The Vault – TrueBlood-Online.com

Ryan Kwanten’s Bon Temps Football shirt, signed by 16 cast members,  is up for auction.

The t-shirt is authentic.

The back of the t-shirt is signed by the following cast members:
Alan Ball–creator, Anna Paquin–Sookie Stackhouse, Stephen Moyer– Vampire Bill, Ryan Kwanten–Jason Stackhouse, Rutina Wesley–Tara,  Nelsan Ellis–Lafayette Sam Trammel–Sam, Jim Parrack–Hoyt, Todd  Lowe–Terry, Deborah Ann Woll-Jessica, Ashley Jones–Daphne, Adina  Porter–Tara’s mom, Alexander Skarsgard–Vampire Eric, Carrie Preston– Arlene, Chris Bauer–Andy, Michelle Forbes–Maryann

The money goes to a NYC public school. 

Bidding and additional info click here

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Article on PopWrap

Lizzy Caplan

No matter what project she’s been a part of — “Mean Girls,” “Related,” “Cloverfield” — I have always been drawn to the wry wit of Lizzy Caplan. She comes across on screen like the kind of smart-ass you would really enjoy knocking back a few beers with.

So I’m thrilled to report that is 100% true. After a few minutes talking with the actress about her new series, “Party Down,” I felt like I was chatting with an old friend. Not only do we share a love of “Saved By The Bell,” but she is also wary of anyone who has never waited tables.

Fortuitous considering her new show is all about a team of cater waiters — “Wet Hot American Summer’s” Ken Marino and “Best in Show’s” Jane Lynch lead the charge — that would make for an awful party but a fantastic TV show.

Adding to the awesome-ness are “Party Down” creators Rob Thomas, the “Veronica Mars” boss, and PopWrap fave Paul Rudd. I mean, what else do you need to know? If you’re Lizzy, nothing!

PopWrap: With the pedigree behind “Party Down,” was signing on an easy decision?
Lizzy Caplan: Yeah, for sure. The people behind the scenes as well as the cast they assembled kind of made it a no-brainer. Obviously, I wanted to do this show.

PW: So much of the cast comes from an improv background — how is the show scripted?
Lizzy: We get full scripts that are always hilarious. It’s so refreshing as an actor to get consistently amazing TV show scripts — it’s crazy. There’s no fighting against saying things, and everyone on set is very open to suggestions.

PW: How are you with improv?
Lizzy: I’m a big fan — you hear about certain TV writers who are so married to their words that you can’t say “ya know” when they’ve written “you know.” It’s ridiculous because, like, why are you hiring certain actors if you don’t want them to bring elements of their own style to it. Here, we can do as many takes as we want and the attitude on set is, the more ridiculous the better!

PW: The show really drives the point home that all waiters are just actors waiting for their big break — is that true?
Lizzy: Yeah, it’s totally true, especially here in LA. Every waiter is like the most gorgeous guy you’ve ever seen and they’re all trying to be actors. Which sucks, because I’m a big fan of career waiters. You know, the ones that take real pride in their job — they own it! They love it! And you don’t see that in LA.

PW: Had you been a waitress growing up?
Lizzy: I totally was a waitress — and I don’t know that I’ve hit it big necessarily. But actually, I wasn’t even a waitress, I was the bus boy. It was a small, intimate restaurant though, so I got to wait tables occasionally.

PW: So you played a waitress on “True Blood” and are doing it again now. Maybe somewhere deep inside, you’re dying to pick up a shift?
Lizzy: Maybe I should! I asked at the restaurant I used to work at but they don’t take me seriously. But I really liked working there.

PW: I’ve always felt like there were two kinds of people in this world — ones that used to be waiters and ones that never have.
Lizzy: Oh, absolutely! I don’t think you should be allowed to eat in a restaurant if you haven’t waited tables at least once. It’s so irritating when I see people being rude to waiters, like, it makes me want to slit their throats! Like, really? You’re really this inconsiderate?

