<P> Weiss also spoke about the concluding Winterfell sequence, saying that once Sansa finds Arya's collection of faces and is confronted, Sansa was intended to start to see Arya as "a real, physical danger to her," and that they wanted to translate that fear to the subsequent episode, in "The Dragon and the Wolf". </P> <P> "Beyond the Wall" was directed by Alan Taylor . This was Taylor's seventh episode as a director for the series, but it was his first episode since the second season, where he directed that season's finale episode, "Valar Morghulis". He was also a director for two episodes in the first season, "Baelor" and "Fire and Blood", as well as three other episodes in the second season . Since his hiatus from the series, Taylor was a director for several big budget Hollywood films, including Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys . In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Taylor spoke about the differences between his earlier stint with the series, and his return for the show's seventh season, saying he was previously told to avoid using green screen, and thus special effects, due to the budgetary constraints that the series had in its earlier seasons . However, with "Beyond the Wall", he was able to fully utilize visual effects to create the large environment, dragons and armies due to the increased budget . He also described the experience as "going full circle," having witnessed the evolution of characters such as Sophie Turner as Sansa and Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, who he directed when they were children, and that they have since grown up . </P> <P> Many of the scenes leading up to the battle with the White Walker army were filmed in Iceland, but the majority of the episode's battle sequence was filmed in a quarry in Belfast, Northern Ireland . Taylor had expected to film the sequence entirely in Iceland, but quickly realized that it was not feasible due to the amount of production that was required . In filming the wight polar bear attack, Taylor noted that the bear was designed by the New Zealand - based Weta Workshop, which previously worked on The Lord of the Rings trilogy . Richard Dormer, who portrays Beric Dondarrion, described filming the scene in a separate interview, saying "It was very cold, wet and physical . Hot as well, running around imagining a 12 - foot flaming polar bear . It's pretty weird, but it was fun ." Dormer also noted the difficulty of filming a flaming sword, revealing that the sword could only burn for two minutes at a time, and could not be swung too quickly, requiring Dormer to slow down his movement . He also said that the sword he was using weighed approximately three times more than a normal sword . Though the actors were dressed warmly for the scenes beyond the Wall, their suits contained a "tube system through which cold water can be circulated between shots using a portable pump to keep them from getting overheated," due to the actual warmth of filming on a fake set in Northern Ireland . This was also essential due to the possibility of Rory McCann's, who portrays Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, prosthetic makeup melting off his face . </P> <P> In another interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Taylor also spoke about the process of interacting with the lake and water, saying "every moment of interaction with water had to be a multiple stage process where we filmed the action on our 360 degree set and landscape, and then restage it against green screen with elements we shot in a dunk tank rig, and all of those elements get married together to form something as simple as a guy falling into the ice and plopping into the water ." Four to five different shots were needed in order to accomplish this portion of the battle . Taylor described working with Vladimir Furdik, who portrays the Night King, noting that Furdik is completely covered in prosthetics, and saying "He's just delightful . There's nothing he can't do . He's a full - on actor in that role, aside from being able to do all of the action and all of the horse work . He has a beautiful face--although you lose some of that behind the Night King prosthetics ." Taylor revealed that he had worked with Furdik previously, as Furdik was also a stunt performer on Thor: The Dark World . </P>

Where was the episode beyond the wall filmed