TRANSCRIPCIÓN 🔗
WEBVTT
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Today is our first Gamble Era interview.
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We're fortunate enough to get a director who had episodes in both seasons six and seven.
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So why don't you tell our audience who we're talking to today?
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We are talking to Mr.
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Guy Norman B, and he has become one of the most sought-after one-hour drama directors in Hollywood since 1999.
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His television directing credits include there's some good ones.
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Mm-hmm.
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ER, Third Watch, Las Vegas, Veronica Mars, Supernatural, Jericho, Criminal Minds, Kyle XY, Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Arrow, Revolution, Southland, The Witches of East End, I Zombie, The Magicians, Twelve Monkeys, Lead and Treasure, and many more.
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Prior to making the difficult jump to director, Guy worked consistently for 12 years as a steady cam slash camera operator, honing his skills in the 90s on such monster feature films as Austin Powers, a spy who shagged me, Bowfinger, Deep Impact, Titanic, Crazy in Alabama, The Peacemaker, and more.
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We did talk to him a whole lot about Supernatural and his background.
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Yeah, we learned some things.
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We learned a lot of things.
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Yeah.
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I'm very bummed for our listeners that they can't see his adorable dog.
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Well, if you're on Patreon, you did get a little video.
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I couldn't help but using the picture and some stuff.
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So some people will see it.
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But without further ado, here is our conversation with Mr.
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Guy Norman B.
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It's amazing to me that this show, which you know, when I did my first episode 20 years ago, was just like this small little CW retelling of, you know, uh the way it was described to me, pitched to me by my agent was it's the retelling of like classic, like uh urban myths, like uh, you know, the hook man and Mary Worth and uh the prom queen that hits for heights, and the guy comes to check on her the next day, and uh the parents say, Oh, she died a year ago tonight.
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So it was that's how it was pitched to me.
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I said, Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, horror is not my first love, but um, you know, most of my favorite movies as a direct, you know, as a filmmaker are like Exorcist Shining uh Jaws.
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I mean, so I love horror, I love well-told stories like that.
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So I think I got the gig through David Nutter, who directed the pilot.
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And David and I had been old friends.
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I mean, I was a camera operator for 12 years from like 88 to 2000, and so you know, right?
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As I transitioned into directing in 2000, so I had operated for David on a couple things, and him and I spoke kind of the same cinematic language.
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So when I started directing, he recommended me for stuff, and this was one of them because I didn't really know anybody else associated with the show.
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I mean, I had done a bunch of third watch, is how I got my break as a director, and that was Warner Brothers.
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So the execs at Warner Brothers saw my name and were were comfortable with me that way.
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But uh Bob Singer and Phil and Eric Kripke.
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I guess I did know Eric.
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I I interviewed with Eric a year before for a short-lived thing that he did called Tarzan, with um Mitch Pellegi was in it, and it was uh Travis Fimmel with Tarzan.
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I met with Eric about being the producer director and going to live in Toronto to do the show, and I ended up not getting that gig, but they gave me an episode of direct.
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But by the time my episode came up, it was one in the like if they got picked up for 13, which is standard, it was probably like 10 or 11.
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And by the time they got to episode 10 or 11, they had already canceled it, so they paid me not to show up in Toronto.
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So I guess Eric did know me, but we weren't super close or friendly.
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So you had never done any kind of horror before that?
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Uh no, I mean, you know, maybe maybe that what might have been at the at the time the the scariest thing I'd ever done.
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Because a lot of how I I cut my teeth was on um you know the third watch, which was like uh sort of procedural, and then I think I did alias in Las Vegas.
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So I was doing you know classic one-hour dramas, uh, you know, a bit of you know, of everything.
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Right when I got there, they had to do episode like seven, I think they had just gotten picked up for the back nine, so they were all on a high.
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It was a it was a good crew, and I knew a lot of the crew already because they I had done true calling the year or two before.
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But true calling got uh canceled, they just pulled a lot of that crew, so I knew a lot like probably easily 50% or more of the crew already when I showed up to prep, which was cool because my reputation preceded me.
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You know, they were like, oh, guys coming up, we're gonna have a good time on that episode.
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That's cool.
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Load full transcript
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We just finished season seven, as you know, but I remember back in season one, and you might remember this too, LA, that I was so impressed with Asylum.
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To me, it was the best episode that embodied a horror short film.