PW: So were you waiting tables when you hit it big?
Lizzy: Well, I’m still waiting to hit it big. But there was the moment when I didn’t have to work at the restaurant anymore, which is the milestone for every actor. When your job is just to be an actor and not to have to do anything else.

PW: Was that job “Freaks & Geeks”?
Lizzy: Yeah, that was the very first thing I did. That was total luck man, and that has helped me more than anything else. People just think it’s so cool even though I barely did anything on that show. It’s such a cult classic now because everybody was in that show.

PW: Do people ever approach you about “Related”?
Lizzy: Actually, it’s strange, a lot of people talk about that show, which is weird, because no one watched it.

PW: Is it like, “where were you when I needed you?!?”
Lizzy: Exactly. It was like a knife through the heart man [when the show was canceled]. I know it’s cliche, but you do become like a family because you see your co-workers more than your friends or family. And they [the network] string you along, make you think it’s going to come back, but in my case, it never does. It sucks, but that’s part of the game. As actors, we sign up for this gypsy, nomadic kind of lifestyle.

PW: But had those shows not been canceled, maybe you wouldn’t have been a part of “True Blood,” one of my favorite shows going right now.
Lizzy: That’s right! It was weird though because I was supposed to do this little indie movie but I passed on it to do “True Blood.” I figured it was a day job that shot near my home — and it ended up being such an amazing experience.

PW: Did you know going in that Amy would die?
Lizzy: Yeah, I went in knowing she would be killed, but by the time we actually got to that part, I was super bummed about it.

PW: Maybe that’s the cost for spending so much time naked with Ryan Kwanten?
Lizzy: He’s got muscles that I didn’t even know existed! For somebody who looks like they just work out every second of every day, he’s just like this totally down to earth nice guy. Nothing like Jason Stackhouse.

PW: So how does it work with Starz and ratings? Are they a factor in bringing back the show for a second season?
Lizzy: Well, we’ve shot 10 episodes and we’re their only new series, but I’m not entirely sure how ratings work since it’s a pay channel. I know that we don’t need to pull in the same numbers as a network would, which is really nice because it kind of allows you to relax. Plus, we get to try material that would never fly on the networks!

PW: I have to ask, I am a huge “Saved By The Bell” fan and read that your cat is named Lisa Turtle. Is that true?
Lizzy: It is! She’s awesome, also African-American and so beautiful. 

PW: What makes Lisa Turtle a better name than, say, Kelly Kapowski?
Lizzy: Well, Kelly Kapowski would be kind of a great name for a cat, but my girl just kind of looked like Miss Lark Voorhies. They have the same gorgeous, feline face.

PW: And does your cat have a spending problem as well?
Lizzy: She is a shopaholic! It’s really terrible, she’s bleeding us dry!

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Billsbabe’s Shoppe!

New “Vampires do it all night long” black shirts have been added to the Billsbabe’s Shoppe.

Enter the Billsbabe’s Shoppe

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Jen Ray has been cast for the part of’ ‘woman’ in episode 5 – Never Let Me Go.

The casting call describes the role as:
WOMAN 30s to 40s, a patron at Merlotte’s, possibly overweight, she’s busily arguing with her husband, and gripes to Arlene about the poor service…2 lines, 1 scene

Jen Ray

source: IMDB.com

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Article on American Cinematographer by Jay Holben

When writer/director Alan Ball hired Checco Varese, AMC to shoot the pilot for HBO’s horror fantasy True Blood, the cinematographer spent the next several nights “doing my homework,” he says. “I watched everything I could that was on TV at 10 p.m. I flipped to one channel, and it looked fantastic; the show was moody and had lots of camera energy and a bit of a blue tone. Then I flipped the channel, and that show looked great, but it looked just like the first one. Then I flipped again, and again, and saw that most of the shows looked the same. That’s not the case now — there are a lot of great shows with a lot of great looks — but at the time, they all looked the same to me! I thought True Blood merited a very different look, something sweaty, hot and sexy, which is what Louisiana feels like. Alan, [production designer] Suzuki Ingerslev and I decided to make it a saturated show, with red reds and green greens.” 

