William Simpson, the artist behind the storyboards for the entire Game of Thrones series, will be joining the High School Junkies, a bunch of filmmakers based out of Sri Lanka, live for a discussion titled “Sketching Westeros” on 5 February at 8.30 p.m.
Commenting on the impressive feat Simpson has achieved, High School Junkies Founder Akash Sunethkumara said: “The fact that he storyboarded an entire series and is also the lead storyboard artist for Game of Thrones is very respectable.”
He said that Simpson was in part responsible for designing some of the dragons, white walkers, which are famous for being some of the biggest concepts in the series.
Sunethkumara also noted that Sri Lanka does not generally put that much effort into pre-production, adding: “High School Junkies, for example, puts over four months of work into pre-production.”
This event will be the first time High School Junkies would be interviewing a storyboard artist and a personality that has experience with comics as well. Sunethkumara commented that Simpson is someone who has worked on many graphic novels, along with his other films. With Game of Thrones, he has worked with multiple directors while still maintaining the same consistency and coherence across seasons.
“We are very excited to have him on board with us. He has a very unique perspective in the film industry and we’re thrilled to see what he has in store for us. These guys are top of the line. They create content seen all over the world,” Sunethkumara said.
He described developing storyboards as immense productions, commenting that this is the kind of stuff that he as a filmmaker personally looks up to and respects, as they always go through the proper standardised process for filmmaking.
Sunethkumara observed that some people are Academy Awards winners, which speaks for their work as well as their work ethic. “What I hope filmmakers get out of this event is that there is so much that goes into the process of telling a story. Not just through camera, but through production design, colours, and music.”
He added that Sri Lankans needs to be aware of the process that goes into making this kind of content. Every single department goes very deep down into characters and story, but some of the work they put in, “we might never notice.” It goes to show the craftsmanship and collaboration that takes place behind such an art form, he elaborated.
Sunethkumara also noted that Sri Lanka doesn’t necessarily have that many film schools, and schools that do exist have local teachers only, which can sometimes mean that a narrow range of techniques is taught. He said these live chats hosted by High School Junkies are a way to bridge perspectives between Sri Lanka and Hollywood.
Describing the importance of storyboarding, Sunethkumara noted that storyboards are the first visual representation of the screenplay – the first time words are translated into a pictorial format. This pictorial format serves as the basis for the next few processes that follow. “From a directorial standpoint, this is the easiest way to portray what your vision looks like. If you explain it verbally, people formulate different images, but if we show a sketch, no matter how badly drawn, it’s clear what is in the director’s head.”
He added that film sets are about helping directors achieve their visions and storyboarding saves time and helps get all departments involved in the film on the same page, for what follows and precedes each shot.
Commenting on storyboarding for a feature film versus a TV series, Sunethkuara commented that this is likely based on the complexity of the materials being produced. “I would imagine that storyboarding for TV might be a little more difficult, but I have never worked on a TV series; it’s possible that episode by episode it may get easier,” he said, adding that it is all about converting words into images and visually translating a story.
With TV, one would be working with a lot more people, including multiple directors, which may be challenging because every director has their own vision, and you have to maintain the same visual theme throughout. Sunethkumara also added that for a personality like Simpson who worked on all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, he assumed Simpson would find a way maintaining his own sense of consistency and style throughout the series, a question he hopes to pose to Simpson during their live chat.
Sketching Westeros takes place on Saturday, 6 February at 8.30 p.m. through the High School Junkies Facebook page.