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Yeah, I mean, we were lucky.
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I mean, I they sort of John Scheidman, who co-wrote that, was one of the X-Files direct uh writers.
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And so John knew from coming up on X-Files, because they had X-Files had shot up there for years, from like '93 to whatever, '98.
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So John would come up as a producer writer, and he knew the this uh abandoned mental health facility called Riverview.
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Everybody shoots there.
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Almost everything I've ever directed in Vancouver.
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Well, if we don't shoot there, we definitely scout there.
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Because it could be a hospital, it could be a high school, it could be a million things, you anything it shot in Vancouver, everybody knows Riverview.
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And so he kind of wrote that with this with Riverview in mind, and it became a character because I think you know, of the nine days of Asylum, I think easily six or seven were in Riverview, which is kind of unusual because you know, you usually the pattern is usually like maybe four days in, four days out, utilizing your your sets and your stages.
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And then the other thing about I remember about Asylum was John sent me two DVDs of things that they had been watching around the office to kind of get in the mood for the horror of it all.
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And there were two um Asian horror movies.
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This was kind of right when the ring and the grunt were being remade.
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One of them was called The Tale of Two Sisters, which I believe was Korean, and then the other one was called Um Shudder, and I think that was from uh Bangkok, Thailand.
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And they're low budget, like all the all the scary things are practical in camera, not no visual effects, but they're super effective.
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In my hotel in the middle of the day on a Sunday, I remember watching like Shudder, and I had to like turn the TV off and leave and go take a walk in the in a bright, sunny hotel room.
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It scared the crap out of me.
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They both were remade as American movies.
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So I yeah, I can't remember off the top.
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I think they think a tale of two sisters stayed the same.
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I think Shudder, they may have changed the name of it, but they were done with like I think Elizabeth Banks was in one of them.
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But
the origin, if you can find the originals, they're really good horror movies.
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If you're not a fan of horror movies, you will be after those two.
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Also, as a filmmaker, knowing that that they didn't spend you know a million dollars on an effects house, that a lot of the effects were done in camera.
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It just sets a mood and a style, and it's all the things that the director's wet dream is to manipulate an audience, and so that's they do it really well.
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So they sent me those DVDs, and I remember studying up on those on the weekend and getting inspired because they were really well done.
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Kind of a different vibe in season six and season seven, not quite so much horror.
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Would you agree?
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Well, it's a weird thing because Kim Manners, who was the producer director, who came on slightly later, he did Dead in the Water, and they they loved it as a show, Warner Brothers.
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And they so they made Kim, who had directed 50 episodes and been a producer on X-Files, so he, you know, Kim was a kind of a legend.
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So they made him the producer director.
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And so when I was up there doing, and Kim and I went way back, much like David Nutter and I.
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When I went up to do Asylum, Kim was like, hey man, now that we got the back nine, we're gonna start slotting in directors.
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You want to come up here and do some more of these?
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I was like, Yeah, man, I I like working with you.
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And the the two fellas I just met, this guy Jensen and this guy Jared, they're they're really cool guys.
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I'm really they're like manly men, you know, they're like really cool, funny, funny as shit, twisted and funny.
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And it was right when like a lot of those like uh viral videos were coming out, and so Jared was way into that, so we can sit around and look on somebody's phone.
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So I said, Yeah, I'll come, I'll do as many as you guys will throw at me for season two.
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You know, don't forget about me.
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And you know, I got busy again.
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Well, it kind of works is like you know, they'll they'll reach out to your agent.
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If you're not available, they'll go, okay, well, we'll check back.
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And they check back, and if you're not available again, they'll say, Well, you know, we'll check back.
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And you know, do that two or three times, and they just quit calling.
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And it's nothing personal, it's just like the old guy's busy,
and you know, we'll move on.
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So basically, what ended up happening was I went for five seasons after that without doing another episode.
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I'd come up and do other episodes of other shows in Vancouver and reach out to the crew, and then Jensen and Jared and I became pretty good friends and say, Hey, I'm gonna be up there in a week for three weeks to do an episode of whatever was based up there.
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And they're like, All right, we're gonna we're gonna get we'll get the gang together, we'll go out for dinner.
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So we'd go out for dinner and drink.
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So I kept in touch with those guys.
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And so uh when it got to season six, I changed agents.
