1 00:00:04,779 --> 00:00:05,797 I’m Paul Donovan. 2 00:00:05,798 --> 00:00:10,719 This is the world headquarters of Salter Street films, it’s a production company of LEXX. 3 00:00:10,719 --> 00:00:12,845 I’m a kind of writer, producer, director, 4 00:00:12,845 --> 00:00:19,292 and this is Lex Gigeroff and Jeffrey Hirshfield, they are also writers on the show. 5 00:00:19,292 --> 00:00:22,497 I am standing out here because 6 00:00:22,497 --> 00:00:25,562 we agreed to make this show a hundred twenty minutes longer 7 00:00:25,562 --> 00:00:27,117 something like that for UK video, 8 00:00:27,117 --> 00:00:29,528 but it’s actually only ninety three, 9 00:00:29,528 --> 00:00:31,896 so we are adding additional material in the end. 10 00:00:31,896 --> 00:00:33,111 That’s what you are watching right now. 11 00:00:33,111 --> 00:00:36,268 But it’s raining outside, so we’re going inside. See you! 12 00:00:54,053 --> 00:00:56,772 Ok, we’re indoors, it’s dry. 13 00:00:56,772 --> 00:00:59,562 Back story on this whole project: 14 00:00:59,562 --> 00:01:04,228 about ten years ago around 1985 I directed a film called “Def-Con 4”, 15 00:01:04,228 --> 00:01:07,298 and it was not the greatest film ever made. 16 00:01:07,298 --> 00:01:09,819 - It was a ugh… - A c-grade film. 17 00:01:09,819 --> 00:01:12,862 - Yeah, c-grade. - Pretty great! 18 00:01:12,897 --> 00:01:14,873 Ok, don’t beat yourself up! 19 00:01:16,022 --> 00:01:19,282 It didn’t have that tiny little criminal. 20 00:01:22,220 --> 00:01:24,220 Anyway, Def-Con 4 made a lot of money, 21 00:01:24,221 --> 00:01:26,584 it sold sixty thousand video units in the US 22 00:01:26,584 --> 00:01:27,870 and this was huge to that times. 23 00:01:27,870 --> 00:01:31,322 The distributors made a lot of money, we didn’t make any money, 24 00:01:31,322 --> 00:01:34,376 but we realized may be there is something to this genre. 25 00:01:34,376 --> 00:01:38,201 In the show itself there were some good scenes. 26 00:01:38,201 --> 00:01:39,904 Most of it wasn’t that great, 27 00:01:39,904 --> 00:01:42,265 but there are still a few things I personally like even in these days. 28 00:01:42,266 --> 00:01:44,772 But it kind of stuck with me that I… we… 29 00:01:44,772 --> 00:01:47,419 I we as a company might want make something science fiction. 30 00:01:47,419 --> 00:01:52,055 SO.. and then I get a lot about this stuff, sci movies and tv movies and those things. 31 00:01:52,055 --> 00:01:56,696 About three years ago I wanted to make a world war I film, 32 00:01:56,697 --> 00:01:59,193 and it cost about 35 mln. Dollars. 33 00:01:59,194 --> 00:02:00,974 But I haven’t got 35 mln. Dollars, 34 00:02:00,975 --> 00:02:04,765 so I investigated the way how to make it cheaper using computer animation. 35 00:02:04,765 --> 00:02:05,729 Now, this is Canada, 36 00:02:05,729 --> 00:02:10,079 and in Canada many of comp. animation programs are normally used in films 37 00:02:10,079 --> 00:02:14,399 come from Softimage, Prisms, Discreet Logic, 38 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:18,088 these are the companies that make things like dinosaurs in Jurassic Park 39 00:02:18,089 --> 00:02:20,171 or bombers change in Curse or whatever. 40 00:02:20,172 --> 00:02:23,903 We took some propeller heads in CG and put them together 41 00:02:23,903 --> 00:02:26,312 and shook them up with ideal percent science fiction show. 42 00:02:26,312 --> 00:02:30,986 And we made a promo and the idea was to bring this promo to largest buyers of TV programs 43 00:02:30,986 --> 00:02:34,446 or specialty broadcasters around the world 44 00:02:34,446 --> 00:02:36,358 and see if we can get the money. 45 00:02:36,358 --> 00:02:40,044 So this promo is not perfect because it is actually cruder CG, 46 00:02:40,044 --> 00:02:43,939 this is three years ago, and we actually didn’t have the money to set up a real infrastructure. 