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Sanctuaryfans.com was delighted to be at LondonExpo on Sunday 27th May when Damian Kindler and Amanda Tapping presented the world premiere of Webisode 2 of Sanctuary and answered fans' questions about the show.
Click 'Read More' to read the transcript in full. MC: I want you to give a massive London Expo welcome to Amanda Tapping and Damian Kindler!
[cheering]
Damian: Thank you!
Amanda: How many of you were here yesterday?
[more cheering]
Amanda: Ok great!
Damian: Well this will work much better then.
Amanda: Yess. Well, for those of you who were here yesterday, we think we've cleared some of the technical issues. We've got the lights turned off up above and they provided us with a couple of plasma screens. So we're gonna make a better go of it. To those of you who weren't here yesterday; forget what I just said. It's gonna be fabulous!
Damian: It still doesn't have its full effect. The way you should watch Sanctuary is with headphones on and your lights off, hunched over your computer and wondering if there's something behind you while you're watching.
Amanda: Now the first thing you're gonna see is our second websiode; the world premiere! But what we've done is we've kept some green screen elements in, and we've also put in some of the only half rendered pieces so that you can see the whole process. We didn't want to give you the fully finished version cause part of the whole process of rolling out Sanctuary is sharing this whole experience with you guys. So we wanted you to see where it starts, with a fully green screen set, and what it ends up as. Just so you get an idea of what we do.
Damian: You're gonna go "Hey there's a guy with a boom microphone!"
Amanda: Hey there's a guy with a microphone in the background!
Damian: We just want to show you a little bit of how minimalistic the shooting style is and what a gigantic, innovative job our computer visual effects team runs back in Vancouver. So we really appreciate you coming back, we hope it's better than first time we tried it.
Amanda: Hope you can hear it.
Damian: Hope you can hear it. If you want it louder you're gonna have to yell "Louder!". But I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for coming, we'll talk to you afterwards.
Amanda: Thank you!
[cheering]
[Webisode 2 is shown]
Damian: Thank you! That was better!
Amanda: Little bit.
Damian: That was great, it was cool. I want a couple of these for my house... [gestures to plasma screens] Thank you for watching that. You could see, with those really green moments I'm sure, just how much work goes into creating the look and feel of the show. Some things though, you can't computer generate, and this is one of them! So I'm going to let Amanda say a few words...
Amanda: Yeah so that was the first bit we wanted you to see.. in the bedroom when Will wakes up at one point the wall is sort of that green.. that's a half rendered moment. You saw how it was sort of shimmering and moving a bit; that's part of the rendering process so that's why we wanted you to see that. Um, we're incredibly proud and excited about this show and the way we're launching it, and part of the launch and the importance of it is your input. We want to build something that's not within the studio system. We want to be sort of anti-studio from here, whereby we're more accessible,the show we're making is more accessible and we understand the importance of online fandom and the social networking aspect of our show. So thank you to those of you who helped us with our beta testing and have been so forthcoming with your comments. Thank you so much... good and bad it means a lot to us and it's important that we hear it from you, so don't ever think that we're negating your contribution to all of this; it's all very important.
Damian: There's so many unique things about the show and the feedback.. I'm getting feedback right now! [gestures to microphone] One of the most important things about the show; because it exists only online at the moment.. and that may change, it may.. we are changing it; we're flipping the paradigm as they say. Instead of having a tv show that's recycled on the web; it lives on the web first and foremost and then it's recycled onto television and DVD. So for those of you who don't have broadband; who have dial-up, you can either borrow it... you know, burn it on a DVD from your friend and watch it or, eventually yes it will be released on DVD. It will, if all goes well, be on television sometime in 2008. But for now, the first 2 plus hours are only on sanctuaryforall.com and that is why the fan base, the online community, the sci-fi community who do live and breathe online are so important to the success, the continued success of the show. So that's why coming to events like this is absolutely vital to us; to get your feedback, to get your thoughts and hopefully we're living up to expectations and finding out what those expectations are.
MC: Right, if you have any questions that you'd like to ask then now is the time to do so. What we're going to ask you to do is put your hands up nice and high, keep them up where we can see them and we'll come around to you.. and then just fire away!
Audience member: Damian, how did you get the idea for Sanctuary? Is it because you are afraid of Bigfoot?
Damian: Yes! I admitted this in public yesterday; I was a little afraid of Bigfoot when I was a little boy so.. that went in to the.. it was basically born of wanting to see something different, wanting to have something that wasn't purely formulaic. You know, I think television follows cycles of; it's time for a cop show or a lawyer show, a lawyer cop show, a lawyer cop doctor show, a lawyer cop doctor doctor cop laywer doctor cop lawyer doctor type of show... I think that's one of the reasons Stargate was so.. spaceships! I think thats why Stargate worked well.. when it came out it wasn't trying to be anything other than its own conept. So I've been inspired by lots of different stories and... I love the X-Files,I love Frank Miller and Alan Moore... I think that sometimes sci-fi tends to play it safe, and when it takes risks, like I think Stargate and Atlantis do sometimes, the way Battlestar does sometimes, the way Buffy and X-Files did.. people come to that and really appreciate things that try to be different, that try to push boundaries, try to talk about issues that are a little edgy or at least try not to be formulaic. So it's almost like Sanctuary was born from what I was trying not to be as opposed to what I was trying.
