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[cynny3]

My UCLA students and I were so inspired this eve with guest speaker Writer/Executive Producer Roberto Orci of "Star Trek," "Mission Impossible III," Transformers," "Spider-Man 2," "Sleepy Hollow," "Hawaii Five-0," "Alias," "Hercules and "Xena" fame amongst so many others. Thank you so much, Bob, for lending your time, experience and wisdom to my lucky class! (at UCLA Royce Hall)

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Having too much fun teaching at UCLA. Here with fantastic guest speaker Emmy Winning Director/Writer Richard Shepard. He so pumped up class. Thanks again Richard!

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After already winning 5 awards, my film has been selected for its 4th film festival this time celebrating female filmmakers. If you are in New York Oct. 14, please come for the screening, at 9pm at 32 Second Ave. Thank you 😊

[cynny3]

If you need money to make your film, there are so many ins and outs. The main point I am learning at today's NYWIFT's film financing day is how important it is to hear directly from the pros who sell your movie what filmmakers need to know before we start making our films!

[cynny3]

The Importance of Being Earnest comes to mind tonight as art imitates real life. I’m working on a reality docu series currently - one which animates and elevates people to a more revered state over and above peers. These people are rather intriguing and different, however. They are unique in what...

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Taxicab moments

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My "Are You For Great Sex" aka "Shades of Love" stars Taso and award winning actress Jessica Caban doing their grove thing

[cynny3]

The Importance of Being Earnest comes to mind tonight as art imitates real life. I'm working on a reality docu series currently - one which animates and elevates people to a more revered state over and above peers. These people are rather intriguing and different, however. They are unique in what they collect. They are FanAddicts, addicted to collecting a particular movie franchise. The collectors include: Harry Potter, Superman, Star Trek, Wonder Woman, ET, Star Wars, Jaws, The Wizard of Oz, Universal Monsters and James Bond. The series premieres on Wednesday August 28th at 9:30pm on REELZ Channel. REELZ Channel is in about 70 million television households which is really quite a large reach. However, often I get asked "What's REELZ Channel"? "How do I get REELZ Channel"? I believe it can be as easy as calling your cable provider and I can say from personal experience, once I started looking for it, I saw it everywhere!

My professional efforts have gone a lot lately into the episode about Steve Petrick, the Guinness World Record collector of Harry Potter. Steve has about 1062 items in his collection with some surprisingly valuable pieces which will be featured in the premiere episode. I hope you might catch it and let me know what you think!

Back to the Importance of Being Earnest - it's an Oscar Wilde work, one of his greatest. I'm also finding it's an interesting metaphor for life which we can all reflect upon from time to time. With some recent drama circling around my personal life, I started to wonder, how much do we create which is not earnest in the narration of our own lives? Do we fool ourselves into more interesting lives purely using our imagination? Do we create emotional delusions for entertainment or stimulation? I think we do! I think we crave stimulation to avoid boredom and our minds will do almost anything to avoid being bored. Lately, I've watched a lot of people create love stories around themselves which do not really exist. It's been baffling me but not in the way I would have guessed. I'm more baffled by the energy and gusto which go into these love delusions, so much so, I almost feel the compulsion to celebrate them! ~Dream on and Prosper~ but maybe I'll add, it might be a good idea also to stand still long enough to heed, the importance of being earnest.

[cynny3]

Can you name the episode of Young Hercules?

Can you name the episode of "Young Hercules" these sketches are from? Hint: Verne Troyer lent his artful creative and fun talents to this episode :)

[cynny3]

Set design sketches for "Young Hercules." This is of the interior to Kora's Inn.

This exterior set doubled up as Alcmenes' house and the rear facade of Kora's Inn.

Version without the tower.

Exterior of Kora's Inn.

