Taking the Black: The Final Shots of ‘Game of Thrones’

By Jacob Oller

HBO’s star always goes out with a bang.

Game of Thrones is a show of twists and big moments hiding inside of a show pretending to be about conversations and political maneuvering. As the internet has embraced the show, the creatives behind it have invested more and more into making the show, well, MORE of itself. A bigger, more GoT-esque Game of Thrones.

The closing shots of Game of Thrones are often the money shots of the episodes, sometimes jumping through narrative hoops just for a single “wow” moment. In fact, we’ve written about why that often bites the show in the ass. But as much as Ciara’s argument works with her collage of screencaps, editor Ollie Paxton created a supercut that puts the point in motion.

Matching these shots with the soundtrack at that moment adds a new layer of depth to the final takeaway these showrunners want audiences to have, giving us not just visual but aural direction. That it all fades to black is one thing, but Game of Thrones usually allows a song to remain throughout the scene and through the credits – a stark reminder of all the sound effects, dialogue, and sonic mayhem fading out with the images. Paxton’s video is a rarity because it helps fans identify a series’ biggest strengths and weaknesses.

The article Taking the Black: The Final Shots of ‘Game of Thrones’ appeared first on Film School Rejects.