I know next to nothing about Vikings, budgets and tv series whatsoever but damn these battles looked cheap compared to Game of Thrones lol.
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*UNMARKED SPOILERS ALL BOOKS* Game of Thrones |OT| - Season 7 - Sundays on HBO
- Thread starter Cornballer
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I know next to nothing about Vikings, budgets and tv series whatsoever but damn these battles looked cheap compared to Game of Thrones lol.
Guerrillas in the Mist
Member
It features some insane set/production design work - Iook at any scene involving the Forum. Quite a range of locations, as well.
And Vikings? Heh. They do a decent job of hiding it, but you can tell they're filming "massive" battles with a few dozen extras.
The money went, rightfully, into massive, intricately-made sets.
And it was made in 2004. CGI obviously hadn't progressed to the point where you can have the stuff GoT has on TV and not bankrupt your ass.
They definitely didn't hold back with Rome. It might have been more popular if they'd spent their money on huge battles, but that wasn't what the show was. And the biggest chunk of battle they show, I think, was Antony and Octavian taking out Brutus and Cassius in season 2.
DarkJediKnight
Member
Yea, that was the only battle they showed. Anthony's fleet defeat with Cleopatra abandoning him was a huge naval battle of the ancient world. All you saw was some planks of wood floating.
The problem was Rome came out at the wrong time. TV shows get far bigger budgets now and the CG work is better and less costly.
Maybe one day someone will do a proper 5 seasons of Rome starting with the Triumvirate to rise of Augustus.
Old English isn't Middle English or Early Modern English.
Geordie, Scouse and Scots all have phonological remnants of both Old Norse as well as reconstructed Old English. AmE has very little in common with Old English, either Prehistoric, early or late. Sōþlīċe.
Admiral Woofington
Member
countdown to Danny and Jon doing the horizontal ice and fire?
bitbydeath
Member
Those videos are heavily edited, eg. The one labeled 'The first Paris attack' only shows 5mins, however that particular battle goes for 28min.
The battles are much larger than anything GOT has ever done.
The Greek Freak
Member
Props to Alt Shift X for calling out the garbage that is playing Gendry's rape up for laughs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_6j7RDaL6E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_6j7RDaL6E
WaffleTaco
Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
ClosingADoor
Member
Vikings is impressive and sure a large production. But Game of Thrones is probably double that.
For example, Vikings is shot mostly in Ireland. For Game of Thrones they do Ireland, Croatia, Iceland, Spain and more. That adds a lot of costs, more crews needed, closing off locations, etc. The main cast is also larger. And they need to do a ton of effects compared to Vikings to have everything come to live and fill in the locations and such.
For example, Vikings is shot mostly in Ireland. For Game of Thrones they do Ireland, Croatia, Iceland, Spain and more. That adds a lot of costs, more crews needed, closing off locations, etc. The main cast is also larger. And they need to do a ton of effects compared to Vikings to have everything come to live and fill in the locations and such.
Alan Taylor would accuse him of nitpicking. There are dragons! Who cares about rape when there are dragons?
-Pyromaniac-
Member
Jorah Mormont is such a standup guy. Just felt like saying that.
I though this meant he had a problem with tormund saying "we'll have to make do with what we have", joking about Gendry as the most feminine among them
I was gonna roll my eyes hard
But then I watched and was pleasantly surprised - I hadn't looked at the Mel scenario like that
The Greek Freak
Member
I'm not against sexual violence happening in a story.
I'm not against men like the Hound acting like a cunt about it.
I'm against the fanbases (and honestly societal) double standard than men being victims of sexual violence is fine/funny.
Every time the critics come down hard on GOT, I go back to that thread for laughs.
rocketskates
Member
Oh lord
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Conan had a "preview" of tomorrow's finale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJ82kLhVUI
This could been a chapter in AFfC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJ82kLhVUI
This could been a chapter in AFfC.
Should've cast Ed Sheeran instead.
the dramatic complexity is on another level
Steelyuhas
Member
Comparing a "season" budget if the season's aren't the same number of episodes is pointless. TV shows are produced, budgeted for, and credited for individual episodes, so the metric that's comparable is spend per episode.
Vikings season four is a 20 episode season. $80 million on that is still $4 million/per episode. It's likely not $4 anymore though, maybe Vikings is costing 5 or 6 per episode. Even so, we don't know any exact figures across seasons what the budgets are for either series, it seems like quite the leap to assume that Vikings is even close to as expensive as GoT, let alone costs more.
As a kicker, there's probably not a lot of financial sense in Vikings being in a cost ballpark with GoT, season 4 averaged 2.2 million viewers and a 0.6 average 18-49 demo rating.
Looking back, the only problem I have is the sexposition. And even ten it's more annoying than anything else.
biosnake20
Member
lmao
I remember the tepid response to the Leftovers rape scene in S2. A few articles praised the show for handling the subject better than GoT and many were dismissive or disinterested in talking about the scene.
