Wendy and Lisa TOUCH a new wave of viewers

Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, the dynamic duo of television scoring, were recently part of the "Famous TV Theme Music" panel at WonderCon. Prior to the event, White Bear PR admitted a limited number of press to some roundtable interviews with the panelists, and UFN was part of that opportunity.

Here's a partial transcript from the roundtable (we didn't include the section about their work with Prince, which they get asked about every single time). Unfortunately we didn't catch the name of the gentleman who asked about Heroes -- sorry about that, whoever you are, it was a good question!

Urban Fantasy News: Trio of questions for you, all kind of inter-related. What is your process when you get a new show, when you get a new assignment?

Wendy: Process? The script first, then call the producer, set up a meeting, talk about what they have in mind and then the two of us go in with a whole bunch of ideas after that initial meeting.

Lisa: Usually in reading the script you might get an idea in your mind about what might be a good sound, or instruments to use in that particular script or story, depending on what it is. Then you bring that with you to the meeting and compare that to what maybe they were thinking because they usually have their ideas. And if they line up somewhat, or if they’re convinced that your idea’s really cool, they either say “great,” or “can you demo it for us.”

Wendy: I think the magic in that dynamic between us grabbing a script, coming up with an idea, and going and having that meeting is figuring out before we go ahead and blurt out what our idea is, is to just gently test the water to find out what ideas of theirs will work with the ideas we have, and then play off the things we know will work. The reason why we do that is because if it’s a project we want, that’s the important thing to try and hook in. If it’s a project we’re not crazy about, I don’t think we’re as invested in finding out what the exact overarching idea for them is. So that’s how the process begins, and then we have to take it away and hopefully we have more than a few days to come up with an idea.

UFN: Getting a little more specific, you’ve done music for Heroes, phenomenal job on that, by the way...

Wendy: Thank you.

UFN: I hear that you’ve just joined up with Touch, Tim Kring’s new show. How did you get involved with Touch?

Lisa: (laughter)

Wendy: We’ve done every Tim Kring show, so we’re sort of hooked up with him. So we’re kind of his musical mouthpiece, I guess you could say. For “go-to.”

Lisa: Luckily, and thankfully. When he first wrote the script he actually called us and said, “I have something that I want to send you, would you be interested?” Which was really funny...

Wendy: Ha ha.

Lisa: ...Of him to ask, because we’re like, “Of course!” So he sent us the script, and it was the pilot script, and it was so beautiful and amazing. The script itself, if you ever get a chance to just read it, besides seeing the actual show. The show was executed really well too, but...

Wendy: ...But the page was really great to read, and that’s why Kiefer Sutherland actually took the gig, was based on that script and how beautiful the read was.

Lisa: It’s a beautiful story and so amazing. And of course we really get along with Tim, and see things the same way as far as being experimental and trying to break molds and trying different things and still wanting it to be successful. So he’s a good guy to...

(Other interviewer): Speaking of Tim, I wanted to touch on Heroes. I wanted to go back in time here a little bit. How did you approach Heroes, because it’s more or less a superhero series. What was your approach and what was the musical statement you were trying to make with the show, if any?

Lisa: It’s a thing with Tim of not doing a typical... bumbumbum baaaaa... (sings the Superman theme)

Wendy: Action!

Lisa: Which is great, and I love those kinds of action movies and everything, but... also, the way Tim writes is so emotionally-based.

Wendy: There’s a lot of more subjective text.

Lisa: Yeah, these humans who are figuring out or finding out... discovering these powers they had. So it was more like... let’s take a look at how that might be hard for some people, not necessarily a heroic adventure that they go on, but more of a strange sort of... “oh no, I don’t know that I’m okay with this.” And Claire... in a way it was teenage suicides over and over, which is really kind of strange if you think about it. She’s jumping off bridges and catching on fire and it’s like... why are you doing this to yourself? So we just approached the score completely opposite. We had that one cue – we used to do interviews about this a lot – the "Fire and Regeneration" cue that ended up being a template for the show because it went the opposite direction. Super languid and beautiful. So when you came to these action moments and put that up against it, it changed your experience.

Wendy: Your orientation of it.

Lisa: Yeah, it became more subjective as opposed to visceral and adrenaline. It was more like in your mind, a dream experience. That was the approach with that.

