It's hard to believe, but it's been four years since I stopped freaking out long enough to interview Felicia Day. Back then she had just managed to negotiate a ground-breaking deal with Xbox after sticking to her guns over ownership of her work, and Season 2 of The Guild was just airing. Who could have predicted that Season 6 of The Guild would be airing four years later?
Since that interview I've kept tabs on Felicia and watched her develop her career with aplomb. She has worked hard to make her future her own, and her successes have been many. I hope one day we meet up and have a nice cup of tea and a scone. That would do very nicely.
Codex remains unconvinced by Bladezz suggestions, and suggestiveness
The Guild at San Diego Comic Con
Excitement is building about what is going to be revealed at Comic Con this year by The Guild. With Season 4, Episode 2 out this week, the Knights of The Guild CompanionCast out now and my review out soon on PinkRaygun, it's already a Guild-filled week.
But wait - there's more! Today PinkRaygun.com have published the first part of "Homecoming: The Guild at San Deigo Comic Con 2009". This is a chapter from my sadly as-yet unpublished book, "From Cheetos to Stripper Bus: The Ultimate Fanguide to how Felicia Day built The Guild Empire Level by Level", and is a great primer to what might happen at SDCC this week. Parts 2 and 3 will be out tomorrow and Friday.
The full schedule of The Guild activities is on WatchTheGuild.com. If you are lucky enough to be at SDCC then make sure you get to signings and the panel early because it is going to be BUSY!!
What do you do when you have too much to do?
Usually I panic for a bit, make a cup of tea, think about doing a list and then get on with the easiest bit. The whole 'eating a frog' thing is good in theory but I don't often practice it. And sometimes I do completely the opposite and invent more things to do because they are more fun. And this is what happens then: (Greg Benson from @mediocrefilms is to blame for this -and here's the proof).
There's so much to get through here that I'm keeping it as brief as possible!
Celebrate The Web at San Diego during Comic Con
Since Jenni Powell and Kim Evey organised the first Celebrate The Web event after The Streamys this year, the idea has really caught on and even after releasing extra tickets, the events are sold out. But never fear - there is a wait list. The Second CTW has been orgainsed by Jenni Powell, Taryn O'Neill and Stephanie Thorpe and is being held in San Diego on Saturday. It is jam-packed with web video goodness. Be sure to keep checking CelebrateTheWeb.com for updates!
Jeff Lewis 50-minute Comedy Hour during Comic Con
I received my invite to this event yesterday on Facebook and sadly I had to decline, but - wait! The Celebrate The Web even is being STREAMED LIVE so no one has to miss anything!
Article on Whedonage about Comic Con
Whedonage.com has been offline for a couple of days in preparation for....something :) They will be covering lots of Whedon-related happenings at SDCC and you can follow them on Twitter @whedonage. When the site is back up they'll be something from me on there, too.
Browncoats: Redemption interview with Michael Dougherty - who is at Comic Con
I had the very great pleasure of interviewing Michael Dougherty last week all about the upcoming film, Browncoats: Redemption. All the information and links to the videos are on PinkRaygun. I'm so excited for this film - thanks for a great interview, Michael!
Goodnight Princess and the Vimeo Awards
We submitted Goodnight Princess to the Vimeo Awards this week and we're hoping it will do well. I posted about it over at HigletFilms.com. If you've not seen out micro-shortform internet play yet then please do - we are very proud of what we acheived.
New Webseries - now in pre-production!
As I said, we're busy! It's all coming together really well and we'll be able to tell you more about it really soon.
Monetising my ELE videos
YouTube have told me I can make money from the Evil League of Evil webseries I did - I wonder if Joss will mind? So far no one seems to have a clear view either way - what do you think?
Whatever you are doing have a great week. I'll be back as soon as I get another minute!
And once again I will be attending via the Internet. Sure, some people might say that stalking all the people I know who are going is a poor substitute for actually being there, but at least this way I don't have many scheduling nightmares and the kids get to eat this month! Last year I blogged on Whedonage about all the people I would queue up to see if I were there Part 1 and Part 2. The list hasn't changed that much, with a few additions, perhaps.
