The Big Picture

House of the Dragon scored nine Emmy nominations including Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour). During an FYC Q&A, sound supervisor Al Sirkett explained how his team tackled crafting the dragon sounds. Sirkett focused on Caraxes in particular, revealing the character description he was provided by showrunner Miguel Sapochnik for Daemon’s dragon.

Given the popularity of Game of Thrones and how the hit HBO series rocked the industry, setting a new bar for the craftsmanship possible on a television series, anticipation couldn’t have been higher for the prequel show, House of the Dragon. Not only did the series kick off its run with significant critical praise and fan approval, but it also solidified itself as a major awards season conceder. House of the Dragon Season 1 scored nine Emmy nominations including one for Outstanding Drama Series. (A phenomenal total, but hopefully the cast will get the recognition they deserve at some point as well.)

While the 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony has been postponed to January 15th, 2024, Phase 2 voting will proceed as originally planned. With members preparing to cast ballots beginning on August 17th, crafts nominees are participating in Q&As to offer a peek behind the curtain and highlight the lengths they went to to bring these worlds to screen with maximum craftsmanship, ingenuity, and detail. One such Q&A took place over the weekend at the HBO crafts event, which put the spotlight on the next-level work contributed by three departments — costumes, prosthetics, and sound.

Image via HBO

I had the pleasure of moderating a conversation for costume designer Jany Temime, prosthetics co-department head Sarah Gower, and sound supervisor Al Sirkett. A significant amount of the sound portion of the Q&A focused on how the team approached working on the dragons and Sirkett used that opportunity to sing the praises of a Game of Thrones alum who contributed to House of the Dragon as well, sound designer Paula Fairfield. Sirkett began:

“I got Paula Fairfield who had been the dragon designer for the whole of Game of Thrones, and as I described it at the time, she was the DNA for me to have that link between Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Once I’d had her on board, I was not worried at all. I knew that [with] the dragons that the audience was going to believe, and the textures and the ability that she brings to make a character out of all of these different dragons. There’s many more dragons. As she said, there’s one episode where there’s more dragon sounds than a whole series of Game of Thrones.”

Sirkett continued by emphasizing that his team wasn’t just creating roars for dragons, but rather, sounds for characters. He explained this via Caraxes, Daemon’s (Matt Smith) dragon. Here’s what Sirkett said when I asked for examples of subtle nuances incorporated to help differentiate the dragons from one another:

“A lot of people would think about the dragons and it’s just a big roar, and [Paula] bought so much more to it than that. The descriptions that Ryan and Miguel gave for these characters, for these dragon characters, were never, ‘I want the dragon to be like this.’ They would describe it in human terms. Caraxes was described by Miguel one meeting as the failed white boy rapper. Thinks he’s the coolest guy on the block. Just thinks he’s just full of it, he’s so fantastic and amazing, but he’s not. He’s a bit of an idiot. Nobody really likes him and none of the other dragons really want to hang out with him. And that was it, and Paula came back and every little thing like the roar was just — but it wasn’t funny what the sounds that she was creating [were], but the textures that she used were slightly off-key and weren’t, I think, what people would have expected, but that’s what she brought to the game. And I think the whole team managed to do that to move us forward into something which was different from Game of Thrones.”

Image via HBO

While there are elements of House of the Dragon that make it stand out from Game of Thrones, Sirkett also took a moment to emphasize one especially important note he was given about the connection between the two shows, a note that would ultimately allow House of the Dragon to function as an on-ramp for newcomers while also ensuring it’s a satisfying continuation for Game of Thrones fans.

“We didn’t sit there analyzing [Game of Thrones]. I obviously sat and watched the whole series, all the seasons, before I started, not to replicate what they’d done, but I was told this has to feel like Season 9 of Game of Thrones. Every member of the audience has to feel they’re dropped back into this world, and I think [with] the sound we have the ability to do that very quickly.”

House of the Dragon Season 1 is available to watch on Max now. In addition to Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series, it’s also been nominated for Cinematography, Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, Period and/or Character Makeup (Non-Prosthetic), Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program, Prosthetic Makeup, Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie, and Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series for “House Of The Dragon: Inside The Episode.”