“I've always agreed with William Faulkner—he said that the human heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about. I've always taken that as my guiding principle, and the rest is just set dressing.”
— George R.R. Martin
Sequence 1: Heart of Fire
This clip occurs near the beginning of my narrative and aims to reinforce the theme of the human heart in conflict with itself. The differences and similarities between extremes is something Martin works to highlight throughout the series, often through the extremes of hot and cold.
Music is an original composition by Garret Walton.
Sequence 2: The Cold Ones
One of Martin’s greatest qualities as a writer is his ability to make a story’s plot points and themes feel interchangeable. Is a character’s experience informing our understanding of the human heart in conflict with itself, or vice versa? A great fall can be used to represent both thematic and literal awakening; change and both the internal and external conflict it brings.
Animatic & Storyboards
This animatic represents my vision for Songs of Ice and Fire as a minute-plus animated narrative.
Music is “Reborn” by Colin Stetson.
My initial storyboard, below, helped me visualize the setting and overall narrative, though some ideas were eventually set aside.
Below is a second storyboard depicting the meat of the narrative, the projected “visions,” in more detail. A lot of creative decision-making occurred here when it came to what elements of the source material I wanted to depict and how.
I look forward to expanding on this project more in the future!