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One of the debrief things was like, All right, tell me any shows you had a problem with, tell me any shows and showrunners you did great with, and we you know, we'll reach back out because of you know, new new attitude, new direct, new agent, new uh direction, whatever.
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And so I mentioned some stuff, and then at the end of it, I go, you know, just not for nothing, but I did the show in 2005, like five years ago, still in the air, supernatural, and I had a great time.
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And you know, the guys always wonder why I never got invited back.
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My new agent said, Well, let me reach out to Bob.
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Bob Singer and I are old friends, we're both San Francisco Giants fans.
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We'll reach reach out to them.
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So later that day he called me and goes, They loved you.
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It was just the timing and all that.
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And so they you know, they got they're definitely doing a season six.
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They'll throw you one for the beginning, and that would turn out to be Family Matters.
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So, to make a long story short, I come back in season six after a gap of five years, and everybody was happy to see me, and it was it was a lot of fun.
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And uh I got to cast this really cool actor who I didn't know named Rick Worthy, who I became really close, good friends with.
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Once I turned in the cut of that, they said, Hey, we're gonna we have an episode open up in the back nine.
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It's gonna be their first western episode.
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It's a thing called Frontier Land.
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They had kept that slot open every season.
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They kept one slot open for Eric Kirkby in case he wanted to direct an episode.
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And he passed.
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He said, Well, you know, look, I I handed the show off to Sarah.
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I'm gonna pass on directing in season six.
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Family Matters.
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There was the weird warehouse with the random cage in the building.
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First, I have a non-director question.
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Do you think the hunters built that cage, or do you think they found a building with the cage?
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No, I think they found an abandoned warehouse because you know the express purpose was to keep him uh strapped down, blood, you know, the dead man's blood going into it, so it kind of neutralized him.
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And of course, the cage with the chain, you know, how mad him saw strapped so he couldn't leave.
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So they thought, so they found an abandoned warehouse and built that in case they are in the event or when they eventually can find him and catch it.
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That's always how I interpret it.
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I can go with that.
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But speaking of that set, how elaborate was the set and how difficult was it to film in there?
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It was uh, you know, that was our we built that.
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Jerry Wanick and his crew, amazing.
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We could spend a whole two hours talking about how incredible that uh production design art department team were, as well as Serge, the cameraman, who made everything look so great and did it so fast.
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The episode before that, there was a whole like a hot tub scene, a scene that happened.
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It was like, I don't know if it was a hot tub, but it was like some kind of like uh spa sauna kind of setup.
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They had built that for that episode.
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So when when they were finishing that episode shooting it, and I was prepping, Jerry and I walked down there and he said, you know, we could cover this with some kind of grating and put lights in what used to be the hot tub so we'd up light it and we could put the cage here and I'll finish off these walls.
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And they had to build me like that long staircase for Crowley to come down at the end when he starts clapping up there, and so we repurposed a set from this episode before, so we saved a ton of money.
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So every producers were very happy, and uh, you know, it's just having the vision to say, you know, as a director to go, yeah, I can make this one, yeah, this is cool.
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And we built a couple little uh hallways leading up to it, but a lot of that stuff, like the exterior, and then the original coming in and going down the hallways with flashlights and the guns.
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That was all uh a real um not abandoned, but a warehouse setup.
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I think uh there's an island in up in Vancouver.
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I think it's like a sugar factory or a salt factory or something.
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So they have like the massive manufacturing plan, and they're happy after hours to let us go in there or let at the time let a film crew go in there and shoot these different hallways and things.
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So we specified which ones, pre-lit them, got them set up.
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That was that was a set that um just repurposed and worked out great.
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Did your background as a steady cam operator help you with shooting all those close-ups of a man behind bars?
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You know, as a camera operator, you're you because I did that for 12 years, right?
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88 to 2000.
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So I did some big movies as a camera operator.
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Started out doing super low budget non-union music videos, got enough days to get in the union, did some low budget TV shows featured.
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You know, that is the main A camera operator, uh, like Peacemaker and Crazy in Alabama and uh kind of Austin Powers.
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Titanic.
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I saw Titanic.
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Yeah, I did Titanic, went down and worked on it for about three weeks.
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My background as a camera operator on different level budgets through the years has always helped out.
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But what was neat is that when we built that cage, we talked about the frequency of the bars.
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Now, the ball obviously the bars can't be too far away, or somebody else stick their shoulder through it.