[cynny3]

Fantastic concept sketches of the phoenix bird in the Young Hercules pilot episodes, “Treasure of Zeus” and “Between Friends,” thank you Mr. Paul Herndon! Rob Tapert had the unique idea for a design which looked “metallic.” We went forward with the first one in this series of drawings. [edited from original post]

[cynny3]

Young Hercules Fan Questions Pt 7

Rush! Rush! Rush! I'm Producing a new TV series and time is my enemy these days. "Young Hercules" answers may come in slower for a bit, apologies! Here are a few more answers with pictures taken from my old script files: [Cynthia Hsiung was producer of 50 episodes of "Young Hercules" for Renaissance Pictures/Studios USA for Fox Kids Network]

YHU Academy: In "Ares On Trial" - there were many Olympians observing the trial, but only the ones speaking were given names. Can you tell us which Gods and Goddesses you were intending to personify in the audience?

CH: To answer this question, I looked up the original script. Here is what it says: “As Herc looks curiously around, the CAMERA PANS with his gaze. As it does, minor gods and other denizens of Olympus silently appear in the rows of seats.”

YHU Academy:If Jason is the keeper of the Golden Fleece, what happened to it during the entire series?

CH: There was never a conscious oversight regarding the Golden Fleece. When the pilot was green-lit to series, we began focusing on new stories and the direction of the series as a whole. YHU Academy: In "Ares on Trial", What was Ares really doing while Strife was beating up Hercules and Discord was watching? Why couldn't he provide his real alibi?

CH: I believe the premise was that Strife and Discord were his real alibi but they were lying on the stand to serve their own purpose of framing Ares.

YHU Academy:What was Liz Friedman like to work with?

CH: She was absolutely great! She taught, encouraged and trusted me and I am a better person for having worked as closely with Liz as I did. Rob Tapert was also amazing and kept us all on our toes in sometimes inadvertent fun ways. Such as for his wedding. We were all invited to his and Lucy Lawless’ wedding and the entire office took dance lessons together. It was one of the funnest offices I have ever worked in! This may sound as though I am making it up, but truly the entire experience with Renaissance Pictures, Studios USA and Fox Kids with Young Hercules was an amazing time and certainly a highlight in life. Thanks for asking this question. I welcome the opportunity to sing Liz’s praises and everyone else’s on YH.

[cynny3]

Young Hercules Fan Questions Pt 6

"Young Hercules" interview celebrating 15 years later. Thanks to the fans for your continued love of the series!

YHU Academy: There are tales of the existence of a legendary and elusive blooper reel that was shown at the Santa Monica convention - What can you tell us about it? Can you describe any of the bloopers? Any idea where/how we could get our hands on a copy of it?

CH: Yes there was a blooper reel as well as a couple of promotional reels made. There was actually a long blooper reel which I had edited down shorter for the Santa Monica convention. I do not believe it was ever made available beyond the convention.  I can share with you that it had hysterical outtakes where the camaraderie of the actors and crew really came across. Also fun to hear were the real kiwi accents of many of the actors including Dean O’Gorman and Jodie Rimmer. The actors were asked to speak with American accents for YH and we would go to great lengths to ADR their dialogue if too much kiwi came out.

There was some footage of Jodie Rimmer and Dean O'Gorman putting out a fire in an interior set. The flames weren't going out very easily and you could see the actors struggling to keep from laughing. Finally, the director yells "cut" and the pyrotechnics team rushes in with fire extinguishers scaring off the actors and putting out the flames.

The blooper reel also showed some of the lighter director moments. I often think the directors went a bit unrecognized especially since they were in New Zealand and post production and visual effects, sound, music and writing were all being done in the US. All three directors (Chris Graves, Charlie Haskell, Andrew Merrifield) plus the fourth second unit director (Simon Raby) were fantastic! The directors had quite the job to keep it all light and together with a grueling schedule and a non-stop pace. In one of the clips in the blooper reel, Andrew Merrifield was getting “cheeky” showing Simon Raby where the plate should go for the Golden Hind.

I know this might sound a bit like "Greek" so perhaps if you will indulge me, I’ll share one of the running jokes during production of the series. As I described previously, we shot the series in blocks of 4 episodes at a time, with 1 director per block rotating between Chris, Charlie and Andy with Simon Raby directing 2nd unit. Which block each director was assigned to was often luck of the draw in terms of the rotation. Each block had their own unique set of challenges. For example, the Bacchus block required a ton of hair, make-up, wardrobe, sets and casting while the Hephaestus block required less in terms of set pieces and extras, but more in terms of props and practical effects. For example, in the Hephaestus block, Andrew Merrifield used a shooting technique called forced perspective to create a giant for those episodes.

