A lot of film writers secretly (or not-so-secretly) want to be filmmakers. The thought of directing an entire film has always terrified me more than anything else, but I have always thought that creating films' opening credit sequences would be a phenomenally awesome job.

Some of the best opening credits I've seen in a long time—either in a theater or on TV—belong to Game of Thrones. Watch 'em if you haven't; watch 'em again if you have:

Art of the Title has an interview with Angus Wall, the creative director who spearheaded the titles, which breaks down how the sequence—which subtly change for each episode—was conceived and built.

Art of the Title: During the pilot stage, when you’re dealing with the maps that are throughout the show, had you gotten into the style that we see now in the final piece?

Angus Wall: No. In the beginning, it was very simple, nothing animating and everything very flat. One of the things we realized early on was that you couldn’t really tilt the camera up very far because it raised the question, what’s beyond the map? I kept thinking that if you had all the money and craftsmen in the world, and you could do whatever you wanted, what would you do? In my mind, you’d build the most intricate, beautiful map you could possibly imagine. You’d get the best craftsmen in the world, give them the materials they’d need and give them five years to make this crazy, working, super-detailed miniature.

So about the same amount of time that it takes Martin to write one of the books?

[Laughter] Exactly. Our goal was to try to replicate something that looks and acts like a physical object. Art Director Rob Feng referenced Leonardo’s machines which have a timeless sense of design. We wanted the title sequence to be rooted in world of the show, which is a technically unsophisticated place, but to also have a complexity that gives it life.

The whole thing's here. Thanks to Grant for the heads up!