UFN: Since we’re still on Heroes for a bit, could you give us a comparison for what it’s like to work on Heroes versus Touch. They both have similar “we’re all connected” and international themes, but at the same time Heroes has a much larger cast and more mythical superpower stuff. Touch is a much smaller intimate cast...

Wendy: Yes!

UFN: ...And you have to stay away from that sound, you can’t just do Heroes all over again.

Wendy: No. And we’re not. Absolutely not. I’ll tell you what, we were asked the same question just the other day, and I think they’re approached completely different. Heroes was much more languid and pad-oriented and evocative and ethereal. Not a lot of time signature stuff except for the Hiro and Ando characters, that was the only thing that had a lot of time signature stuff to it. Touch, because of what the story is about, it’s about communicating through numbers and theories and...

Lisa: Connectivity through patterns.

Wendy: Right. We use time signatures, and a lot of time signatures in the score on this. So if you listen carefully enough, you’ll hear that difference. The shows are so different, and the ways they’re being done are so different, it’s not hard to kind of conform to what it needs. I don’t see it as “how do we not do that again?” I don’t see it as being a problem. It’s made itself really clear what we need to do to it. And we’re only four episodes into composing so it still has legs to find.

Lisa: The thing is that it’s being told initially through the kid who doesn’t speak, so it’s his internal voice, so we try to make the sounds really small, but not cute. In fact, there’s been a conscious effort even with some of the shots that were done in the show. There was one scene that Tim just told us about with a dog in one of the episodes and the dog just went up to the kid actor as they were shooting and sniffed at the kid, and the kid petted the dog, and they were like “That’s great! What a great shot!” But they ended up cutting that, because it was cute. Too cute. And the show can’t go there, because it’ll tip it into a place it doesn’t belong. So with the score, even though we’re using small sounds and even bells and things like that, we’re making it really small and super rhythmic, not too pretty or emotional, even though there are beautiful moments. You have to see it, because hopefully we’re finessing it just so, so that it’s interesting and personal without being cute.

The Karada needs your help to bend some spoons

All is not well in the multiverse, and Emma’s going to need your help.

As previously reported, The Karada is a supernatural thriller about a young woman, Emma Gossett, who struggles to save the multiverse as realities collapse around her. Who can you trust and rely on when each shift of the multiverse changes everything? Who will be there for you tomorrow? Who will unexpectedly turn up today? And just how can one navigate all these conflicting and ever-shifting realities? To make sense of the ever-changing conditions, Emma and her partner David Blunt will reach out to the audience to help them solve the mysteries that unfold through time and space.

The audience is a critical part of creating this story, and this is where The Karada gets most interesting.

Producer Tom Liljeholm and friends

“Community contributions will be taken seriously and matter,” said Emmy-award-winning producer Tom Liljeholm. “For example, participants will be called upon to write in the details of Emma’s alternate realities, the basis of which will be produced into a digital comic series. Further, as our heroine in the dramatic series crosses paths with these alternative lives, participants will feel the true impact of their contributions on the storyline.”

Beyond just passive entertainment, The Karada will involve a complete interactive experience, including the web, mobile devices and even live events that fans can attend in person. Each component is integral to the total experience – one in which the participants will have a say in contributing to the story.

The international production team behind The Karada is quite at home with creating immersive experiences with strong storylines. Jim Martin, who is best known for his work on Heroes’ Web series in which he won two webby awards, met producer Tom Liljeholm while working on Tim Kring and Nokia’s Conspiracy for Good, the darling transmedia project of last summer. Rounding out The Karada creative team is director Jakob Berglund of Furnace Fighter Media, Ki Henriksson, who penned the original concept of The Karada, writer for The Truth about Marika and Conspiracy for Good ARGs, and Tom’s partner in Tea4two Entertainment, and Carrie Cutforth-Young, a writer and multimedia artist based in Toronto.

Keep your eyes on The Karada website for the latest, and be sure to follow the project on Facebook and Twitter.

The Karada will be melting heads on an Internet near you

I just got wind of this new transmedia project yesterday, and I'm really excited about it. The Karada explores the concept of the multiverse and weaves it together with ancient archetypes to explore a new way of looking at reality. Or, in this case, overlapping and intersecting realities.