The YH four cadets at Cheiron's Academy: Jason, Iolaus, Hercules and Lilith.

However, perhaps the most challenging block for any director was the Golden Hind episodes. This block required shooting with an ever elusive animal, the deer. Deer are worse creators than cats to put on film. They run and scatter upon a person’s breath, they really cannot be trained to do anything on cue.  The “Hind” block, as it became affectionately known, was originally scheduled to be block 4. The scripts were ready for the director, but as the shoot dates got closer, I got a call from New Zealand saying they were having issues with training the deer for the shoot. The block has moved to become block 5 and quickly I would have the writers (fantastically captained by Eric Lewald) work on new scripts to fill the gap left by the now pushed Hind block. I believe the original director for the Golden Hind block was Charlie Haskell. Pushing the Hind to block 5, now meant it changed directors from Charlie to Andrew Merrifield. As we were shooting block 4, I would get a call from New Zealand giving a new reason why the Hind block would need to be pushed again, and now the block went to Chris Graves. And a new call would come from New Zealand .. and then again, and then again. The block was pushed several times, becoming the “musical chairs” block of “Young Hercules” where everyone wondered who would be left without a chair when the music stopped. Finally, the Golden Hind block landed in the position of block number 9 and the lucky director was Andrew Merrifield who did a fantastic job! And I think the blooper reel captured a bit of the lighter spirit during the Golden Hind episodes because of what became sort of the "legend" of that infamous block!

I hope this story doesn’t give the wrong impression of any of the directors. They were all amazingly spirited and jumped in to whatever situation they were presented with. The “Hind” block just became sort of a larger than life block for everyone, almost like how a small itch becomes a larger one the more you think about it. But in the end, the episodes are amazing and the behind the scenes story of the Golden Hind block is fun to think back upon!

I remember being incredibly impressed when I first saw the footage from "Treasure of Zeus" when the boys ran out of the cave. Directed by Chris Graves.

YHU Academy: In "My Fair Lilith", Lilith poses as Jason's wife so he doesn't have to marry Princess Dido. Later, it is revealed in HtLJ episode "5.17 - The Academy" that Jason and Lilith eventually were lovers and even had a child. What can you tell us about the origins of this relationship? If Young Hercules had continued, was there talk of Jason/Lilith becoming an on-screen relationship? Do you know if "The Academy" episode was to provide a preview into the next season?

CH: Lilith and Jason’s relationship beyond “My Fair Lilith” was not discussed during the first season of YH. If YH had continued into a second season, I would imagine it might have been touched upon given “The Academy” episode on HtLJ. YHU Academy: Why was Artemis played by a colorful shadow, while the other Gods and Goddesses were all personified by actors?

CH: What a great question! Glad you noticed because we did indeed design her to look and feel different. When we began YH, we “inherited” many of the Gods from Hercules and Xena. Artemis was not a regular in either of the other series and we planned for her to be a regular Goddess in YH. Artemis gave us an opportunity to make Gods look a bit different. You could call it a "signature" for YH in a way. I asked Kevin Blank, our visual effects producer to design a funkier look for Artemis. When I first saw her, I was on the fence but soon thought she had a unique presence. In addition, since Artemis was visually “other worldly” this allowed us to focus more on the character of Kora.

[All photos from Producer Cynthia Hsiung's personal collection]

[cynny3]

Glad you are enjoying the read :)

“Young Hercules” interview part 5, celebrating the 15th Anniversary. [“Young Hercules” was a Renaissance Pictures/ Studios USA Production for Fox Kids Network]

YHU Academy: Although ratings were high, and despite many online petitions from the fans, Young Hercules was not renewed for…

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Young Hercules Fan Questions 2013 Pt 5

"Young Hercules" interview part 5, celebrating the 15th Anniversary. ["Young Hercules" was a Renaissance Pictures/ Studios USA Production for Fox Kids Network]

YHU Academy: Although ratings were high, and despite many online petitions from the fans, Young Hercules was not renewed for a second season. Do you have any information about why?