Tormented vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) prepares to sink his teeth into Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll).

Another key component of the look is humidity, which had to be artificially created for the Los Angeles-based production. “When you’re in a very humid climate, there isn’t any dust,” notes Varese. “So whenever we shot an exterior, I made sure every inch was wet down.” Fire hoses were used to wet down the vegetation in the background and Hudson sprayers were used to saturate the closer greens. “I was obsessed with that detail because I think it really refines the look,” says Varese. “When you see those details in the trees in the background and the sheen in the foreground, it really looks like Louisiana. The constant wetness was tough on the actors, but it really enhanced the look.” 

Set in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, La., True Blood is based on Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Series, which was begun in 2001 with the publication of Dead Until Dark. The invention of synthetic blood has enabled vampires to integrate themselves into human society, but the transition has not been smooth. Tensions in town reach a boiling point when a comely local, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), takes up with a vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and Sookie’s associates and loved ones begin turning up dead. 

Varese achieved his night-exterior look by pushing Kodak Vision2 Expression 500T 5229 by 1 1/2 stops (to 1,500 ISO) and overexposing his highlights and deeply underexposing the shadows while maintaining skin tones right at key. “I wanted the night look to have a rough-around-the-edges feeling, and pushing the stock a stop and a half gave it more texture and grain without making it grainy. You have to control your tones, however.” 

To create overall ambience for night exteriors, key grip Miguel Benavides and gaffer Jonathon Bradley strung lines of aircraft cable 40′ above the ground, just over the trees, in a small section of the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank. From the cables, they hung rows of 6K space lights. Then Varese incorporated an LRX Piranha, an 80′ boom arm with three remote-controlled fixtures, a 12K HMI and a 12K tungsten as his moonlight backlight.  

Varese always made sure the “good guys” had an eyelight. For “bad guys” and ambiguous characters, he eliminated any reflections in their eyes, ensuring they had a dull-eyed look. He even went as far as blocking out windows and masking set items to eliminate any reflective sparkle in the characters’ eyes.

When shooting a pilot, “you’re responsible for creating something that’s repeatable,” Varese notes. “So even though you always have extra time on a pilot, you can’t get too extravagant or too exotic. If the show is picked up, what you’re doing has to translate into the flow of a regular production. You have to make sure your choices are flexible enough to last.” 

After True Blood was picked up for a full season, Varese began working in rotation with cinematographer Matthew Jensen, but after the first few episodes, the writers’ strike brought production to a halt. Varese took a job on a feature, and when the strike was resolved, he was unavailable to return to True Blood, so Jensen took over as the show’s primary cinematographer. (John B. Aronson and Amy Vincent, ASC also shot episodes in the first season. For the second season, which will begin airing in June, Romeo Tirone will alternate episodes with Jensen.) 

“Matt and I collaborated in a very organic way,” Varese recalls. “I never sat down with him and said, ‘This is how you have to do it,’ because every cinematographer has his own style.” Jensen adds, “Checco and I talked a little bit about a few aesthetic ideas, but the beginning of the season was so crazy that we didn’t have much time to talk. I watched the pilot many times, and we discussed the improvements Checco wanted to make.” 

Jensen helped refine the show’s visual language through lens selection and camera positioning. “I wanted to avoid shooting on long lenses because that has become standard TV grammar, and also, I feel Suzuki’s phenomenal sets really lend themselves to shooting with wider lenses,” says Jensen. “Most of them have actual hardwood floors and hard ceilings, so you want to see the whole set. I also wanted to experiment with moving the camera closer to the actor for a close-up instead of shooting it with a 75mm lens; I’d rather use a 40mm and move closer because that puts the audience in the middle of the action. We were usually shooting with a 25mm, 27mm or 40mm Cooke S4, and occasionally even an 18mm. For day exteriors, I’d usually pull out the Optimo zoom, but onstage we were mostly shooting with primes.” 

