The entry below contains the transcript of the Guild panel in the Indigo Ballroom at the San Diego Comic-Con 2010. There are videos on the web of the panel, however, for those of you who can read faster than you can watch videos, click below.
Kim: Oh my god. Wow.
I'm Kim Evey and I'm the Producer of the Guild.
Wow this is amazing.
Thank you so much for coming out to this panel. For those of you who are here for Community: I'm sorry, we'll be done in a bit, and get you on your way.
We have a lot of people to thank before we get going, so I'm going get out some thank yous, we're going to show you some stuff, and then we are going to do some Q&A.
So first of all, I want to say thank you so much to Microsoft and J!nx. Microsoft funds our production, and we have the most amazing deal that I've ever heard of with them. They give us money and they gave us a loan, and they put our content on the web so you guys can watch it. It's amazing. If every studio followed that formula, I think we'd have a lot more Guilds, and a lot less Catwoman.
We hope that this model can continue, and we're really proud to be at the forefront of what's happening right now.
We want thank all the guys at J!nx -- Tim, Jason, Shaun, Kyle, Brian, and Keno. Jinx provides t-shirts for Season 4. They gave us these awesome cast and crew shirts. And they sponsored our season 4 offerings. So thank you J!nx. You can go to Jinx.com and get any of the shirts that you see and that like, so please do that and support them as well.
We'd also like to thank April Venidiez and the team at Infineon, they create our DVDs and get them out to retail stores so that you guys can all share with all the people that may not know about it. It give us a little validation, like "We're real, you can go to Target and buy us!"
And we want to thank the people that help us on a day to day basis.
Brian Kameoka is our social networking, marketing publicity guru. When you see things coming out from the Guild, when you see a Facebook post, that's usually Brian, so... he's amazing, and he does so much more for us than that.
And also, our fancast, Knights of the Guild, Kenny Mittleider and Jenni Powell, and Kenny started because a long time ago, he did behind the scenes stuff for us, and this year, we asked him to just please do the podcasts, a companion podcast, behind the scenes information, you can go to Knights of the Guild, and every Tuesday upload a new podcast for you.
And also we want to thank our agent and lawyer George Ruiz of ICM, and he helps us with all the hard things we don't understand, and George helps us make all these amazing deals. George, where are you? He's right there. Thank you George.
I don't think he'll admit it, but I want to thank my husband Greg Benson, He is Mediocrefilms.com, he directed the second half of the first season of the Guild, and he helps me everyday, all the time, in every way to help bring the Guild to you, so, thank you Greg.
And lastly we want to thank Comic Con for giving us this amazing room. I can't believe it. You guys! What the hell? Oh my god! They gave us a room to accommodate all of you guys, and the Guild is built. I don't know if any of you don't know this, but we started out with three episodes that we made ourselves, and then we ran out of money.
And we put up a Paypal button, and suddenly you guys started giving us a dollar, five dollars. Someone gave us a hundred dollars. Felicia said "Are you sure the decimal is in the right place?". So she wrote a check back. So the Guild started with you guys, it ends with you guys, and I cannot believe we are all here, just so so so thrilled so thank you and a round of applause for all of you.
Thank you so much.
So now I want to introduce someone who has been so integral to the Guild.
He has directed seasons 2 and 3, and the season that is just now rolling out, season 4: Ladies and Gentlemen, Sean Becker.
Sean Becker: Thank you Kim. Oh Wow, this is frightening. I'm trying to do that trick of trying to imagine you all naked, but you're all still wearing those lanyards so it's kinda weird. But My name is Sean Becker, I'm the director of the guild, and I want to come out here and say there's alot of people who helped us in things such as post and in podcasts. So, if those in this panel who have helped us please stand up so we can all see you, so we can give you a round of applause.
Ok, so last year at Comic-Con, we had the advantage of showing before the season. So we could show the season premiere, but it's already out, so I'm sure everyone has already seen it, so it makes sense to show episode 3, so let's do that.
Season 4, Episode 3 being shown on the screen.
The cast of the Guild appears, wearing squidhats.
Felicia Day: Do Over. Thank you for coming everybody.
Kim: We'd like to thank Josh Freeman, from obeymybrain.com who made all these amazing hats. If you would like your own squid hat, please go to obeymybrain.com and order squidhats .
Vincent: Did everyone get chocolate?
Felicia: Did everyone like that painting in that episode?
Felicia: Greg Aronowitz , our production designer painted that. and you should be getting some buttons, with our faces on it from that painting. After this panel, we will be signing some limited edition prints if you want a full-sized one, because you know you do.