MC: I've got a young lady here, very young. Do want to stand up here? What question have you got?
Audience member: If there was someone you'd like to work with who would it be?
MC: If there was someone you'd like to work with, who would it be, for both of you?
Damian: Amanda Tapping.
Amanda: Damian Kindler.
[cheering]
Damian: Good question.
Amanda: For real? I said this yesterday.. Meryl Streep, for real, and Dawn French. That's my sad confession!
Damian: For real? Amanda Tapping! Ah, you know...
Amanda: [funny voice] I meant Damian Kindler!
Damian: There's lots of people I'd like to work with. I love the people who make Sanctuary. I love working with Amanda and Robin.. Chris Heyerdahl, Emilie Ullerup.. Martin Wood is amazing! So, you know, I kind of feel like I'm living the dream. There really isn't... you know I feel like I could go down to Hollywood and work with the people that made some huge movie and go "Come on guys! Do it like Stargate does it! Have more fun!" So I feel like I'm working with exactly the right people. That's a great question.
Audience member: Would you ever think of making this into a film?
Damian: You know, yes! I actually was listening to a particular piece of music.. I listen to a lot of music.. not when I write but when I'm driving. There was just one piece of music I was listening to.. I think it was something off one of the Beastie Boys albums for some weird reason. I thought, you know what, if we ever do Sanctuary the feature.. I have a whole paranormal bank heist opening sequence.. with, like, Magnus making a deposit but she's after a monster... so yeah, I'd love a whole Sanctuary feature. It's in my head somewhere, I'd love the chance to do it!
MC: We'll start here...
Audience member: Hello! Um, I was thinking lastnight about the whole corset thing, and judging by dates...
Amanda: As you would!
Audience member: Being me! Um, given the dates, Helen would have been wearing a corset petticoat for over sixty years.. how on earth are her internal organs still intact?
Amanda: How is it that she's still alive?
[loud microphone feedback]
MC: We asked for feedback!
Amanda: She uh.. yeah, that's a good question! But she's a hundred and.. what did we decide she was? A hundred and fifty three? Yeah, a hundred and fifty seven! I'm lying about my age already! I swear I'm not a day over a hundred and fifty three! So how is it that she's that old? Perhaps it's the corsets...
Damian: Well you'll get to see Amanda looking fabulous in a corset in the second hour, when we have flashbacks to Victorian England. But I feel that Helen may have been the first one to invent a comfortable corset!
Audience member: What do you think about these two days and the fans' response?
Damian: The fan response... it's been.. flattering and overwhelming don't even cover it! I expected some fans to like it... I expected some Stargate people to go "Meh, no spaceships! No Stargate!" but overwhelmingly people have embraced it and liked it and it means the world to me cause the core sci-fi audience has to like it or it will not live. So I'm absolutely overjoyed, and being here has been amazing. I was saying to someone today, they're probably in the room, that for Sanctuary, coming to fan events is probably more crucial.. it is more crucial than a show that is a network show. We need to be able to interact with you on a flat level because you are.. you will either help the show live or you will help it die, it's simple! We need to know you.
MC: Ok we have a question from someone fresh from Gotham City by the looks of things. [audience member is dressed as The Joker]
Damian: Curse you Joker!
Audience member: How long does it take you to put the episodes together?
Amanda: Well it took us.. um.. we shot part of the show in July. We shot the bulk of it in January; it took us twenty days, which was an incredibly condensed shooting schedule. Had we done it... adding in th extra days; probably in total a month of shooting... and that was finished in January... and we've just now, in May, been able to let out the first 15 minutes. So it's a pretty intensive process and a lot of long, long days - eighteen to twenty hour days for the rendering guys and crew so.. in a perfect world, once we get the main sets rendered and, sort of a 360 degree angle on all of them, it's a lot easier to drop us into a set. But the initial start up is very time consuming.
Damian: A lot of that isn't rendering... it's building a company! Hiring people from Mainframe and Disney and Electronic Arts and these artists and these guys.. bringing them in and getting them the computer stations and getting them the software that they needed and all that takes time, and now we have a company.
Amanda: We've been really lucky that we've had a lot of international responses from digital artists and designers who have come to us from around the world asking to work on the show.
Damian: I didn't make this announcement yesterday, but Friday evening Sanctuary won a Guinness World Record!
[cheering]
Damian: Let me tell you what it is... biggest mistake! No, that joke's getting old fast... the award was Highest Budget Direct to Web Broadcast. So... which is great...