Jensen typically lights the sets to a T2.8 and works at T5.6/8 for day exteriors. “With the wider lenses at a T2.8, there’s a nice feeling to the falloff. I love to get the camera close to someone with a 40mm lens and see that shallow depth of field with a very gentle falloff in the focus.” 

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) takes an order at Merlotte’s Bar and Grill, a set that created some challenges for the crew.

One of the show’s key sets is Merlotte’s Bar and Grill, where Sookie is a waitress. It’s a place where several of the main characters gather at least once per episode. “That’s where we do our highest page count each episode,” says Jensen. “Alan [Ball] was very specific that he wanted it to feel like a family place. We first considered using practicals and neon to light the set, but that proved to be a little too moody, so then we started rigging all the ceilings with fixtures, but that was tough because they’re hard ceilings, and we’re shooting so wide that we’re nearly always seeing them. We had to cut away sections of the ceiling that could be removed when they were off-camera so we could position Kino Flo DMX fixtures there. For season two, we’re cutting back a bit on the lighting budget, so the Kinos had to go. My gaffer, Evans Brown, came up with a fixture he calls ‘Triffids’ [named for The Day of the Triffids], which are basically homemade lightboxes. He took 750-watt Nooks and built an aluminum casing around them, sprayed black on the outside and white on the inside, and then faced them with 1000H. We have dozens of them in the ceiling; they have a nice, soft spread but can be really punchy. They’ve enabled me to lift the base in Merlotte’s and get more exposure to show off more wood in the sets.” 

Jensen also found lighting behind the bar to be a bit of a challenge, thanks to a header built into the set above the bar. He and Brown incorporated “Razor” lights, which were created by Denny Eccelston, Varese’s feature-film gaffer; the fixtures feature two black PVC pipes with long slots cut into one side, and a 2′ or 4′ Kino Flo tube is placed inside the inner pipe. By rotating the two pipes in opposite directions, the user can adjust the intensity of the light (by controlling how much light spills out the larger slot) as well as its direction. “They’re great tools for getting an edgelight or a little keylight into places where you just can’t put any other fixture,” Jensen says. 

The house Sookie shares with her grandmother, Adele (Lois Smith), is a location that initially gave Jensen some problems. “The house is small, and there’s a lot of white, especially in the kitchen, where a lot of action takes place,” he says. “Although white walls are usually something a cinematographer shies away from, I found them to be a blessing. We’re normally in the kitchen in the mornings or during the day, and I found I could really underlight the interior and have a lot of light blasting outside on our TransLite and Chromatrans backings. I try to light them to about 3 to 5 stops over key, reflected reading. I shoot on 5229, and I’m amazed at how much detail holds in the highlights and the blacks. Because the drops are highly reflective, we found that any unit on the floor could cause a really bad glare, so we rigged cyc-strips on pipes far above the drops. We have I-beams on chain motors that hold our ‘sun,’ which we made with a 20K tungsten and 12-Light MaxiBrutes in season one. For season two, we’ve replaced them with Big-Eye 10Ks with T-12 globes and Leonetti’s Master Blasters, single fixtures with four 1K FCM globes; they’re really punchy but take up less space.” 

With the overexposure outside the windows, Jensen will set the interior exposure as much as 2 stops under. “I also tend to fill inside with 1/4 CTB, and we use a lot of smoke in the kitchen to add atmosphere and a sense of humidity. It works well. 

“So much of the first season of a show is trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t,” he concludes. “It’s really a process because you rarely have time for extensive testing. You need four or five episodes to figure out how the actors photograph, what effects look realistic, how dark the night should be and so forth. We try to continue to refine the look to keep it fresh for us and the audience.”

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Carrie Preston (Arlene on True Blood) attended the Duplicity premiere in New York on March 16.

Carrie Preston stars in ‘Duplicity’ with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen,  spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair. When they find themselves on either side of an all-out corporate war, they discover the toughest part of the job is deciding how much to trust the one you love.

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Hollywood 411 talked to Carrie Preston about True Blood and the movie Duplicity.

