New York, NY -- HBO tapped creative strategy and production company BigStar to create the promotional teaser for the highly anticipated third season of “Game of Thrones.” The promo creatively captures the theme "Their World Returns to Ours," with the show’s iconic raven of Westeros ominously soaring through contemporary real-world environments. Season 3 premieres on March 31, 2013.

Having worked with HBO for several years doing a majority of the promo work for “Game of Thrones,” BigStar Creative Director Josh Norton says the latest promo introduces an exciting new approach to intriguing fans about the upcoming season: 

“Our previous promo work for the series was typically highly stylized with epic production value. This go-around, HBO wanted to radically shift the direction to something more candid in nature and into the realm of cinéma vérité. Drawing from a successful tease we did a couple of years ago, they wanted to revisit the raven as an icon for the show and use it in a more modern context.”

In the promo, the raven plays the role of messenger in both a literal and metaphysical sense. Sight and sound unfold with a unique blend of story and juxtaposition. As the raven traverses through our modern world during desolate liminal hours, an otherworldly voice sings folkloric prose in a cappella. The final shot reveals the raven's omniscient third eye -- a portal into the spirit realm -- giving viewers a glimpse at what awaits in the magical world of “Game of Thrones.” 

BigStar began the project by defining the specific environments through which the bird would fly. Without being able to travel to HBO’s desired shoot locations, they recreated them using stock footage, still photography, 3D and compositing (After Effects and Cinema4D).

"Reshooting the environments in CG ended up being a much more economical way to capture the scenes,” Norton recalls. “We created rudimentary models to project the photography. This gave us the ability to move the camera 20 to 30 degrees, which made a world of difference. It’s all new photography and real places, which helped drive the concept of the raven visiting our present-day world.”