THE MEETING: The Tone Meeting

WHERE IT TAKES PLACE: Alan’s office

WHO ATTENDS: Alan Ball, Executive Producer Gregg Fienberg, the writer of each episode, the first Assistant Director, and the cinematographer

WHAT IT’S ABOUT (according to writer/producer Alexander Woo): The tone meeting is the first opportunity for the director to sit with Alan, Gregg, and the writer and talk about the episode scene by scene.  For new directors to our show, it’s an especially valuable time to clarify any issues about story, style, or tone.   If it’s Michael Lehmann, it’s his first chance during the episode to make puns before a captive audience.

Michael Lehmann, a punny guy?

Interesting eh? But as I was reading this, one line struck out at me… yeah, you’re right, it’s the one about director Michael Lehmann and the puns. The dude must be famous for these and I was wondering if any appeared in the True Blood episodes that he directed. Below are the episodes directed by Mr. Lehmann. Does anyone remember if there were any puns* that made it into the episodes?

• Escape From Dragon House 1:04 – We learn from Vampire Bill that vampires love puns, Fangtasia!
• The Fourth Man in the Fire 1:07
• Keep This Party Going 2:02
• Shake and Fingerpop 2:04
• Hard-Hearted Hannah 2: 06
• It Hurts Me Too 3:03
• I Got A Right to Sing The Blues 3:06
• I Small A Rat 3:10

*Wait, what exactly is a pun? From Webster: “The humorous use of a word, or of words which are formed or sounded alike but have different meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible applications; a play on words.”

Alan Ball’s comments about episode 209: “I Will Rise Up”. “My favorite episode of [the] season. I love the whole story between Eric and Godric, and Sookie gets to see Eric’s human side. Then there’s the whole choice by Godric to move on; his attitude of, ‘I’m done and I want to embrace whatever is going to happen to me now, even if it means oblivion, even if it means the end.’ That last sequence was tough to shoot, because we shot part of it on a building rooftop in Los Angeles – where we basically had 20 minutes to get it because of the light – and then we shot part of it on a stage with green screen, then we went to Dallas and shot background plates so that you would have recognizable landmarks. Then there were all the special effects technology questions of how we were going to have Godric go up in flames. So it was tough, but I thought it paid off.”

Click the pictures below to view each page.