LA Con update (may contain spoilers)
Even though I'm in the middle of moving, have a very limited budget, do not like crowds and am generally not a people person, I decided to go to the Creation Salute to Supernatural this weekend. So I figured since I went to the trouble of prying into my budget, coming down here, paying for internet connection, and randomly stalking people, I might as well share some highlights.
There are some mild spoilers for end of S3 and S4 in Kripke's panel. You've been warned. They've been whited out, so highlight to see.
First off, the vendor's room is rather pathetic. 6 tables total, one for Team Winchester, and 3 are Creation's official merchandise tables. C'mon, you can do better than that. I did get a mug and a shooter glass though. Later I won the trivia contest and got a poster, a banner, and another shot glass, and a $50 gift certificate to get more stuff. But since I can't spend it in the auctions or on tickets, I have no idea what I'm gonna do with it. Eh. And the MC dude seriously just loves the sound of his own voice. Someone take away his microphone. But the girls from Team Winchester are made of complete awesome. I think I went back and talked to them 3 times. They're good and very passionate, and just plain fun.
The first panel with Fredric Lane was awesome. He came out singing Sympathy for the Devil, the YED version (which I got on vid). Good voice, and he totally rocked the black leather jacket. He talked about being on LOST, how he got to spend 3 weeks unconscious on a beach in Hawaii, which was great until he actually had to do it, with the sand and scorpions and whatnot. More about the hard yellow contacts he had to wear, and how he got around set and acted when effectively blind. Talked about managing to keep acting for 30 years (partially b/c he doesn't know what else he could do), and what were some roles he really remembered, like Con Air or an old movie with Michelle Pfeiffer, and a fan mentioned a horror MoTW where he was killed by a yellow eyed giant octopus. O_o Talked about how he's made the niche of being cast as the evil bad man now, and he rather enjoys it, even though he doesn't get the girls as much anymore. He was very funny, very engaging and gracious, even when fans were saying how hot his voice is. At the end of the panel, he said he actually has had a supernatural experience, growing up in New Jersey. There's a legend about a railroad guy at the junction, and you can see him and see his lantern. So he and his friends went out to go commune with the spirit. When he started describing how the light broke up into all these shiny orbs, that's when someone asked if they'd been smoking something. Anyway, changed their lives -- one of his friends became a Jesuit the next day, and now goes around the world to hunt down and chase away demons.
Later, during the Jason Manns panel I ran into Fred Lane in the vendors' room, and got to talk with him a little bit. He's nice, down to earth, and rather short. I'm 5'5"-6", and he's maybe a couple inches taller. He's awesome, loves the fans, loves how loyal we all are.
The breaks in between with the fan-made music vids and the trivia contest were fun, although honestly, I was hoping for harder questions when I was up there. Then I felt really bad for the next panel, 'cause they got pounded with the nitpicky questions. They had some cool stuff up for auction, but really it only made me bitter about the amount of disposable income the Gold weekend fans have. C'mon, who can really spend $400 for the tickets, $300 for the hotel room, $250 for the flight, then another $150 for a banner? Good lord. My starving college student self is glaring darkly from the shallow depths of her empty wallet.
The Chad Lindberg panel was interesting, but at the same time I almost felt bad for the guy. They gave him nearly 40 minutes for his panel, and people just didn't have a lot of questions for him. He was in 4 episodes of Supernatural, and he also talked about The Fast and The Furious, and a bit about October Sky, Buffy and the X-Files (1 episode each), and how he'd like to be on LOST, or work with Edward Norton. The best parts:
I got to ask him two short questions:
1) Is he planning on directing more episodes? He said yes, but because of the shortened season he wasn't able to get up to Vancouver for one of these last 4 episodes, so no directing credits for S3. However, he is going to be slated to direct in S4.
