Felicia Day

I was pretty crazy busy when this was filmed, but who can say no to abusing@JaceHall with a light saber? Check out the full episodes at http://jacehall.tv/. Really awesome start to their second season! Funny enough, I DID email Dorkman when I saw their videos on YouTube and told them anytime they wanted to film something I was game. We finally got to work together! Love the internet!

I tend to love things that enable me to procrastinate.  So when iTunes requested a “Celebrity Playlist” I jumped at the opportunity!  Unfortunately, they weren’t able to find room in the US store for my playlist.    Canadian iTunes DID post it, so if you’re in Canada you can click to enjoy.  Since I put like 12 hours worth of time winnowing the playlist down, I thought I’d share them here with you anyway for US and non-US alike!
EDIT: Lala doesn’t work overseas I guess, but reader Tor made the playlist on Spotify for those streaming challenged, THX Tor!
1. Take Them Down:  The Main Drag When we couldn’t afford When in Rome’s “The Promise” to end Season 2 of The Guild, I Twittered a request for music to use for the show.  Listening to over a hundred submissions, a track “Love During Wartime” jumped out at me, I couldn’t believe how great the song was for what we needed.  This song is from their new album.  Their followup does not disappoint.

2. Control:  Kid Sister It’s pretty obvious I’m not cool, but finding this song and loving it lets me PRETEND I am.  Rap/Hip-Hop/Electronica fusion awesomeness.

3. Teflon Man:  Ghost Dog I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this, probably because I have a thing for Nordic Rock.  This track is from the band’s debut album. They’re Norwegian.  And I love them.

4.  Men in Love:  Gossip This screams groovy modern disco to me, and the lead singer’s voice is so catchy.  I definitely want to play this on Rock Band.

5. The Walls Are Coming Down:  Fanfarlo I love orchestration that’s out of the norm.  This track has standout trumpet and mandolin, and they’re used joyously.

6.  Nobody Lost Nobody Found: Cut Copy Think this style is called electropop.  I just know it makes me want to dance.

7. Dance With Me:  Nouvelle Vague New Wave song covered in Bossa Nova style?  Yes please! (Had to embed a few YouTube vids instead of streaming because I couldn’t find them in Lala, and no other service allows full stream embedding. What happened to imeem?!)

8. Hell: Tegan and Sara I’m vaguely obsessed with this band.  I’m pretty sure if we ever met in real life we’d be best friends and go shopping together, and have tea.  And go to the spa. Now it’s awkward.

9. Aftermath:  The Southland This is the former band of Jed Whedon (Dr. Horrible, “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar”)  I’m glad I hadn’t heard this before I asked him to write The Guild’s Avatar song with me, I’d probably have been too intimidated.  I love his vocals on this track in particular.  He’s ridiculously talented.

10.  100 Little Curses: Street Sweeper Social Club Sometimes I get obsessive and play a song 200 times in a row.  Like this one.  It demands to be played VERY LOUDLY.

11.  Worm Mountain: Flaming Lips Huge fan of the Flaming Lips, but combined with another one of my 2009 obsessions, MGMT, this track rules.

12.  Atman:  Rodrigo y Gabriala When I was in music school for violin, the acoustic classical guitarists would always play outside the music practice rooms in the hallways, primarily to pick up chicks.  If they had played anything like this duo, they would have been very very popular.

13.  All the Right Reasons: The Jayhawks The Jayhawks are 100% one of my favorite bands.  Every track on the album is breathtaking, the harmonies are gorgeous and romantic.  Alt country rock perfection.

14. Navy Nurse:  The Fiery Furnaces This band is strange and wonderful.  Definitely not stereotypical, but I’m completely drawn in by the fusion of sounds in this song.

15.  Re: Your Brains:  Jonathan Coulton Listing this here on the off-chance someone is not aware of the grandmaster of geeky folk.  If you can catch one of his live shows, the audience generally floods the stage walking like zombies during this number.

Hope you enjoy some of the tracks! And feel free to embed your own faves in the comments for other people to enjoy! Also, my blog is sometimes weird about spam filtering, so if it doesn’t show up immediately I’ll be sure to approve it as quick as I can if it gets caught up!

Don’t have full time to add the whole blog post I want to about my role on Dollhouse right now, but wanted to put up a post where everyone can comment.  If you have any questions I can answer, add them in the comments and I’ll update the post with answers over the weekend!

SPOILERS BELOW SO BE WARNED!

Q: What technique was used for the shots to the legs?

A: Yay, love this question!  I was “squibbed”, big movie-set term I’ve never experience first hand before, and which was a HUGE thrill.  Honestly, I feel like I can retire now, haha.  What they do is they strap special remote controlled packs to the inside of your clothing that will burst outward with blood and explosion.  It was like wearing REALLY thick knee pads on my shins.  Then there’s a SFX guy ready with the remote to explode on cue remotely while the cameras are rolling.  At the same time the squibs are exploded, a FX guy is shooting air blanks all around to make it look like shots are surrounding me.  We only did one take of that because I was paranoid about having to put on another pair of squibbed pants, and to be honest, the shots and the explosion freaked me out in real life, so I think the acting was pretty real and good, haha.  Quite a thrill to be able to do something that “cool” with a character.

Q:  Did you make any friends on the set?

