I try to approach all episodic work the same. No matter the content. I look for a dramatic or emotional spine to the story I'm telling, something that stands out to me thematically about the episode and its relationship to the rest of the season/series.

Miguel Sapochnik

Categorized in : Me Look Relationship Work

I try to just focus on what feels right to me when I am conceiving it, conceptualizing, designing, etc. and then talk it through with the team and listen to what they have to say. This kind of thing is a team effort, and working with a great team is the most important part of filmmaking for me.

Miguel Sapochnik

i-am great me focus

One of my biggest fears as a director is that everything is taking too long on camera. The actor saying their lines, the silence between lines, the length of time it takes to walk from A to B. So you try it at different speeds and then see what sticks in the edit room.

Miguel Sapochnik

walk you silence time

When I was coming onto 'Thrones,' I was looking for, 'What's the formula here?' There was a very David Lean kind of approach to it. It was traditional, in a way, and it was naturalistic in some respects, even though it was fantasy.

Miguel Sapochnik

looking some fantasy way

I really, really liked shooting and doing the scene with Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage at the end of 'Winds of Winter,' when she gives him the Hand of the Queen. Because we shot it very simply. We felt like we had managed to do something that was visual but really was a very intimate scene between two people.

Miguel Sapochnik

queen end winter people

Getting a bunch of horses to just stand there all day and do nothing is much harder than getting them to run around.

Miguel Sapochnik

stand nothing day run

Music is my second love.

Miguel Sapochnik

second music love

I think it's my job to fight. The studio makes you question your idea, and you have to prove it.

Miguel Sapochnik

fight job think you

Making movies is all about compromise, negotiation, and sacrifice, but the process helps you distill what's really important to you, and once you have identified what those these things are for any particular sequence, you hold onto them and don't let them go.

Miguel Sapochnik

movies you sacrifice important

I think that as television is evolving, the line between TV and film is becoming more and more blurred. This is both a good and bad thing.

Miguel Sapochnik

bad good think television

Whatever project I sign up for, I try to familiarize myself with the material as much as possible before I start.

Miguel Sapochnik

whatever try start myself

I think that being a Wildling is essentially about surviving the cold, and in that department, the extras on our shoot excelled and needed no help from us.

Miguel Sapochnik

help being think cold

Once you have a blueprint down, you start talking to all the other heads of department to see if and how they can help to execute what you've imagined, and so things change and evolve. And then you have to make it work within the budget and time frame, so things change even more.

Miguel Sapochnik

you change work time

While most episodes have a beginning, middle, and an ending, finales on 'Game of Thrones' are just one ending after another after another, as each of the storylines needs to wrapped up or at least attended to in some way.

Miguel Sapochnik

ending beginning game way

Each creative choice you make has 'x' many impacts on budgetary choices, which in turn have 'y' many impacts on your subsequent creative choices. They feed each other.

Miguel Sapochnik

choice you choices creative

I have a tendency to feel a bit embarrassed when approached, but it's such a thrill to know that you did something that people enjoyed so much. It's an even bigger thrill when they talk to you about ideas that you worked so hard to get in there, and they single them out as reasons they enjoyed it so much.

Miguel Sapochnik

feel you people ideas

Piano is unique in that way: it can be both percussive and haunting.

Miguel Sapochnik

both piano unique way

I must admit, I don't try to put my stamp on anything; it just happens. I don't really know how to think another way.

Miguel Sapochnik

try think know way

I've learned more about directing from five years of television than I could have in ten years of film.

Miguel Sapochnik

ten-years more television years

I realized I loved working in television as well as film. Besides, if I hadn't been forced to look for work in TV, I'd never have gotten to work on 'Game of Thrones.'

Miguel Sapochnik

loved game look work

In a nutshell, directing 'The Gift' was all about understanding how the complex machine that is 'Game of Thrones' works.

Miguel Sapochnik

gift how game understanding