Tag Archives: SyFy

Haven – a glimpse of Haven, Maine

Haven Biz Cards

The Booth on the exhibit hall floor at San Diego’s Comic-Con International for the SyFy show Haven was small, but fantastic.  One example is this small little give away, at first glance you might have thought the guys working the booth had their business cards lying out — but wait, they were for Dave and Vince, the brothers who operate the Haven Herald on the show.

And in the display case beneath the boxes of DVDs were props from the show — the letter Duke sent from the past to Audrey letting her know what had happened to him being just one example.

It was a bit startling to have fans, so enthusiastic about the show, yell at you from the far end of the booth, “hey, you, girl getting a Haven poster, did you go to the panel last year??”  I was so jarred by the abrupt yelling I might have said anything to get a bit of space, as I was caught up in the poster, the brother’s business cards, and processing all the cool props I had just read, and realizing how many of them I could place back to the episodes I had seen them in.  Some of the props had been general business cards and driver’s licenses, but others were keyed to very specific episodes, and like Duke’s letter, were iconic and brought back a rush of memories of scenes and plot points.

Four seasons of Haven have aired thus far, with a fifth eagerly anticipated by fans who saw a major turn of events in the fourth season as the status quo was reset and questions that were set forth in the pilot began to be answered.    If you have not yet seen this show, based on the Stephen King story The Colorado Kid, it’s time to tune in and start catching up.  Season five looks like it will be explosive in the best possible ways.

2014 – Beyond the Convention Center in San Diego

With each passing year of San Diego’s Comic Con International, the convention which once comfortably shared the current convention center with other conventions, now even with the convention center expanded to twice the size it once was, the convention over flows into many surrounding hotels and venues.

This year, the Omni Hotel will house a playback room, for overflow crowds who were unable to make it into some of the most anticipated panels.  Gotham City will be recreated, in miniature, between the convention center and the Hilton Bayfront Hotel and fans will be able to zip-line through it (130 feet long, and 30 feet off the ground!)

The parking lot beside Petco Park has for the past several years been home to a little village of fun to stop by experiences.  Last year Falling Skies and Gravity, with a 3D trailer available for viewing, were highlights.

Over on 2nd Street (across the Trolley Tracks from the Marriott, roughly) will be the Vikings of History Channel, returning for a second year, and a third season.  Take some time to go get made up as a Viking, and maybe even walk away with a souvenir from your time in the past.

Pop-up stores are a Comic-Con phenomenon that can be hard to explain to someone who has never attended a convention of this sort, but if you see one, take a moment to go in — or stand in line.  You may get green screened into a scene from your favorite movie, or immersed in one of the key locations from a movie, you may find yourself in an art gallery, or product show room (often with food and drink available) ala last years appearance by Samsung Galaxy — which hosted a Veronica Mars party during Comic-Con.  You might also find yourself standing next to someone far more interesting than you ever imagined, like one of the stars of one of your favorite TV shows.

Throughout the gaslamp district, which across the Trolley Tracks and up 5th street, from the Convention Center you will find dozens, perhaps hundreds of food options, and tens of thousands of hungry convention goers.  Fortunately not everyone eats on the same schedule, as mealtimes bend around panel times.

In previous years Syfy has re-branded the restaurant in the Hard Rock hotel based on one or more of the SyFy shows.  During the days of the tv show Eureka the restaurant was Cafe Diem (from the show), complete with the barstools fans recognized from countless scenes.  This year Tin Fish is anticipated to have a Blacklist tie-in.

This re-branding can be seen in lots of different places and ways.  From the elevators in nearby hotels, to the exteriors of many buildings with facades – sometimes changing within a day based on the event going on, all the way out to the airport this year, which will feature TNTs Legends.

The skyline of San Diego visibly changes during Comic-Con, banners that decorate the sides of hotels and buildings can be seen from Cabrillo National Monument across the bay, which is several miles away as the crow flies.

Defiance and C2E2

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Defiance Banner from C2E2

This was my first year at C2E2, and hopefully not my last!

The Defiance panel was a prime example of why we decided to attend.  15 minutes before the panel began we got into a line that looked a tiny bit daunting… it was the kind of line you wouldn’t want to get into in San Diego at Comic-Con, for fear you wouldn’t get into the room.  But, at C2E2, that was not a problem.  A little patience, a lot of nice people, a few minutes, and suddenly you find yourself seemingly within 20 or 30 rows of the front of the row.  It was amazing!

A slide flashes across the screen multiple times as you wait for the panel to begin, it isn’t just your standard please be thoughtful and considerate of those around you, but it asks that you avoid recording the panel, and limit yourself to the first 5 minutes of the panel.  I forget the exact wording… but the result was an audience that was focused on the actors on the stage, and what they were saying, not the screens in their hands, or their efforts to capture digital moments to take home and share with others.

Would a couple dozen photos of each actor have been nice?  Sure, Grant Bowler was incredibly charming, and quite eloquent as he pitched the show, and Jaime Murray was entertaining as she talked about the evolution of her process for getting into make up as the season has time has passed, and Tony Curran and Grant Bowler could not resist giving Jesse Rath a hard time when he mentioned the need for 5 handmaidens to help him get OUT of his waterproof make up at the end of each day.  But really, just how much of that laughter, and how many of those megawatt smiles could our cameras have captured?

Instead of dividing our attention between trying to frame candid photos and “get” what they were saying, we heard about how the production team behind Defiance took the time to build 7 blocks of the town.  And while the buildings might just be facades they took the time to consider what kind of people, culturally yes, but beyond that situationally, would be building them, which is why a lot of the buildings are built out of recycled materials.  Old containers, and train cars and the like.

And the actors talked about how it feels to truly be able to WALK between the buildings and stroll along these seven blocks instead of having a tightly confined area in which to do each scene.

Jesse Rath got off a particularly nice nod to a fandom when Grant Bowler was asked about the inspirations he drew on to create his character, lawkeeper Nolan, and he was talking about Han Solo, and Indiana Jones, and a lot of old western heroes, and a lot of great, brown coat wearing figures through the years, and how you would see them, and their brown coats… and Jesse Rath perked up and asked, “so you’re saying you’re a brown coat?”  That was just one of the many moments when it was clear that this cast was in tune with their audience, and one another.

Jesse Rath mentioned working on a series of Behind The Scenes videos that sound very interesting, and also mentioned the very interesting experience of realizing that many of his co-workers were so accustomed to seeing him in his alien make-up that they did not recognize him out of it.

For those who aren’t aware, there is currently a free book for Kindle (I haven’t checked to see if it is available for other eReaders, called Defiance the Essential Guide, which among other things has a basic run down of the characters, where buildings are in relationship to each other, and might be a nice way to refresh our memories between season 1 and 2, which has had a longer than average hiatus.

Grant Bowler did mention that Season 2 will have a lot more intensity to it.  That where Season 1 was establishing the world Season 2 will be moving forward, which on the one hand I was happy to hear, but on the other hand, I’m not entirely convinced I want.  I enjoyed Defiance in part because it was a light, fluffy show.  I didn’t have to pay attention to a thousand and one plot threads, but instead I was able to tune in each week, and escape into this alternate version of Earth, in the future, and just wonder, what if.  It was… relaxing sci-fi.  And for that, I enjoyed it immensely.

We shall see what Season 2 holds.