Mance Rayder’s Camp

By Cat Taylor

Photo Credit: Helen SloanSome of you may have read a previous post where I talked about our first meeting with Mance Rayder and how hot his tent became with all the SFX fires and torches burning throughout the day.

Even if we are filming on a Lava field here in Iceland, it’s not hot anymore – the car display indicates the temperature is minus 11 degrees. It’s day five, and all of Mance’s camp, not just the inside of his tent, is laid out before us. The camp is the product of months of work from the art department and weeks of construction by the local crew. It is spectacular.

Walking from base, the edge of the camp is only a few feet away, but the site is like a fantasy. If you can ignore the cameras and crew, you might believe you were actually inside a wilding village. Our extras (the men all with fabulous beards of course) work in between the huts or huddle around fires, and even children run through the snow to greet a visitor from the Wall, in their own special way.

It’s also a day when our friend Ian Whyte, who plays the White Walker, is back in a different role, one we haven’t seen before. He’s got some awfully big shoes to fill for this particular scene.

A few behind-the-scenes moments from today: How about our fantastic SFX boys setting up a grill behind one of the huts at the edge of camp and handing out hotdogs to anyone who wanted them? Or the fact that in the magnificent wide shot up and over the camp there were certain crew who couldn’t clear the shot fast enough after setting a prop, weapon or flame and had to curl up inside the tents, waiting for the cut?