Daenerys had barely left Mereen before the Internet was lamenting the end of another season of Game of Thrones Sunday night. How will we ever get through an election season without Littlefinger, Cersei, and crazed undead to help us feel like our politics aren’t so bad?
But don’t despair. For the next 8-10 months until HBO doles out the few episodes that will comprise season 7, there are great articles, podcasts, and videos all over the web. We recommend you start with this one, a jaw-dropping edit of top moments from across the Thrones saga set to “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. (It is Thrones, so there’s brief nudity and lots and lots of violence.)
Go ahead, watch it again. We’ll wait.
The creator of that beauty is a Sochi-based video editor named Zurab who has a raft of videos just like this one on his YouTube channel, Zurik 23M. Among his favorite shows he lists the classic sword and spear offerings – Vikings, Spartacus, GoT – but also Person of Interest and Hell on Wheels. He also answers questions on pretty much anything, including video editing and great TV shows on his Ask.fm page.
Editing is something most of us think we could do but if we tried our effort would look like a kid’s refrigerator art next to a museum piece. So much more than just picking pretty images and creating perfectly timed transitions, editing builds a story arc within a moment, combining filmed images, sound, color, depth, focus, range, and more. And it all has to be invisible or we’re pulled out of the narrative. The fact is, we’re not really exposed to enough bad editing in entertainment or media to really appreciate its artistry when its done well.
Here’s another example from Zurik’s GoT series, which plainly illustrates how he’s guiding the hundreds of images. Flowing along with expository images until that hard stop at 1:19 then hitting beat by beat to battle shots.
He also has character tributes (Hodor, Stannis, etc.) and slow reflections on elements like scenery (We Live in Beautiful World), and philosophy (The Courage or the Fall).
Now obviously the “War Pigs” video was made just after episode 9, Battle of the Bastards, so it didn’t include the action from last weekend’s finale. Zurik remedied that today, posting Revenge, his latest offering that catches things up through the end of season 6.
And, since we’re talking about editing we shouldn’t fail to mention that little moment that flew past most of us in the opening credits Sunday night. A few eagle-eyed viewers clued everybody else in fast that the Stark sigil was back on Winterfell, replacing the (icky) Bolton sigil from previous episodes.