"The world is made up by endless layers of reality. Every time one makes a decision, reality is divided between what is and what could have been. Every reality has a group called the Patternseekers, safe-keepers who keep the alternate realities distinct and separate. When the threads of multiple realities begin to intermingle, problems arise.

"Since the death of her grandmother (the last Patternseeker alive), designer Emma Gossett has been experiencing strange unexplainable shifts in reality. One moment she has a brother, the next she doesn't. At night, she goes to sleep with one man, only to wake up next to another. Decisions no longer have logical consequences or repercussions. And it's starting to threaten her sanity."

This is a brilliant idea, and I cannot wait to see how it's executed. Considering that it's from the keyboards of James Martin, one of the writers of Heroes, and Tom Liljeholm, head of the Conspiracy for Good ARG, this has a lot of potential, especially as a transmedia project with audience participation. 


For a more complete description of the plot, visit the Facebook page for The Karada.

Torchwood premiere shines bright

I admit, I'm coming in very late on this. I've seen very little Dr. Who, and no Torchwood to date, until tonight's premiere of Series 4, which is set in Los Angeles. Let it be known that today I officially became a fan of Torchwood.

Why?

Let me count the ways, in no particular order:

1) High production value. Every minute of this show looked fantastic. Every location was lush and nothing looked cheap or thrown together or like a little sound stage. They weren't afraid to do night shots, driving in the rain shots, sweeping vistas of Wales (that house!), hospital interiors with that weird lighting they have, the inside of an airplane, dark hallways, high-tech command centers, and just about every other kind of location you can think of. And it all looked great! On top of that, the makeup and special effects were flawless.

2) John Barrowman. Hunky but not overly Hollywood, not afraid to be who he is, and a very funny and gracious human being off the set. He's extremely likable and easy on the eyes in a friendly way, and I wish we'd seen more of him in this premiere, but I do understand why we didn't.

3) Fascinating premise. I did go to Wikipedia to see what I'd been missing, and to fill in some of the information that the premiere hinted at but didn't give directly. Obviously, modern day alien hunters in Los Angeles and the whole X-Files feel is straight up the alley of Urban Fantasy News. Within that, the story introduced in the premiere episode is a fascinating mystery that is not neatly tied up in one episode, leaving the viewer wanting more in a good way, not with a frustrating cliffhanger that smashcuts to black.

4) Stellar writing. I sat down to watch this premiere without having seen one minute of the previous incarnations of Torchwood, and I was introduced to the premise and characters in ways that made sense and fit with the tone of the show, but that never felt like forced exposition. The only "I am explaining everything to you now" scene worked flawlessly as a natural result of the action. The humor was understated and, again, a natural result of the interactions of the characters. The pacing flowed well, the dialog was completely believable.

I predict a Torchwood sweep at the next Saturn Awards. I could not find any flaw big enough to be worth mentioning except maybe the Jeep chase scene at the end which seemed a little contrived, but it was fantastic eye candy, I have to admit, and made me want to get in a Halo Warthog and drive around for a while.

Torchwood fills in the holes left by such shows as Heroes, X-Files and Millennium (yes, I'm a geek, I still miss Millennium!) and does it with class, mystery and humor. You can see every dollar on the screen, and it's money well-spent, because I will definitely be back for more.

Foz McDermott: Helix Reminiscence

Foz McDermott was with Heroes on its first day, all the way to its last day. This is the first in a series of posts on his blog recalling what it was like to be there:

"It has been 5 years almost to the week where we started up production, so I figured no better time than now. What you will get in this series is a look back on my time at Heroes. I was one of the very few that were there from the very first, to very last day of the show. What you will NOT get in this series will be any huge insider secrets, or bashing, or tidbits of any huge dirty laundry piles. As I have said before, that show and it’s people were the closest thing I had to a family since moving to the West coast and I would never say anything horrible, mostly because there really isn’t anything horrible to say about people and experiences that you truly love."

For the rest of this terrific post, Click Here.

Exclusive: Brea and Zane Grant on their upcoming projects

Zane and Brea Grant

You may remember Brea Grant as Daphne the speedster, Hiro Nakamura's frenemy from Heroes. Our Heroes-related section of the interview is on our sister site, House Petrelli, but UFN asked some more general questions about Brea and Zane's upcoming comic book projects, which are both entertaining and very diverse.

