Tony Reali provides the scoop on Around The Horn intro tribute to Game Of Thrones
Around The Horn often provides a window into pop culture beyond its focus on sports discussion and debate.
Witness the creative way ATH celebrated 10 years on the air in 2012 with Beatles-inspired opening artwork. Host Tony Reali also once famously recreated the memorable Copacabana scene from Goodfellas.
“We love to acknowledge the shows we love,” Reali said.
Reali and the ATH crew were showing the love again on Friday, March 29 when they paid tribute to the third season debut of HBO’s popular Game Of Thrones series. As seen in the video above – which took about eight weeks from concept to completion – the show’s panelists and Reali own keys to the kingdom in what they affectionately dubbed Game Of Horns. Reali discussed the show’s latest creative effort with Front Row.
“Our intention was to build it and post it on our show’s YouTube page as a kind of mental and technical exercise that maybe somebody would get a kick out of seeing,” Reali said of the video, which is approaching 40,000 views. “When producers Aaron Solomon and Josh Bard saw the finished product, they thought it’d be cool as the ATH show intro, even though it was a full minute longer than our normal intro . . .”
Who produced the intro?
Chris Gavin — who was behind the camera for the Goodfellas Studio Tour and has been in the video room for just about everything we’ve done for the last 2-1/2 years — pitched the idea. I drew up the original storyboards, which you can see here. Kirk Reid of roomtonefilms.com provided all the animation through a computer programming system called Carrara. Somehow, someway he and Gavin were able to navigate all the 3D modeling and establish city skylines, Cowboys Stadium, the Empire State Building, etc., out of thin air.
What’s been the reaction to the Horn’s tribute. Have you heard from HBO?
Some of the best comments have incorporated quotes from the show, like: “Those are some brave men and women knocking at our door. Let’s go Mute them — Tyrion Reali.” But the absolute best comment was, “Looks like Horn just blew their entire graphics budget.” Ding! Ding! Ding! I heard from a somebody who knows a somebody that HBO loved it, but that’s all I heard.
Which Thrones character do you relate to the most and why?
Not sure because at any moment, anyone can get their thorax ripped off by a White Walker and I like to live my life as presently, biologically designed. I’ll say this, it’d be cool to have Tyrion Lannister on the show. He’s always got the perfect line to end the conversation. And if there was Thrones character who could wield the mute button it’d be him.