47 00:02:43,939 --> 00:02:46,336 But you can see this promo right now. 48 00:02:46,337 --> 00:02:50,349 And this is what I ran around in my briefcase with the show on. 49 00:06:31,804 --> 00:06:33,645 OK, there’s the promo, 50 00:06:33,645 --> 00:06:36,100 and there’s Stanley Tweedle, wearing different costume. 51 00:06:36,101 --> 00:06:37,148 People liked it. 52 00:06:37,149 --> 00:06:38,637 Now the CG is a little bit primitive, 53 00:06:38,637 --> 00:06:41,534 that computer graphics, compared to what we have now. 54 00:06:41,535 --> 00:06:43,631 But you know…it’s not bad... 55 00:06:43,632 --> 00:06:45,934 And so we needed some people to write the show, 56 00:06:45,934 --> 00:06:50,002 so I looked around, in Canada all the good writers have gone to Hollywood, let us face it. 57 00:06:50,002 --> 00:06:53,610 So I had to.. ugn.. hook around to what is left 58 00:06:53,610 --> 00:06:58,611 and there are some people and they might have had the potential to be good writers 59 00:06:58,612 --> 00:07:01,657 but at least I could get them cheap, and that’s Lex and Jeff. 60 00:07:01,658 --> 00:07:04,069 And they’re like.. let’s call them gems in the rough. 61 00:07:04,070 --> 00:07:05,665 We are cheap and easy too. 62 00:07:05,666 --> 00:07:14,114 What I’d also like to talk about is that I’d like Jeff... and Lex to tell about themselves. 63 00:07:14,115 --> 00:07:18,743 Here they came from and what they did before they started working on this show. 64 00:07:21,327 --> 00:07:25,721 Well, I came up as an actor, 65 00:07:25,722 --> 00:07:27,157 and I did some theatre, 66 00:07:27,157 --> 00:07:33,341 I did some kind of special kind of “Straaaght Fooord, Straaght faaaawwwrd on the Avon”, 67 00:07:33,341 --> 00:07:39,079 and then I went to Toronto and struggled to get a day on Jimmy Farm move of the week, 68 00:07:39,079 --> 00:07:46,084 and I didn’t get that, so I slung fishburgers at some Toronto restaurant, 69 00:07:46,084 --> 00:07:50,530 and just before I was to go out and start hooking, 70 00:07:50,530 --> 00:07:54,511 Paul came behind and gave me a career. 71 00:07:54,512 --> 00:07:56,499 So I’m forever in his debt. 72 00:07:56,500 --> 00:07:59,184 And the world never knows what they really missed. 73 00:07:59,185 --> 00:08:00,903 - Yes, that’s a pity, I would have made… - Next step... 74 00:08:00,904 --> 00:08:02,317 - I would have been a terrific hooker… - Yes. 75 00:08:04,453 --> 00:08:05,545 And I still might. 76 00:08:05,545 --> 00:08:08,308 But now I can do it just for fun, you know, not trying to pay the rent. 77 00:08:09,534 --> 00:08:17,717 Well.. and I.. I was you know sort of doing whatever I had to do to survive... 78 00:08:23,821 --> 00:08:26,102 And you know there’s no whore like an old whore. 79 00:08:26,102 --> 00:08:32,567 And you know…for me literally I would do such things as murder mysteries, pirate tours, 80 00:08:32,567 --> 00:08:36,823 here in Halifax we can have a lot of tourists that want to know about the sea... 81 00:08:36,823 --> 00:08:38,659 So you take like rich Americans and say like: 82 00:08:38,659 --> 00:08:44,876 URRRRGH everyone in a buss in an hour…then we’ll cruise the damned water in front of her! 83 00:08:44,876 --> 00:08:48,445 and you know little French plays and I worked in the radio 84 00:08:48,446 --> 00:08:51,308 and did little sort of acting here and there, here and there. 85 00:08:51,308 --> 00:08:54,846 But the hooking option was not an option for me, 86 00:08:54,847 --> 00:08:56,647 ‘cause look at me.. quite frankly… 87 00:08:56,648 --> 00:08:58,520 And then we started writing. 88 00:08:58,521 --> 00:09:03,587 So we would go to the beach and you know hand around bars... 89 00:09:03,587 --> 00:09:05,370 and Fair to this. 90 00:09:05,370 --> 00:09:09,873 ...whatever… and we started working on the overall idea of all this entire series. 91 00:09:09,874 --> 00:09:15,695 What you’ve seen in show #1 picture#1 is all set up. It’s introduction of the characters. 