01
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GOT INTRO
The project was inspired by the famous TV Show 'Game of Thrones' title sequence produced by Elastic for HBO.
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In the original intro, we explore the places that we will visit during each episode in Westeros and Essos , the fantasy world where all the events happen.
The basic idea was to create something never seen before, not just a simple and flat map, but a world inside a sphere that had to look like it was hand-made by craftsmen in the time of the story, that's why Leonardo da Vinci's machines were a great source of inspiration were ,with all of their interlocking cogs.
The focal point of each location is the family crest "that becomes the main cog that triggers the animation, so the model of the place emerges out of the floor of the map and comes to life" - says Angus Wall, Creative Director at Elastic, in an interview to The Hollywood Reporter (link = http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/secrets-game-thrones-opening-credits-179656)
Furthermore, the creators didn't want just to build something visually interesting and captivating : the sequence, with all those cogs beneath and above the surface of the map working together, are a metaphore of the machinations of the show's most powerful families fighting for the throne, something that we can find in every age and place.
The team of 24 professionals and experts worked for 8-9 months before they got to production - as reported by CG Supervisor Kirk Shintani on a recent interview on Area Autodesk website (http://area.autodesk.com/customer-stories/a52-game-of-thrones-title?linkId=24473223) while the actual production lasted for about 4 months - Kirk Shintani on ART OF VFX (http://www.artofvfx.com/game-of-thrones-kirk-shintani-superviseur-3d-a52-elastic/)
02
GOT ITALY - THE PROJECT PART1
Part 1 was created by Chiara Sapio, Manoj Rollo as their graduation project at the Polytechnic University of Turin.
The idea of the project came from prof. Riccardo Antonio Silvio Antonino, who had always wanted to create something similar to GOT intro since the show's first episode aired in 2011.
We decided to go back in time when Italy was still divided into several kingdoms just like the world of GRR Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire'.
Taking this map (link http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1861b.htm) as refernce, we choose one or two cities for each of the most powerful kingdoms our country was made up between 1820-1848 :
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- Regno di Sardegna --> Turin (Savoia)
- Regno Lombardo-Veneto --> Venice (Asburgo)
- Granducato di Toscana --> Florence (Asburgo-Lorena)
- Stato Pontifico --> Rome (Pope)
- Regno delle due Sicilie --> Naples and Palermo (Borbone)
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Each city was built taking old maps as a reference to place every house and for each location some of the most famous monuments and buildings were recreated in the most detailed way possible.
Every single element is animated : domes, coloumns, roofs, everthing comes out of the floor driven by lots of interlocking cogs.
As in GOT title sequence, each city's sigil becomes its main cog as a symble of its political and economical power and its influence in the story of Italy.
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We also decided to stay faithful to the original intro taking it as a source of inspiration for our animations and camera movements : the coin of Braavos and the one in Florence, St.Peter's and The Eyrie's dome, most of the roofs have the same animation as those in Riverrun, CastelNuovo Bridge looks like The Twins'one and so on.
The look we wanted to achieve was that of handmade models made of different kind of wood, stone, paper and metal.
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As in GOT opening credits we created an Astrolabe inspired by the original concept - the so called Dyson Sphere (link) : in the middle of the sphere there's the sun and all around the sun there are bands with relief sculptures taken from the Trajan Column in Rome, representing some important events of our past history.
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03
GOT ITALY - THE PROJECT PART2
After the unexpected success of Part1 we decided to produce a sequel to meet fans' requests of more cities
"When Part1 was released in summer 2016,people from inside and outside the italian fandom of Game of Thrones showed all their support and enthusiasm : on YouTube the video reached almost 200 K views in a couple of weeks and was highly shared on social
media, expecially Facebook and Twitter.
Most of the time we were asked for a new intro with some of the other cities that were left behind, so this year we decided to please our fans and add two more locations to the map : Milan and Taranto.
Milan - once belonging to the Kingdom of Lombardi-Venetia - was definitely the one with the greatest number of requests , being one of the most active cultural,artistic and economic centers in the Italian peninsula, a city that always played a
fundamental role in the history of our country.
The monument of choice was the Sforza Castle since it immediately reminded me of Riverrun with its towers, the drawbridge and the moat, but also because of its
proximity to the Po river, as it happens for the westerosi keep, built near the Trident, one of the largest and most well know streams in Westeros.
The second city we decided to add was Taranto, once part of the Kingdom of The Two Sicilies, also known as "The City of Two Seas" because it is washed by both the Big Sea and the Small Sea.
Founded in 706 BC as the only Spartan colony, it quickly became a commercial power
and a sovereign city of Magna Graecia,ruling over the Greek colonies in southern Italy.
In my mind I've always associated Taranto with Dorne, maybe because of their similarities in the climate, geographical position and exotic atmosphere.
In the video you can enjoy the view of the Aragonese Castle that rises up on an artificial island in the gulf and it is connected to the mainland by the Ponte Girevole,one of the few swing bridges in Europe.
Taranto is where I come from and I really wanted to pay a tribute to the town where I spent most of my teenagehood and studied before moving to Torino.
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To surprise our fans, we also decided to give the video a makeover by renovating most
of the textures : the Astrolabe and the map, all the Cities' sigils, Napoli and you
can also notice the snow on Turin because , you know , Winter is Here.
While working on Part1 and Part2, making researches on cities and monuments I realized how beautiful our country is, how rich its history and how magnificent its art, but most of the time we tend to forget about it.
Italy was the homeland of great conquerors, scholars and scientists that changed the world with their studies and discoveries, artists that created immortal works of art and, more recently, directors and actors that made the history of cinema.
This video is not just a tribute to Game of Thrones and to Italy, it's a reminder that we live in a country full of resources and resourceful people and we should take care of it and make it a better place."
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Chiara Sapio