GAME OF THRONES

B&A WEB ARTICLE

Marc hom's game of thrones FINALE

Following Illustrator, Jeff Soto’s, Westeros artifact project with HBO and continuing B&A’s contribution to the final season phenomenon for the captivating television series, Game Of Thrones, comes Marc Hom’s latest collaboration with Entertainment Magazine.

Photographer, Marc Hom, is no stranger to the set of the series, having worked closely with the Entertainment’s editorial on four different series of covers since the show’s premiere. For each set of photographs he has taken of the cast, the number of images that become covers has grown, with this final project producing sixteen covers. Each cover features a different character, with the occasional pairing of intertwined characters. “No one has ever done 16 covers,” Marc states, cognisant of the magnitude of such a statement. “There was so much inspiration - the sets are amazing, the costumes are amazing. The way the show is made, everything around you is so unbelievably done in the Game Of Thrones world,” Marc continues, letting us in on the magic of being on set.

“The shoot itself was very well planned out,” the photographer explained. “There was no way to achieve that level of work with that big of a cast without having it planned to the minute, because you only have 15-30 minutes with each person. We did have to be very careful because we were shooting where the show was shooting, so we couldn’t show any blood or spoilers from the set. We had to think about our camera angles and focus away from areas where the show had been filming. It was a lot of teamwork,” he divulged. Even the notion of blood on set incites a familiar anticipation for the final season that is reminiscent of the outpour of emotion from loyal fans and followers over the years after a teaser or trailer is first released.

Marc revealed his process behind the shoot, which is surprisingly less focused on the final season than one would expect. “I’m never really much thinking of the script. I’m giving my take on it and looking at it through my own lens, as opposed to focusing on the script because then it’s not really my picture. That’s something I think about in all entertainment work. When it’s too controlled and too directed, everyone becomes too stiff. It’s fun for these guys to think about who they are underneath all that stuff. In the last shoot, we took them completely out of context and shot them in the trailers behind the scenes. I loved that because it took them completely out of character. You can allow yourself to have that freedom when you’re working with that are so well known because the characters themselves tell the story. They're so recognizable.”

“It’s always incredible,” he continued, wrapping up his overall feeling about the photoshoot production. “We usually shoot in winter, but this shoot was done in June of last year. It was a touching moment because this was one of the last times the cast would be shooting in their beautiful costumes. They were in the middle of filming with just a couple of weeks left. Kit was actually wearing that uniform for the last time when I shot him. It was a huge chapter of somebody’s life coming to a close, so it really was intense. We did 16 covers in 2 days with single portraits plus the big group picture. It was definitely a lot, but so expected, so worth it.”

B&A WEB ARTICLE

JEFF SOTO'S GAME OF THRONES

Great television shows spark cultural conversations and relevance that create lasting impacts in our society from The Sopranos to the now cultural phenomenon, Game of Thrones. To celebrate the show’s final season, artist Jeff Soto was among the eighteen talented artists chosen by HBO and given the task of interpreting one of the official show props. Given his experience painting on different canvases, Jeff was excited to elevate his work with the personal passion he felt for the project. “I've painted on shoes, cars, bottles, and all sorts of things, but this one was very special because I am a big Game of Thrones fan!” explained Jeff,  “I’ve watched the series twice, and, in fact, my whole family watches it. My brother has read all the books!”

Each piece holds its own significant relevance to the show’s history and plot, so it was important for the artists to understand and maintain that integrity in their re-creations. “I am a painter, so I didn’t want to physically transform the prop so much as breathe new light into the existing shapes using color. I used acrylic spray paint and brush paints. I focused on rich, saturated colors that were the opposite of dusty old bones.”

After Jeff spent time considering the brief and working out the concept for the dragon skull, the entire process took about a week to complete. The artist started by spray painting the entire skull to give the piece an underpainting base before working on the detail.  He completed the painting in stages to allow time to let the piece dry while carefully following the shapes and forms of the skull. In Jeff’s version, his signature use of color shines a striking contrast to the original.

Each of the eighteen pieces were unveiled this week, in celebration of the building anticipation for the upcoming final season. Viewers of the show and fans of the art are encouraged to create their own depictions of the props using the hashtag #ForTheThrone for a chance to be featured in the campaign. The project comes highly recommended. “Painting on a dimensional object can be a bit of a challenge” explains Jeff, “but overall, it was a really fun experience working on this piece.”