2) Because of the early S4 pickup, how much of a bitch of a cliffhanger is he going to leave us with? He said they're writing it right now, and that if he gets everything he wants in the episode, it is going to be a massive bitch. He wants to leave us gnashing our teeth and clenching our fists and basically tortured all summer. But whether they'd known if they were getting picked up or not, he would have done the same thing. Basically, he confirmed what a magnificent bastard he really is.
Other things:
Afterwards, got to talk with lots of lovely people while waiting for autographs with Kripke. He was signing for everyone, free. LOVE HIM!! (Although the head shot was a bit funky.) One lady worked as a PA on Ten Inch Hero, so she had some really fun stories about Jensen, including the time he delayed his return to set by buying a round of beer for the crew (so he could finish his lunch), and the one time she saw him blow up (at her, b/c she was the messenger with bad news). She's no doubt blogging about the con somewhere. Amazing people to talk to in line and around. We're all crazy, but we're good about it. Re: Kripke, I got him to sign my "You know you're a Supernatural addict when . . ." poster, a copy of the first SPN magazine, and the back of one of my Get Out of Hell Free cards (because I could!!) And I got my pic taken with him. He's adorable in person.
Since I'm not staying in the hotel tonight, I should go home and sleep so I can be back here bright and early. I'm not doing any photo ops, and the first panel isn't until 11:30, but I want to get good seats!!
There are some mild spoilers for end of S3 and S4 in Kripke's panel. You've been warned. They've been whited out, so highlight to see.
First off, the vendor's room is rather pathetic. 6 tables total, one for Team Winchester, and 3 are Creation's official merchandise tables. C'mon, you can do better than that. I did get a mug and a shooter glass though. Later I won the trivia contest and got a poster, a banner, and another shot glass, and a $50 gift certificate to get more stuff. But since I can't spend it in the auctions or on tickets, I have no idea what I'm gonna do with it. Eh. And the MC dude seriously just loves the sound of his own voice. Someone take away his microphone. But the girls from Team Winchester are made of complete awesome. I think I went back and talked to them 3 times. They're good and very passionate, and just plain fun.
The first panel with Fredric Lane was awesome. He came out singing Sympathy for the Devil, the YED version (which I got on vid). Good voice, and he totally rocked the black leather jacket. He talked about being on LOST, how he got to spend 3 weeks unconscious on a beach in Hawaii, which was great until he actually had to do it, with the sand and scorpions and whatnot. More about the hard yellow contacts he had to wear, and how he got around set and acted when effectively blind. Talked about managing to keep acting for 30 years (partially b/c he doesn't know what else he could do), and what were some roles he really remembered, like Con Air or an old movie with Michelle Pfeiffer, and a fan mentioned a horror MoTW where he was killed by a yellow eyed giant octopus. O_o Talked about how he's made the niche of being cast as the evil bad man now, and he rather enjoys it, even though he doesn't get the girls as much anymore. He was very funny, very engaging and gracious, even when fans were saying how hot his voice is. At the end of the panel, he said he actually has had a supernatural experience, growing up in New Jersey. There's a legend about a railroad guy at the junction, and you can see him and see his lantern. So he and his friends went out to go commune with the spirit. When he started describing how the light broke up into all these shiny orbs, that's when someone asked if they'd been smoking something. Anyway, changed their lives -- one of his friends became a Jesuit the next day, and now goes around the world to hunt down and chase away demons.
Later, during the Jason Manns panel I ran into Fred Lane in the vendors' room, and got to talk with him a little bit. He's nice, down to earth, and rather short. I'm 5'5"-6", and he's maybe a couple inches taller. He's awesome, loves the fans, loves how loyal we all are.
The breaks in between with the fan-made music vids and the trivia contest were fun, although honestly, I was hoping for harder questions when I was up there. Then I felt really bad for the next panel, 'cause they got pounded with the nitpicky questions. They had some cool stuff up for auction, but really it only made me bitter about the amount of disposable income the Gold weekend fans have. C'mon, who can really spend $400 for the tickets, $300 for the hotel room, $250 for the flight, then another $150 for a banner? Good lord. My starving college student self is glaring darkly from the shallow depths of her empty wallet.
