ComicCon Saturday, part 1: the SPN panel
God, I'm such a geek. I actually sat through the two panels that preceded the SPN one just to make sure I had a decent seat. The Laurell K. Hamilton talk would've probably been great if I actually cared (I read a couple of early Anita Blake books years ago, and liked them okay but felt no compelling urge to go out and read more). The Family Guy panel was actually really hilarious. They showed clips from their upcoming season opener, which is a Star Wars with all the FG characters as Luke, Leia, Han, etc. It was pretty damn hilarious, and the Q&A that followed was also quite funny. Stewie as Darth Vader rules.
I managed to scramble to a slightly better seat after each panel, so I ended up in the fourth row of the middle section for the SPN panel. My geek-fu is strong. Stalkery and obsessive, but strong.
Jared wasn't there, boo-hoo. Apparently, he was up till 6AM filming and missed his flight. I'm starting to think I was exceptionally lucky to have been at Paley '06, which is one of the few times that Jared was scheduled to show up and actually did. Peter Johnson wasn't there either; don't know what his excuse was. So we got Kripke, Jensen, Ben Edlund and Sera Gamble, with Craig Tomashoff (from TV guide) moderating. Kripke and Edlund did the majority of the talking, being the most hyper of the bunch. Jensen looked obscenely hot, and Sera looked very pleased to be sitting next to him.
They started off by screening a short "script to screen" documentary about the making of AHBL2, which is going to be on the DVD set. Lots of interviews with everyone talking about, basically, what a bitch that episode was to film. The original script was much more complicated and filled with expensive set pieces. There was no way they had the time and budget for that, so Kripke cut it down to that one showdown in the graveyard. JDM wasn't available during the filming of the episode, so they had to film his bit six weeks in advance. Then it turned out that Jared's bit in that scene needed to be totally re-shot, so they had to have him do it with a blue screen. I suspect that goes a long way toward explaining why we got no dialogue between John and Sam in that scene.
They also showed a compilation of clips from the first two seasons that was basically a music vid set to some soundrack music from Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Heh, I just knew Kripke would turn out to be a Robert Rodriguez fan.
My notes are crappy, but here are some of the highlights from the panel, to the best of my recollection.
On the new characters: They want to keep expanding the SPN universe and giving the boys new people to interact with.
Jensen (melodramatically): Anybody but Jared, for crying out loud!
Kripke was once again very insistent that Ruby and Bela are not being brought in to be girlfriends for the boys, and are mainly there as antagonists. There will be some sort of plot reveal about Ruby in episode 2. The character of Bela was created by Ben Edlund. She appears to be a thief/mercenary type. It doesn't sound like Bela and Ruby hang out together, more like they're separate characters with separate storylines, but that was just the impression I got. No one said specifically if they're partners or not.
On the existing characters: Bobby, Gordon, Ellen and Hendricksen are all coming back. Sera said that Gordon was one of her favorite characters, then added rather gleefully that all sorts of bad things are going to happen to him. She is such a fangirl. She also said that the new season would explore Bobby's character a lot. I think she said we'd get back story on him, but I'm not sure if I heard that right, since the audience was clapping and cheering for Bobby pretty loudly at that point.
On season 3 storylines: Kripke casually mentioned that Sam isn't having visions any more now that the YED is gone. All the psychic kids other than Sam are dead. There will be follow-up on Mary's possible connection with the YED. What will Dean do now that he has a year to live? Jensen: "I think it's pretty obvious what Dean would do, and he plans on doing lots of that."
Some funny discussion on how much it sucks to be Sam and Dean, and wouldn't it be nice to have an episode set in Hawaii sometime (cue me giggling). Jensen said he'd been pushing for a "demon surfer" episode, but nobody listens to him.
Eric: "You can't have a horror show and have nice things happen."
Jensen mentioned having just finished shooting a scene where a little boy runs up and hugs him. So more Dean interacting with kids, yay!
From the audience Q&A: No current plans for more Wee!chester flashbacks, mainly 'cause it's so hard to get JDM these days. Jensen really wants some, though, 'cause he likes the extra time off.
Kripke wanted to do a soundtrack CD, but WB weren't interested because there's already a ton of classic rock compilations out there, and they didn't think there's an audience for another one.
Asked about pranks on the set, Jensen described how Kim Manner had the boys film a scene in a sewer, had them both climb down into a small, enclosed tunnel set, then dumped about fifty gallons of water on them. Eric added that the cameras were rolling during that prank, and it's going to be on the DVD gag reel. Wet boys, yay! Jensen said that he and Jared never prank each other anymore, having decided that it's better to join forces against the crew.
Jensen on the logistics of filming Jared interacting with short guest stars: if you didn't make them stand on a box, the camera would be right up Jared's nose and no one would want that. *shuders dramatically* (My immediate thought: oh, kroki_refur would totally want that!)
The panel ended before I had a chance to ask a question, boo! I was going to settle last season's biggest fannish controversy by making Ben Edlund spell Hendricksen's last name, but no luck.