92 00:09:27,974 --> 00:09:30,484 We have plans where it goes it is through the fore picture 93 00:09:30,485 --> 00:09:34,247 which are kind of a cycle and also beyond. 94 00:09:34,248 --> 00:09:37,868 But I can say what we really wanted to do was to make something which had 95 00:09:37,868 --> 00:09:42,644 you know a little bit of "Dirty dozen" meet "Alien" or "Beavis and butthead" meet "Alien"... 96 00:09:42,644 --> 00:09:47,318 like I don’t watch much that TV, but some people do… 97 00:09:47,318 --> 00:09:50,217 Meets highschool hard bellies… which is one of my favourite shows. 98 00:09:50,218 --> 00:09:54,360 - Sordid and suck. - Terrific, fine acting. 99 00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:59,242 And then we kind of like science fiction, and we certainly exercise action, like you know. 100 00:09:59,242 --> 00:10:00,261 Skippy costume... 101 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:07,337 Dancing costume science fiction. I like Alien, you know, and… 102 00:10:07,337 --> 00:10:08,841 And Stargate. 103 00:10:08,842 --> 00:10:11,159 And I liked Dark Star. 104 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:13,296 I mean it was kind of cheap good looking, but it was fun. 105 00:10:13,297 --> 00:10:17,105 And most of science-fiction I see on TV isn’t that much fun in these days. 106 00:10:17,105 --> 00:10:19,041 So we wanted to make something that had fun 107 00:10:19,042 --> 00:10:22,503 and sort of had some production volume, was a little bit subversive, and had some dark humor. 108 00:10:27,948 --> 00:10:30,061 Most shows come from Los-Angeles. 109 00:10:30,062 --> 00:10:32,601 Ok, now in Los-Angeles people aren’t that funny, 110 00:10:32,601 --> 00:10:36,210 I mean there are lots of smart people down there, but they’re kind of serious… 111 00:10:36,210 --> 00:10:37,572 And polite... 112 00:10:37,573 --> 00:10:39,053 Well, sometimes polite, not always. 113 00:10:39,054 --> 00:10:44,291 So this is a very weird thing, because it is a show comes from Canada 114 00:10:44,292 --> 00:10:46,170 and we’re on the east coast of Canada, 115 00:10:46,171 --> 00:10:50,003 and here people are… you know… they don’t take themselves too seriously, 116 00:10:50,003 --> 00:10:52,091 because frankly they do not have a good reason to. 117 00:10:52,092 --> 00:10:53,030 Well, you know… 118 00:10:53,031 --> 00:10:56,805 I mean how serious can it really be when we have to get up every morning 119 00:10:56,806 --> 00:10:58,713 and club herbs for the breakfast, 120 00:10:58,713 --> 00:11:01,611 through the ice, we have to dig a hole in the ice, and… 121 00:11:01,611 --> 00:11:07,904 I know you british people are very upset about you know the fur stuff… but it’s food for us, that’s how we... 122 00:11:07,904 --> 00:11:12,760 When you have to deal with that, kind of lovely brutal violence on a daily basis, 123 00:11:12,761 --> 00:11:15,641 then are humans what comes out organically? 124 00:11:15,641 --> 00:11:19,198 One thing you may notice in the show that there’s a lot of bug stuff. 125 00:11:23,328 --> 00:11:27,658 Like we want things to be very insectoid or at least certainly very organic. 126 00:11:27,659 --> 00:11:33,433 And part of it is that I always wondered: why is the future you know... modern? 127 00:11:33,433 --> 00:11:38,282 Like modern as in modernism with all these hard angles and flat smooth surfaces? 128 00:11:38,282 --> 00:11:43,921 It was the style that was in fashion as the style of future in the 1920s, but why… 129 00:11:43,922 --> 00:11:46,797 you know everyone’s got the octagonal doorthing? 130 00:11:46,798 --> 00:11:50,918 Are they going to have the octagonal doors in 20 something. I don’t know. 131 00:11:50,919 --> 00:11:53,974 So we figured it may be they won’t. 132 00:11:53,975 --> 00:11:57,191 So we’re in our particular world 133 00:11:57,192 --> 00:11:59,249 because of these back story of the insect wars, 134 00:11:59,250 --> 00:12:02,287 we have broadened the insect technologies, and of course the insect design. 