Felicia: I got a breast implant, and then I got them out. Just for that. That's how dedicated I am. What about you, Wil?
Wil: I also got breast implants, some bicep implants, and then I also got them taken out. But I left the awesome implant in.
FD: So we're just going to go to Q and A... but first I want to bring up Scott Alley from Dark Horse to make a little announcement about the comic.
Hi Everybody, Thanks for making the Guild one of the most successful launches for the first part of the year for us. It's really great working with these guys. Thanks for supporting the book. We're going to be launching one-shots. We are going to be launching one-shots starting in the fall. That's a cover by Carrie Nord, and you guys are going to be selling that print, and signing it? Carrie said that's the first time he's had someone else sign a piece of art that he's done. He had the cast sign it.
We're going to be kicking off the one shots, with one featuring Vork, and Jeff [Lewis] is going to be co-writing that with Felicia. So Jeff is making his comic debut this fall or winter. The cover is by Darick Robertson,who is the artist of the Boys from Dynamite, a fantastic artist, and he's also doing some Conan, so we figure Guild, Conan, that's some really good crossover there. And Gilbert Hernandez is probably going to do the other cover, for the Vork one-shot, so we're really excited to be getting some great comics artists to join the Guild world. We're going to be doing five one-shots, featuring all the main characters. We've already done Finn in the first mini series, so the others will be getting their one shots into next summer.
So thank you guys for supporting the book, and thank you for letting us be part of it.
Kim: So I guess we're going to move along. There's so much hard work that goes into it everything you just don't see. Like that amazing painting that you see in episode 3 makes me think of something he did in episode 4...
Felicia Day: Just roll it. Yeah.
Kim: So I think we're going to give you a little extra sneak peek into Episode 4. It doesn't have a webcam on it.
Kim: We were kind of in a rush for Comic Con, and so without further ado Episode 4:
(What they showed was actually the music video, Game On)
Wil: That was frakking amazing.
Felicia Day: So some quick thanks for that video, and then we'll go on to Q and A. This was directed by Kim Evey and Sean Becker, and you guys worked so incredibly hard. We want to thank Jason Millar who played that bald guy in the fight, he wrote the music. Jason, you want to stand up?
We want to thank Greg Aronowitz, who did the production design on all that on literally on a web music video budget. It's amazing.
Michelle Gon who did the costumes.
Chris Darnell, our DP.
Rob Bower, our gaffer for making us look real pretty.
Travis and Cassia Oates for the enormous backyard that we shot all of that in.
Chantell Robeson for the choreography,
David Calderon for letting us use his speakers, when we were all like "Oh, we need speakers..." Anyone else can volunteer and give us stuff for free too.
and all the volunteers who came out and hold umbrellas over us and helped lug those huge flats for us, you guys are amazing, we could have never done this without you.
Clara: They loved that elephant, you guys.
FD: So thank you very much. Let's give a round of applause.
Kim: This is all Sandeep's idea to do a Bollywood type video for the Guild.
Sandeep: I need to show my Indianness off. I mean Slumdog did it, so why can't I? We'll win an Oscar for that, I'm sure.
Sean: I also want to thank Daniel Sprugs, who did all the VFX for that video too. The fireball and those flames too.
Felicia: Let's hit it.
Question: This is a question for Felicia: I was wondering about the Bollywood number, how many takes did it take, how many rehearsals?
Felicia: Yeah, there were alot of dancing rehearsals. Sandeep and I, are not Amy, so we can't pick everything up. Amy is just fantastic. and it took like a whole week of rehearsals and months of preparation to figure out how we could possibly do this on a web video budget. It was a lot of people just pulling together. It started with recording sessions. And Jeff learned Hindi for the rapping.
Jeff: Just two lines. I've learned three languages in four seasons. Good story though.
Kim: Next.
Questioner: Felicia: Your tweet about the Harry Potter line raised $250,000 for charity. Where do you see new media going?
Felicia: Thank you for that. It's so great that we are going to be able to use all that money for literacy. It's really inspiring that I can help in any way and pay back. This show To me, new media is about the community. I'm really excited to see so many people in the community. Everyone that's ever shared with a friend or clicked a link or bought a dvd is a part of this community. People who come by and say hi to us. That's the reason that we do this. It's the reason why I keep doing it, why Kim and I every single day we're working on the show. We have this fabulous group of people who want to make art as well. I love it when people come up and say they're inspired by our web series or go back to music or any of that. That is the community that we built, and that I'm so incredibly proud of. And I think the internet is the place where you cut out the middlemen. You can really create a community without permission. You don't need a big company or things like that. But to me, I get to do what I love every day and it's because of every single one of you guys. Thank you.
