnt been announced to us yet (as I said, theres no guarantee that we will be working on it). However, construction is now underway on the sets for Your Highness which is filming here in the summer. I drive past the Paint Hall every day on my way to work and in the last few days the huge hanger doors have been open (these doors are about 10 storeys high and an alarm goes off when they open!). This means that there is major activity at the Hall. Set construction tends to start about 2 months before principal photography so, depending on when Your Highness wraps, I would expect construction on GOT to begin late August/early September. I must stress that this is merely speculation on my part, having been involved in major productions there in the past. I have no inside info about this.

Winter Is Coming: Many thanks to Rimshot for this info. Please do keep us posted on any developments! That late August/early September production start time sounds about right. We know that the production is scheduled to last 10 weeks and assuming they start set building around 2 months prior, we are looking at a 2-3 week shoot. Hopefully Your Highness will not run late.

go to link download