For all us unfortunates not able to be there here are some resources that might help:
Websites:
Tubefilter: a guide to all the webseries at SDCC including The Guild and Dr Horrible
Whedonage: all the Whedon-related happenings this year
The Guild: their guide to everything Guild-related
Guildies: Comic-Con'd!: Set up by Dani (@maxsummers), a collection of Guildies will be posting their reports from SDCC (I'm really excited about this!)
Twitterers:
@Crixlee Cricket Lee: co-presenter of A Fangirl's Guide podcast, girl gamer and Guild extra will be at CC, collecting interviews and giving away stickers
@egspoony Edgar Garcia: The Guild and Felicia's webmaster extraordinaire
@maxsummers Dani will be posting on the Guildies' site (can't wait for her to meet with Felicia!) and tweeting (I hope!)
@CapricaSeven: Jane Espenson, who will be there for the BSG panel
EDIT: @theguild: They will have a very special announcement for Guildies at CC on Thursday AM, so be sure you're following them (yes, even those of us not there want to know what's going on!)
@jul_weiss: Julianna Weiss, Editor of Pink Raygun is at CC and will be getting scoop on lots of geektastical wonders!
Video reporting
The lovely Jared Hoy has started a video blog about SDCC. Despite some misgivings about his co-host (and you'll understand why when you see who that is) I have high hopes for this:
If you know of anyone else or other sites that have SDCC information on them please let me know and I'll add them.
EDIT:
Jessica Stover (@JSto) will be representing Artemis Eternal at SDCC but in a different form to last year. All the details are on the Artemis Eternal website.
Shenanigans!
So what's all that about, then? Well, I have discovered some shocking news. News so shocking that it could set the Internet alight like hasn't been seen since the news of Guild Deficiency Syndrome broke or that loser Sean Becker was apparently sacked by the wonderful Felicia Day. It's so potentially devastating that I can barely bring myself to blog about it. But I know my duty. Stay tuned - the truth is out there!!!
The Guild Season 2, episode 1 was released on Tuesday – have you seen it yet? Funny, smart with a brilliant cliffhanger, and it looks so wonderful! I’ve seen it a few times already. There have been lots of new faces on watchtheguild.com community site and many of them have just seen all of Season 1 and started Season 2 in the last day!
It’s a secret!
People have kept asking me about the Felicia interview and I’ve just not been able to say anything. We arranged last week that it would be this week but I knew how hectic it was going to be for Felicia and I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.
I was a bit nervous….
When I started this blog nearly 200 posts ago I never dreamed that it would develop into what it has. Felicia was someone I made contact with quite early on and I never thought that I would get to interview her. I had been trying to prepare, write out questions, practice on hubby but I was still more than a tad nervous. This was going to be Felicia Day (or Felicia Day, Day. Or Felicia squared…)! On my laptop! Talking to me!
In good hands
But, being the sweet person she is Felicia contacted me yesterday morning at the arranged time. She hadn’t realized it was going to be a video interview and so she very gamely set up her laptop with the webcam and rang back so we could do the interview. Apart from my not being able to talk properly and calling the Frag Dolls http://www.fragdolls.com/the Frag Girls (sorry!) and mispronouncing lots of words like Gamer Vixens http://www.gamervixens.comI think it went well. I enjoyed talking to Felicia so much the time whizzed by and Felicia was kind enough to say it was good to meet in person (via webcam!) after all this time.
Time flies…
In the end we chatted for over twenty minutes, which I know was a big part of the day for her to give up. They were frantically editing so they could get ready for Thanksgiving, so a HUGE thank you to Felicia. Do you want to know where you can see the videos? You do?
Whedonage.com is the word
They are on Whedonage.com along with a brief summary of each part as part of the series I've been doing about The Guild. But I've also put them here because....Felicia is so cool!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
P.S.
There was a few little bits not shown but mostly they were saying hello and good bye and things. Mostly...
The next installment about The Guild is now up on Whedonage and a great interview with Kim Evey. I can't thank her enough for doing the interview in spite of me making a...well, that's another story. If you want to know more, skip to the bottom of the page (not for those who cringe at other people's embarrassment!).