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They can't be too close because then you know it's impractical to shoot.
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So we kind of set it, I think, in a standard with the way, you know, there's a standard that when they build a jail, that's how far the bars are apart.
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And I said, look, you know, there's there's something interesting about the audience not quite ever getting a clear look at the at the alpha or and then from the alpha's point of view towards our boys, there's gonna be times when the bar is gonna go right through their face, and you kind of you got to use that to your advantage.
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There's a great story about the movie Rosemary's Baby, where they were setting up a shot where Ruth Gordon is supposed to be on the phone in a bedroom, and somebody, it's probably Mia Farrow's point of view through a doorway, and she sees her on the phone.
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The American cameraman, Bill Franker, sets up the shot, it's perfectly framed.
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You can see Ruth, you can see the edge of the bed, the phone.
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Roman Polanski goes, No, Dolly, you know, with this very thick Polish accent, says Dolly left about six inches.
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So they dolly over and uh and it kind of obscures half of her, and he goes, Okay, that is perfect.
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And Bill's like, but this looks like a mistake.
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He goes, No, no, this is the way you want it because it's a mystery, it's not supposed to be so clean, it's not supposed to.
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So Bill Franker tells the story that he was like reluctantly, okay, okay, you're the auteur, the great European filmmaker.
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All right, we'll do it.
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It wasn't until the first screening with a theater full of people that when they got to that shot and they they cut to that shot, the entire theater leaned to try and see.
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So, again, a director's wet dream is to manipulate the audience's emotions and feelings.
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And so Fraker said at that instant, I was like, that he was absolutely right, and he he did what you're supposed to do in a mystery, is it's not supposed to be clean, it's not supposed.
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I mean, you know, we did some really slow, creepy dolly stuff because that's just what filmmakers do, and that's a staple of horror movies or just you know, just kind of like slow reveals and sliding across.
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But generally, I did a lot of stuff where I just parked the camera.
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There was no reason for the guys to be moving.
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Obviously, Rick couldn't move as the alpha.
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I think all that, like kind of being obscured by the bars, just worked such a treat to my advantage uh all the way.
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Quick word about Rick.
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You know, I when we when I read that script, you know, we always have a casting director in LA that that does sessions for certain actors.
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We know usually one episode, one person per episode is gonna get blown up, whatever the big guest star is.
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Not always.
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So I mentioned I knew uh a guy named Nick Lee, who's a local Vancouver guy, and he was he played CryCheck on X-File.
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Nick had never been on the show.
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So I said, Yeah, we should see if Nick Lee wants to do this.
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They go, Oh, yeah, all right, that's a great idea.
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We'll bring him up.
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We'll read, you know.
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We ran a session with with uh Nick Lee, and Nick was great.
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He went on to play Less in a future episode.
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So Nick ended up getting uh a slot on the show at some point.
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And they said, Well, who else would you think of that you know, LA base?
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And I said, Well, I'm a big fan of Cuckoo's Nest and the guy that plays Billy Bibbett, Brad Durra.
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He's also Chucky, he's the voice of Chuck.
00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:30.160
So I guess they checked into Brad, and I guess Brad was either not into it or not available or something.
00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:34.240
But Sarah had worked on a show called Eyes a couple seasons earlier.
00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:38.799
One of the regular cast members was Rick Worthy, and I didn't know Rick's work at all.
00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:46.240
But uh they sent me the tapes up, and the second Rick opened his mouth, I was like, that of course, why would we look anywhere else?
00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:52.640
And it's the great thing about Rick is he is 180 degrees off of that that vibe.
00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:58.319
He's the sweetest, happiest, joyous, could be a nicer, true gentleman.
00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:05.519
And uh we became we we became really good friends, and then of course I got to see I got to work with him again on the next the other episode.
00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:08.960
So, yeah, Rick Worthy, one of the one of the greatest human beings on the planet.
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:09.759
I love him the bet.
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:11.759
We're interviewing him on Sunday.
00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:16.160
Oh you're so lucky, he's the best.
00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:17.200
He is the best.
00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:18.880
We're excited to talk to him.
00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:29.119
So, one more question about family matters, which by the way, your direction and his subtle intensity that he chose to go with for the alpha character.
00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:31.200
Yeah, I don't know if that was directed or not.
00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.799
Those two things complemented each other so nicely.