The Chad Lindberg panel was interesting, but at the same time I almost felt bad for the guy. They gave him nearly 40 minutes for his panel, and people just didn't have a lot of questions for him. He was in 4 episodes of Supernatural, and he also talked about The Fast and The Furious, and a bit about October Sky, Buffy and the X-Files (1 episode each), and how he'd like to be on LOST, or work with Edward Norton. The best parts:
- That scene in Simon Said, he really was naked when he came to the door. Jared and Jensen could not keep a straight face. Best prank ever.
- He doesn't know if Ash is really dead. C'mon, a watch?! Ask Kripke about that, and can Ash come back.
- He wanted to see Ash make it out on the road, do some hunting, be a real Dr. Bad-Ass.
- He'd love to see Ash come back and rescue the boys. If Ash had a favorite weapon, it'd be a bow and arrow. He acted out how he'd pop up to save them with his awesome archery skills, which was hilarious. Someone will have vid.
- He got to drive one of the cars in The Fast and the Furious (heavily supervised). His was the slowest.
- Ash was originally written as more goofy and drunk and psychic, but it just didn't work. Chad made him more serious and believable.
- His favorite line? "All business up front. Party in the back." Rocks the mullet, but wouldn't grown one himself -- too itchy.
- Was Ash the "Roadhouse connections" Gordon mentioned in Hunted? (Kripke said later that no, it was another hunter who they ended up dropping the scenes for, b/c it really didn't matter.)
I got to ask him two short questions:
1) Is he planning on directing more episodes? He said yes, but because of the shortened season he wasn't able to get up to Vancouver for one of these last 4 episodes, so no directing credits for S3. However, he is going to be slated to direct in S4.
2) Because of the early S4 pickup, how much of a bitch of a cliffhanger is he going to leave us with? He said they're writing it right now, and that if he gets everything he wants in the episode, it is going to be a massive bitch. He wants to leave us gnashing our teeth and clenching our fists and basically tortured all summer. But whether they'd known if they were getting picked up or not, he would have done the same thing. Basically, he confirmed what a magnificent bastard he really is.
Other things:
- His favorite curse is fucking shit. And once we said he could curse, he did. Like a sailor. I love him.
- When he was growing up, he wanted to be a fish. Then a stop sign. Then at age 9 he saw ET, and wanted to make movies.
- No, Malleus Maleficarum did not show witches in a good light, but he's not going to try and rectify that. SPN shows everyone in a bad light, and Sam mentioned specifically that these were dark witches, not your everyday Wiccans. Not PC, but he don't care.
- The lighting in S3 was an experiment, a deliberate effort to differentiate between normal life and scary things, to make the scary moments more tense. He's not entirely convinced it worked.
- Someone asked about a bodyswap episode. He said it's been pitched before, it's an interesting premise and might be fun to see, but was very noncommittal about it actually being done. Same thing with a SPN movie -- he'd like to do it, but doubts it will happen.
- The strike affected the mytharc, because in losing 6 episodes they lost mostly standalone eps. They bumped Sam's storyline and the demon war to S4, and S3 is going to finish out Dean's deal.
- Jared and Jensen haven't expressed interest in directing an episode, probably because they already work their asses off.
- Kripke likes Bela, thinks she's badass, said that she's coming back for 1 more ep this season, one more thing would be revealed about her to tie her into the mythology, but that she'd never been a redeemed character.
- The WB is still unconvinced that a compilation CD would sell, despite Kripke's efforts, so he's trying to get iTunes to make a canon soundtrack list.
- He'd love to have Led Zeppelin on the show, but it's way too expensive and they're very picky about what they're associated with. AC/DC and Quiet Riot, OTOH, love the show.
- He loves it when the guys ad lib, but the director's do it too, and in his opinion, Phil Sgriccia is the best at it. He's directing the next episode, Ghost Facers, and apparently a good portion is ad libbed and will be kept. In fact, there are no cameras; they shot the whole episode on handheld camcorders, which creates a very wacky episode. (Ed and Harry from Hell House are back!)