Browncoat news? A film?! What does that mean?
Excitement and the chance to hear more stories from the 'Verse! I won't rehash the Whedonage article here but suffice to say that a group of dedicated Browncoats are working on a new film set in the Firefly/Serenity universe called Browncoats: Redemption. This has had Joss' blessing (though neither Universal nor anyone else has agreed yet) and all the profits will go to charity. They have a website and a Facebook site where you can find out more. I wish them all the best and I will ordering my copy as soon as it's all finished - this is a very exciting project!
Why it's sometimes best to if you don't try to be funny....
Some people have the ability to convey their personality, or aspects of it, through interviews. I think Kim is one of them. I've read quite a few interviews and articles about Kim and The Guild over the last few months and I thought I had a handle on the person. I was thrilled when she said she would do the interview and went into overdrive with questions - there was so much I wanted to know. And then I thought "Kim's a funny sort of person - she'll appreciate a joke. I'll send her some questions from Evil WorldofHiglet and pretend they are the real interview questions - she'll think it's hi-larious!"
How I chuckled to myself as I prepared to send off the first message to Kim. We were using The Guild email/messaging system and I sent off the Evil WoH questions first, intending to follow up with the real questions straight after. And that's where it all started to go pear-shaped.
I had not realised that there was a size limit on messages sent via the messaging system. I cut and pasted the real interview into the message and then learned the awful truth. I couldn't possibly send all the questions in one message - it would take at least two. I did a quick calculation and worked out it should do with two if I trimmed it slightly. Ok. Not ideal but nevermind. So I sent the second message with the article intro and an explanation about how the first email was a joke and the real questions would be in the next email.
And then I found out that the size limit was characters INCLUDING SPACES. So the questions wouldn't fit into the third email! I was going to have to split them into another 2 messages....at this point I think it's safe to say that I was regretting having ever started! But I had to press on to the bitter end. So I sent the questions split into next two messages out with the title "This isn't spam...." I felt more than a little stupid and wondered how Kim was going to react to a whole slew of nonsensical messages from someone who was obviously a sandwich or two short of a picnic.
I stewed for a couple of days, wondering what to do. But I couldn't leave it and so sent one last message explaining that if she could let me have another email address I could send the whole thing to her. In one go. There might have been some groveling in there too. I'm trying to repress so I can't say for sure. Kim sent an email back in which she tactfully ignored my spamming her inbox. She gave an alternate address and she even offered to answer the Evil WoH questions! I can't tell you how relieved I was. So, the interview was saved, if not my pride.
Well, I thought I would just share that with you. Yep, I'm a bit of a doofus. But luckily it all worked out and Kim gave some great answers. Check out the interview - she rocks!
there's a new article up today (by yours truly) about the ELE Applications. Rachel Rhee, the new Dr Horrible Project Manager, has been interviewed on drhorrible.net. She confirmed that every single application will be viewed by team:
"I keep an eye out on the Whedonesque message board to see what fans are saying and I’ve read that a lot of people are feeling like their applications might not get selected because they are not getting written up about by some of the press the ELE has received. I just want to reassure everyone out there that every, single application is being reviewed. If you submitted to us before the deadline, it will definitely get seen by the Dr. Horrible Team."
This is good news, but most people do not have the time to sift through the 650 applications so this is a chance for everyone to put forward their favourites with reasons why they think they are good. Pop over to Whedonage.com and add your comment and share your favourite videos with us all.
Good ole WorldofHiglet, sometime Blogger and fangirl. Geek and wouldbe writer. In the past several months we've shared ups, we've shared downs, we've shared wobbly bits in the middle (though that last one could just be me). But one thing we've not shared is....names. Yes, I've been at pains to keep my real name away from just about everything. That is about to change.
I have some new guest posts
Yes, I know I have done guest posts before, like the interview with PJ Haarsma on Whedonage. The difference with these new posts is that was actually paid to do them and I have published them under my real name. This is a big deal for me, so if you want to have a look, maybe leave a comment (pretty please), head over to ArtCulture.com. The lastest one is a groovy interview with Jensen from Gallery 1988 in LA. They have just had the second 'Crazy 4 Cult' exhibition featuring up and coming artists and a whole lot of cult movies. The Opening Party was hosted by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier and the art is eye-popping.
