Miguel Sapochnik

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The shift for me, after spending a long time trying to take existing projects and bring them to fruition as a director for hire, is going back to where I started as a self-generating director. After trying and failing to get so many things made, I have decided that you've just got to do something you really, really love.

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.

Music is my second love.

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.

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.

I love the humor of 'Monty Python.' I always remember being so impressed by how violent 'Monty Python' are, actually, when you look at what they do. Terry Gilliam has a great way of kind of proposing violence.

Sci-fi's great, but you don't have to hit people over the head with it when you're making a social comment. It just inherently exists within the fabric of the story.