truffula
09-27-06, 10:38 PM
On 9.25 and 9.26, former LOST writer and LOST Experience writer/performer, Javier Grillo-Marxuach held a special Q&A on his livejournal blog site - hansofoundation.livejournal.com (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com) - to answer fans questions about the LOST Experience. The following is not every question and answer as many questions were repeated (I did leave a few doubles about the possibility of a sequel :p). The questions came from many different posters from all over the internet's LOST sites, so in an effort to consolidate, I've reformatted as a basic Q&A. The entire session can be read HERE (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/2006/09/25/) and HERE (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/2006/09/26/).
Q -So who's side was Peter Thompson on anyways? Misled by MW or was he actually on his side?
A - i think he was a company man in spite of his doubts
Q -TLE left a lot of loose ends. Are there any plans to tie these up, or are we rabid fans free to speculate and argue online as we so love to do?
A -we tried to put in a lot of information and clues so that you could have a unified story - as far as the dangling clues, speculate and argue away, i hear it's the spice of life!
Q -Is this something that ABC/the "Lost" team would consider doing again?
A - i don't know, i no longer work there!
Q - Is the invisible/jerry on the Numbers forum part of TLE, or what?
A - dunno! (and there are things that i don't know!)
Q - DJ Dan seemed to believe that, in addition to TLE events being real, the show LOST was also real. Despite a few complications, I am willing to believe that LOST and TLE both exist in the same reality. Is this really how I should watch the show...like it exists in the same universe as the Experience?
A - the whole thing is pretty meta - dj dan lives in a reality where there is a tv show lost, where the events of the show are a dramatization of something that may have happened, where bad twin and gary troup are also real and abc has tried to cover up the unraveling of the hanso foundation as an alternate reality game... the core of the experience should be - far as i know - congruent with the reality of the show (time issues notwithstanding) - but i think that, as with any franchise with an "expanded universe" the farther you get from the narrative core, the more of a fluidity creeps into things as far as what is canonical and what isn't.
Q - Which hiccup in TLE frustrated you the most?
A - hiccups? what hiccups? uh, the phone lines going out on sunday was pretty vexing. the people working on the experience tried very hard to smooth out any narrative bumps, rather than get into what went wrong, i prefer to dwell on the fact that, at the end of the day, the story was told, hiccups notwithstanding.
Q - Should we expect any "special" ads during the Lost season premiere? After all, Mittlewerk can't be allowed to run around free for another 8 months, can he?
A - dunno, i'm no longer there!
Q - Ok, for real now, how can I get information on the Apollo candy bars? Where were they manufactured and by which candymaker?
A - wow - dunno!
Q - Did you do Peter Thompson's voice too?
A - no
Q - Are you going to do this again?
A - never say never - if i should wind up working on another show that is a worldwide phenomenon with a motivated fan base eager to play along, sure!
Q - Are there any plans to tie the game into the show?
A - the game is tied into the show - the foundation, the meaning of the numbers, revealing the dharma acronym...
Q - Are there plans to create a sequel either in the winter break or next summer?
A - ...dunno about a sequel - i am no longer there so it's not something i am clued into!
Q - Are we ever going to get to see the final parts of the Gary Troup interview?
A - all that was filmed was released as far as i know
Q - In one of the Hanso hacks, it said "She was an employee of the foundation." Who was this referring to?
A - interesting, who do you think it was?
Q - How was TLE pitched to ABC? Did the sponsors need a different pitch? And were the sponsor websites under their control or ABC's?
A - it wasn't pitched to abc, it was an outgrowth of things that marketing had already intitiated, like the original HF and oceanic airlines sites.
Q - How old is Alvar? His age seems to present a problem given that he was an arms dealer in WW2
A - alvar is preternaturally youthful due to artificial life extension - a lot of science and expense has gone into keeping him alive. his age may not be as incongruent as you think - and he may look younger now than before as a result
Q - What was Magnus' relation to Alvar? Was Alvar his son?