135 00:12:02,287 --> 00:12:04,386 And instead of having one designer, 136 00:12:04,386 --> 00:12:09,910 as in a normal show, we have about eight production designers who worked fairly independently. 137 00:12:09,910 --> 00:12:13,465 We wanted to avoid the concept of a town 138 00:12:13,466 --> 00:12:16,472 all designed by one architect with never a variety of look. 139 00:12:16,473 --> 00:12:18,597 I should have mentioned we have an email contact, 140 00:12:18,597 --> 00:12:24,429 called if you noticed by the end of the show, www.lexx.com, 141 00:12:24,429 --> 00:12:29,320 and under the section called naked money grab we wanted to sell you few things 142 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,063 and you to give us your money. 143 00:12:31,063 --> 00:12:32,418 But we didn’t actually have to… 144 00:12:32,418 --> 00:12:36,256 You can actually give us your money… 145 00:12:36,257 --> 00:12:38,100 If you can just anything really really… 146 00:12:38,101 --> 00:12:42,702 not food to film the new episodes, but just for us personally, 147 00:12:42,703 --> 00:12:46,041 you know, if you’ve got anything, cash preferably... 148 00:12:46,042 --> 00:12:49,012 …Yorkshire puddings… 149 00:12:49,013 --> 00:12:50,050 Is there anything we’ve left out? 150 00:12:50,051 --> 00:12:54,860 - Well, we’ve got the fore movies.. - Fore movies? 151 00:12:54,861 --> 00:12:58,013 Going up before LEXX… which is you know they’ve just seen the movies. 152 00:12:58,013 --> 00:13:01,001 OK, the fore movies. What’s the next picture about? 153 00:13:01,001 --> 00:13:04,504 The next one is called Supernova, and there’s a lot more sex in it. 154 00:13:12,418 --> 00:13:13,518 Basically. 155 00:13:13,319 --> 00:13:18,096 Never enough, we’re gonna work on it quite seriously, there’s never enough 156 00:13:18,097 --> 00:13:19,937 here’s a lot of sex, lot of sex... 157 00:13:21,143 --> 00:13:22,557 There’s something like... 158 00:13:22,558 --> 00:13:24,252 We’re gonna get Zev in the pit. 159 00:13:24,253 --> 00:13:25,253 Exactly. 160 00:13:25,254 --> 00:13:29,385 Now, do we have abything new about Zev, for instance? 161 00:13:29,386 --> 00:13:31,301 Actually that was a set up question. 162 00:13:32,663 --> 00:13:33,863 Well, go... 163 00:13:33,864 --> 00:13:34,992 Did we learn anything about Zev? 164 00:13:34,993 --> 00:13:39,824 Well, during her love-slave transformation, her haircolour changed. 165 00:13:39,824 --> 00:13:45,113 And there’s a big mistery surrounding her... how to say… well was it just hair on her head? 166 00:13:45,113 --> 00:13:48,682 Or where else? Where do people have hair. Where, you know.. 167 00:13:48,682 --> 00:13:49,481 Is it blue everywhere? 168 00:13:49,481 --> 00:13:53,233 Is it blue everywhere? This is you know inquiring minds want enough. 169 00:13:58,755 --> 00:14:02,253 And all will be revealed. In good time. 170 00:14:02,254 --> 00:14:05,628 So. That’s pretty well the highlight of number 2. 171 00:14:05,629 --> 00:14:10,819 OK… And what else shall we talk about? 172 00:14:10,820 --> 00:14:14,262 - What have I missed? - What about the title. 173 00:14:14,297 --> 00:14:18,813 Oh, the title. Do you want to know how the show got the title of…of Lexx? 174 00:14:18,814 --> 00:14:20,862 Oh, it’s getting worse, it’s getting worse. 175 00:14:20,862 --> 00:14:23,170 - The LEXX Files. - The LEXX files is good. 176 00:14:23,170 --> 00:14:24,258 Oh my God, oh my God Oh no. 177 00:14:24,258 --> 00:14:26,231 Let’s see that, let’s look at that. 178 00:14:26,231 --> 00:14:28,111 Joy ride? 179 00:14:28,111 --> 00:14:28,920 Can you see it? 180 00:14:33,724 --> 00:14:34,674 It’s not getting any better... 181 00:14:34,674 --> 00:14:37,907 Lexx cycle Lexx—o-;icious 182 00:14:37,907 --> 00:14:40,635 It’s just a sort of.. we’re a disaster. Lexx-citement…