Hypable spoke to the folks behind Ask Westeros, a Game of Thrones parody offering advice for life in (and out of) the Seven Kingdoms.
Ask Westeros, a new parody webseries by the gloriously geeky folks at Not Literally Productions, debuts today on YouTube. Following in the footsteps of previous series Ask Hogwarts and Ask the Doctor, Ask Westeros poses questions of life, love, and miscellany to the characters of HBO’s Game of Thrones.
As one might expect, the answers offered by the Starks, Lannisters, Targaryens, and the rest, may not always be practical (or legal) but they are always hilarious.
Hypable spoke with Not Literally’s Ginny DiGuiseppi and Dana Ritterbusch about Game of Thrones, and the excitement and challenges of producing Ask Westeros.
Hypable: What attracted you to Game of Thrones?
Dana: It’s hard to nail down what exactly attracted me. I know I was hooked in a big way within the first two episodes and promptly went out and devoured the books. It’s the first fandom that’s got me hanging out in fan forums so the devotion is pretty intense. I’m a sucker for a good epic story.
Ginny: I didn’t start watching immediately, but rave reviews from friends got my interest quickly. Honestly, who can turn down a show frequently described as “Lord of the Rings, with boobs”? I was probably only about ten minutes into the first episode when I knew this would be a new addiction.
Who are your favorite and least favorite characters?
Dana: God, how do you even pick a favorite? I love Arya and Tyrion, as most do, but I also have major soft spots for Jaime and Sandor Clegane, the Hound. There are so many characters that have amazing development through the books and I’m beyond excited to see how that plays out in the series. As for characters I dislike, I’ve never been crazy about Theon in the show or the books and I’m very much looking for Joffrey to eventually get punched by karma.
Ginny: I love Arya, and Margaery has become a recent favorite. Daenerys is on-again, off-again for me because sometimes she’s so frustrating. And obviously Tyrion is the best. As for least favorites… do we even need to name Joffrey, or is that too obvious? And I wish Theon would die already. I am so tired of watching him get tortured.
How will Ask Westeros differ from your previous series, Ask Hogwarts and Ask the Doctor?
Ginny: Ask Hogwarts started as such a tiny little production! It amazes me that it gained so much traction. We would often write, shoot, and edit an entire episode in an afternoon. It had a starting production budget of like… $8. For the fabric backgrounds. Ask the Doctor was very experimental for us – we’d never done anything solely featuring a guest star, and we had to cram filming into such a short period because Matt was traveling so far. We’d also never done a series that rode on a single person.
But Ask Westeros, to be honest, is a completely different animal. I would say it’s one of the biggest productions we’ve ever done, including major music videos. The cast was massive, it was the first thing to be written by a team, there were a million sets… it’s been a huge challenge pulling it all together, but I really think it’s on a wildly different scale than any of our previous series, and I think it’s going to be well-received!
Were there any new challenges in creating Ask Westeros?
Ginny: Oh, a million. Right from the beginning of the conceptual stage, I knew I wouldn’t be able to write it alone. I worked together with the talented and hilarious Blake Smith to write Ask the Doctor, but I knew I’d need more than just one partner to get this monster written to be as funny as I knew it had the potential to be. Working with a team was a new experience, but I would be lying if I said it was challenging. It was amazing, and fun, and I loved every bit of it.
Costuming for this was a bear. It would never have been completed, let alone look as fabulous as it does, without our costumers being as enthusiastic and talented and generous with their time as they all were. Every single costumer went above and beyond. It’s overwhelming.
And casting was extreme! We’ve never really “cast” anything the way we cast this. There were video auditions, we had to send out sides… it all felt very professional, haha. I can’t see how we possibly could’ve ended up with a better cast, though.
Editing this was a major challenge as well! I was used to knocking out episodes of Ask Hogwarts in under an hour, but the first episode took me a total of almost seven hours to finish! Luckily I have a streamlined process now and further episodes are looking more like three hours apiece. (Phew!)
There were all sorts of small challenges, too… I really wanted Drogo’s answers in subtitled Dothraki, but I didn’t think I could do it accurately enough just by referencing resources and learning as I went. Luckily my awesome, nerdy friend Amudha already knew Dothraki and did all the translations!
If you could ask George RR Martin or the showrunners one question, what would it be?
Dana: I would love to ask GRRM what in the world is keeping him from finishing the next book. The suspense is killing me. I might actually die.
Ginny: Aside from begging them to give Sansa Stark a moment to shine, I wouldn’t want to ask anything, really. I’d rather let plot elements unfold organically than just know the answers.
Check out more of Ginny and Dana’s work – including their Game of Thrones music video, “A Character I Used to Know” – at their website, Not-Literally.com.
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