Game of Thrones storyboard artist Michael Derrah talks planning Season 6

It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a lot of filmmaking professionals to make a season of Game of Thrones. We’re familiar with some of the big behind-the-scenes names—David Benioff, Dan Weiss, Miguel Sapochnik, etc. But also in the mix are people like artist Michael Derrah, who storyboarded parts of the most recent season.

“Really, a picture is worth a thousand words,” Derrah said to Our London. “The storyboard is basically like watching the movie before you go out and make it with all the resources, it’s a quick way for the director to visualize what he wants to shoot with the cameras, as well as communicate with everybody instead of having to describe every scene.”

"Being obsessed with film, I got a good sense of the editing, cinematography, acting, and shot composition. When I was little, I was always drawing my own comic books or sketching, so my favourite movies always had a comic book vibe to them, and most were larger than life."

Derrah hadn’t worked on Game of Thrones before being brought on for Season 6, although he was a big fan. When he was asked to help out, he “had a total meltdown. I was freaking out — but in a good way.” You can see the fruits of his labors in “No One,” where Arya has her final confrontation with the Waif.

"I did a lot of extensive work on the chase scene . . . it was a pretty important sequence and really showed Arya coming into her own. It was incredible, but it was also such a surreal experience, it didn’t even seem like I was working at all. That was my first taste of Game of Thrones, but hopefully it won’t be the last."

Photo: Our London

Photo: Our London

Check out more of Derrah’s work here. Interestingly, these storyboards are different from the ones HBO has up on its Making Game of Thrones blog. Check out a sampling of those below.

I’m not sure if Derrah did all of these, or if HBO used multiple storyboard artists for the same scene. On a show as big as Game of Thrones, it’s certainly possible.

Will Derrah be back for Season 7? Notably, he got the Season 6 gig through director Mark Mylod, with whom he worked on Fox’s Minority Report. (That show was cancelled several episodes in, but we won’t hold it against him.) Mylod, who directed “No One” and “The Broken Man,” is returning to direct episodes of Season 7. Derrah could very well return with him.