A - magnus was alvar's great granfather, i believe
Q - The information from the game about the numbers and Dharma really has no impact on the continuity of the show since the show is a work of fiction within the universe of the game, right? So we really learned nothing with regards to the show, is that correct? What are the laws of physics for a piece of fiction within a piece of fiction? LOST, the show, could now give a totally different explanation for the numbers, and a totally different explanation for what Dharma stands for without any fear of continuity errors in relation to the game. Am I right or just crazy?
A - the info given in the experience is very much of import to the show - this is the mythology - even though in the fictional universe of the game there is a fictional show called lost......gives me headaches just thinkin' about it!
Q - was the involvement of Hugh in the story an afterthought, considering the picture initially shown of him at the Hanso site was not the person who appeared on Jimmy Kimmel?
A - hugh's role in the experience was always going to be as the mouthpiece and darla taft's lover. that was planned, and we always intended to cast someone in the part - however, we were still in the casting process when the experience launched, hence the disparity.
Q - Given that "Bad Twin" didn't have the amount of tie-in with the experience and the show as originally envisioned, were any adjustments made to the experience in order to tell the story the way it needed to be told?
A - i don't think that there was a pre-imagined amount of tie-in between the book and the experience. the book had been in the works with the gary troup/cindy tie in and the idea that sawyer would be reading it before the experience was developed: we picked up on what was already in the book and expanded it to fit what we needed. it's not like there was a mistake or mistaken impression there.
Q - Who is Liddy Wales and how come there was no picture up on TheHansoFoundation.org?
A - liddy: well, a lot of top level execs are very camera shy, espcially in an organization like the hanso foundation. liddy wales opted out of letting her likeness be used for PR - seeing how it all turned out, probably a smart move.
Q - Was there anything that any of you had planned as a part of the Experience that later had to be scrapped or altered, either because of time/feasibility issues or some other reason?
A - lots of things - at one point the apollo bars were going to lead to coordinates which could be geo-cached to lead to clues and meeting places... as you might imagine the liability and execution issues would have been enormous
Q - Who was Rachel's mother and how/why did she die?
A - she was an employee of the foundation - the circumstance of her death are shourouded in secrecy, however
Q - what were the intentions of showing the maps and asking users to find the island was supposed to do for the plot? Was it simply a diversion? A puzzle deemed to hard to be solved?
A - a mistake was made in the production of the maps and we had to make corrections to make sure the direction of the story didn't go in the wrong direction. i wish mistakes like that didn't happen, but they do in any collaborative medium (ask me about "jin's resume" sometime).
A few statements from Javi:
Jordan and I developed the story - based on ideas by and under the watchful eye of, damon and carlton - and turned that into a series of documents describing the different phases of the game and establishing the creative framework for how things would be revealed, what the content would be, and how we wanted that to look. our web design firm (i am not sure if they want to stay stealth or be outed, so i will wait until later to say their name) took that content and designed the mechanics of the hacks, taking our ideas and turning them into the fiendishly clever puzzles and visually stunning animations/webpages which they also implemented.
We purposefully designed it to have many different, discrete sections with different styles of narrative/gameplay, again, it has been shorthanded and referred to as an arg, but "experience" is a much better name because we tried very hard to create a varied, multi platform narrative - again, the degree of our success is more for the viewers/players to decide than for me to decree.
The kind of multi-media/disciplinary approach certainly resulted in a lot of people liking one part of the experience more than others - my hope is that at the end of the day, taken as a whole, the thing works as the story of rachel blake's hero's journey.
There seems to be a great deal of opinion both positive and negative about how TLE resolved, all i can say about that is we told the story we intended to tell, rachel as a character was intended to anchor all of these revelations, and we intended to have an arc that brought her closure on her pursuit of what was missing in her life. much of it does tie back to the show - it expands and explains in ways that couldn't be done on screen - but rachel was the "main character" and as such, we felt it appropriate to end on a personal note.
We tried very hard to design the experience for new viewers/players and for hardcore fans as well, so there was always a balance of more/less passive bits as well as bits that were more puzzle/scavenger hunt oriented or story oriented which may have required a greater suspension of "alternate reality" disbelief. thanks for loving the parts you did, and for putting up with the ones you didn't.
