Game of Thrones’ cinematographer defends “The Long Night” visual elements

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MILD PLOT SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES' "THE LONG NIGHT" EPISODE. READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

This past Sunday night, GAME OF THRONES fans took to their social media not just to spoil elements of the show for fans that were going to be late to the battlefield, but to also voice their concerns (and rage) about the episode being "too dark" to see much of what was happening during the Battle of Winterfell. Personally, I don't know what the hell happened during my broadcast (courtesy of Crave's HBO Canada app), but honesly, I had a really hard time keeping track of what was going on. Furthermore, I'll also note that, oddly, the whole presentation was of a considerably poor quality. Do you hear me, HBO Canada? Our "The Long Night" episode looked more like a shitty, pixelated download than an HD presenation of one of the biggest events in television history.

But I digress …

After "The Long Night" upset, surprised, and delighted GAME OF THRONES fans the world over, the show's cinematographer, Fabian Wagner, was approached by Wired and was asked to comment on the questionable lighting of the highly-anticipated episode. As a response, Wagner stated that those complaining about the episode's "dark" and "indistinguishable" visuals should perhaps blame their own television settings, as opposed to those associated with the series' production team.

“A lot of the problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly,” said Wagner. “A lot of people also unfortunately watch it on small iPads, which in no way can do justice to a show like that anyway.”

Not for nothing there, Mr. Wagner, but I watched the episode on a Sony brand 54" 4K Television, and that business was still darker than Cersei Lannister's cold, black heart. Could my settings really be that out of whack? 

As the interview continued on, Wagner did admit that the cinematography for “The Long Night” was intentionally on the darker side of the color spectrum, as the weather-worn atmosphere was meant to bring viewers closer to the action.

“Another look would have been wrong,” Wagner remarked. “Everything we wanted people to see is there.”

Later, Wagner spoke to Vanity Fair, and explained that the motivation behind the lighting was to reflect the evolution from darkness to light of the characters’ journeys from struggle to victory. As an example, the moment when the fire-wielding Dothraki are consumed by the dead, their flames extinguishing is meant to serve as the metaphorical "light of hope" going dark for the people of Wintefell. “Storytelling of the lighting evolve with the storytelling of the characters,” Wagner explained.

As intense as the final season of GAME OF THRONES has been, here's hoping that the rest of the episodes arrive in gorgeous, vibrant HD, as opposed to what many viewers experienced this past Sunday. After all, it would be a shame to have to wait until the season's Blu-ray or 4K home release to be able to truly appreciate the hard work that went into the making of "The Long Night".