00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:43.359
Yeah, it was it was it was a little of both because the audition process where you want to tweak them so you see that you can they're the actors directable.
00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:47.359
Some actors come in and they just they they made a choice and it was perfect in the back of my head.
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:48.160
I'm like, this is it.
00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:53.440
I'm gonna shake them up to see if I can get an alternate just to see that I can uh you know direct them.
00:18:53.599 --> 00:19:02.799
I always try and find a time, a lot of times during their wardrobe fitting when we're trying stuff on that we can talk about hey, you know, there's that one scene you want that, you know, there's not a lot of time that you got to shoot.
00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:05.119
Anytime you're not rolling the camera, you're going backwards.
00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:09.519
So he can't, I think he came up a day, you know, like a day or two early, as per usual.
00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:21.759
His initial you know interpretation of it was, and I always say this too to a lot of actors all through my career was the dialogue is doing the heavy lifting, so there's no reason for you to add any stink on it.
00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:28.079
And that's what you do on soap operas and cartoons and stuff, and that's you're creating a caricature, you're not a character.
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:29.839
So Rick didn't do any of that.
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.880
There's a line where he cuts off Jared or Jensen and says, like we're going to war.
00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:36.799
And it's a major question mark.
00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:38.160
And I think it was probably scripted.
00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:42.799
Things have changed, or like what, like we're going to war, and that's the way a normal actor would do it.
00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:45.119
But if you see the way he does it, he goes, like we're going to war.
00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.640
I mean, he he threw it away, he took the question mark off of it.
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:51.680
And that that I can't remember, that may have been my note.
00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:58.799
But Rick, do I have a version where you make a question, but you know that it's not, you know, the answer.
00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:05.920
You know, it's like a prosecuting attorney never asks a question that he does already know there, you know, that they already don't already know the answer to.
00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:07.920
I said, you know, you know all the answers.
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:14.319
So you know, you've got even though you're the one that's that's locked up and you know strapped down, you know you're getting out of here eventually.
00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.359
So you don't need to, you know, get big, muggy, any of that stuff.
00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:21.279
And I and I I I love I love his reading and the choice he made.
00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:29.359
And so, you know, again, I get I just get out of the way when it comes to a really good actor and just sit back and enjoy and just you know, just nudge people in a direction.
00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:31.759
I mean, always say I'm a nudger, not a director.
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:43.599
They got the part because they were probably the best auditioner, and they got the part because they're skilled, and then you get into the minutiae of what how what what can make this performance even better than what's on the page.
00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:46.559
And someone like Rick is just so good at finding that stuff.
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:53.920
And what was a lot of fun is years after Supernatural, um, we got reunited on a show called Magicians with Sarah Gamble's show.
00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:03.039
Sarah hired me to do a few of those, and so Rick was uh a regular on that cast, but it was fun to play in a different sandbox with you know your hand and eye together.
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:06.799
Okay, what one more question about this episode and then we'll we'll move on.
00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:11.039
The cavity search in the very beginning
of the episode.
00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:13.359
How did you all do that?
00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:14.720
Yeah, it's funny.
00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:26.720
I think that I think that was the first scene I did, and I I literally met Misha that he had a few days off or a week off or something, and they had to get him, they had to touch up his grades.
00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:34.160
Um, I don't think that's any a uh spoiler, but so he had he he was like in the hair makeup trailer, they were making his hair dark again.
00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:35.680
But yeah, I mean that's real simple.
00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:43.759
That's like a mannequin body, and they cut like you know, a grapefruit size hole in it, dress it like the and you just okay, get out of there, Jared.
00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:48.720
So Jared leaves, and we just put the camera focused just on the chest area.
00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:56.160
And I think they put something for a little bit of resistance, maybe like a piece of foam, so it doesn't go right through, like you know, there's no resistance.
00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:57.920
That was gonna be my next question.
00:21:58.079 --> 00:21:59.680
Yeah, like playing handball on the drapes.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:05.440
Doesn't work so and then you know we knew we were gonna do some kind of flashy, kind of like you know, visual effect.
00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:14.880
You put a V on the slate, so if it's scene 21, you put V21, so the editors know oh there's an upcoming visual effect for this, so they flag it in the edit.
00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:21.680
Usually it's in the script, you know, that that there's some kind of like visual effect, like light or something comes out of the cavity.