Questioner: Any chance of the two of you playing music together? A concert album?
Felicia: I don't know. It didn't occur to me, but it's a good pitch. Maybe, It would depend on the situation. I really love her work, and she's one of those grassroots people who is trying to make it on her own without a label. She's on a 50 state tour, she's a great musician. If you haven't listened to her stuff, you should check it out.
Questioner: One of the great things about the show is that each character is relateable to all of us. Like we all know who is exactly like each character. I was wondering if you were ever going to do the lovable fat guy? I can't wait to see someone say "Hey -- that's you dude". Instead of me saying "Hey, I know that person."
Jeff: I will maim them.
Wil: I think everyone knows someone like Faukes.
Felicia: Sorry Wil.
Wil: Yeah,that must suck.
Felicia: But in hot way.
Sandeep: To all those Zabus out there: Stop.
Questioner: From alot of my friends. Thank you for the Guild, we all feel a little bit cooler for playing WoW. I'm assuming that some of you played Warcraft before. Who did you base the characters on, namely Bladezz and Vork?
Kim: Anyone have a WoW character?
Felicia Day: I think Jeff plays, and Vince plays.
Jeff: It was already set for me when I jumped in.
Vincent: That's right. We made a character for you. But I think it kind of works in reverse. For example, I never really heard of WoW until I shot season one of the Guild. And I started playing after much convincing. It was fun. It was a great time. But I made my then character called Bladezz after me playing the character on the show. He looks exactly like me. It's crazy. And that's the end of that.
Felicia Day: I don't think the characters were based on anyone I ever knew when I wrote them, but I just had types. So that's why it was fun to create a whole new guild, but I'll keep it in mind.
Questioner: This is a technical question. I know the Guild is shot on a 7D, how has that changed the workflow on the set?
Sean: Seasons 2 and 3, were shot on the Panasonic DVX- package. This season we decided to upgrade to the Canon 5D Mark II. So far, it's just basically been the same. As far as workflow goes, it's just a matter of importing the file into a editable format, and sequencing the audio.
Audience member: Boring!
Felicia: We have a troll in here? A troll, really?
Wil: Get him.
Sean: There will be no more technical questions.
Questioner: So I know we've seen the knights of good, and we've seen the Fawkes so far in Season 4. Is there a possibility we are going to see any other returning characters in the previous seasons in season 4?
Felicia: You want to see Bernie again, because he takes his shirt off, right? We saw Venom in episode 2, and we may be appearances by other characters in the rest of the season.
Sandeep: With their shirts off.
Felicia: I feel bad that people are turning on Fawkes this season.
Wil: People are turning on Fawkes? They're supposed to. Come on -- he's the bad guy.
Wil: Everyone loves Codex. Fawke's whole mythological function is to provide this whole "How can she be with him, and why is he such a dick to her?"
Wil: Believe me, as an actor, to create justifications. So like, The Villain is the hero of his own story, to create justifications to be that guy, to treat you [Felicia] that way is an acting challenge. Especially to someone you genuinely adore and to just be such a schmuck -- especially since it runs counter to my "Don't be a dick law". Its a testament to you [Felicia] as a writer, and makes me feel really good as an actor that so many people hate him.
Wil: I hate him.
Felicia: Thank you very very much for that. I just want to establish that working with Wil is awesome, and we're going to be working together on something else. Wil just announced that he's going to be working on Eureka, and I guess I can say now that I'm going to be doing a recurring guest part on Eureka.
Wil: Wait. It gets better. It gets better.
Felicia: And there might be a little love triangle situation going on between Wil and another character.
Wil: Maybe. I'll leave it up to you to guess who the other side of the triangle is going to be.
Wil: I didn't say it, so she can't get mad at me.
Kim: I'm going to ask a question to Amy, since we haven't addressed the girls yet.
This is Amy first acting role she's ever got and a couple of years have elapsed now. So, just talk about the difference when you came onto season 4 as opposed to when you first came onto the Guild. Like, has it drastically changed for you? Do you feel more comfortable?
Amy Okuda: Yeah, this is pretty much the only role I have, besides the huge role I have on Californication. No, it's been great. I get to work with all these talented people that probably have way more experience than I do. So it's been great to learn from them. I'm taking an improv class now, inspired by these two hooligans (Sandeep and Vincent). So every season I feel more and more comfortable and I think we are all getting closer and closer. Though I don't like this girl right here, [Robin] but... Can you cut her off, because I can't do it any more.
