'Game Of Thrones' Featurettes Take Us Back To Westeros Before Season 8

We're only 20 days away from the final season of Game of Thrones, and HBO is easing us back into the fantasy world of Westeros with a pair of featurettes. Winter has come, and it has brought along these videos about the camera work and stunts of the biggest show on television.

Game of Thrones Featurettes

First up, here's an interview with Sean Savage, the "A" camera operator in the show's "Dragon Unit." Since HBO has been reluctant to officially reveal much about the eighth and final season, it's no surprise that this featurette is more of a look back at Savage's work from seasons past. In particular, there's a special concentration on "The Battle of the Bastards," which Savage affectionally calls "BOB." That's the show's biggest and most challenging battle sequence to date, but it's about to be blown out of the water by a massive battle the show has been building toward since its opening minutes: the living vs. the dead.

This featurette that interviews stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam doesn't show any new footage from season 8 either, but I found it more entertaining because of the subject matter. Don't get me wrong – the show certainly has beautiful cinematography, some of the best in television history – but frankly, that's not the true focus of that first featurette. I've heard the same stories about the Battle of the Bastards over and over again, but season 7's spectacular Loot Train attack is one of the absolute high points of the entire series for me, so any insight I can get into how that came together is much more valuable to me at this point. Seeing how Irlam's team had to suit up with all of those fireproof layers and even go as far as to wear masks that are designed to look like their own heads was illuminating, and I can't wait to eventually see how they upped the ante in season 8 when all is said and done and Podrick Payne sits on the Iron Throne.

Game of Thrones returns to HBO for its final season premiere on April 14, 2019.