00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:25.519
So that's actually a pretty easy uh setup to do.
00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:30.640
You know, they have a shirt that's scored in the right area already, pre kind of scored.
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:36.000
We have these meetings, like the seven days of prep that a director does before they start shooting.
00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:47.119
It's nonstop meetings where you know you have the prop meeting at nine o'clock, and then at 10 o'clock, the visual effects guys are gonna join us, and then the physical effects guys will join us around the same time.
00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:49.119
So we talk about you're gonna you guys are gonna do that.
00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:50.880
Okay, I got the mannequin body, okay.
00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:57.119
And then, like three days later, we'll do a show and tell, but they bring all that stuff up to the conference room, and we all gather around.
00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:05.519
A lot of times they'll have done this already three seasons ago, and they'll say, You know what really worked good, and they'll have a clip, and they'll say, Here's what we're expecting.
00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:06.720
Okay, cool, let's do that.
00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:10.720
You know, and that's where anybody throws up any red flags, a producer will say, Well, it was too expensive.
00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:12.960
So you get all those meetings out of the way.
00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:16.319
Plus, you know, then you go location scouting and you go to the casting session.
00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:23.920
Your seven days of prep, while they're not full shooting days, it's usually you're like nine to six jam-packed.
00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.400
Most hard work you'll ever love, I always say.
00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:28.160
I think you'd have to love it, right?
00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:29.680
Oh, yeah, yeah, it's the best.
00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:33.680
Frontierland was your next episode in season six.
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:42.160
And I imagine prep and everything for this one was probably very different because it seemed like family matters, you're mostly on stage.
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:45.920
But Frontierland, you were mostly on location, correct?
00:23:46.240 --> 00:24:01.359
Yeah, we knew, like you know, the writers checked with the producers early on before they wrote this thing and said, uh, you know, if we write a Western episode, how could we do it and do it, you know, with a on a on our budget?
00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:06.400
And there was this show years earlier called Border Town, in which they literally built this town.
00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:10.960
It's in a city called White Rock, which is almost right on the border of the U.S.
00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:13.279
So it's a little bit of a hike for Vancouver.
00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:21.759
Me and uh the actors and I think you know, Serge, like some of the some of the um department heads, we got these little cheese ball hotels out there.
00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:27.119
You would work all day, and the last thing you wanted to do was drive another hour, hour and a half back to the city.
00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:28.640
So for three nights or whatever.
00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:32.160
So I think we were out there four or five days in Bordertown.
00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:38.319
But of course, I read the script, and the first page is this kind of shoot up, you know, this uh gunfight at OK Corral.
00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:45.359
And I'm picturing dusty tumbleweeds rolling through, and we're just gonna shoot this in January in in Vancouver.
00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:50.240
And I'm like, there's no way it's ever gonna, you know, I didn't know at the time that about the Border Town set.
00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:53.440
In fact, when I first read the script, I thought it was gonna be like a dream.
00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:58.000
Like Dean was gonna wake up from it, like, oh man, that was just a dream.
00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:01.119
Of course, it wasn't, because they had shot there before.
00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:09.759
Um I'm trying to remember there was a kind of an episode that they used some of those buildings, so they the crew had shot out there before, and so they were real familiar with it.
00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:16.240
So it was just like, okay, you know, we got the saloon, we got the police
station, we got the area where you know the shootouts can happen.
00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:18.240
It was a matter of going around and flagging that.
00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:22.400
And of course, Jerry was like, This is sort of what I pictured when I read it, what do you think, guy?
00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:23.599
We can I can block that off.
00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:25.200
I could we can put the corral here.
00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:30.880
The only problem was, you know, that thing sat in the rain for years and they never maintained it.
00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:35.759
So you'd walk in to some of these sets, and the floor, you'd go right through the floorboards, they're just rotten wood.
00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:41.119
We would a lot of these places we would scout and say, Okay, we're gonna finish this to be the inside of the saloon.
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:47.920
They had to go through with new plywood, and I mean the art department did an incredible job of that because that was a full-on town.
00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:53.279
We built a graveyard and Colts, uh Samuel Colt's cabin we had to build out there.
00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:54.799
Yeah, that worked out pretty good.
