HBO Exec Jay Roewe is helping drive television’s Golden Age—and strengthening the COM-LA connection
About an hour’s drive north of Belfast, Ireland, two rows of ancient beech trees have formed a gnarled tunnel above a country road. The Dark Hedges, as the picturesque formation is known, took two centuries to form—but just a few seconds to become world-famous. In the second season of Game of Thrones, Arya Stark, a key figure in the series, flees her home. Seated on the back of a horse-drawn carriage, she travels down the misty lane as the camera pulls back, dramatically revealing the trees. It’s a haunting, surreal setting that fits right into the fantasy series’ imagined world of Westeros.
A lot of creative decisions went into that scene, from casting and costumes to cinematography. But for HBO, the network behind the show, there’s another factor involved in selecting a location: tax credits for film and television productions. By the next year, the United Kingdom had begun offering such an incentive, meaning that for every dollar spent from the production’s Belfast headquarters, HBO would get a percentage back. That intersection of creative and business decision-making is where Jay Roewe, HBO’s senior vice president for West Coast production, works. He helps the network find the perfect setting for each show, then oversees the financial side of productions that vary from the quirky comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm to the sci-fi/Western mash-up Westworld. For Roewe (COM’79), making business decisions that put each show’s creative team in a position to succeed is the perfect challenge—and his success has also given him the opportunity to help connect College of Communication students to their dream jobs in Hollywood.
Jay Roewe (COM’79) appeared on the Proud to BU podcast to talk about “the importance of staying hungry.” Listen here or find the Proud to BU podcast on iTunes/Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher.