Color analysis of Game Of Thrones shows winter’s slow arrival

By Clayton Purdom | August 31, 2017 | 4:18pm

Aux Features Game of Thrones

As Mad Men rounded third base and began its final season, there was a rash of people staring agog at the subtlety of the show’s production design, much of it centered on one thing: Pete Campbell’s receding hairline. Even today, if you google “Pete Campbell” the word “hairline” pops up. There have been many similar slow transitions throughout the seven seasons of Game Of Thrones—the way the plotline can be seen through Daenerys’ wardrobe, or the way Bran gradually evolved into a composite image of all four Beatles—but this color analysis from Vox details how subtly the show’s cinematographers traced the descent from summer into winter. By capturing a screenshot every 10 seconds and then averaging out the color of the frames, they were able to deduce that the show’s brightest episode was its very first one, and that each season has measurably moved from warm, saturated colors to cool, desaturated ones. Expect the show’s final season to only be viewable via ultraviolet lamp, in other words. And maybe for Bran to start balding.