CH: As sad as it was when the series was not renewed, it turned out a good thing for Ryan Gosling fans! If the series had gone on, who knows if his film career would have taken off as it has. What a talented guy he is and I am very privileged to have “known him when”!  I am very grateful to him for some of the films he has made in his career. “The Notebook” personally touched me quite a lot. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers shortly after we wrapped on “Young Hercules” and is one of the main reasons I did not take another TV project directly after.  When I saw “The Notebook” it was quite a nice reminder that even when things end, there can be great beauty within them ending. And when we love someone or something, perhaps that love really does keep it alive! The fact that you, the fans, have kept "Young Hercules" alive in your hearts and that this interview is being posted in 2013, to me says it all. The series may not have been renewed by the Network, but it has continued to be renewed by the fans for 15 years now!

Networks make decisions for many reasons and YH came at a time when there were many changes happening within Fox Kids Network. You never know though what can happen with such devoted fans!  Fans brought “Doctor Who” and “Star Trek” back on screen. Perhaps fans will bring back YH in some similar way one day, wouldn't that be amazing?!

YHU Academy: There was very little merchandise for the Young Hercules audience - do you know if there were any plans for anything to be made?

CH: Yes, if we had gone a second season there were indeed plans for merchandizing.

YHU Academy: In "Herc and Seek", Cratus says, "You left us for this? Schoolbooks and playing warrior" when the lack of books should have cause Cratus to say something like "Schoolscrolls". In "My Fair Lilith", After Antos threatens Hercules in flowery, poetic speech, Hercules points to himself and says, "Uh, no, English!" when Hercules should tell Antos to speak to him in Greek. Do you know if any "mistakes" like these were left in for clarity reasons, or if they just weren't caught by the editors?

CH: Well, perhaps a little creative liberties here, lol, but great catches!   YHU Academy: You said in an interview once that Artemis taught Kora how to hunt so she could use the food for her inn. Do you have any more information about Kora's backstory that was never revealed in the show?

CH:  Kora was quite a deep character and actually had we gone a second season, there was talk of, and I would have liked to see, a Kora spin-off series. The character was conceived to essentially be “enslaved” to the Goddess Artemis. Her character had a lot of depth and Angela Dotchin played her exceedingly well! To keep her Inn going, Kora made a pact with Artemis where Artemis would help Kora hunt and supply food for the Inn. Meanwhile, Kora would have to do Artemis’ bidding.  This came into conflict at times with the other Gods and at times with the humans as well. Kora had special hunting abilities which Hercules witnesses and created a special bond between the two of them.

YHU Academy: What information can you tell us about Amazon High? Was there any talk of crossover episodes or characters between Amazon High and Young Hercules?

CH:  This would be a better question for Liz Friedman. Amazon High was a great pilot movie starring Selma Blair. The two pilot movies, AH and YH were being “shopped” together and were made roughly the same time.  When we wrote and produced the Amazon Block of episodes for YH, there was definitely the spirit of Amazon High within those episodes. We also had a few of the same actresses playing the Amazons.

YHU Academy: Young Hercules has recently started being released on DVD in Germany - do you know if there's any word of it being released in the USA, UK, or any other countries as well?

CH:  Sorry, I do not have information on a USA DVD release.

[Cynthia Hsiung was the Producer of 50 episodes of "Young Hercules." All photos are from Cynthia Hsiung's personal collection]

[cynny3]

Young Hercules Fan Questions 2013 Pt 4

In celebration of the 15th Anniversary of "Young Hercules," here is part 4 of my interview with YHU Academy. Thank you for staying such devoted fans! ["Young Hercules" was a production of Renaissance Pictures-Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert/Studios USA for Fox Kids Network]

YHU Academy: Going by airdate, many characters appeared in episodes before they were actually "introduced" on the show - Discord, Lilith, and Hephaestus to name a few. Do you have any idea why the episodes were aired out of order, or what the "correct" episode order should be?

