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NDY2 Creative Media ProductionUnit 6: Critical Approaches to Media Products

Tutor: Jim DohertyStudent: Natasha Curry

Developing Responses to Media Products

Game of Thrones

Throughout this assignment I will be looking at the hit TV series Game of Thrones. I will be looking at the shows genre, narrative and representation.

Content Analysis/GenreGame of Thrones is a unique piece of work. It was first created by George R.R Martin and began as literature, a book series called ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. In 2006 David Benioff and D.B Weiss acquired the rights from George R.R Martin after HBO green lit the show for production. In 2007 Game of Thrones began production, Benioff and Weiss were hired to produce and write the show with the exception of one episode per season that would be written by Martin. Despite going into development in 2007, the pilot episode was not aired until 2011.

The book series and their TV adaptations derive aspects of the their settings, characters and plot from pinnacle events throughout European history. One of the principal inspirations behind the book series is the English War of the Roses, the war was between two houses Lancaster and York, and this is evident in both the book series and TV adaptations through the conflict between houses Lannister and Stark. In both the books and TV adaptations the inspiration behind most of Westeros is derived and inspired by High Medieval Western Europe, with the design of the castles and the knightly tournaments.

The genre of Game of Thrones is a mix of various genres. The series and the books are a mix of Historical, Medieval, Fantasy and Drama genres. This is evident through the historical inspirations behind both the shows and books, the medieval costumes and acts the characters wear and carry out throughout both formats, the Fantasy and Drama aspects come from the presence of Dragons, Direwolves and the love interests and conflicts between the houses.

Game of Thrones has been known for its high budget with each episode costing between $5 and 10 million, the first season alone reportedly cost between $50 and 60 million, with the sixth season being reported to have had a budget of $100 million. HBO’s reasoning behind the high budget production was to give the books the best adaptation possible, thus drawing in a wider audience, than that of the books. Due to the high cost of CGI in

Task 3: Developing Responses To Media Products

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each episode the presence of Dragons was initially supposed to be 3 episodes per season, however due to budget increase the Dragons are present in a minimum of 5/6 episodes per season. With the large budget and strong storylines Game of Thrones has become popular with audiences worldwide, this is shown in the table below.

Mise-En-Scene This refers to all of the recognisable attributes of a film or TV series, this includes: the actors, setting, costumes, make-up, props and all of the other natural or artificial attributes that characterise the spaces being filmed. Throughout Game of Thrones the mise-en-scene could be considered a little overwhelming, this is due the amount of things used throughout each scene. Game of Thrones is known for the historical style costumes and intricate prosthetic make-up used for the White Walkers, its historical/medieval settings such as castles and battle grounds, the props used throughout the show include medieval style swords and weapons, the actors help portray the authentic historical/medieval feel of the show and the Dragons, Direwolves and White Walkers used throughout each of the episodes give the show its overall fantasy feel.

SemioticsThis refers to the study of signs and symbols and their uses or interpretations. Game of Thrones uses Symbolism throughout each episode, from the sigils of houses, to the interpretations of actual historical events. As mentioned above one of the main inspirations for both the show and the books was the English War of the Roses, a war that had taken place between 1455 – 1485, the war was between two houses Lancaster and York, this is interpreted throughout the show in the conflict between houses Lannister and Stark. In both the books and the TV series ‘The Wall’ is often talked about and seen throughout certain episodes, this is a symbol of conflict, in that the wall was built to protect the realm from White Walkers also known as the others and Wildlings, ‘The Wall’ was inspired by Hadrian’s Wall a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia built in 120AD during the reign of emperor Hadrian.

Throughout the show we see symbols known as house sigils, these are used so the audience can tell the houses apart. Each house’s sigil represents where the houses are from, their beliefs, and animals that once roamed westeros near the houses region or things each house has been compared to, for example:

House Stark’s sigil is the Direwolf known to roam in the north and believed to be extinct, until a litter is discovered in the woods near winterfell and adopted by the Stark Family, The Direwolf was also known as a symbol of winter, meaning the Stark’s sigil accompanies their house motto ‘Winter is Coming’.


