VFX Team Says Game of Thrones Scaled Back Gore in Season 6

In a new interview, the Game of Thrones VFX team says the show did scale back the violence and gore in Season 6, for one scene. Ironically, it was Ramsay’s death.

Speaking to Variety, the team from Imagine Engine, who created many of Season 6’s gorgeous CGI images, revealed that Bolton’s death was originally conceived as a lot more gory.

“They shot the scene with multiple takes,” explained Image Engine visual effects supervisor Mat Krentz. “They did a pass of the dog on green screen, then Ramsay on green screen, and then we also had a background plate, which we put together.”

Unfortunately the result was “too gruesome even by “Thrones” standards.” So they ended up cutting it back, and using “2D composite instead.”

It’s ironic that of all the scenes to scale back, it was the Bastard of Bolton’s demise. Ever since Ramsay was introduced in Season 3, everything about his scenes have been over the top in a way that makes even those inured to TV violence uncomfortable. One recapper dubbed the torture scenes with Theon “The Passion of the Greyjoy”. (As a reference to Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, where the torturing of Jesus was seen by many reviewers as orgiastic.) It seemed, by Season 6, that every time Bolton was on screen doing violence to someone, it was somehow always more than we needed, as if the show were rubbing our noses in it. So for his death to be the scene where they finally said “that’s too much”? How bad must it have been?

Thankfully, we’ll never know. But Bolton’s wasn’t the only death Imagine Engine was involved in. According to their stats, they were singlehandedly responsible for killing off 72 characters on screen. “22 by sword, 14 by slit throat, 1 by pike, and 1 by dogs.”

“Some shots were really specific, like someone getting their head smashed directly against a wall,” explained composition lead Edwin Holdsworth. “To get the look right for that we filmed real meat being smashed. We used the same technique for shots where one character has their hand pulled apart. The best way to match the level of gore needed was to pull some meat apart, and use that in the comp. It all felt more realistic that way!”

Try not to think about that when you’re making dinner tonight. Instead, check out this lovely breakdown reel they made, including Sam’s Heaven-In-Westeros, the Citadel Library.

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/09/14/ramsays-death-was-supposed-to-be-bloodier-interview-with-sfx-people-shell/