‘It is large to be dressing the Dragon’

“Hopefully the followers shall be blissful as a result of we’re attempting to be as loyal to the supply materials as we might be.”

The season finale of Home of the Dragon, a prequel to Sport of Thrones, airs on Sunday, with hundreds of thousands of fantasy fanatics anticipated to tune in.

Based mostly on George RR Martin’s novel, A Tune of Ice and Hearth, the HBO drama sees fiery beasts, battles and household feuds take centre stage.

Behind the photo-realistic visible results and complex plots lies an immense effort in manufacturing with the present’s costumes fascinating audiences and critics.

Emmy award-winning designer Caroline McCall from Portadown in County Armagh joined the present for its second season and performs a vital position in bringing the fictional kingdom of Westeros to life.

Contemporary from her work on the BBC and HBO’s fantasy drama His Darkish Supplies, Caroline mentioned she was “actually excited to attempt to get my tooth caught into one other one”.

“I used to be excited by the dimensions of it, and barely apprehensive after I received the job… [House of the Dragon] is a big present with an incredible scope of design as a fancy dress designer,” she advised BBC Information NI.

“I used to be very excited to get the chance to pitch for the job.”

Caroline was employed to interchange famend designer Jany Temime – finest identified for her work on the Harry Potter movie collection – who she mentioned constructed a powerful basis for the collection.

“I had the profit that there was already a very nice costume group on board,” she mentioned.

“A whole lot of the group already knew the workings of the present, in order that was actually useful.”

Born in County Armagh, Caroline discovered early inspiration at Belfast’s Grand Opera Home the place theatre productions sparked her curiosity in costume design from a younger age.

After learning a basis course at Ulster College, she then launched into a three-year costume diploma at Wimbledon College of Artwork in London.

She then skilled with the BBC, climbing her method up the trade earlier than successful an Emmy in 2011 for her work on interval drama Downton Abbey.

This summer time, she is celebrating her twenty fifth yr within the movie trade, throughout which she has witnessed important adjustments again dwelling.

Sport of Thrones was primarily filmed on location in Northern Eire and has sparked a movie increase there.

“I’m fairly jealous that there’s an trade now,” she mentioned.

“I feel it’s unbelievable that it’s so properly established. I’ve a number of group members from Northern Eire who skilled on Thrones.”

Home of the Dragon is about 200 years earlier than Sport Of Thrones, and follows the fortunes of the Targaryens – a noble household with the ability to regulate dragons.

With a whole lot of costumes to supervise, the place does a designer start?

“It’s large,” Caroline mentioned.

“The followers of the present, and notably those that have learn the books, have gotten very agency concepts of how issues ought to be.

“The politics and the economics of those locations have modified between our present and Sport Of Thrones.

“To decorate folks accordingly, principally in a redefined Westeros, was fairly one thing to get my head round.”

In season two, the homes have separated, “so there’s a pure purpose to revamp various the precept characters”, Caroline defined.

Her analysis spanned “hundreds of years of historical past” as she drew inspiration from cultures together with the Roman and Byzantine Empires and the Mayans.

“I took all this reference and kind of divvied it up in to what aesthetically labored for every home,” she mentioned.

“For instance, the Targaryen look, it’s kind of brutalist in type, when it comes to it is adornment and embroidery, it’s extra summary, whereas the parents at Kings Touchdown are extra naturalistic.”

With a group of as much as 300 folks, costumes are painstakingly dyed, printed and adorned, usually taking months to finish.

The primary collection of Home of the Dragon, very similar to its predecessor, confronted some criticism for its darkish cinematography, one thing that showrunner Ryan Condal has acknowledged and adjusted.

“We went into season two very aware of that suggestions,” he advised The Hollywood Reporter.

The cinematography is one thing Caroline was very conscious of as she produced her clothes.

“We tried earlier than filming to take a look at colors on digital camera and within the environments that they’d be in, to kind of ensure that the greens have been studying inexperienced or the blues have been studying blue,” she mentioned.

“A few of the units are actually darkish, and they need to be, Dragonstone and Harrenhal don’t have lots of pure gentle coming in.”

Home of the Dragon was one of many few US productions that continued to shoot throughout the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes.

For nearly three months in 2023, trade writers and actors walked out in a dispute over truthful pay and the usage of synthetic intelligence within the trade.

However the Home of the Dragon forged didn’t participate as a result of the present was primarily filmed within the UK beneath contracts overseen by British union Fairness, fairly than its placing US counterpart the Display screen Actors Guild.

The present’s author Ryan Condal beforehand advised the BBC it was a “fraught interval”, however a “nice privilege” to maintain the forged and crew employed.

So what’s subsequent for the designer, and the Home of the Dragon?

With particulars on season three saved tight-lipped, Caroline revealed that she’s going to as soon as once more be engaged on the present, which she mentioned shall be her essential focus for the subsequent 14 months – albeit with a short break for award season subsequent yr, one would assume.

Might the present repeat earlier successes on the Baftas, Golden Globes or Costume Designers Guild Awards? It’s not one thing the designer has given a lot thought.

“You simply should do your finest work and all of it relies on what different productions are out…there’s an terrible lot of fantasy and science fiction exhibits out this yr,” she mentioned.

“We’ll see.”

Home of the Dragon’s season two finale is offered on Sky and NOW within the UK from 5 August.