00:25:54.880 --> 00:26:17.279
I mean, um, we had some days on stage and all this stuff with Bobby and Misha back at Bobby's house, and that was the heartbreak of the whole thing, is like you know, Jim Beaver, who I was friends with a little bit before, supernatural, spent all that time on uh Deadwood, never got to ride a horse, and they ride a supernatural episode that takes place in the old west on horses.
00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:22.880
Of course, you know, Jim's like sitting on my thumb here in my house.
00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:25.359
I can't even ride a horse in supernatural.
00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:34.160
I mean, aside from all the cool stuff we did in the uh in the old west, I really like the scene where where Nisha's character has to, Catel has to kill the angel.
00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:38.480
He ends up like you know, stabbing her or getting her to kind of stab herself.
00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:43.599
And as she lays down, we crane up and you see her burnt out wings as a visual effect.
00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:48.079
But you know, we had to get the crane in the right spot and talk about okay, where the wings are gonna go.
00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:55.920
So it's nice to see that finished shot come together in the sort of way you know you know, pitched and talked about and designed.
00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:59.440
The guy who played uh um the Phoenix.
00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:02.880
Matthew Matthew John Armstrong?
00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:04.720
Matthew John, yes, that's it.
00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:11.440
Yeah, I think Phil and Bob had worked with him on another series, and they pitched him, and he was great.
00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:13.359
Could not have been better.
00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:19.359
Matthew was, he's you know, it's like it always boggles my mind that somebody like that is not a bigger, more famous.
00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:20.480
He might be by choice.
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:20.880
I don't know.
00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:23.680
I certainly have nothing but fond memories about how good he was.
00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:38.799
He does a great line in there where he walks up and he goes, you know, when he's when he finally shows up to kill the the um Gordon's character, the you know, who they put it, you know, that's where Dean traps him to come in and grab the nail and he sees it burns him.
00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:45.200
But he's got these great lines that it was all all Matty where he goes, Um, this man, they try to kill me.
00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:46.480
Of course, I don't die.
00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:57.519
But you know, that's one of those that could have easily gotten into uh you know uh uh Yosemite Sam muggy cartoony cart, you know, comic bookish, over the top.
00:27:57.680 --> 00:27:59.519
And he just kept the line, it was perfect.
00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:01.119
I I was so happy with it.
00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:07.119
And and all my guest stars on that were all like sort of the all Vancouver kind of all-stars.
00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:12.000
The girl who you know with the bad teeth, the the uh the hooker with a heart of gold, Darlow.
00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:13.839
That's April Talic.
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:24.000
And April was like former Miss Canada, and I'd worked with her on something before, and and she's the coolest, sweetest, most beautiful girl you've ever met.
00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:28.559
In fact, one of the days, because every time she came on set, she had the shitty teeth and all that.
00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:38.640
One of the days she goes, she leaned over to me and she goes, I just feel so bad because I know a lot of this crew, and but there's other people that I I don't know on the crew, and they they must think I'm so ugly.
00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:43.119
I said, When we wrap, go get all that stuff off you and come back in.
00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:45.119
So she did, she came back in like an hour later.
00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:49.200
I go, guys, I just want everybody to know it's one of the most beautiful women I've ever met in my life.
00:28:49.359 --> 00:28:53.519
April Tell, like of course, half the crew knew her already, she was missed Canada, so they interview us.
00:28:53.839 --> 00:28:58.000
She's sort of a local Vancouver all-star, and I was real happy with that cat.
00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:04.559
I'm surprised to hear that she was maybe feeling a tinge of insecurity because I thought she ate up that performance.
00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:07.039
She was so good, she hammed it up.
00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:12.160
Yeah, it's a it's a fine line because it has to be sort of a heightened sense of reality.
00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:19.759
Also, you know, we're we're telling an audience that we're gonna send people back 150 years in time, and we have to buy that.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:31.519
And I always say that you need to that show, what
Jensen and Jared did so well through all the years was as absurd and as crazy as the dialogue was, the situations were, they treated it like it was real every time.
00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:35.440
There was no winking in the camera, there was no this is ridiculous.
00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:39.920
They just they went into it with like we don't take this very you know, 100% serious.
00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:42.160
We how's the audience gonna take it serious?
00:29:42.400 --> 00:30:01.119
And they and I think that that's sort of the unsung hero of the show is those guys' attitude about how they treated the material because um obviously the fandom went with them every second of every show and bought it, loved it, couldn't get enough of it, and uh that's not easy to do for 15 years, very rare.
