Afi Life Achievement Award Puns

Did anyone get the Florida bit? Why would they call the movie "wake up"?

https://youtu.be/hgT707uizYI

The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff would be the guests of honour at an upcoming Life Achievement Award Gala celebrating their contributions to visual storytelling and the art of the ‘Don’t Show, Don’t Tell’ technique.

 

While most screenwriters are familiar with the ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ technique, the less well-known ‘Don’t Show, Don’t Tell’ technique promotes the art of off-screen storytelling. So audiences aren’t actually able to see or hear what happens.

 

“We are absolutely delighted to receive this award,” said Benioff. “We didn’t want to do something cliched, so we thought ‘how about instead of storytelling, we choose to not tell a story?’ And everything just clicked into place after that.”

 

“Obviously it is very gratifying that our unorthodox script has been recognised for the ground-breaking piece of art that it is, but I can’t help but feel a little guilty about it,” admitted Weiss. “Once we decided to not show anything to do with consistent character behaviour or narrative it really did make our jobs much much easier. We had become tied up in knots thinking of how to convey Arya and Sansa’s reactions to learning Jon was a Targaryen. But, by applying ‘Don’t Show, Don’t Tell’, we didn’t have to worry about that anymore. When everything can be hand-waved away, it gave us the freedom to come up with more ways to make a mockery of military strategy or to ignore Ghost . If we had to include scenes that provided character depth, then we would never have come up with the idea of Tyrion wandering around pushing chairs in. If we didn’t have that scene, I guarantee we wouldn’t have got an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing.”

 

Benioff outlined how they pushed the technique to the limit: “It wasn’t just having action, conflict and conversations off-screen, we also wanted to include examples of there being literally nothing. So we didn’t want Arya to ask about Rickon, Hodor or Maester Luwin on-screen or off-screen, instead we wanted her to not ask about them at all. Similarly with Daario, Meereen, Quaithe and what Varys heard in the flames. We just never mentioned them again. I think audiences have been exceptionally receptive to our commitment to taking risks in this regard.”

 

A spokesperson for the American Film Institute said: “what we were drawn to most was Tyrion’s dialogue near the end of the show when he says ‘what unit