Hype for the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones — arguably the most talked-about television show in recent years — has reached fever pitch around the globe.
In Edmonton, a group of high school students marked it with a music video of the HBO TV show’s iconic theme.
The song, by composer Ramin Djawadi, was performed by a group of Guitar 20/30 students at Edmonton’s W. P. Wagner High School.
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The students were directed by their teacher Jamie Burns and student teacher Shawn Gan.
“It’s something that’s been percolating in the back of my head,” Burns said, adding the ball got rolling two months ago when Gan arrived as a student teacher.
“He has a lot of experience with editing and video editing and doing that kind of stuff, so we put our heads together, rehearsed the kids for a couple of weeks and what you see is the result.”
Gan took over daily lessons, which Burns said gave him time to put together the musical arrangement.
“The music is fantastic, it’s got the nice medieval themes and I’ve heard some people playing it on guitar before — it actually lends itself really nicely to guitar,” Burns explained.
While the students normally perform before live audiences, Burns said his goal this year was to put together a music video.
The music was recorded Tuesday in a “very average carpeted classroom” with some microphones they recently purchased. Gan said they strove to get the audio recording just right.
“We had the kids become very perfectionist — so even the slightest bit of mistake, we had to do a retake, basically,” Gan said.
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He did the mixing and mastering of the audio, and then the following day the two men recorded the accompanying video in the school’s theatre.
“That took about a little over an hour, so it was pretty intense. We had a fire drill to start things off — that was not helpful,” Burns laughed.
Gan said he and Burns moved around among the students to capture video, while there were also stationary cameras and even one on a dolly.
Gan, who also edited the video, said he hopes the students take away from the experience how much work goes into a project like this.
“Even though it’s only a minute and 50 seconds long, that fact that we spent nearly two weeks to put this together hopefully gives them context as to where the music came from and also just respect the whole process of it and respect the art itself.”
READ MORE: A primer for those who don’t watch ‘Game of Thrones’
For those not in the know, Game of Thrones is an epic fantasy about the power struggle among warring houses, each looking to claim the ultimate throne — the Iron Throne — for themselves.
Set in a fantasy world, Game of Thrones appears to take place in a world similar to medieval Europe, but mystical phenomena like magic, dragons and people coming back from the dead is commonplace.
The Season 8 premiere is set to air on Sunday. There will be six episodes making up the season, with each longer than the usual 60-minute runtime.
WATCH BELOW: Global News entertainment reporter Chris Jancelewicz recaps the first 7 seasons of Game of Thrones, and talks about what to expect in season 8
With files from Chris Jancelewicz, Global News.
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