CH: Gosh you are so observant! Yes, they did air somewhat out of order from how they were conceived, written and shot. There are a variety of reasons for this and I suppose the best way to answer your question is to give a sense of how the series evolved. The series was picked up by Fox Kids Network with a large 50 episode order.  Knowing we had 50 to write and produce up top was a nice luxury. It allowed for early planning and ultimately saved production money. We decided to shoot the episodes in blocks of 4 at a time. (I should note when I say “we” it was a collective of many, but mainly Rob Tapert, Liz Friedman and myself in Los Angeles and Eric Gruendermann and Janine Dickins in New Zealand). This was a unique plan of attack and to my knowledge had never been done in a television series production before “Young Hercules.” It was so innovative, that once the series wrapped, I was called upon by many colleagues inquiring about the production techniques used on YH. A Studios USA Executive also told me they were using “Young Hercules” as a case study to teach their other producers how to maximize on a production budget by using the same method.

  Photo: Chris Conrad on set in New Zealand shooting the "Hephaestus" block of episodes.

Photo: On-set during production of the "Hephaestus" block. It was summer in Los Angeles and winter in New Zealand. Not having a coat for winter, I remember quickly borrowing one from my sister right before jumping on the plane.

  CH: Each episode being 21 minutes and 20 seconds as our target TRT (Total Run Time); this meant that 4 episodes together roughly timed out like that of a feature film. Using an “economies of scale” way of thinking, we shot in blocks of 4 episodes similar to a feature film. 11 to 13 shoot days (depending) of main unit production for each block with 2nd unit production 1 day behind. This meant a shooting average of 4.5 pages of script per day between both units totaling roughly 22 shoot days per block.

So for example,  “Treasure of Zeus,” “Between Friends,” “What a Crockery,” “Teacher's Pests” a.k.a. Block 1; were all 4 written with the intention to have them take place in similar locations with similar actors and similar needs for extras, props, wardrobe, etc. That way, we didn’t have to re-invent sets, re-cast actors, or re-address props or wardrobe for each individual episode. Therefore, actors had to learn lines for all 4 episodes at once because on any given shoot day, they might shoot scenes from 4 completely different episodes. I hope that makes sense!

Photo: Episodes were shot 4 at a time in Production "Blocks" to maximize on efficiency. Three directors, Chris Graves, Charlie Haskell and Andrew Merrifield rotated taking one block each at a time. Simon Raby was our 2nd unit director and he also directed "Valley of the Shadow," the 50th episode.

    CH: In addition, since it was a new series, we had to work out initial kinks. Even though Block 1 was written first, we actually shot Block 2, the Amazon Block, first. This was to ensure that when we shot the pilot episodes in Block 1 that the kinks were worked out within the crew, the actors, the post-production system between Los Angeles and New Zealand, as well as the music, visual effects, etc. before we went into production on the all important pilot episodes.

Now that I’ve explained a bit of the out of sequencing regarding the way episodes were produced, I should also address the way episodes were aired. The airing was predominantly up to the Network. They would consult with us to better understand what they would be getting and when; however, they were the experts when it came to timing out the episodes for ratings, for the all important “sweeps week” and for events or stunts which the Network as a whole might be planning. Therefore, I hope this better outlines why certain characters might have been seen in episodes airing prior to their more official or intended introduction to the series. The original airing of the episodes I believe is available online. The original intention of how they would air was always a bit of a moving puzzle of 50 pieces! For example, we shot the Block with the Golden Hind including “Iolaus Goes Stag” and “Hind Sight” together in one production Block, but they did not air one after the other. The core stories did not need one to understand the other.

Photo: sample of working scheduling calendar, this was not a final schedule.

YHU Academy: Word is that towards the end of the season, FOX wanted the episodes changed to appeal to a target male audience - there were less 'romantic' storylines, and more emphasis on action and fighting. Can you tell us any more about why FOX wanted this shift? Young Hercules seemed to have a swelling young female fanbase - why turn from them?