Kim: Robin, kinda the same thing? I know that when you first started going to conventions, you were like "Why do you want my autograph?" but now, every year we have a panel this big, do you feel more comfortable at these things signing?
Robin: Yeah. It wasn't awkward, it was just surreal, because it's so silly, actually amazing, you know.
Felicia: Everyone always comes up to her and says "You're my favorite character. You -- Clara."
Robin: I am really funny.
Question: Are there going to be any other guest stars other than Wil Wheaton?
Felicia: Did you see the Pirate Ollie, the owner of Cheesybeards? He was actually in the original 'V', Frank Ashmore, and we're going to see a lot more of him, and he is just hilarious. He does not look like that in real life. He wears a suit. He's very proper. He just came in and inhabited this pirate. You just have to watch it and believe it. He just cracks me up. A wonderful addition to the cast.
Kim: We loved him, and we thought maybe he didn't know how to operate a computer, and about a week ago, he called me and said "how do I find the Guild online?". A great casting choice.
Question: Felicia: How interested are you in doing crossovers, and Bladezz, if you are tired of working at Cheezybeards, I have a position open for you.
Felicia: So weird. I think Colonel Sanders has recruited accurately someone who can cook.
Wil: Welcome to Comic Con. The place where dreams come true.
Felicia: I don't know about cross over stuff. That kind of stuff always feels cheesy. I don't know, I'm not opposed to cheesy if it's appropriate. There are a couple of series that Kim and I as producers are developing, and we would have loved to announce some stuff now, but things are quite up in the air, but in the next couple of months we'll have some really cool announcements about other projects we're producing. We love working in this space, and we can do a lot more series in the space.
Questioner: This question is for Wil: How to does it feel to be the Enterprise's most hated child on the Next Generation.
Wil: Actually, I have a question for the audience, and be honest. How many of you really hated Wesley Crusher?
[mild cheering]
How many of you actually like Wesley Crusher?
[thunderous cheering]
Wil: Lotta ladies, I wanna say. As I've gotten older, and the people who watched Star Trek who were around the same age as me have gotten older, I've learned that the people who were like we hate you, and here are the sixty-seven ways we want you be impaled on a klingon and killed were a truly cruel and vocal minority, and there was just a lot of other people who were interested, but were too young to be on usenet. So if I could just challenge the premise of the first half of the question and say thank you to both sides. It's totally cool.
Wil: To go from a character who received mixed reviews to a character who people really love to hate is really fun. It's super, super fun to be the character that I know people are like "How can you treat her like that". And it's the same thing on the Big Bang Theory. "How could you break up Leonard and Penny?" To which I always reply "No, you're missing the point. I won bowling, and I am not a good bowler." The villain is the hero of his own story.
Questioner: This question is for Kim and Felicia: Do you think it's easier to get a webisode made than a mainstream tv show on a network?
Felicia: The risk for an owner or a sponsor is much lower. The pool for those looking to make a webseries is smaller than those looking to make million dollar per episode tv shows. There's a bit of a difference in the tech world, a little bit.
... so people are a bit more on equal footing, and that's what I love about the internet.
.. we do have preconceived notions about people. Their age, or their sex or race or their religion. But being in the online world is a little easier for us. We do love working in web series though because of the creativity and the freedom in everything.
Kim: Yeah, for me I don't think it had as much to do about being a woman so much as it was about being able to make something that we wanted to make. The fact that we are both women is a coincidence. Kind of. That's not true. It's kind of. Felicia had a great script, and we knew that it was with people who knew how to work the internet machine and so it just seemed like a very logical step to bring it directly to that source. She had already been told by TV folk that it was too niche. Here we are 2 and half years later, and you guys are here, and they were wrong.
Kim: We've been told we are running low on time, so do we have one more question?
Questioner: We have one more question. My name is Brett, and I just wanted to ask Felicia are we going to see any more Whedon involvement?
Felicia: Joss Whedon infuses everything I do, because he's my hero. He always inspires me, because he is the one person in Hollywood whose voice always comes through. Whatever I'm doing, I always try and think about that. When I'm creating something, I always will.
It'd be great to have more Jed Whedon involvement, or any Whedon any infusion of Whedon in anything always makes it better. It's kinda like vanilla. Or salt if it's savory.
Kim: Cool. So we're going to wrap it up. Any parting words?
Felicia: Thank you so much for loving what we do.
Leave a comment