Apparently, people even post gifs of it on tumblr because they thought it was hot.
On these videos it's not really about the length (I did notice they were edited of course) but rather the scale, shaky cam and only a few dozens of actors at best, you don't really see many fighting at the same time, no global overview of the battlefield (maybe there are in the full battles though?), not a big amount 3D CG to make seem the battle bigger (additional characters, background, smoke effects etc.)
bitbydeath
Member
If it were 5m per episode that'd be the same amount they spent on GOT season 6, 6m would obviously put it higher. I'm just saying with GOT having 26m viewers I think HBO should provide a much larger budget which could have lead to better overall scenes and less rush to the end.
The video doesn't show it properly but the Vikings are attacking from two sides, over in the water scaling the walls they are in the hundreds.
Really good show, took a few episodes to get into it though as it was a bit overwhelming to understand all that was going on at first.
Talking budgets here is pretty pointless. Two networks have different business models. HBO isn't selling ads against GoT episodes. Also I dunno where budget numbers come from but do they include GRR's cut? Does operating HBO Go servers count into the budget (obviously not)?
Just seems like such a sloppy, imperfect comparison to make all in service of some vague, limp criticism.
Just seems like such a sloppy, imperfect comparison to make all in service of some vague, limp criticism.
GoT's budget for S6 was about 100 million for 10 episodes. S7 probably has the same budget for 7 episodes. S8 might have as high or higher a budget for 6 episodes. That's the upper limit for budgtet. If you spend more than 100 million a season on a 13 episode or less series, it gets hard to justify. Netflix has cancelled both The Get Down and Sense8 because they realized hiring big Hollywood directors to helm 120+ million dollar seasons is a good way for them to bleed money dry.
A bigger budget does not result in better scenes or less rush either. That all falls on the production crew and how they manage the options they have. It's not a formula where you can pour more money into to make better. GoT has no fixed timetable. It has no fixed episode count. It has no fixed runtime for each episode. HBO was pretty much ready to give the showrunners any number of episodes they needed, and as much time per season to finish what they want. That's even more valuable than money. Yet this is what they come up with so it's clearly not a money problem.
Preston Jacobs pointed out that the show might be stronger if Martin hadn't given D&D a roadmap. It's a pretty good point. Writing with super specific plot points in mind can be much harder than letting things develop naturally. Now we have a scenario where D&D are trying to get where Martin pointed them which is kind of the worst scenario.
Maybe if Martin hadn't given himself a roadmap he could actually finish the fucking books.
dude no
bitbydeath
Member
But if they have 26m viewers at $10 per month over 2 months.
That's 520m, for a show as special as this they should allow for a larger budget as it certainly earns them the dough.
Sam is cockblocking this dance before it even begins. Jon really has the best mates.
...............that's not how the math works.
bitbydeath
Member
What am I missing?
AFfC is fantastic.
Many of those viewers would subscribe anyway either out of inertia or because they watch other HBO shows. You cant say all of that money comes from GOT
bitbydeath
Member
True, it's still a lot of pie though, throwing in just another 100m could go a long way.
A long way to what? GoT isn't the only show HBO makes and the showrunners aren't asking for more budget. The audience is mostly very happy with the show too.
bitbydeath
Member
Don't get me wrong, I love the show. But a lot of parts have either been cut or cut short due to budget constraints, season 2 for example could have easily been made into 2 seasons or better yet just longer seasons.
$100 million is a lot of money...
bitbydeath
Member
True, anyway sorry I don't want to keep going off-topic here, was just my thoughts so carry on.
I honestly prefer The Last Kingdom. That show might not have the budget and just burns through the plot from the books; its battles convey the tactics quite well though and are quite varied.
ClosingADoor
Member
That has nothing to do with budget, but with what the showrunners want. HBO is not going: you can only make 8 seasons and this is the total budget. Longer seasons might not be possible, since you still need to make it in the same time span.
If it was up to HBO management, they would probably run this stuff for more seasons. But you also got to deal with the writers, actors and rest of the team that might not want to keep going forever.
This is why they are going to do spin-offs, because HBO wants more Game of Thrones and throw money at it.
Cro-Magnon
Member
Is there proof to this or you're just being speculative?
I'm sorry I don't follow much the thread or the showbiz stream.
Game of Thrones is a major moneymaker for HBO, it doesn't make sense that they would want to get rid of it. D&D on the other hand definitely want to be done so they can start with their Confederate show.
Yes, there are 4 in early stages of development. Of course not all of them will be made.
Cro-Magnon
Member
Yes I understand this, all I was asking was source, if any.
ClosingADoor
Member
Just do a quick Google search for Game of Thrones spin-offs and you'll get a lot of recent news about it. But HBO has confirmed they are working on it: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/may/04/game-of-thrones-spinoff-series-hbo
Multiple writers are working on them, and HBO is then picking which to go forward with I think. George RR Martin is also involved with it.