When academics go to Hollywood!
Last night’s Supernatural, First Born, was so jam-packed full of action, adventure, angst, plot twists and episodes of nail-biting OMG NOOOOO screams at my poor abused television, that this morning left my head still spinning. Waking up the day after a new SPN episode bursting with thinky thoughts and eager to see what everyone else thought is the way the early seasons of Supernatural were for me – this is not the first time in Season 9 that I’ve felt exactly the same way. How awesome is that?
Binge TV watching is the preferred method of viewing for many people now that it’s fairly cheap and easy to inhale an entire season (or 2 or 3 or…) of a show. It’s the way we watched Season 1 of Supernatural, after watching only sporadically when it was broadcast. There are certain benefits to binge watching – no commercials for one, and you don’t have to sit through an entire summer hiatus biting your nails and worrying about whether Dean will get out of hell. On the other hand, that anticipation, agonizing though it may be, is part of the thrill that comes from loving a Show. Once we were hooked, we became fans who planned their social lives (and sometimes family lives, but shhhh) around whatever night and time Supernatural aired.
We’ve been in love with this Show and part of this amazing fandom for eight years. It’s been eight years of incredible highs and more than a few painful lows, but – improbably perhaps — we’re still here. Still in love with Supernatural and still grateful to be part of the best fandom in the world. So we wanted to take a few minutes and say thank you.
Happy Halloween, SPN Family! We loved this week’s episode – it felt like the quirky, zany, fun episode that we needed after the heartbreak of last week’s episode. We were swept along as the story played out, laughing sometimes and gasping at others, and though it wasn’t really scary, there was enough suspense to keep us on board as we went along for the ride. And really, a story about Oz and the Wicked Witch? Perfect for Halloween!
One of the best things about a con in Vancouver, a Supernatural fan’s version of Mecca, is that the show is made right there. That means you can take fan pilgrimages to past filming locations (and current ones if you’re lucky), and catch up with some of the talented people who make the show so awesome — Supernatural’s fabulous actors, producers, crew and writers.
Know what’s great about fandom? We all do it differently. That’s never so obvious as on the morning after a new episode of Supernatural has aired, and we’re all scouring the internet for reviews and recaps, and weighing in with our own (wildly divergent but always passionate) opinions. If you read widely enough, you can find someone who loves every little thing about an episode and is practically expiring from the squee – and then you can find someone who loathes the exact same little things and is on the verge of self-combusting with rage. “It was awesome, Dean and Sam were themselves again, OMG!” “How could they slaughter the characters like that, WTF?” Reading review after review can give you a bit of whiplash after a while.
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We were lucky enough to join a small group of fans at last weekend’s Supernatural convention in LA for a ‘private Q&A’ with Jared and Jensen. Private is a relative term – it’s not like we were having alone time with the boys, alas. But talking to someone sitting right across from you, without an intervening microphone, is a lot more informal than asking questions in a packed auditorium with security flanking both sides of the stage, so this was fun – and an excellent opportunity for some more Fangasm questions!
Both of our set visits in Vancouver have been strange, surreal experiences – albeit for very, very different reasons. (Have you seen The Wizard of Oz?? Yeah – something like that.) One thing that stayed constant through both times though, was the generosity of dozens of people who did not have to be generous or take time out of their crazy busy schedule to accommodate us of all people. Perhaps we’re too cynical, but it still amazes us.
Even now we’re a bit bewildered that Serge Ladouceur was kind enough to share his thoughts and give us behind the scenes insights on things like this gorgeous image among others.
See what else Serge has to say . . .
In December of 2008, we made our first set visit to (finally!) interview Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. As soon as we arrived, though, we were welcomed with open arms by everyone in this tight-knit crew. And we do mean everyone – PA’s, lighting crew, the great people in the props and costume departments, Production Designer Jerry Wanek, and Serge Ladouceur, Director of Photography, came over to introduce themselves to us. During our twelve hours in fangirl heaven, we were quite overwhelmed with how wonderful everyone was. (And frankly a bit confused considering the strange, arduous and often embarrassing road we’d traveled to get to this point.)
As we waited for Jensen to film his last scene of the day (the scene in “Sex and Violence” in which Dean is driving down yet another dark stretch of road, alone, having a cell phone conversation with Sam) Serge came over to explain what we were about to see. Think Dean was really alone? Not even close. There were about fifteen people clustered around the Impala working lights and other effects. Think he was really driving down a lonely stretch of road? Wrong. The shot was filmed entirely on the sound stage. And the movement of the car? Well, that was the movement of one very strong man with a 2×4 wedged underneath the back bumper, pressing up and down on it to make it look as if it were moving. It was an amazing team effort and smacked of the “magic of Hollywood”. Afterwards, Serge asked if we had any questions.
Ummm . . . Yes!!!
The next time we were back in Vancouver in February of 2009, we sat down with Serge in our hotel bar. (Note to anyone who decides to conduct interviews in bars – bad idea!! We’ll explain why in the next part of the interview.) His remains one of our favorite interviews – the man is gracious and thoughtful and quite generous with his time – especially when you consider that they had been filming all day and we didn’t start the interview until about 10:00 pm. Two hours later we were still chatting. We thought we’d share a few excerpts from our interview with Serge here. As fans, we’re fascinated by how our favorite show gets made – so we thought some of you might be as well.