CH: Yes this is true. It was less about “turning” from the female fanbase and more about increasing the male audience. In addition, the heavier action episodes could stand alone better which was more desirable when thinking about how to monetize on the episodes. You may recall, many episodes early in the season continued their story lines from one episode to another. Examples would be the 3 pilot episodes, “Treasure of Zeus,” “Between Friends,” “What a Crockery” and others such as “Lure of the Lyre,” “Fame,” “Lyre, Liar,” and “Lady in Hades.” The Network wanted more stand alones, or episodes which did not require a viewer to have seen the episode prior to understand it. [YHU Academy can be found at: http://yhu.deabryn.com/]

[Cynthia Hsiung was the Producer of 50 television episodes of "Young Hercules. All photos are from Cynthia Hsiung's personal collection]

[cynny3]

Young Hercules Fan Questions 2013 Pt 3

Photo: Chris Conrad, Cynthia Hsiung and Ryan Gosling

On the 15th Anniversary of the TV series, "Young Hercules" starring Ryan Gosling, Dean O'Gorman, Chris Conrad and Jodie Rimmer, the fan group YHU Academy has asked me if I could answer some questions. What a privilege to walk down memory lane and with pleasure and many thanks, here is part 3 of the interview:

YHU Academy: IMDB credits you as playing a groupie in the episode "The Prize" - can you tell us where to spot you? Did you appear onscreen in any other episodes?

CH: Haha, my voice was used during a singing sequence. If you listen carefully you will hear a groupie yelling from the crowd “I love you Iolaus” – that was me! Sam Clark, my post-production Associate Producer needed some voices of young teenage sounding girls. He asked me to do it and in the studio during a regular playback, I was recorded. Originally Sam was going to “pitch-up” my voice, but I have a naturally higher pitched voice and it was not a stretch to get it to sound teenager-like.

Photos: Invitation mailer which went out announcing the premiere of the series. Top photo is how the mailer arrived. Bottom photo is of the inside. The mailer opened up into a tryptic, three panels which I designed with Kevin Blank, YH's visual effects person extraordinaire!

YHU Academy: Do you have a favorite episode or scene from Young Hercules?

CH: Yes, I do have a favorite scene, however, it’s a little hard to describe because it never made it to air! It’s a scene where I had to make a very difficult decision. Believe it or not, my favorite all time YH scene I had to actually have edited out!! Yup, that’s right, my favorite scene never made it to air.. oh the irony!

It was a scene from the Golden Hind episode entitled “Hind Sight.” In the last scene of the episode, you may recall Hercules appears under the blue light of a crescent moon and the Golden Hind, Helene, now in human form, walks up to him. They talk about how they both are unique in different ways. Helene tells Hercules how she thinks he will get his rightful due both on Earth and up above. Well, there was originally another scene right before this scene where Kora walks up to Hercules under the same moon lit sky. Hercules and Kora share a romantic, and rather heartfealt longing moment. This scene was incredibly lovely and actually brought a tear to my eye! The scene was not meant to play that way when it was written. In script form, the scene was less romantic and more old friends discussing personal challenges in life. The actors interpreted it somewhat differently and gave life to a completely unexpected scene albeit one which displayed a chemistry which was enlightening to me.

However, the beautiful Kora/Hercules scene took away from the following scene between Hercules and Helene. Not only that, the scene could have appeared to display Hercules as romantically “fickle” and potentially make him come across as a player! So, unfortunately, it was a difficult creative decision, but an important one for the series as a whole. Thus, the Kora/Hercules romantic scene was cut out! And for years now, I have often wished that scene could have been seen by the fans. If it had been left in, I do think future Kora and Hercules story lines would have changed quite a lot going forward!

Regarding favorite episode(s) – I seem to change my opinion every time I watch an episode! Often, however, I have said I loved the writing of “Ares on Trial” by John Loy. However, I also really love the humor of “Parent’s Day” written by Adam Armus and Kay Foster; and I especially loved that the writers fashioned Lilith’s sister, Neina after stories I told them about … none other than my own older sister! That’s a insider nugget which I have never shared publicly! The point was always that Lilith’s sister meant well but had an odd way of showing it which always left Lilith feeling bad. But in the end, Neina showed she only wanted the best for Lilith.

YHU Academy: The outside of Kora's Inn doesn't look big enough to hold the inside - do you remember if you actually shot inside that building, or if you had another stage for the interior of the Inn?

CH: There was a different set for the interior.

Chris Conrad (Prince Jason), Joel Tobeck (Strife), Cynthia Hsiung (Producer) and Dean O'Gorman (Iolaus)

[YHU Academy can be found at http://yhu.deabryn.com/]

[Cynthia Hsiung was the Producer of 50 episodes of "Young Hercules"]