Who Will Win the Game of Thrones? Ask our Screenwriting Students

Last year, a team of screenwriting students were tasked with every television writer’s dream assignment: to develop the final season of Game of Thrones. Kam Miller, Assistant Professor of Television, handpicked each student based on how their skills complemented the rest of the class. For instance, Jacob Levy had a particular talent for writing action scenes with adroit detail and voice. Brittany Spurlin, a recent graduate now working at Lionsgate, brought with her fluency in the fictional languages Dothraki and Valyrian.

But the one prerequisite? To have watched Game of Thrones in its entirety, and to have read the first novel in the series by George R.R. Martin.

Throughout the semester, the class would fervidly discuss possible theories and ideas. They analyzed the previous seasons – the storylines and character arcs, imagining how the cult-favorite series would end. And then they split off individually or in small groups, planning the outlines and eventually writing the scripts for each of the six, hour-long episodes.

Spurlin was thrilled to be in Professor Miller’s class, not only because she’s a loyal GoT follower, but because the class was run like an actual writer’s room, preparing her for a future career in film and television.

“I like to joke that Kam was our showrunner because she was always at the head of each discussion, at the helm making sure we’re doing the best work we could,” says Spurlin. “This goes above and beyond anything I’ve taken in the program, it’s very different from anything I thought I’d be able to do just because it’s so very hands-on.”

But how do you tie up eight seasons of such an expansive show – ensuring you’re staying true to the various plots and characters while ending in a way that makes sense in the Game of Thrones world? For starters, the class studied the elements of each scene in the seventh season nearly three times over the course of the semester.

“One thing we knew going into the final season, is people are going to have to die,” said Emily Raymond.

Early on, they unanimously voted on who would definitely survive, and who definitely wouldn’t. Everybody else was fair game.

“We knew it wouldn’t be a super happy ending, but it also wasn’t going to be death and destruction, your heart’s ripped out of your chest the entire time – only a little bit.”

With the help of BUTV10 production students, the screenwriting class was able to see their stories come to life on stage – with the added glory of experiencing an exhibition of the real Iron Throne, courtesy of HBO. This was surely not your average college class, and it's one we expect they won't soon forget.