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The Alpha Male contest of Eonline has entered the second phase. True Blood’s very own Alexander Skarsgård is still in the running for the TV Alpha Male title and in round two he is up against Lost’s favorite bad boy Michael Emerson.

You can cast your vote on Eonline.

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Article on Moviehole by Clint Morris

William Sanderson

I’ve chatted to William Sanderson a few times over the years and have found him to be as talented as he is congenial. And what’s wonderful about William is he’ll gladly donate his time to chat to fans, or speak to the media about his various projects (Be it “Blade Runner”, which I believe was the reason for our first interview, or “Deadwood”, the topic of a further interview we did) no matter where or when. As such was the case with this latest tête-à-tête about Sanderson’s gig on TV vampire hit, “True Blood”.

William, I assume you got the part on “True Blood” because of your standing association with HBO?

I think it helped. The same casting director that did Deadwood brought me in to read the part of Sheriff Dearborne for True Blood’s creator, Alan Ball.  I know they were looking for authentic southern accents – which has been a curse and a blessing for me.  Alan said he had never seen “Deadwood” – maybe that’s why I landed the role! [Laughs]

Back-tracking a bit. How great was it to play E.B on ‘’Deadwood”? You a little bummed those “Deadwood” telemovies didn’t come to fruition?

Yes – E.B. was such a suck up, loved being him.  And, yes, like the rest of the Deadwood cast, I did want to do the talked about movies.  Not only for myself…ourselves….it would have been nice to wrap up the story for the fans of [the show].

If the show had continued in some sense, where would you have wanted to have taken the character?

Well, the obvious “want” would have been for E.B. to survive the whole season.  Next, maybe to have had E.B. move on to Governor!

My good friend Stephen Tobolowsky was on the show. I know he adored the experience, too.

Wasn’t Stephen Tobolowski wonderful to watch in Deadwood?!  I don’t see the cast much. Have run into a few at different social functions or just being out and about Los Angeles. I ocasionaly email and chat on the phone with Ian McShane.  Oh, and have chatted several times with W. Earl Brown…we shop at the same grocery and get our coffee at the same place.

Was it refreshing to play a good-guy Sheriff after the rather slimy E.B?

Yes, very.  I was very excited to clean up and play a normal guy.

I’m often the weird, quirky, or bad guy in town.

We don’t learn much about Bud in the first season of the show though. Do you have an idea of who he is, or where he comes from, in the back of your mind?

There’s not much on him in Charlaine Harris’s books.  He is a southerner, of course, is married and has grandchildren.  I’m still learning.  Alan Ball told me that Bud was Jason’s Sunday school teacher – the most helpful clue about Bud to date.  It goes without saying that I’m looking forward to learning more about him as time goes on.

Now where’s this show filmed? Looks like Louisiana but I’m guessing it’s not

It’s filmed at several different locations in and around Los Angeles and on sound stages in Hollywood.  The cast and crew also made several trips to Louisiana for some out-door shots.

What the attraction to “True Blood” for people, ya think?

This is always the hardest question to answer.  I could say, YOUTH!  People like to watch young and attractive characters struggling with love and life.  But you also have to have great writing…which “True Blood” has.  It’s a team effort….and a plus, it also has great music!  At this moment I feel compelled to say I’m very happy to have made the team.

Believe in vampires, William?

I haven’t encountered one yet, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Now, you’ve done some good films over the years – “Blade Runner”, “The Client”, “The Rocketeer”, “Fletch”- will we see you on the big screen again soon?

I did an independent film called Pretty Ugly People.  Directed by Tate Taylor, it stars Missi Pyle, Melissa McCarthy, Allison Janney, and many other terrific young actors.  It’s winning awards on the film festival circuit.

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Article on Manila Standard Today By Deni Rose M. Afinidad

They say it’s the adult Twilight, but to some, it’s no more than the wannabe Twilight. One thing is certain though, True Blood is such a hit in the United States, it would be a pity not to bring it to the Philippines.

So, guys, it’s now here!

