Nope - you got it. When the strike was over the networks were OMG START SHOOTING ALREADY!!!! As it was, they only had - I think - less than a week of gear up and then they were expected to have a script ready to shoot the following Monday.
Ghostfacers was in the process of the final draft when the strike hit. So they took one last pass at it (obviously the bit about the writer's strike was added) and off they went.
Smidgy - I forgot - you're one of those weird spoiler phobes... Here's the Q&A from Sera: FFN: What's it like getting back to work? Are people charged up? Is it a smooth process picking up where you left off? SG: By three o'clock on the first afternoon, we were all half-joking that it felt like we never left. I was afraid it would be complete chaos, because we only had three weeks to get up and running before production resumed. But everyone came in focused and ready to make it work. It's actually gone much more smoothly than I anticipated. One funny thing that happened: the first script in the hopper was almost complete before we left work, and it's kind of hilarious in its new context.
It's a light, high-concept episode – shot entirely in documentary style by these bumbling would-be ghost hunters we introduced in Season One. The whole hour is the “pilot” of a cable show called “Ghostfacers!” So it's quite a departure from our usual structure. And it’s completely self-enclosed and breezes right past all the mythology we set up in “Jus In Bello”, which was great when we had lots of time before we had to close in on the end of that arc.
In fact, it was necessary breathing room for our audience before we pounded them with Dean's deal coming due. But being part of the final run of this shortened season, being the first episode when we come back, gives it a sort of importance that it's definitely not engineered for.* We all laugh about it -- it's just one of those out-of-our-control things that happened because of the strike, and we rolled with it. I think our audience will too -- they're savvy, and they'll get it. And it's a wildly entertaining episode, so for my part, I'm glad we get to do it. I would have been so sad if the strike went longer and it didn't get shot.
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winterfish
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Date: 2008-04-25 05:43 pm (UTC)Ghostfacers was in the process of the final draft when the strike hit. So they took one last pass at it (obviously the bit about the writer's strike was added) and off they went.
Smidgy - I forgot - you're one of those weird spoiler phobes... Here's the Q&A from Sera:
FFN: What's it like getting back to work? Are people charged up? Is it a smooth process picking up where you left off?
SG: By three o'clock on the first afternoon, we were all half-joking that it felt like we never left. I was afraid it would be complete chaos, because we only had three weeks to get up and running before production resumed. But everyone came in focused and ready to make it work. It's actually gone much more smoothly than I anticipated. One funny thing that happened: the first script in the hopper was almost complete before we left work, and it's kind of hilarious in its new context.
It's a light, high-concept episode – shot entirely in documentary style by these bumbling would-be ghost hunters we introduced in Season One. The whole hour is the “pilot” of a cable show called “Ghostfacers!” So it's quite a departure from our usual structure. And it’s completely self-enclosed and breezes right past all the mythology we set up in “Jus In Bello”, which was great when we had lots of time before we had to close in on the end of that arc.
In fact, it was necessary breathing room for our audience before we pounded them with Dean's deal coming due. But being part of the final run of this shortened season, being the first episode when we come back, gives it a sort of importance that it's definitely not engineered for.* We all laugh about it -- it's just one of those out-of-our-control things that happened because of the strike, and we rolled with it. I think our audience will too -- they're savvy, and they'll get it. And it's a wildly entertaining episode, so for my part, I'm glad we get to do it. I would have been so sad if the strike went longer and it didn't get shot.
*emphasis mine.