UFN: We Will Bury You... I was going to say that launched at Comic-Con '09? Am I right on that?

BG: We started promoting it in '09, but it actually didn't come out until a year ago, and then the trade came out this past fall.

UFN: And who's the publisher on that?

BG: It's IDW.

UFN: Ah, okay. And what's the premise?

ZG: It's the story of a zombie apocalypse that begins in New York in 1927 and follows a sex worker and her girlfriend as they try to survive, the people they meet and so on.

UFN: Okay, interesting angle on it. So we see the underside, and they see these things happen in the corners where most people don't?

ZG: Yeah, it's basically a survival story set in the 20s.

BG: There's a lot of comic books and zombie comic books specifically that look at people with power, with money, who are cops, who have skills... and we wanted to look at people whose survival skills are more street skills. Street smart rather than having money to buy your way out, or get on a boat, or do whatever you would do to survive.

UFN: Are there other projects you guys are moving into? Other titles, other...

ZG: Yeah, we're still working on comics together, we're pitching out a few things right now. We're pitching out a slasher book with Eric J who does some really amazing art. He was the co-creator of Rex Mundi and he's doing a book called Fly right now. So that's a really fun one, and we're working on a comic about a graffiti crew that learns to do magic. It's really an urban fantasy thing. The tentative title is Dead City Kids.

BG: And we have a Suicide Girls comic book coming out in April with IDW as well.

UFN: I think of them as pictures... what are they going to be doing?

BG: Well, we wrote a story for them. It's sort of a Charlie's Angels-esque group of elite fighters fighting against a giant religious corporation in a sort of dystopian future.

UFN: I did not see that coming.

ZG: It's sort of a science fiction spy story kind of thing with espionage. It's fun. I think we did a good job! And we have Cameron Stewart who does some amazing art, and David Hahn who also does some amazing art, and Steve Niles is writing a back-of-issue story. I think it'll be a fun project. It's coming out in a few weeks.

UFN: And is that with IDW?

ZG: That one's with IDW, the other ones we're still pitching out and we're talking to some people about them. I'm doing a web comic with a friend called Detective Warlock, Warlock Detective. It's kind of a horror-comedy about a small town warlock detective. He does things like he fights a graveyard hag at a skating rink, things like that.

UFN: Is that set in the present-day?

ZG: Yeah, it's set in the present-day. It's pretty cool. I think that'll be up next month.

UFN: Do you have a website?

ZG: I do, it's ZaneGrant.org.

UFN: Dot org?

ZG: Yes, I'm an organization.

UFN: Or you're very organized. Or both. Do you have any parting thoughts or other work you're doing?

BG: I co-wrote a screenplay that's going to shoot in September that's one of the big projects I'm working on on my own besides other acting ventures. It's independent and still in the early stages, it's called Best Friends Forever and it's an apocalyptic road trip movie.

UFN: The horror genre, pardon the pun, just will not die. Zombies and vampires and the apocalypse... do you think there's still a lot of audience? Do you think it's played out at all?

BG: I don't think horror will ever play out. I think people are drawn to it for whatever reason they have. I never wake up and think, "No, I don't really want to watch a horror movie or read a sci-fi book. I consistently want to be in those genres, whereas I do sometimes feel like I don't want to watch a depressing drama or something like that. I think it's here to stay. I think certain things will probably go out of style. I have this theory that werewolves are the next big thing. So I think zombies will go out of style, other things will go out of style, vampires will go out style, but I think at some point it's still gonna cycle through.

UFN: Horror as a genre, obviously, has been around forever, since Mary Shelley, since before that, scaring people, things that go bump in the night... it's kind of blown up recently, but you don't think it's going to shrink any time in the near future?

ZG: I don't think so. I think as a genre there's a lot of room to find new stories, especially now that so much money is going into remakes, or even just rehashing the same stories from the same authors. And those monsters do have specific meaning to our society. In international horror, over the last ten years people there have been some really interesting new kinds of stories that people are telling, or telling in a different style. Even vampire stories, like Let the Right One In, that movie's amazing. It's so different than anything.

UFN: Well, like Priest is coming out, and the interesting thing about the vampires on that is that they're actually some kind of non-human alien infection kind of thing, and the people are light-sensitive instead of... it's a twist on it that's really interesting.

