Unlike the characters on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Huw Parkinson is a real person — Huw being a Welsh spelling of Hugh. But when Parkinson put Donald Trump into a “Thrones” video, he got some unreal traffic on YouTube.
“I’m astounded at all the attention this video has been receiving,” Parkinson told MyNewsLA.com on Tuesday.
A video editor for ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corp.), Parkinson says an early video called “Seinfeld in Parliament” (various characters from that sitcom causing havoc in the Australian Parliament) was his previous most popular creation. It topped 800,000 views.
We chatted with Parkinson via email.
MyNewsLA.com: How long did it take to collect the Trump clips and create the video?
Huw Parkinson: Most of the clips were from recent debates, speeches or interviews, so it didn’t take all that long to collect. The harder part was trying to find which clip would work with which moment from the 50 plus hours of the show – and then cutting that down to make a cohesive story over a couple of minutes.
What prompted you to create “Winter is Trumping”?
The original idea was to play with all the U.S. primary candidates – and “Game of Thrones” seemed to be very fitting as you have all these characters fighting each other and strategising to take the advantage and win the titular game of thrones in whatever way they could.
The whole thing just felt like a pretty simple hyperbolic analogy to an election campaign. It was an especially good fit when you consider you even have a few family dynasties which would work well with the Bush and Clinton family names.
But the concept was too big for me, and was becoming a behemoth. Gradually the idea was whittled down to just being about Trump, I found more moments to connect him with the show than anyone else. So I decided to just keep it focused on him and fun with that idea instead.
Have you been to the United States? If so, when and where?
Yes I was in New York a couple of years ago. My friends and I occasionally run an event called Jafflechutes where we parachute toasted grilled cheese sandwiches from rooftops and balconies to customers waiting below. We did a few drops in New York and Montreal back in 2014. I had a lot of fun there and would love to go back and see a bit more of the country.
What software did you use to make “Winter is Trumping”?
The whole thing is made using the Adobe Creative Suite. Most of the tricky effects work is done using After Effects.
Have you heard from anyone in the Trump campaign?
No, I haven’t heard from them. I hope they like it.
Have you heard from HBO?
I haven’t heard from HBO either. I hope they also like it.
Any concerns about violating trademark, copyright or other HBO rights?
Copyright law and Fair Use exemptions are not really black and white, so there are always some concerns, but honestly they’re mostly just with YouTube’s troublesome automated copyright system and policies.
The videos are quite transformative and are clearly made for parody and satirical purposes so the Fair Use exemptions in the copyright laws of both U.S. and Australia should provide a bit of protection in that regard.
Ultimately I can’t tell what HBO thinks of this, but I would hope they find the fun in it. It’s very much a labour of love from one of their many millions of loyal fans.
What’s your next project?
We’ll see. Most of my videos are focused on Australian domestic politics, but every now and then I like to turn the focus onto the world stage instead. It’s so hard to guess what’s coming up. You never know who is going to say what ridiculous thing in front of a camera.