So, there you have it
You may carry on about your normal business. The last geek bus home will continue it's meandering and marginally entertaining journey. The world will still turn. But something has definitely changed. I'm sure I've done the right thing. Haven't I?
And nothing has amused me more in these last few weeks than checking up on YOU, my dear readers. No, I haven't been cyber-stalking you (apart from, you know, those people I do stalk, and they know who they are). But I have a good idea about how your brain works. For a start, how did you get here at all?
Statistics, not metaphysics
And by that I mean, how did you find this lil' ole blog? Some of you searched your way here, and I will return to you in a moment. And some of you headed this way after clicking a link on another site. Perhaps you read one of the articles on Whedonage and were desperate for more, or you first read about me on my other blog over at Wordpress. Or you are thinking of joining my community on MyBlogLog (do it - it's free and easy!). The thing is, I know how many of you have done this through the power of Google Analytics. This free and spanky piece of software shows me where the traffic on my site has come from, how long it stayed and which posts are the most popular. Here are some highlights....
Well the real reason for this post was not to bore you useless information but to share with you one fact that has kept me amused out of all proportion these last weeks. On my Wordpress blog do you know what the most searched for thing is? Do you? Well, please don't tell Felicia, but here is a screenshot that tells you all you need to know:
Of course, Wordpress allows you get the IP address and email of everyone who visits, so I know that most of these searches are one person. I wonder who Mr S Parikh is.....?
Tomorrow, we'll look at what these results mean (if anything).
P.S. One of the facts above is incorrect. Do you know which one?
The list is so long, this latest article is in two parts! I've looked again at the people I'd queue all night to see and hence 'Comic Con 2008: The Queue List Wrap Up' Part 1 and Part 2. I hope you'll pop over to Whedonage and have a read, maybe leave a comment...Plus, I get called 'inimitable'!
After it was published this morning I noticed that Kids Need To Read updated their site last night with pictures and news from Comic Con, so while I'm trying to get a link added into the article, you can check out their latest news here. There are great stories and pictures.
Do you like the new look?
And, in the best tradition of avoiding proper work, I've finally managed to get the 3 columns on the blog. I'm still tweaking, but hopefully it'll look a bit less cluttered soon....
Well I don't know about you, but it's been a busy week over here. After waving goodbye to our visiting family at the weekend the house was feeling pretty empty (well, apart from my brood, of course) but luckily I've had plenty to keep me out of mischief. Isn't that good?
The Guild DVDs are on their way
Felicia and helpers (who included Sandeep 'Zaboo' Parikh) worked their way through boxloads of orders for The Guild, Season 1 and they are now all posted out. Have I mentioned my admiration for Ms Day and The Guild here before? Ok, then! So it's no surprise to know that I am ridiculously excited about getting this DVD. You can keep up with all thing Guild by going to WatchTheGuild.com or even using The Guild FriendFeed room.
Buffy Between the Lines - Season 2!
It's hard to believe the time has passed so quickly but Season 2 starts on Saturday 16th August. With lots of excitement to come this season make sure you check out the BBtL website for the full story - and don't forget that Lisa T debuts as Cordelia, which is certainly something to look forward to. And there is more news from the BBtL team, too, concerning Dr Horrible. Now, what could that be about? Check out this DragonCon post and then tell me if it doesn't make you go "Wow! I wish I was going to be there"!
More Whedonage posts to follow
I've also been hard at work on a followup to my Whedonage post about Comic Con. Yes, it's been a labour of love all right, but it's nearly ready to go up. It's going to be in 2 parts, though, because I just couldn't condense it down anymore. So many great people, so many great things to write about! And speaking of Whedonage, my exclusive interview with P J Haarsma (award-winning author of 'The Softwire' books and co-founder of 'Kids Need To Read' literacy foundation) has gone down very well. P J was kind enough to say he would do a follow-up interview so if you have any questions please put them in the comments and I can include them.
Reading for pleasure - and friends?
