Hollywood Xpo Panel Notes
The following are the notes I wrote on the Heroes Hollywood Xpo panel. Most of it is summary, but I have a few exact quotes here and there. Attending the panel are Jack Coleman, Cristine Rose, Adam Armus, Eric Avari, and Tim Kring.
Everybody is introducing themselves and Jack Coleman is a bit of a
character and introduced himself as Masi Oka
Kring tells the story of how Sendhil came upon his character.
Originally, they were casting for an older character, like Chandra
Suresh, but when Sendhil walked in (who Kring had indicated had come
in from London, even though he is American!) Kring realized that
Sendhil would be perfect, so it was decided right then to make the
character be younger.
Eric Avari did not know that Mohinder was going to be his character
and he said that Sendhil got it because he was better looking.
There were twelve writers, and at any given time in the writers' room
there were two, or six, or eight working. That's where they would
break stories.
Several writers stayed on for the run, including Adam Armus, Kay
Foster, Tim Kring, Aron Coleite, and Joe Pokaski. They often would
bring on new writers and give up-and-comers opportunities to write
scripts.
Kring was keen on having stories told in volumes. And at the end of
each volume the slate would be clear and things would be started
again.
The writers did not always know where things were going. Sometimes
your actors or your locations would fall through.
When chemistry was discovered, you went after it with a heat-seeking
missile, Kring said.
Jack Coleman said that he didn't have to go through the network
casting process due to him being a guest star. His audition was on
paper. The short time of having lower pay was definitely worth that
to him.
On his first day of casting he has the flu and a 102 fever. It was
the scene where HRG comes home. First tim he ever met Hayden she said
"Hello Daddy." He said he wondered: "Who is this girl? She's very
confident."
The first episode was shot like a movie.
The cab scene with Mohinder and HRG was like two stories colliding, Kring said.
The cab had been used in Michael Mann's Collateral. Particular camera
shots had been geared up in that movie. Shots through the glass and in
the mirror. Partial shots.
The heat is there between HRG and Claire.
HRG is a hardened killer and loving father. This was interesting to Jack.
At first HRG did not carry a gun. Jack did not see him as a killer.
Sometimes Jack wondered what HRG knew. He worked with Allan Arkush and
Greg Beeman on this. Beeman told him "when in doubt, you know
everything."
In the scene where HRG tells Claire about how he has set up a meeting
with her birth parents, he is loving to her face, and she leaves and
the curtain drops. HRG is the killer again. Has the footage of her
tests on his comp. Where he is father and on the job. The switch is so
fast.
Kring says that Jack plays the loving father with just as much passion
as the killer. Jack has a way of departmentalizing.
Plays things in present. Vexing and intriguing. Leaves people
thinking who is he really?
Cristine told Jack she was "thoroughly confused by you too."
Jack wonders about Angela's switch from stealing socks to becoming a
Company founder, but Cristine does not explain.
Cristine speaks of the article in Variety that talks about new way of
casting, like how she, Jack, and Zach all started as supporting actors
to main cast.
Cristine assumed Angela had no power and was out of the loop.
Cristine's explanation of Angela's relationship with Arthur: "I
killed him, but I didn't kill him because he's really still alive!"
She would always go to the end of the script to see if she is still talking.
Jack cracks that the dead can still talk.
Cristine tells a story of what happened when her religious nephew saw
the episode where Claire goes to Peter's apartment and finds Angela
there. The nephew response was an e-mail with a lot of "Holy blanks"
Jack asks if it really said that. (She said it did, but I think it was
the word it is actually standing in for.)
Kring: Network is not designed for shorter arcs. Cable dominates
Emmys. Craft something in smaller ways.
"Zeitgeist quality": Kring says that you don't want to be around all
the time. Rare and special. This adds on the anticipation. Needs to
live in the shadows.
Couldn't keep the pace up. 22 in season 1, 25 episodes in season 3.
Jack says he recently did a Hallmark movie for Father's Day. Rock the
House. Unbelievably fun. Father and daughter story. "Stop me if you
have heard this one before." He's singing and playing guitar. He
focused on the singing because he can't play guitar very well.