......END JAVI STATEMENTS......
So I thought that was really cool that he did that. :) Answered alot of questions for me about the game.
I didn't catch up on the previous questions before I posted mine, but Javi was so cool, he still answered it (yeah, I asked if they were gonna continute TLE someday ;)).
Enjoy! :D
Peace,
Truff
Q -So who's side was Peter Thompson on anyways? Misled by MW or was he actually on his side?
A - i think he was a company man in spite of his doubts
Q -TLE left a lot of loose ends. Are there any plans to tie these up, or are we rabid fans free to speculate and argue online as we so love to do?
A -we tried to put in a lot of information and clues so that you could have a unified story - as far as the dangling clues, speculate and argue away, i hear it's the spice of life!
Q -Is this something that ABC/the "Lost" team would consider doing again?
A - i don't know, i no longer work there!
Q - Is the invisible/jerry on the Numbers forum part of TLE, or what?
A - dunno! (and there are things that i don't know!)
Q - DJ Dan seemed to believe that, in addition to TLE events being real, the show LOST was also real. Despite a few complications, I am willing to believe that LOST and TLE both exist in the same reality. Is this really how I should watch the show...like it exists in the same universe as the Experience?
A - the whole thing is pretty meta - dj dan lives in a reality where there is a tv show lost, where the events of the show are a dramatization of something that may have happened, where bad twin and gary troup are also real and abc has tried to cover up the unraveling of the hanso foundation as an alternate reality game... the core of the experience should be - far as i know - congruent with the reality of the show (time issues notwithstanding) - but i think that, as with any franchise with an "expanded universe" the farther you get from the narrative core, the more of a fluidity creeps into things as far as what is canonical and what isn't.
Q - Which hiccup in TLE frustrated you the most?
A - hiccups? what hiccups? uh, the phone lines going out on sunday was pretty vexing. the people working on the experience tried very hard to smooth out any narrative bumps, rather than get into what went wrong, i prefer to dwell on the fact that, at the end of the day, the story was told, hiccups notwithstanding.
Q - Should we expect any "special" ads during the Lost season premiere? After all, Mittlewerk can't be allowed to run around free for another 8 months, can he?
A - dunno, i'm no longer there!
Q - Ok, for real now, how can I get information on the Apollo candy bars? Where were they manufactured and by which candymaker?
A - wow - dunno!
Q - Did you do Peter Thompson's voice too?
A - no
Q - Are you going to do this again?
A - never say never - if i should wind up working on another show that is a worldwide phenomenon with a motivated fan base eager to play along, sure!
Q - Are there any plans to tie the game into the show?
A - the game is tied into the show - the foundation, the meaning of the numbers, revealing the dharma acronym...
Q - Are there plans to create a sequel either in the winter break or next summer?
A - ...dunno about a sequel - i am no longer there so it's not something i am clued into!
Q - Are we ever going to get to see the final parts of the Gary Troup interview?
A - all that was filmed was released as far as i know
Q - In one of the Hanso hacks, it said "She was an employee of the foundation." Who was this referring to?
A - interesting, who do you think it was?
Q - How was TLE pitched to ABC? Did the sponsors need a different pitch? And were the sponsor websites under their control or ABC's?
A - it wasn't pitched to abc, it was an outgrowth of things that marketing had already intitiated, like the original HF and oceanic airlines sites.
Q - How old is Alvar? His age seems to present a problem given that he was an arms dealer in WW2
A - alvar is preternaturally youthful due to artificial life extension - a lot of science and expense has gone into keeping him alive. his age may not be as incongruent as you think - and he may look younger now than before as a result
Q - What was Magnus' relation to Alvar? Was Alvar his son?
A - magnus was alvar's great granfather, i believe
Q - The information from the game about the numbers and Dharma really has no impact on the continuity of the show since the show is a work of fiction within the universe of the game, right? So we really learned nothing with regards to the show, is that correct? What are the laws of physics for a piece of fiction within a piece of fiction? LOST, the show, could now give a totally different explanation for the numbers, and a totally different explanation for what Dharma stands for without any fear of continuity errors in relation to the game. Am I right or just crazy?