I've had the job of reading a draft of 'Save My Soul', a novel by Zoe Winters. Well, I say 'job', but there was a lot more pleasure than work involved! Writing is a strange beast and it's very hard to judge your own work. When Zoe asked for readers for her novel on her excellent blog recently I signed up straight away. After having to put it to one side while others things took precedence, I made the time this week to finish it and send some feedback to Zoe. Now, I'm not going to give any spoilers away but this is a very good read indeed. The story is well-paced and plotted, I really like Zoe's style and voice, and the ending really surprised me! The good news for all of us is that 'Save My Soul' is going to be Podcast, so as soon as a date is set for that I'll be blogging about it again. Thanks, Zoe - reading 'Save My Soul' was a pleasure!
Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the name PJ Haarsma, writer of 'The Softwire' books. So when I saw that he had designed the remote used by Dr Horrible I seized the chance to ask to interview him. Luckily for me PJ took time out to do an interview with me (which includes a picture of him and Nathan at the Kids Need To Read signing at Comic Con) and that's published today on Whedonage. Why not pop over there, read and leave a comment!
I've posted an article on Whedonage today, thanks to Felicia Day. Well, sort of. If she hadn't been doing an online chat there on Sunday I wouldn't have found out how great Whedonage was and I wouldn't have asked if I could submit an article. It's entitled Comic Con 2008 - Who Would You Queue to See? and there's a prize for the person who guesses the most names.
Told you there was more news
So please head over to view and comment and we'll sort out prizes later. Honest. Now I really do need to get on - airport calls in a little while!
Whedonage have put Sunday's chat with Felicia on the site
Simon has done a really good job of making it easy reading. And when you consider there were so many people vying to ask Felicia a question, that's no mean feat! As is becoming customary with Whedon-related online events, the server took a hit and was disabled temporarily but the whole event was a big success. There's a full description of the chat-fest plus a link to the transcript on Whedonage. Felicia answered my question once I managed to get logged in:
Improv and Being Human [12:01:13] worldofhiglet: was my question asked? [12:01:24] FeliciaDay: higlet what's your question [12:01:36] worldofhiglet: Hi Felicia, I'm a big admirer of you and all your works :) One thing I would like to ask is did you (or anyone else) do any improvisation during the filming of Dr Horrible or was it all tightly scripted? And will you be doing some more Being Humans improv in the future? [12:01:47] worldofhiglet: thanks, felicia [12:01:58] Simon: She's been trying to ask for a while :) [12:02:04] Dr Blog Bot: good question! [12:02:11] FeliciaDay: It was all scripted every one [12:02:17] FeliciaDay: every line [12:02:24] worldofhiglet: wow [12:02:25] FeliciaDay: there are some funnnnny outtakes for the DVD though :) [12:02:38] FeliciaDay: Yes, there will be more live improv with my group "Being Humans" [12:02:47] FeliciaDay: I took this month off because I was swamped [12:02:53] maxsummers: I really wanna see an outtakes of 'the hammer is...' [12:02:54] FeliciaDay: but I love doing live improv, it's so risky and so fun [12:02:57] worldofhiglet: cool - thanks so much for that :) [12:03:04] FeliciaDay: ya, that will be great ;) [12:03:56] FeliciaDay: I want to do a streaming thing when the DVD comes out [12:04:02] darthziv: i'll make sure to buy the DVD.... just make sure to visit israel to sign it :) [12:04:06] FeliciaDay: on uverse or something [12:04:08] Buffyverse: That'd be great
Felicia had lots more to say about Dr Horrible and you can find it all on Whedonage.
Blog News
Well, some of you will notice that I've changed the template on the Blog. I'm trying to sort out a 3-column arrangement for the blog and I've found a site that allows you to do this, but you need to start with this template. I don't like the way the layout works at the moment with everything in a big line on the right, so I'm hoping the s=3 columns will make it more balanced. I quite like this new template so some time soon I'll do the second, much more complicated stage. But not just yet!
Other news
We're getting some very welcome visitors from England tomorrow who will be staying with us for the next two weeks. This means less time for the blogging side of life, but it is only temporary. And there's more blogging news. But that will have to wait until tomorrow. Now, back to the house cleaning!