He's also recurring on The Office--"uncertain, but it's good."
Cristine: Went back to How I Met Your Mother. Making out with Neil
Patrick Harris made her year.
Kring makes an incest joke off the mic about Cristine and Milo. She
called the joke sick, but wouldn't explain further.
Kring says that while Cristine's and Jack's parts were smaller, they
turned the roles larger, meeting him and his writing halfway.
On creating character: way they speak, what's going on in the eyes.
Kring says that secrets are going on behind Cristine's eyes.
Jack's eyes show intelligence and humanity.
Armus: Some actors know characters better than writers.
Cristine is good with exposition.
HRG would catch people up.
Kring said that there were changes being made to characters
constantly. Sylar meant to be a shark, silent, creepy, killing
machine. But Zach shows humanity, pathos, great intelligence. Makes
the character 3-dimensional. made Kring want to add hopes, dreams, all
because of the actor who you cast.
Story is not blocked out very far. Fans think they have it all plotted out.
Writers strike ended a lot of it.
Writing the story and where it can go: Start from scratch. Millions
of things would send you in difference directions.
Kring says that fan reaction was hard to gauge.
The show can't be all things to all people.
Fans: tastes are narrowed. Indulge on some tastes.
Kring: there were digital comic books and other things, but once the
show is gone, that shut down everything. But Heroes is a 360 world.
With online and mobile content. Multiple platforms. The show drives
all of it.
But there is a Universe. Not plotted end. Infinite number of
characters with different powers.
What they are doing now:
Kring: Conspiracy for Good - multi platform and online and in the
streets of London. This has real world causes and real world effects.
There is global consciousness. This group helped to fill five
libraries in Zambia with 10,000 books.
Shift - his new book, out at all places where books are sold.
Eric Avari: Worked in a cruelty to animals documentary. Interested in
storytelling and has written a new movie that he will be directing
too. Likes telling stories.
Jack Coleman: Won a Nobel Prize in Economics.
Adam Armus: Worked on Outlaw and is still part of the NBC Family.
Cristine Rose: Go home, have a doughnut, coffee, and do the New York
Times Crossword
Everybody is introducing themselves and Jack Coleman is a bit of a
character and introduced himself as Masi Oka
Kring tells the story of how Sendhil came upon his character.
Originally, they were casting for an older character, like Chandra
Suresh, but when Sendhil walked in (who Kring had indicated had come
in from London, even though he is American!) Kring realized that
Sendhil would be perfect, so it was decided right then to make the
character be younger.
Eric Avari did not know that Mohinder was going to be his character
and he said that Sendhil got it because he was better looking.
There were twelve writers, and at any given time in the writers' room
there were two, or six, or eight working. That's where they would
break stories.
Several writers stayed on for the run, including Adam Armus, Kay
Foster, Tim Kring, Aron Coleite, and Joe Pokaski. They often would
bring on new writers and give up-and-comers opportunities to write
scripts.
Kring was keen on having stories told in volumes. And at the end of
each volume the slate would be clear and things would be started
again.
The writers did not always know where things were going. Sometimes
your actors or your locations would fall through.
When chemistry was discovered, you went after it with a heat-seeking
missile, Kring said.
Jack Coleman said that he didn't have to go through the network
casting process due to him being a guest star. His audition was on
paper. The short time of having lower pay was definitely worth that
to him.
On his first day of casting he has the flu and a 102 fever. It was
the scene where HRG comes home. First tim he ever met Hayden she said
"Hello Daddy." He said he wondered: "Who is this girl? She's very
confident."
The first episode was shot like a movie.
The cab scene with Mohinder and HRG was like two stories colliding, Kring said.
The cab had been used in Michael Mann's Collateral. Particular camera
shots had been geared up in that movie. Shots through the glass and in
the mirror. Partial shots.
The heat is there between HRG and Claire.
HRG is a hardened killer and loving father. This was interesting to Jack.
At first HRG did not carry a gun. Jack did not see him as a killer.
