Adapting ASOIAF For the Screen...

[Maester Yobjascz]

After organizing the first season, I've narrowed down a few trouble spots.

How do you adapt Bran VI? Most of it is Bran thinking back to unrelated events of the past few days. Do you just string them together sequentially?

I don't think Bran VI would be that hard to pull off. GRRM writes it as a series of flashbacks and thoughts while Bran is praying at the godswood. I'd keep it that way. That he's headed to meditate/pray speaks volumes about the kind of character he is, and that he's doing it at the godswood emphasizes his Stark-ness. It also sets up the conversation with Osha about Robb heading the wrong way very well.

Keeping secrets. How do you do the conversation Arya hears in the tunnel? Do you hide that Mormont is a spy?

The focus in the tunnel scene is on the threat to Eddard. We're seeing this from Arya's PoV, and that's what concerns her... and it's pretty much the only thing she gets out of it. We should hear muffled whispers, with the bits of language that GRRM gave us as the only bits audible or clear enough to be understood. Even if the audience *doesn't* hear it, they'll get the gist of it again when Arya breathlessly (and confusedly) repeats the information to her father.

As to Mormont, I like the idea of keeping that hidden... even though readers of the book learn about it early in AGoT from Robert in Eddard II. However, this might depend on how much we want to focus on Mormont. If we want him to be a background figure (or if we don't have an actor we really trust with the role), then we keep it a secret, and thus put the audience in Dany's shoes when she finds out... our shock matches hers. *However*, if we want to increase Mormont's role, then we clue the audience in early... and we let the actor *show* Jorah's development from willing spy to would-be lover. At the end of ASoS, we see Dany's shock as *she* discovers Jorah's past, but as the audience, we associate with Jorah (like him, we've known all along), and we focus on the impact her anger and order of exile has on *him*.

Scenes with lots of extras. There are about three varieties. Scenes in King's Landing, scenes with armies fighting, and scenes with armies doing something else. For budget reasons we'd want to keep the number of extras low, but how?

I think MJS had it right. This series, like LotR and the Star Wars prequels, will have few problems recruiting extras. Beyond that, there's the miracle of computers. While LotR had *lots* of great battle sequences, they had relatively few extras. Perhaps a few dozen, tops... the rest were all CG. It's been several years since then, and by the time production starts, it'll be a few more... and the cost of doing such CG will drop further, and the relative quality will go up. If I'm worried about the battle scenes, it's because want them to be done well... and not to be a whirring hackfest that loses all sense of scope and distance.

Character thoughts. How much of what the characters think needs to be clear to the audience?

This is one of the most difficult issues of them all... and I don't think there's any clear answer; it's all on a case-by-case basis. Everyone here seems to have a different opinion on how much and with what methods. Personally, I think that we need to bring out most, if not all, of the characters thoughts. Not all needs to be done verbally... much can be insinuated through body language and facial expressions. But that doesn't get much further than responses and reactions. For the more complex thoughts, I think we need some combination of voice-overs, flash-backs, and thoughts re-written into monologue or dialogue. (Note that by 'monologue' I don't mean monologue in the theatre sense... but rather a snippet of language, even just a word or a single sentence, spoken to no one in particular... be it the character talking to himself, or talking to a favorite toy/item (I can see Sansa whispering secret thoughts to a small pillow embroidered with a figure of Florian the Fool, or Aemon the Dragonknight), or praying aloud, or whatever.) Whatever is done, it needs to be done tastefully and well... done so that it adds to the character.

[Michael Jon Snow]

Maester Y,

Your answers were far more eloquent than my own. :bows:

You had suggested earlier that for Cersei muttering under her breath might help convey her own arrogance and could be used to deemonstrate her slip into insanity. Initially her thoughts might be done in voice over or the occasional clever quip muttered under her breath, but as she becomes more and more irrational her muttering could become more frequent, less poignant and make less sense.

[Maester Yobjascz]

Verbose, maybe... Eloquent? I dunno 'bout that... thanks though.

I think your suggestion for Cersei's muttering is a good one... but at one point does she really start devolving? It seems to me that she starts out pretty nuts. The only thing that changes in AFfC is that we get her PoV, so we get a lot more time with her, and a lot more time inside her head. Was she really any less nutty in ASoS? Or ACoK? Even in AGoT, Cersei's definitely a strange one... though we only see her through Eddard's eyes; and around Eddard, Cersei's on her most controlled behavior... after all, she's in the presence of the enemy. By ACoK, she's still in the presence of an enemy (Tyrion/Sansa), but she feels that she has all the power, so she's more relaxed, and we see more of her true self poking out.

Thoughts?

[Michael Jon Snow]

We don't really have enough to go on to know how unraveled she is in GOT as we only see her through the analytical eyes of Ned and the nieve eyes of Sansa and Arya.

That would make for a more dramatic personality development for her to be quite rational early on and devolve into the batshit crazy lunitic we know and love.

As you point out, we don't see into her head until later, so there would be no opportunity to see inside her head while she was sane.

But if her mutterings progress from clever & witty to deluded & non-sensical, there can be a progression from Cersei the Queen to Cersei the Mad.

[Zulofritter]

Cersei seems like a blank slate for the first three books. Particularly in the first one, she doesn't have many lines.

Maybe I could have clarified this question some. I think all of the POV characters have thoughts that could become dialogue, even if it's things that they say to themselves. Arya talks to herself a little bit, and Tyrion as a character has a hard time keeping his mouth shut. How comfortable are we with having all the other characters talk to themselves from time to time, or saying things to others that might be too blunt or obscure for conversation?

There's also the flashback and voiceover problems, but for some reason these thoughts seem more important. Many of the great quotes come from these thoughts.

[Maester Yobjascz]

Well, my personal favorite: Tyrion's response to Oberyn's comment that he and Elia 'were as close as Jaime and Cersei'... "Gods, I hope not". I think this one would do fine if Tyrion simply stopped in his tracks for a second, and stared at Oberyn in horror/amusement, before catching himself and carrying on...