As you are reading this, Dr Horrible may have disappeared
Well, free access on the Dr Horrible website might have gone, anyway. It's due to finish at 12.00 Midnight Eastern time tonight (July 20th) (which is goodness knows when - timezones are not my strong suit as evidenced in my earlier posts today!). Dr Horrible has tweeted this afternoon that it might be up a little bit longer than that but I wouldn't leave it to chance - watch it NOW!
It's been a rollercoaster of a week
The excitement of the launch of Act I on (what for me was) Monday night only to find it wouldn't work because I was in Canada, then finding an IP workaround and watching it straight away. Waking up on Tuesday to find the Dr Horrible server had crashed so no-one could watch it and the tension while the new 'monster' server geared up. Then the release of Act II on Wednesday and how smooth that was, and how GREAT Act II was (Nathan Fillion delivering the Best. Line. Ever.). And on Friday the prospect of two exclusive interviews: Felicia and then Maurissa and Jed on DoctorHorrible.net plus the release of Act III. The emotions of the final Act and the fan aftermath. All the posts on the Fan Site. Creating a Dr Horrible room in FriendFeed. And then - the question session on Whedonage with Felicia Day today. Phew!
What was it like, then?
Well, once I had realised that I had less than an hour to edit all my questions into one, kick-ass question, the panic set in :) Everyone on Whedonage was really helpful and as 10.00 am (here) came nearer more people started arriving. Felicia Tweeted that she had just rolled out of bed (fully made up, with hair smooth and shining, no doubt - she's an actor, after all) and she entered the chat room at exactly 10.02. And then asked if she was late - gotta love that girl! Unfortunately not long after that the host server went into meltdown and everyone got kicked out, which was a real shame.
Fear not, though, because it was a temporary thing. Simon from Whedonage got it back up and running and the questions were put to Felicia without any further problems. Well, for the people in the chatroom, anyway. Bad luck for me that my often-temperamental wifi decided to play up, leaving me shouting at modem, ISP and anything else in the vicinity. Bless. When I got back online - Lo - there was a Twitter Private Message in my inbox from - gasp - Felicia telling me that the chat was back on. That made it all worthwhile and I headed back to Whedonage. By then the VIP room was full but I waited and chatted to the very friendly mod (whose name I have totally forgotten - so sorry!) and finally got my chance.
And yes, Felicia answered my questions. And yes, she really is as funny and down-to-earth as she appears to be. There will be a full transcript of the chat available fromWhedonage later this week, and that's not to be missed! Felicia has even joined the Dr Horrible room I set up in FriendFeed, and you can, too. Just go to the FriendFeed Dr Horrible room and join. If you're not a member of FriendFeed it's very easy to set up.
So that's been my Horrible week. Pretty great, huh?
EDIT: My subscription email from Joss'd the Podcast has arrived with more Horrible news - Joss himself is doing a live chat tomorrow (Monday 21st July). See the Joss'd article for more details. I've sent my question in!
Lucky for us, then, that the folks at Whedonage have arranged (possibly by witchcraft) to host a live chat with Felicia Day TODAY (July 20th):
WhedonAge.com Gets Chatty With Dr. Horrible's Felicia Day July 20
July 4-- WhedonAge.com, a fan community for the works of writer-director Joss Whedon, hosts a live chat with Felicia Day, actress and creator of the award-winning online series The Guild, on Sunday, July 20, 2008.
Ms. Day appears as the love interest in Whedon's three-part musical superhero satire, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (www.DrHorrible.com) which ends the free webcast of its episodes that day.
The chat will begin at 10AM PDT (12PM CDT/1PM EDT/5PM UTC) for registered users, in a Q&A format with Felicia for one hour, after which fans can discuss the Dr. Horrible series with each other. It can be reached at www.WhedonAge.com
The site's members will have the opportunity to submit questions in advance, in case they are unable to join the live chat event. Instructions for accessing the chat service will be available on the site.
I calculate that you have about FOUR HOURS to get registered at Whedonage or send in your email questions before the chat starts. I don't know about you, but I'm making a list right now...see you there!