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House Lannister’s sigil is the Lion this is due to the Lannister bloodline having blonde hair and green eyes, also due to their house motto being ‘Hear Me Roar’.

House Targaryen’s sigil is a three headed dragon this is due to the Targaryens owning dragons, is was believed that they had become extinct also, until the final episode of season one when three dragons are hatched and in the possession of Daenarys Targaryen, the sigil also accompanies the house motto ‘Fire and Blood’.

Hadrian’s Wall The Wall, Game of Thrones

House Stark’s Sigil House Lannister’s Sigil House Targaryen’s Sigil

Distribution The producers and distributers of Game of Thrones have various ways in which they can distribute their product. In order for creators and distributers to reach a large audience Game of Thrones is distributed on Television, DVD and Bly-Ray and has even had a 3 episode screening in select IMAX cinemas worldwide. With the growing popularity of Game of Thrones, various Blu-Ray collectors editions have been released, this helps the show make more money from distribution, these collectors editions include each season being released with a collectable statue and the latest collector’s edition being Steelbooks with each steelbook having a section of the Game of Thrones logo printed on the spine meaning collectors most collect each season in order to make the full image. These collector’s editions entice fans of the show buy multiple copies of each season, in order to have the most collectable and valuable item within their collections.


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AudienceThe original target audience for the Game of Thrones TV series adaptation was those who read and loved the books written by George R.R Martin, however due to advertising and word of mouth the shows audience grew in numbers. It was determined that the show would be most popular with Males between the ages of 18-35, however numbers of the audience demographic conducted by ShowBuzzDaily 2014-2015 show that the show was most popular with Males aged between 30-34.

If we also look at the shows statistics we can see that it has become popular with a female audience, 42% of the shows overall audience and 50% of all social media activity regarding the show is from women. Game of Thrones has an average of 4.8 million viewers per episode, 2 million of which are women.

Narrative Structures Game of Thrones is known for having a multi-strand narrative, meaning the show follows the lives of various characters throughout each episode. The show flows in chronological order, meaning it has a linear narrative, we do witness a few flashback throughout the show which show certain characters histories and we also hear stories of characters that have been killed before the point in time in which the books and show begin. Each episode is known to end with a cliff-hanging action sequences, that will not be explained or finished until the next episode airs, this means the endings of each episode can be seen as open endings.

RepresentationGame of Thrones is known for its select representation of certain ethnicities, for example in the show the most predominant enthnicity would be Caucasian, a few of the characters are Hispanic, a few members of the cast are black, a few are bi-racial and a small number are Arab. The show does not represent anyone of Asian ethnicity. This being said the show represents those of other ethnicities other than Caucasian as either slaves or slavers; few of them are represented as being from rich families.


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While the show does not represent ethnicities as diversely as it should, the diversity of female and male characters is evident throughout, the show is known to have both strong female and male lead characters, however the female characters are regularly disregarded by the male characters and seen as being weaker, unable or unworthy to rule the 7 kingdoms.

I feel that the shows representation of ethnicities could be better, despite being set in a medieval time. I also feel that the show represents both men and woman equally despite the way women are regarded by male characters, the female characters are still of equal amount to that of the male.

ConclusionThroughout this assignment I have learned that while the target audience for a show or film may be determined as predominately male this can change and the show or film can in fact have a large female following. I have also learned that Game of Thrones is one of the highest budgeting shows currently on TV and that the reasoning behind this is because the creators want to give the books the best adaptation possible.

I feel that the show needs to work on their representation of different ethnicities. I also know from research for this assignment that Game of Thrones uses a significant amount of symbolism throughout each episode.

I feel that by doing this assignment I have gathered a better understanding of how Game of Thrones is made and the reasoning behind each of the writers decisions throughout.

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