Sometimes Jack wondered what HRG knew. He worked with Allan Arkush and
Greg Beeman on this. Beeman told him "when in doubt, you know
everything."
In the scene where HRG tells Claire about how he has set up a meeting
with her birth parents, he is loving to her face, and she leaves and
the curtain drops. HRG is the killer again. Has the footage of her
tests on his comp. Where he is father and on the job. The switch is so
fast.
Kring says that Jack plays the loving father with just as much passion
as the killer. Jack has a way of departmentalizing.
Plays things in present. Vexing and intriguing. Leaves people
thinking who is he really?
Cristine told Jack she was "thoroughly confused by you too."
Jack wonders about Angela's switch from stealing socks to becoming a
Company founder, but Cristine does not explain.
Cristine speaks of the article in Variety that talks about new way of
casting, like how she, Jack, and Zach all started as supporting actors
to main cast.
Cristine assumed Angela had no power and was out of the loop.
Cristine's explanation of Angela's relationship with Arthur: "I
killed him, but I didn't kill him because he's really still alive!"
She would always go to the end of the script to see if she is still talking.
Jack cracks that the dead can still talk.
Cristine tells a story of what happened when her religious nephew saw
the episode where Claire goes to Peter's apartment and finds Angela
there. The nephew response was an e-mail with a lot of "Holy blanks"
Jack asks if it really said that. (She said it did, but I think it was
the word it is actually standing in for.)
Kring: Network is not designed for shorter arcs. Cable dominates
Emmys. Craft something in smaller ways.
"Zeitgeist quality": Kring says that you don't want to be around all
the time. Rare and special. This adds on the anticipation. Needs to
live in the shadows.
Couldn't keep the pace up. 22 in season 1, 25 episodes in season 3.
Jack says he recently did a Hallmark movie for Father's Day. Rock the
House. Unbelievably fun. Father and daughter story. "Stop me if you
have heard this one before." He's singing and playing guitar. He
focused on the singing because he can't play guitar very well.
He's also recurring on The Office--"uncertain, but it's good."
Cristine: Went back to How I Met Your Mother. Making out with Neil
Patrick Harris made her year.
Kring makes an incest joke off the mic about Cristine and Milo. She
called the joke sick, but wouldn't explain further.
Kring says that while Cristine's and Jack's parts were smaller, they
turned the roles larger, meeting him and his writing halfway.
On creating character: way they speak, what's going on in the eyes.
Kring says that secrets are going on behind Cristine's eyes.
Jack's eyes show intelligence and humanity.
Armus: Some actors know characters better than writers.
Cristine is good with exposition.
HRG would catch people up.
Kring said that there were changes being made to characters
constantly. Sylar meant to be a shark, silent, creepy, killing
machine. But Zach shows humanity, pathos, great intelligence. Makes
the character 3-dimensional. made Kring want to add hopes, dreams, all
because of the actor who you cast.
Story is not blocked out very far. Fans think they have it all plotted out.
Writers strike ended a lot of it.
Writing the story and where it can go: Start from scratch. Millions
of things would send you in difference directions.
Kring says that fan reaction was hard to gauge.
The show can't be all things to all people.
Fans: tastes are narrowed. Indulge on some tastes.
Kring: there were digital comic books and other things, but once the
show is gone, that shut down everything. But Heroes is a 360 world.
With online and mobile content. Multiple platforms. The show drives
all of it.
But there is a Universe. Not plotted end. Infinite number of
characters with different powers.
What they are doing now:
Kring: Conspiracy for Good - multi platform and online and in the
streets of London. This has real world causes and real world effects.
There is global consciousness. This group helped to fill five
libraries in Zambia with 10,000 books.
Shift - his new book, out at all places where books are sold.
Eric Avari: Worked in a cruelty to animals documentary. Interested in
storytelling and has written a new movie that he will be directing
too. Likes telling stories.
Jack Coleman: Won a Nobel Prize in Economics.
Adam Armus: Worked on Outlaw and is still part of the NBC Family.
Cristine Rose: Go home, have a doughnut, coffee, and do the New York
Times Crossword