Monday, October 20, 2014

8:15am	BREAKFAST Location: Pacifica Ballroom Pre-Function North
9:00am	PANELS BEGIN Location for All Panels: PACIFICA 1/2
9:00am	PANEL #1: SYFY EXECUTIVE SIT-DOWN Panelists: Dave Howe, President, Syfy and Bill McGoldrick, EVP, Original Content, Syfy Aaron Sagers, Editor at Large, Blastr, Intro

There was originally supposed to be an eighth panel later in the day for Sharknado, but due to a last-minute scheduling conflict for Ian Ziering, this was canceled. So the Executive panel opened with some news about the upcoming third film of the franchise:

Next year, Sharknado 3 will be storming the east coast. It will make landfall and attack America’s favorite institution, Washington DC, and finally, Washington is getting what’s coming to it. And then it will swallow the entire eastern seaboard, head down the coast, and end up, miraculously, in Orlando, Florida, where it will take out some of Orlando. And we’re calling it “Sharknado Takes on the Feast Coast”.

Syfy President Dave Howe also talked about the push towards programming bigger, more ambitious and high quality sci-fi projects, and how streaming and binge-watching have changed the TV and Syfy landscape.

Watch the full panel below:

9:30-9:50am

PANEL #2: 12 MONKEYS Panelists: Aaron Stanford, Amanda Schull and Travis Fickett (Co-Executive Producer) Bill McGoldrick Intro ** Panel Participants Mingle with the Press (15-Minutes) **

The new Syfy series 12 Monkeys will premiere on Friday January 16 at 9pm. The premise is inspired by the classic film of the same name, which follows the story of a man who travels back from the future in order to find and stop the source of a deadly plague. The panel for the new series opened with a trailer:

Then we heard from stars Aaron Stanford (time-traveler Cole) & Amanda Schull (Dr. Cassandra Railly) and Co-Executive Producer Travis Fickett. They talked about what it was like jumping back and forth in time and acting with alternate versions of their own characters. Travis Fickett also discussed how the series differs from the film after the the pilot episode:

We are going to diverge pretty widely from the movie. I think you can — there’s a spiritual continuity, in a way. I think it feels like the movie a lot of times in that the hero is an unlikely hero. He’s doesn’t have the best time machine to achieve this mission. There is a tinge of madness and craziness throughout the whole story, and that, kind of, was one of the central sort of tenets of the movie.
And it’s also, in the movie, you didn’t know until the end what the 12 monkeys were and, you know, how the virus broke out and all of those things, and that’s going to be the same kind of mystery that we’re dealing with.
But it wouldn’t be any fun for anybody if we just did the television version of that story, you know. So we’re taking all of the elements that we kind of loved, the impressions from the movie, and not the straight, you know, checklist of story items.
I think fans will be pleased with what we took and what we expanded and what we changed. I am. And I’m the biggest fan of that movie, like I’ll fight anyone here who says they’re a bigger fan of that movie than me. So, I would lose, but I’d still try to fight you. So yeah, I think people will be happy.

During the “mingling” time, I spoke with the executive producer who told me that each episode will tell a story, but also inform an overall arc as well. He said while the first season is 13 episodes and tells a closed story, there are still open-ended areas to be explored in future seasons. He said he actually has detailed plans for 22 episodes as well as high-level plans for the first 3 seasons and series finale.

I also took the opportunity to say hello to Aaron Stanford, who grew up in my home town. I had last met him probably 20 years ago when I was running the spotlight for a community theater play he was doing called “David and Lisa”.

Watch the full panel below:

10:05-10:25am

PANEL #3: HELIX Panelists: Kyra Zagorsky and Steven Maeda (Executive Producer) Bill McGoldrick Intro ** Panel Participants Mingle with the Press (15-Minutes) **

Helix was one of the sets we visited last year for the Digital Press Tour. I really enjoyed the series, and am anxiously awaiting its return on Friday January 16 at 10pm.

During the panel, Executive Producer Steven Maeda & star Kyra Zagorsky talked about what viewers can expect to see in the second season.

One of the things we always talked about doing with the show, if we were fortunate enough to have a second season, was changing up the location. And because the show is so self-contained it happens — it really occurs in one space for all 13 episodes. Obviously, season one, we were in the arctic at Arctic BioSystems, and it all blew up at the end of last year, so we can’t go back.
And so, we decided this year to find a great location, which we did. We found this really, really incredible space outside of Montreal called Oka Abbey, and it’s where we’re setting the second season. It’s going to be set on an island off of the Pacific Northwest, and it’s going to be cool and different, and yet the same.

During the Q&A, I asked if we can expect more of that signature, mis-matched music again this season, to which Steven Maeda replied:

That and more, yeah, absolutely. That’s one of my favorite parts of the show.

During the “mingling” section, while getting my picture taken with Kyra Zagorsky, I asked the actress if her character’s finger will magically grow back. She said that, unfortunately, she has to wear a prosthetic the whole time like she did for the first season finale.

Watch the full panel below:

10:40-11:10am

BREAK