[more cheering]
Damian: So we were really honored. It really validates the fact that we are not just making a little home grown thing. We are really, you know, industry standard series work that is being put right where the fans want it. You know, you don't have to set your TiVo, your VCR, your personal video recorder; it's there for you whenever you want it and it's high def, and we're really proud of that.
MC: Ok, we have a question from this man here.
Audience member: Hi! Your character is a hundred and fifty seven years old, how much research did you do into the gruesome characters that were around in those hundred and fifty seven years?
Amanda: How much research have I done into her backstory? A lot! Um... part of the beauty of that is she was sort of a renegade and a bit of a maverick back in her own day. She was one of the first females, the only female to be supported by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons back in London and there actually was one woman back in Victorian England. She was a maverick even back then.. she wore her clothes differently, she wore her hair differently, she had a bit of an attitude! So the research I did into the time period was more on what she was up against than how she would at, because she bucked the system all the time. Then there's a lot of research into the different decades, but more than that it's how she's formed by the fact that she's lived this long. It's a lonely life. She basically watches everyone that she loves die. She watches them grow old and die, so the formation of relationships is kind of a tenuous thing with her because she knows that she's going to watch them age and die. So it's a very lonely, weird existence for her. But the reason I looked into the Victorian stuff was important just to establish her timeframe and where she came from. So I did a lot of research into that.
MC: Our next question is from a lady here.
Audience member: Hi! Being completely honest I'd never heard of Sanctuary until I came here this weekend and watching that I've just been completely hooked. I just wondered what made you want to put it on the internet rather than approaching big networks for it.
Damian: They're not savy enough to want it! No ok, that's a good question. I think there's a couple of reasons why. I don't want to be so black and white as to disparage the Hollywood studio network system, it's been very kind to both of us, but sometimes you just want to have complete control, and the internet provides that. It's not that I didn't want to sell it to Sony or whoever, but I don't need to.
Amanda: It's also about not wanting to homogenise the product. A tv show is different and it's edgy and at times it's violent and dangerous and at other times it's cheeky but to have more autonomy and control not only of the actual product but of how we made it and how the crew is treated and how there's sort of a level playing field. We just wanted to go on a different system and see if it would work, and.. now the networks are coming to us. Which is nice, cause they're interested so it's a sweet place to be.
Damian: Now, there's two things. One is; the sci-fi fan base exists onlie. Why should you have to leave the environment you live and work and play in to go to the television for one hour and then go back and start the chat rooms and the forums? Why can't you have your entertainment where you exist? That's one. The second thing is I think the studio would have said "Great, I love it, let's get Peterson to be the other doctor, or Barry Sinise. No, why can't Magnus be one? The issue of, Amanda said watering it down to the lowest common denominator is so unnecessary. The audience is very smart. They will understand the bold choice and respect it but it's hard to get that much support in the board room. Even if you know it in your heart because you live and breathe this culture.
MC: Ok we've got one final question from this gentleman here.
Audience member: Hi! I was just wondering how difficult everyone working on the show found it cause the set was almost entirely green screen.
Amanda: You actually get used to it pretty quickly, I mean all we had, as you can tell, in some instances was a doorframe, a door and a couple of chairs but Jim Bernard was our director of photography on the project. Literally he'd light firelight on our faces and lit sunlight coming through windows. He lit it so beautifully and we were able also beause of the process that we're doing, which is a completely different process, we were actually, as actors, able to see a direct feed from the camera into the computer that showed us a semi-rendered set. So we were able to see what the camera was seeing and put it directly into a computer; it's an amazing technology that's also cutting edge. But once.. after a while, after you get over the first 3 days of green screen headache, which you have -it's just so, it's like.. your hair kinda!- you get used to it, and it's all about the lighting. Plus, I have to say, and I'm going to blow a little smoke up Damian's bottom but.. when I read the script it was one of the best things I had ever read. When I saw the show without any of the elements and without any of the music, full green screen, no sound relay, nothing. I don't think they even had the colour correct when I saw a rough edit... I was blown away by the story, I was completely riveted, and I'm in it! And I said "Oh what happens next? Cool! Wow!" and my husband, who is not a sci-fi guy, loved it! He was totally... he wanted to know what would happen to these characters and what happened next, and that was with nothing. So at the base of it all is this really incredible story and that's the bottom line for us, that we want to tell everyone this story. I mean we're using all this new technology and yes we have green screens all the time and camera equipment and computer generated everything but at the base of it all is a good story. So as an actor as long as you have that, you can be working in a void and you have enough to work with.
Damian: Thank you all so much and I'm glad that you're here, that you're interested and enjoying it, that you're going on to sanctuaryforall.com. It means so much to us. This is the most important work I've ever done and being validated by people whose opinion is very informed and educated just means the world to us. So I just wanted to thank all the fans in the online community, thank you very, very, very much.
[applause]
MC: Ladies and gentlemen; Damian Kindler and Amanda Tapping! But before they leave, Damian would like to get a picture of all of you!
[cheering]