True Blood Season 1 will be premiering on HBO Asia’s new channel, Max, on April 9 at 9 p.m. This original HBO production brought lead star Anna Paquin to her recent Golden Globe win for Best Actress in a Television Series-Drama. The series was created by Six Feet Under’s Alan Ball, based on the New York Times bestseller Sookie Stackhouse novels of Charlaine Harris about the tale of a perky waitress with telepathic gifts and an irresistible attraction to a vampire named Bill Compton.

“This is a dream role for me,” says Paquin who plays Sookie Stockhouse.

“She’s fragile but very intuitive; she’s had a really hard life, but she’s still innocent. She believes in love, and believes that it’s actually possible, even in circumstances that seem completely impossible. She’s brave, she doesn’t mind being the odd one out… Life’s kicked her pretty hard, but she hasn’t become bitter and she hasn’t become a totally damaged person. I think it’s an amazing quality to be able to roll with the punches and not be totally ruined as a person because life’s been rough for you. That’s a really admirable way to go through your life,” Anna says of her character.

Apart from Paquin whose first claim to fame is her portrayal of Rogue in the X-Men films, the saga stars The Starter Wife’s Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton; Summerland’s Ryan Kwanten as Sookie’s womanizing brother Jason; Rutina Wesley as the outspoken Tara Thornton; Judging Amy’s Sam Trammell as Sookie’s good-hearted boss Sam Merlotte, Nelsan Ellis (The Inside) as the iconic cook Lafayette Reynolds; and Alexander Skarsgård (HBO’s Generation Kill) as Eric, a Nordic vampire.

“I loved the way it was funny and scary and sexy and romantic, and it had a lot of interesting things to say about what it’s like to be other than mainstream. And it’s not just the vampires: Sookie is a telepath, and there are other non-human characters in the story,” says Ball on what made him want to turn Harris’ book into a sequence.

According to him, the first season is the first book in the series, with some new stories created for the characters of Jason, Tara and Sam to provide balance.

“One of the things I love about Charlaine’s books is the way she treats the supernatural world so matter-of-factly. We’re trying to do the same thing in our production design and the way we shoot everything. We want to keep the supernatural rooted in nature, so that it’s just more nature than we’re used to in everyday life,” says Ball, adding that he has been trying to avoid all the vampire clichés.

“I watched just about every vampire movie, and most of them told me what I don’t want to do. I wanted to avoid the crazy contact lenses, the opera music, the blue light… I want it to be rooted in the characters, and seem like it could be really happening, and not some fantasy world,” he explains.

In addition to Ball, the series gathers the directors of some of today’s big hits: John Dahl (Rounders), Nick Gomez (The Shield), Anthony Hemingway (HBO’s The Wire), Michael Lehmann (HBO’s Big Love), Daniel Minahan (Grey’s Anatomy), Nancy Oliver (writer, Lars and the Real Girl), Marcos Siega (Veronica Mars), and Scott Winant (Hidden Palms).

Unapologetic and irreverent, True Blood is a radical option for those who feel Twilight is teeny-bopper. This Max series has all the ingredients of a hit-maker: sex, action, mystery, violence, suspense, and rock and roll.

Even before the series’ local premiere, it has already created a following among Filipinos. Some have even recorded the series’ opening song and made it their ringtone!

Indeed, it was so popular that in conjunction with its Asian premiere, HBO Asia has also launched an online game, Fang Fighter, available at www.cinemaxasia.com/trueblood. Players of the game will take on the character of a vampire who has to defeat various opponents standing in his way.

Max, which will hold True Blood’s Asian premiere, is a re-branding what was originally Cinemax. It targets a generally male market through genre-driven action, sci-fi and suspense programs presented with a bold, direct, and unapologetic attitude.

“True Blood has a much lighter tone. It’s more of an adventure. It’s a story you’ve never seen before and a world you’ve never seen before. It’s fun. It’s a show I would watch,” says Ball on why people ought to sink their teeth into True Blood, no pun intended.

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