Another GOT team member visits the real Kings Landing
William Simpson, main storyboard artist for Game of Thrones visited Dubrovnik on February 11, 2016. The man in charge of turning the director's vision into the initial comic strip version for visual reference, Simpson has also contributed to the concept design of various things in the series, such as creature design for the dragons, dire wolves, and particularly the Three-eyed raven.
While he was a guest of the 25th Comic strip festival in Herceg Novi, Simpson expressed the wish to finally visit the locations in which Game of Thrones were filmed over the last few seasons. After the tour, he relaxed in restaurant Mimoza and when asked whether he's enjoying Croatian food he answered: "I think my empty plate says it all".
We wanted to know how he got involved with the production of Game of Thrones: „ I did their initial concept art before I was officially hired, At the time I was working on the movie Your Highness at the time when I was approached by one of the producers. I asked him what the series was about and he told me he couldn't tell me. I wanted to know at least something in order to start working on some basic sketches and he told me it's a medieval fantasy story so I said, ok, I'll give it a shot. So, I was basically told to draw some castles, wolves, scary headless creatures and all I had to go on were tiny excerpts from the book, no title, just a few sentences that were supposed to be turned into the very first visual content. I kept working and sent a huge folder of drawings over to the US and before I knew it the producer came back to me and said I was hired. Seven years later I am still the main storyboard director“. Simpson said.
„ All the weapons you see in Game of Thrones“ are my creation: the needle sword, longclaw sword and, of course, the Ice. I created the visuals for white walkers and the three-eyed raven and then I started working on the dragons. Producers told me what they wanted and didn't want to see in them until we got the exact representation of their full meaning in the Game of Thrones. We started as a small team and now I am working with 5 directors each filming two episodes per season and they all come to me with their visions“.
After the tour of Dubrovnik and of course, a pint in the Irish pub, he finished his tour of the city and returned to Herceg Novi to prepare for his presentation.
