We spent the better part of the morning spinning Joe F.’s notion into the actual beginnings of a story. Due to a schedule sleight-of-hand, Marty G. will be taking a break from that troubled trio script to tackle this one. We discussed the basic premise, the type of story to tell, and also started hashing out some of the Sheppard backstory. What brings Sheppard back to Earth? Who goes with him? Which individuals from his past will put in an appearance? What’s at issue? How will the action progress? Although we didn’t get around to actually breaking the story, we’re all pretty happy with the direction we’ve taken.
The afternoon was dedicated to notes (Sci Fi on Kindred I and the writers on Alan’s rewrite of Kindred II), and the Day One Mix of Adrift (spectacular visual effets + heartfelt character moments + funny moments = best season premiere ever).
After work, our quest for Vancouver’s Greatest Schnitzel took Carl, Martin and I to Feenie’s where we sampled Iron Chef Vanquisher Ron Feenie’s take on the dish. Thick, tender, a little greasy, but very good nevertheless, it was accompanied by a mound of dark bitter greens (“I think they’re weeds,”hazarded Marty G.). “The darker the green the better they are for you,”Carl admonished us. The two sides we ordered – macaroni and cheese, and poutine (French fries, melted cheese curds and gravy which proved a truly revelatory experience for Carl), though not as leafy or as green, proved infinitely tastier. For dessert, we shared three desserts: Carl’s just-fine blueberry mille-feuille, some good homemade ice cream (comprised of three scoops: roasted banana, honey, and coffee-caramel that proved much heavier on the coffee than the caramel), an equally good liquid-center chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream, and an amazing apple galette (something like an apple pie with thin slices of apple) surrounded by caramel sauce and topped with vanilla ice cream.
Good schnitzel, but our favorite is still the version being served up at Transylvania Flavour. However, TF has changed head chefs since our last visit, so here’s hoping the quality of the schnitzel remains steady.
Let’s catch up on the mailbag –
PG15 writes: “1). How many scenes does a typical episode usually have? 2). That Caldwell-Shep scene; it’s in Kindred Part 1, yes?”
Answers: 1) It really depends on the script. 2) Yup.
E.L. Royalty writes: “Is there really a world wide famous Chinese restaurant in Vancouver?”
Answer: I don’t know. Did he give you the name?
Shawna writes: “I wonder if you could give me a little advice. What would be a good show to write a spec script for if I’m in LA and trying to find an agent?”
Answer: That depends on what kind of writing you want to do: drama, comedy, scifi?
Anonymous #1 writes: “ Just out of curiosity, how do select the posts to which you respond. It seems like, you almost avoid some people, while responding regularly to others.”
Answer: I will dedicate a blog entry to this topic either tomorrow or the day after.
Anonymous #2 writes: “Has that IP turned into a YES or no yet Joe?”
Answer: Huh?
Anonymous #3 writes: “So how does one actually go about auditioning for a tv show? Do you need an agent or something like that?”
Answer: Our casting director, Sean Cossey, puts out the character breakdowns to the various agencies and they will recommend suitable clients for the audition.
Edward4th writes: “What part were you auditioning?”
Answer: We were auditioning for five different roles.
Crh writes: “Have you ever seen an audition and known right off the bat that that was the person you wanted?”
Answer: Sometimes. And sometimes a person does such a great job it ensures they don‘t get the role. More to the point, they are so good that, rather than using them in the smaller role they‘re auditioning for, I prefer to keep them in mind for a much meatier future role. This happened a couple of years ago when we were auditioning for a Nurse. The character had three lines and one of the actresses who came in to audition was excellent. She was so good, in fact, that I thought we’d be crazy to burn her on such a small role when we could bring her back for something bigger down the line. A month later, we were auditioning for that much bigger part and I gave Sean a call. “Hey, Sean, remember that actress who auditioned for the role of the nurse?” “Sorry, she’s unavailable,”Sean informed me. “She’s in Hawaii shooting a pilot.” As it turned out – The pilot: Lost. The actress: Evangeline Lilly.
Cheeky Lil Devil writes: “I’ve just got the new Harry Potter book *squee*. I was wodering if you had bought yours yet?”
Answer: I’m a little over a hundred pages in.
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