A - the info given in the experience is very much of import to the show - this is the mythology - even though in the fictional universe of the game there is a fictional show called lost......gives me headaches just thinkin' about it!
Q - was the involvement of Hugh in the story an afterthought, considering the picture initially shown of him at the Hanso site was not the person who appeared on Jimmy Kimmel?
A - hugh's role in the experience was always going to be as the mouthpiece and darla taft's lover. that was planned, and we always intended to cast someone in the part - however, we were still in the casting process when the experience launched, hence the disparity.
Q - Given that "Bad Twin" didn't have the amount of tie-in with the experience and the show as originally envisioned, were any adjustments made to the experience in order to tell the story the way it needed to be told?
A - i don't think that there was a pre-imagined amount of tie-in between the book and the experience. the book had been in the works with the gary troup/cindy tie in and the idea that sawyer would be reading it before the experience was developed: we picked up on what was already in the book and expanded it to fit what we needed. it's not like there was a mistake or mistaken impression there.
Q - Who is Liddy Wales and how come there was no picture up on TheHansoFoundation.org?
A - liddy: well, a lot of top level execs are very camera shy, espcially in an organization like the hanso foundation. liddy wales opted out of letting her likeness be used for PR - seeing how it all turned out, probably a smart move.
Q - Was there anything that any of you had planned as a part of the Experience that later had to be scrapped or altered, either because of time/feasibility issues or some other reason?
A - lots of things - at one point the apollo bars were going to lead to coordinates which could be geo-cached to lead to clues and meeting places... as you might imagine the liability and execution issues would have been enormous
Q - Who was Rachel's mother and how/why did she die?
A - she was an employee of the foundation - the circumstance of her death are shourouded in secrecy, however
Q - what were the intentions of showing the maps and asking users to find the island was supposed to do for the plot? Was it simply a diversion? A puzzle deemed to hard to be solved?
A - a mistake was made in the production of the maps and we had to make corrections to make sure the direction of the story didn't go in the wrong direction. i wish mistakes like that didn't happen, but they do in any collaborative medium (ask me about "jin's resume" sometime).
A few statements from Javi:
Jordan and I developed the story - based on ideas by and under the watchful eye of, damon and carlton - and turned that into a series of documents describing the different phases of the game and establishing the creative framework for how things would be revealed, what the content would be, and how we wanted that to look. our web design firm (i am not sure if they want to stay stealth or be outed, so i will wait until later to say their name) took that content and designed the mechanics of the hacks, taking our ideas and turning them into the fiendishly clever puzzles and visually stunning animations/webpages which they also implemented.
We purposefully designed it to have many different, discrete sections with different styles of narrative/gameplay, again, it has been shorthanded and referred to as an arg, but "experience" is a much better name because we tried very hard to create a varied, multi platform narrative - again, the degree of our success is more for the viewers/players to decide than for me to decree.
The kind of multi-media/disciplinary approach certainly resulted in a lot of people liking one part of the experience more than others - my hope is that at the end of the day, taken as a whole, the thing works as the story of rachel blake's hero's journey.
There seems to be a great deal of opinion both positive and negative about how TLE resolved, all i can say about that is we told the story we intended to tell, rachel as a character was intended to anchor all of these revelations, and we intended to have an arc that brought her closure on her pursuit of what was missing in her life. much of it does tie back to the show - it expands and explains in ways that couldn't be done on screen - but rachel was the "main character" and as such, we felt it appropriate to end on a personal note.
We tried very hard to design the experience for new viewers/players and for hardcore fans as well, so there was always a balance of more/less passive bits as well as bits that were more puzzle/scavenger hunt oriented or story oriented which may have required a greater suspension of "alternate reality" disbelief. thanks for loving the parts you did, and for putting up with the ones you didn't.
......END JAVI STATEMENTS......
So I thought that was really cool that he did that. :) Answered alot of questions for me about the game.
I didn't catch up on the previous questions before I posted mine, but Javi was so cool, he still answered it (yeah, I asked if they were gonna continute TLE someday ;)).
Enjoy! :D
Peace,
Truff