00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:04.720
Did you get to have any input on the costumes in Frontierland?
00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:17.039
I really like the idea that you know, as soon as it was written that way, and as soon as they decide they're gonna go back, the Jetson's, you know, Dean's character, Jets' character Dean, goes, All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this the right way.
00:30:17.119 --> 00:30:24.720
And he goes out you know to like shop that has all the you know, he comes in with the shopping bags, and then of course Sam was like, No, we're not, no, no.
00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:29.200
You're shown an array of stuff or you know, which way to go with it.
00:30:29.279 --> 00:30:30.559
There was the whole serape.
00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:32.720
I was just talking about this with somebody.
00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:41.759
If you watch that scene where they show up and they watch um hang, you know, they watch the gallows scene, and you see the one guy turn around and goes, nice blanket.
00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:46.559
You finally see where Sam's like, okay, I've had enough of it, or Dean's gonna have had enough of this.
00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:51.519
It was scripted, he takes it off and he throws it down in the pile, and then we go, Well, he's got a he's got a hat on.
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:53.599
Is he gonna hand the hat to to Sam?
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:55.039
Is he gonna how's he gonna do that?
00:30:55.200 --> 00:31:00.640
And it just shows you how smart, intelligent Jensen Accles is because he goes, he goes, Well, how about this?
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:04.000
What if I put my hand up underneath and hold the hat and take it over?
00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:08.160
And he did it, and that's if you watch that scene again, that's how he did on camera.
00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:09.440
Every take nailed it.
00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:14.319
As soon as you start talking about taking hats off, now you're talking about the props, they're like, Well, you know, don't drop the hat.
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:20.079
The hair department's like, Yeah, you know, um, because they're gonna have to touch it up between every take.
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:29.359
And it just shows you how smart Jensen is because he again, if you watch that, there's a scene that we cut out where they walk down the main area, it's right before they go in the saloon.
00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:32.720
Sam's like, This is you know, let's just do this, get in, get out.
00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:34.079
And he's like, Well, I'm gonna enjoy it.
00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:36.160
I'm gonna enjoy this a little bit.
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:37.519
This is gonna be awesome.
00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:43.599
We cut from the yellows to this shot, where they come through the saloon and he goes, looks around and goes, This is not awesome.
00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:46.400
So the cut was supposed to be this, it's gonna be awesome.
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:48.480
This is not awesome.
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:50.079
It was a long walk and talk.
00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:53.519
It was cool because we had all the like we call it all singing, all dancing.
00:31:53.599 --> 00:31:57.200
We had every animal, every extra, everybody coming through.
00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:00.880
I mean, there was goats and and donkeys and everything coming through there.
00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:11.680
Wow, it was great production value, and just you know, if the shows they always run longer than you have, you know, you have like 43 minutes to fill up because you put in the commercials there, that's an hour.
00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:16.559
Generally, most shows will show up a little over 50 minutes, so you have to cut some stuff out.
00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:19.279
So, unfortunately, that hit the editing room floor.
00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:22.319
Anyway, getting back to wardrobe, it was pretty straightforward.
00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:28.960
Um, but yeah, uh, having fun with the serape and the blanket, whatever we want to call it, all the ideas on the pitch.
00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:35.680
We were both big fans of the Phoenix's look, the all-black yeah, the the big uh thick duster.
00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:50.880
They call there's there's a a company from Australia called Dry Zabone, like D R Y Z A B-O-N, of course, dry as a bone, but dry's a bone, and they're they're um oiled leather, they're like a dark brown.
00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:59.519
A lot of the crew has them because if you work in the industry in the rain, they're completely waterproof and they're they're duster, so they go down to your calf muscle area.
00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:05.200
So I said, Yeah, I mean, I like a black version of the dry zebone, but that was the idea.
00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:08.160
We ended up talking to Mr.
00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:11.200
B for over two hours, LA.
00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:12.000
I know it.
00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:19.200
And whenever I was editing, I got the conversation down to about an hour and a half, and I decided, you know what?
00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:23.440
I don't want to get this down to under an hour like we normally do for our episodes.
00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:24.799
There's too much good stuff.
00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:29.839
Well, so we have split this interview up into two episodes.
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:34.640
So stay tuned to Denim Wrapped Nightmares for our interview with Mr.
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:39.359
INORMANB for part two for the first time.