1998 Burbank Xena Con
Sunday 18 January
Excitement was running high on this second day of the convention...Lucy would
be with us later on. But before she arrived, there were other speakers
before us.
Brad Carpenter returned to give us some more
insights on the upcoming season and such. He showed us more still photos
from both Xena and Hercules . There is clearly
much in store on both shows, and it will be most entertaining to see
what come out on the TV screens.
The next speakers following Brad were RJ Stewart, the head writer on
Xena, and Liz Friedman, producer for both Xena and Hercules. I
honestly don't remember much about the substance of their talk, so if
anyone wants to refresh my memory,
please write me. I can tell you that I enjoyed their time, for whatever
that is worth.
We then got a great look into the post-production work that goes
on after the episodes are filmed, with the addition of sound effects
especially. Bernie Joyce runs this side of things, but I didn't
succeed in getting any photos of her, so I cant show you what she
looks like. What I can show you is a
group of fans pressed
into service to demonstrate how background sounds like people
grunting, reacting, fighting, etc. are added into the episodes.
Sound trivia fact from Xena: the sound of the dryads' wings fwapping
in "Girls Just wanna Have Fun" is just a pair of shorts being flapped!
Director Michael Levine
joined us to talk about his side of making episodes. He showed us
a clip from "The Quest" with dialogue we didn't see in the aired
version. In it, Xena explained why she was coming back from the
Otherworld. Levine told us that he had 10 extra minutes of footage
that had to be cut....can we hope someday for a director's cut of
the Xena episodes?
Of course, editing hardly ends with the director. Robert Field
was up next to talk about his side of the editing process. He gets his
own script to work with as he takes the raw episode to whittle it down
into the smooth 43 minutes we watch each week. Rob also brought
video with him..showing us some continuity errors like weapons
appearing and disappearing in the same scene, or misplaced/odd
props (a propane tank left uncovered in "Girls Just Wanna
Have Fun", and a rock wall that jiggles when Xena hits it in
"Prometheus"). He also showed us a blooper reel with a lot of
second season gaffes in it. Let's hope they make it into the
next Xena Fan Club kit.
And then it was time for the actors for the day, who have their own
pages:
visit the Kevin Smith Gallery and
of course! the Lucy Lawless Gallery
Intro/index to Burbank '98 Con pages
Saturday, 17 Jan. |
Sunday, 18 Jan. |
Parties and people
Robert Trebor |
Danielle Cormack |
Hudson Leick |
Kevin Smith |
Lucy Lawless