A: Fortunately I have been friendly with everyone on Dollhouse before shooting this episode, so it was very comfortable, being on set.  Working with Zone again was very easy, because between Epitaph One and Two (cute fact) we’ve played D&D together every weekend!  He randomly knows my DM, so when I walked in one day, he was sitting at the table ready to play.  Totally threw me off, seeing him out of context like that, hah!  The coolest thing was actually ACTING with the main cast, something we didn’t do on Epitaph One.  Eliza is always lovely, and I’ve been to conventions with Dichen, so we knew each other well, and I’ve seen the rest of the cast tons of times at get-togethers, so it really was so easy and fun to work with them.

A:  I enjoyed the table scene because it was a MONSTER scene with about 10 people talking, but working with wonderful actors makes saying dialogue feel like speaking in real life.  Tahmoh in particular sat right across from me in the scene, and brought a gravity to everything that was a joy to bounce off of.

Q: I was wondering what you take away from the strong writing in the series?

A:  For me, the series always had the most impact when the stakes were high and there was something big emotionally between the characters.  I realize watching the progress of the show, that the events don’t even have to be that elaborate, but a having character arc like Topher’s, where he goes from being totally obnoxious to heart-breakingly fragile and sacrificing, that’s what is riveting.  It’s about the characters and their connection together that keep ME personally interested and inspired me about this show.

Q: Which characters from the ‘main timeline’ cast of Dollhouse do you think Mag would’ve got on with the best and worst?

A:  I actually think that Mag would have gotten along with Topher pretty well, like an annoying little brother.  And I think she would have appreciated the depth of Priya (or maybe that’s me just gushing over Dichen as a persona, as usual haha)

Q: Was the last show originally intended to be 2 hours long, and had to be severely cut down to one?

A:  The script I personally got was very close to what we shot.  I think that an ideal situation WOULD have been a 2 hour special, to fit everything they needed in, but that’s not really an option in TV   No huge sections were cut out, it was beautiful editing that made it fit within the time limit.

The short bit at the beginning involving ‘mini-Caroline’ was from the episode “Epitaph One”. It was filmed as part of the first season, but never aired.

True, the way they tried to “Recap” Epitaph One for viewers who HADN’T seen it might have been a bit confusing for people who didn’t check out the episode.  You can indeed download it on iTunes or Amazon VOD to see the whole episode.  Another tidbit:  The whole part with me and Zone and Caroline in the car, up until we pull into the garage, was shot as part of #201.  We shot that with Joss MONTHS ago, but I guess someone decided that bringing the future back wasn’t the direction they wanted to go for Season 2, and it got cut.  Thankfully it got recycled thought!  I had to wear some fake hair because I got a haircut between then and when we did EP Two to match

Q: My question for you is how do you think Mag got involved in all this is in the first place, if you had to give your two cents? She’s a student at Berkley, and suddenly she’s one of the only actuals left. Any thoughts?

A:   I think Mag is a just regular girl.  When we’re faced with something traumatic we go into survival mode.  I think she used her wits (obviously NOT brawn) and was able to attach herself to capable people like Gryph and Zone to survive what was happening in the world.  There’s nothing particularly skill-wise she has that set her apart and enabled her to survive, but I think that’s the irony of the whole situation:  It’s damned luck in a crisis most of the time.  And I always felt she knew that every step of the way.  She felt to me like an idealist who had lost her faith in a way.

Q: Who was is who initially came up with the idea for the Mag/Kilo thing?

A:  I believe that was Joss on a rewrite of the script.  I personally had a backstory that I had been in love with Gryph in Epitaph One, so it was an adjustment, but not that hard a one.  Maurissa is pretty hot as Kilo

Q: When next you find yourself in some fantastic Joss-like production, would you perhaps like to leave the “girl next door” outfit in the closet and instead put on the superhero kickass boots? You got to do that in the final episode of Buffy, and I thought you wore it well.  Or how about something more villainous?

A:  I don’t think anyone but Joss would ever cast me in a role that kicks ass, it’s kind of just the way it is.  Someone asked me my dream job in a podcast interview, and I said I’d love to be in a BBC-like sci-fi series (Torchwood, Dr Who etc), because their sense of humor and casting seem like it fits me more than American sci-fi shows.  That said, I think playing the villain would be REALLY fun.  I’ve never been offered anything like that, but maybe I’ll have to write it, haha.

Q: How do you feel about Joss getting violent with the characters you portray?

A:  I am very flattered.  When you beat someone up, that means you think the audience cares if you get beaten up or not.  I guess it means he thinks I’m a sympathetic person on film?  Nothing wrong with that!

Q: And…honestly..what’s your opinion of the slang used in future Dollhouse world?

A:  It was kinda hard for me to learn at first, but given the environment I thought it was REALLY imaginative.  I just wish there had been more room to establish the world and make the language more organic, heard in more contexts.  I think the whole concept of a “Sci-Fi Zombie” world, which IS what 2019 is in a way, is BRILLIANT and as a fan would have loved to explore it more, even if I personally hadn’t been acting in it.

Thanks so much for commenting all! <3

Wanted to link this interview I did at Comics Alliance because I talk a lot about the comic and process of writing it, but also talk a little bit about format and how media might be changing in the next few years. A snippet:

I drive down the street in LA, and the Borders closed down, all the newsstands closed down. With all these tablets coming out, it’s such an interesting time, and over the next year or two years we’re going to see a huge shift in people consuming everything on a screen, and there’s going to be no barrier to how people tell a story.

It seems like there is a huge convergence happening in the way we’re going to get our video, games, and books/magazines/comics.  With Consoles moving into cable (see this NYT article about Xbox), and magazines moving to the new Apple/HP/Asus/Etc Brand tablets, I think that we’re going to see some really interesting melding of all types of entertainment in the next several years.

They are also holding a contest for a signed comic as well, links are at the top of the interview!