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