I chose to explore the writing work of Bryan Cogman, who is
known for his Emmy award-winning work on HBO’s Game of Thrones, which he has
written 9 of the 60 episodes throughout six seasons. Game of Thrones is a series that deals with a
wide array of personal issues through scores of different characters, but what
I am most interested in is the characters of the Hound (Sandor Clegane), his exclusion from their society and his
alcoholism as a result of the life he has lived, which are prevalent themes of
my film through the character of Derek.
Since the series is an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice
and Fire’, Cogman and the other writers’ have relied on pre-existing source material
to base their scripts on. However, in
the later seasons of Game of Thrones, the show has overtaken the novels in the
plot and thus seasons 5 and 6 have transitioned toward the showrunners working
out the direction of the show, allowing for more freedom in terms of dialogue
and action.
A show such as Game of Thrones portrays a plethora of
different characters and storylines in multiple locations, and so a great deal
of planning and cooperation is required to piece together a ten-episode
season. In an interview with Observer,
Cogman takes us through the creative process of planning out storylines,
writing and re-writing scripts, and how they may be very different or very
similar to the initial outline of the plot.
What makes Game of Thrones such a captivating and immersive show is how
there is such a vast story to be told, yet the writers are able to balance
interest between characters whilst not giving too much or not enough time to particular
characters, so we remain engaged in the story as a whole, without ‘turning off’
when your least favourite character appears in frame. This level of planning is what I think stands
out – the plot outline works as a strong foundation for the writers to go to
town on their own scripts to ultimately produce something that continues to
grab out attention whilst the context of what is happening is not lost. Therefore, I feel that planning out my plot
in detail before working on the script will be especially beneficial for making
an appealing story.
I was particularly interested in the episode ‘The Broken
Man’ from season 6, written by Cogman, which sees the return of Sandor Clegane
after being absent, seemingly dead, for almost two seasons. As the episode title suggests, Clegane is a
shell of a man, which is how I wanted to portray Derek in my film as he has
been shunned from society as a result of his alcoholism which roots from
tragedy in his life. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cogman compares Clegane to another character, Ray,
who appears for this episode alone – he draws on their histories of violence in
particular which has allowed them to find common ground, allowing for Clegane
to “open up” to Ray. Cogman has
developed the character from a broken and alone figure by giving him some
common ground with another character, allowing him to see life from a different
perspective. This is similar to the
relationship I want to create between Nick and Derek, as both of them will
develop and change as people as a result of a negative past, and empathising with
each other.
Bibliography:
Collins, S.T. (2015) Blood caffeine sex magic: How ‘game of
thrones’ gets written. Available at:
http://observer.com/2015/04/blood-caffeine-sex-magic-how-game-of-thrones-gets-written/
(Accessed: 26th October 2016).
Hibberd, J. (2015) ‘Game of thrones’ producer on the return
of [spoiler] and that cold open. Available at:
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/05/game-thrones-the-hound-interview (Accessed
26th October 2016).
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