Afterwards, I went down to the WB booth in the exhibit hall to see if there was any chance of getting on line for the signing and having the boys sign my copy of Weekly World News, but you needed a ticket just to get on line and of course there were no tickets to be had by that point. Oh well.
I managed to scramble to a slightly better seat after each panel, so I ended up in the fourth row of the middle section for the SPN panel. My geek-fu is strong. Stalkery and obsessive, but strong.
Jared wasn't there, boo-hoo. Apparently, he was up till 6AM filming and missed his flight. I'm starting to think I was exceptionally lucky to have been at Paley '06, which is one of the few times that Jared was scheduled to show up and actually did. Peter Johnson wasn't there either; don't know what his excuse was. So we got Kripke, Jensen, Ben Edlund and Sera Gamble, with Craig Tomashoff (from TV guide) moderating. Kripke and Edlund did the majority of the talking, being the most hyper of the bunch. Jensen looked obscenely hot, and Sera looked very pleased to be sitting next to him.
They started off by screening a short "script to screen" documentary about the making of AHBL2, which is going to be on the DVD set. Lots of interviews with everyone talking about, basically, what a bitch that episode was to film. The original script was much more complicated and filled with expensive set pieces. There was no way they had the time and budget for that, so Kripke cut it down to that one showdown in the graveyard. JDM wasn't available during the filming of the episode, so they had to film his bit six weeks in advance. Then it turned out that Jared's bit in that scene needed to be totally re-shot, so they had to have him do it with a blue screen. I suspect that goes a long way toward explaining why we got no dialogue between John and Sam in that scene.
They also showed a compilation of clips from the first two seasons that was basically a music vid set to some soundrack music from Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Heh, I just knew Kripke would turn out to be a Robert Rodriguez fan.
My notes are crappy, but here are some of the highlights from the panel, to the best of my recollection.
On the new characters: They want to keep expanding the SPN universe and giving the boys new people to interact with.
Jensen (melodramatically): Anybody but Jared, for crying out loud!
Kripke was once again very insistent that Ruby and Bela are not being brought in to be girlfriends for the boys, and are mainly there as antagonists. There will be some sort of plot reveal about Ruby in episode 2. The character of Bela was created by Ben Edlund. She appears to be a thief/mercenary type. It doesn't sound like Bela and Ruby hang out together, more like they're separate characters with separate storylines, but that was just the impression I got. No one said specifically if they're partners or not.
On the existing characters: Bobby, Gordon, Ellen and Hendricksen are all coming back. Sera said that Gordon was one of her favorite characters, then added rather gleefully that all sorts of bad things are going to happen to him. She is such a fangirl. She also said that the new season would explore Bobby's character a lot. I think she said we'd get back story on him, but I'm not sure if I heard that right, since the audience was clapping and cheering for Bobby pretty loudly at that point.
On season 3 storylines: Kripke casually mentioned that Sam isn't having visions any more now that the YED is gone. All the psychic kids other than Sam are dead. There will be follow-up on Mary's possible connection with the YED. What will Dean do now that he has a year to live? Jensen: "I think it's pretty obvious what Dean would do, and he plans on doing lots of that."
Some funny discussion on how much it sucks to be Sam and Dean, and wouldn't it be nice to have an episode set in Hawaii sometime (cue me giggling). Jensen said he'd been pushing for a "demon surfer" episode, but nobody listens to him.
Eric: "You can't have a horror show and have nice things happen."
Jensen mentioned having just finished shooting a scene where a little boy runs up and hugs him. So more Dean interacting with kids, yay!
From the audience Q&A: No current plans for more Wee!chester flashbacks, mainly 'cause it's so hard to get JDM these days. Jensen really wants some, though, 'cause he likes the extra time off.
Kripke wanted to do a soundtrack CD, but WB weren't interested because there's already a ton of classic rock compilations out there, and they didn't think there's an audience for another one.
Asked about pranks on the set, Jensen described how Kim Manner had the boys film a scene in a sewer, had them both climb down into a small, enclosed tunnel set, then dumped about fifty gallons of water on them. Eric added that the cameras were rolling during that prank, and it's going to be on the DVD gag reel. Wet boys, yay! Jensen said that he and Jared never prank each other anymore, having decided that it's better to join forces against the crew.
Jensen on the logistics of filming Jared interacting with short guest stars: if you didn't make them stand on a box, the camera would be right up Jared's nose and no one would want that. *shuders dramatically* (My immediate thought: oh, kroki_refur would totally want that!)
The panel ended before I had a chance to ask a question, boo! I was going to settle last season's biggest fannish controversy by making Ben Edlund spell Hendricksen's last name, but no luck.
Afterwards, I went down to the WB booth in the exhibit hall to see if there was any chance of getting on line for the signing and having the boys sign my copy of Weekly World News, but you needed a ticket just to get on line and of course there were no tickets to be had by that point. Oh well.