- He loves the kids in A Very Supernatural Christmas. He loved Ridge Canipe, who they first saw as young Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. And he was worried about young Sam, especially the scene where he cries after Dean tells him the truth, but it played out very well.
- The show is only 38-40 minutes long while others are at least 45 because of the budget. They don't have a huge budget, they always go over, so once word comes down from Vancouver that they're overbudget, Kripke is the one who gets hassled about cutting it down. So one of the first things to go is the music (explains the relative lack of classic rock this season), along with scenes and SFX. So out of a 50 page script, they cut it down to 46 shootable pages just to keep within budget constraints.
- S3 DVD extras -- big documentary about Ivan Hayden and the special effects, scene commentary (not episode commentary), don't know about Jensen's audition tape.
- Ben is not Dean's kid, although the idea of Dean/Lisa is something that might be (way far away on the distant horizon) in the future.
- Dean's eyes bled for a reason in Bloody Mary, and Dean's amulet has a bit of extra mojo that the boys probably know. Neither has been explained yet, but might be later.
- Both Gordon's and Henricksen's storylines were shortened because of actor availability. Sterling K. Brown is a regular on Army Wives, and Lifetime said SPN could have him for 2 more times, then never again. So they killed him off. Originally there was a storyline about Gordon leading the posse after Sam b/c he killed another hunter (while possessed), but that wasn't going anywhere so they dropped it. Charles Malik Whitfield booked a series, so he's gonna be too busy, so they killed Henricksen.
- Mary's story was moved to S4, but they will explain how and why she knew the YED. Kripke would like to go back and explore John and Mary's characters when they were teens, so that could be interesting.
- LILITH -- she's going to be a mix of pagan and biblical mythology, the main points being a destroyer of children and a seducer of men. She will show up in the season finale, as that 10 year old girl we saw in Jus in Bello.
- The boys' love for each other, their willingness to die for each other, is both a strength and a major character flaw. Because they can, it means that sometimes they do. John's deal with the YED in IMTOD to save Dean's life set up a whole domino effect, where they're really going against nature and thus things keep getting worse and worse.
- His favorite scene to direct in WIAWSNB was the end warehouse scene with all the characters. He wanted to do all these fancy camera set ups, but in the end kept it very simple to let the actors play it out for full emotional impact.
- Kripke believes that Dean is the hero of the story and it's really about him. Sam may be the Joseph Campbell hero, with the prophecy and destiny and psychic powers and whatnot, reluctantly dragged along in what appears to be a larger plan. But then you have Dean, who doesn't believe in destiny, doesn't have faith, is very pragmatic, but he keeps fighting anyway. He uses tools, but doesn't necessarily believe in what's behind them (rosaries, holy water, Christo, etc.) My fave quote? Kripke on Dean: "Fuck this prophecy shit. You're my brother and I love you."
Afterwards, got to talk with lots of lovely people while waiting for autographs with Kripke. He was signing for everyone, free. LOVE HIM!! (Although the head shot was a bit funky.) One lady worked as a PA on Ten Inch Hero, so she had some really fun stories about Jensen, including the time he delayed his return to set by buying a round of beer for the crew (so he could finish his lunch), and the one time she saw him blow up (at her, b/c she was the messenger with bad news). She's no doubt blogging about the con somewhere. Amazing people to talk to in line and around. We're all crazy, but we're good about it. Re: Kripke, I got him to sign my "You know you're a Supernatural addict when . . ." poster, a copy of the first SPN magazine, and the back of one of my Get Out of Hell Free cards (because I could!!) And I got my pic taken with him. He's adorable in person.
Since I'm not staying in the hotel tonight, I should go home and sleep so I can be back here bright and early. I'm not doing any photo ops, and the first panel isn't until 11:30, but I want to get good seats!!