ZG: Yeah, I think there's a lot of room for tweaking things and playing with what's there, but definitely the genre is getting maybe a little bit stale involving the mainstream-ization of it, but hopefully some money will go into some great projects.

BG: I think the true fans will keep it alive.

WonderCon day one roundup

So much to say, so little time! It's late, and I have a ton of material to cover, so let's get right to it.

After getting my badge and visiting some booths and tables, the first event was an interview with the energetic Brea Grant, known for her roles as Jean on Friday Night Lights, and speedster Daphne on Heroes, and her brother Zane Grant. The pair have several projects in the works, including We Will Bury You from IDW, and a couple of other interesting urban fantasy tales involving the use of magic. Good stuff, and the complete transcript of the interview with photos will be up ASAP.

Then it was on to the Falling Skies panel. This is a new show produced by Dreamworks and written by Mark Verheiden (of Heroes, also co-executive producer) and Melinda Hsu (of Lost), and co-executive produced and directed by Greg Beeman (also of Heroes) who was scheduled to appear but didn't make it. I was very impressed by it, and can see some of the vibe of season one Heroes amongst the extremely dark and gritty (and, in some ways, horrific) tale that we saw the footage for. In talking to Hsu at the Dark Horse booth after the panel, she assured me that the show does have hope and brighter moments. Falling Skies focuses on the humanity of the situation less than the CG eye candy of the aliens themselves, much as Heroes focused on the people, not the powers. Again, more on that panel and what I saw there as I'm able to post it. Definitely a show to put on your watch list.

Opposite the Green Lantern panel, and poorly attended as a result, was The Evolution of Comics in the Transmedia Space. It's a shame, because it was an excellent panel featuring producers, artists, writers and other top talents in the comics industry discussing how old-fashioned print comics are spiraling down fast, and how to save the genre by exploring how comics can work in the digital age. We were treated to footage of the Fall Out Boy (Double Barrel) and Tron (Disney) motion comics, as well as a spirited, thought-provoking discussion. More on that coming soon!

Capping off the night was an exclusive screening of footage and the "sizzle reel" from Priest, the upcoming film starring Paul Bettany as one of a supernatural "priest" caste of vampire hunters. But these vampires are like none we've ever seen before, and will creep you the eff out when you finally see them on screen. I'm still getting shivers over the sounds they make. They are very alien, and very much do not sparkle in any way, shape or form whatsoever. This is Legion's super badass big brother who will knock you around the block, and you'll want to take pictures of the cool bruises.

Speaking of Priest and Paul Bettany, I'm going to be interviewing director Scott Stewart, Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Lily Collins and Min-Woo Hyung tomorrow, and I couldn't be more excited. The footage I saw went far beyond my expectations, and I think this will do well at the box office when it opens in a few weeks.

I've already hooked up with a lot of people and made some new friends, so beyond the articles outlined above, there are articles and interviews galore coming soon, including information about a new Jim Henson project from Archaia Comics, and some independent comics you've never heard of (but should, and will after I spotlight them in the near future). And this is only day one! Stay tuned, tons more coming tomorrow!

Inaugural Post - What is Urban Fantasy News?

Welcome to Urban Fantasy News, the sisterchild of House Petrelli, of Heroes fame. Even though Heroes has (probably) ended (stay tuned for news on that), our interest in modern fantasy and speculative fiction hasn't, and never will.

Speculative fiction is the great "What If?" What if ordinary people suddenly discovered they had superpowers? What if you could take a pill and never have to sleep again? What if the world was actually one big computer simulation? What if you were immortal?

Urban Fantasy News covers the fantastic in the present. As much as we enjoy things like Sherlock Holmes or Halo, the focus of UFN is solely the comics, films, television shows, books, video games and more that take place in the present day, such as Iron Man, The Matrix, Tron, Being Human, Dead Rising and so on.

So what's in store for UFN?

Our next event is WonderCon in San Francisco, April 1 & 2. We've gotten some great press-only invitations, so look for our first exclusive UFN content next weekend (and keep your fingers crossed for some killer interviews we've requested). We'll also be posting links to hot articles, and continue our perennial photo op favorite, Where's Peter?

Want to be part of UFN? We're looking for regional reporters, so if you're interested in submitting content, please contact us here or via Twitter and we'll talk!

That's all for now. Stay tuned to this channel for news of the fantastic!