'Game of Thrones' production designer shares world-building secrets with Filipino filmmakers

From the fictional world of Westeros to Essos, Gemma Jackson, the production designer for the first three seasons of HBO's "Game of Thrones," shared how fortunate she felt to have crafted the grand and award-winning set designs for the show.

- CHARMIE JOY PAGULONG

It ultimately won her a Primetime Emmy Award for Season 2.

"'Game of Thrones' was a stand-alone kind of experience," began Gemma when asked by The STAR during a presscon on how she designed the massive set for the series. She was recently in the country for the inaugural FEST Film Lab workshop where she taught Production Design to Filipino filmmakers alongside her husband, Andrew McAlpine.

"I think it sort of changed television and I think it really pushed things on to another level. I was extraordinarily lucky to get that job," continued Gemma.

"It was a case of delineating all the different worlds, of creating this massive sort of labyrinth that it was. And I think the most important thing to begin with was just to establish the kind of terrain, if you like, and then it got more and more complex as people travelled off to all sorts of extraordinary places. But I think for you, the audience, to always kind of know pretty much whose story you were following and where you were."