PS: and this is... uh, I'm not entirely sure if
this is going to work just because Zoom's
servers are being so overtaxed by
everyone working and schooling from home...
JB: We need to do a second version of the
trailer with a bunch of reaction shots mixed in--
PS: Oh my gosh, yes! JB: We need to do that. PS: It's working! It's working!
Yay!
PS: All right, so just setting... All right, muting that... All right, we are good to go.
PS: Hello everyone, thank you so much for joining us
JB: Hey, guys!
PS: Excellent. Oh my gosh, I'm not gonna be able to keep track of this chat.
So I'm Priscilla Spencer.
I'm the director of the trailer and like
crazed super fan. I also like run Jim's
website, I'm one of the betas... What don't I do?
Then of course we have the man himself,
Jim Butcher, ready to answer basically
as many question of your questions that
we could fit into an hour.
Then serving as our ninja in the background we have Alexi Vandenberg of Bards Tower.
He's the guy that you reach out to if you
want a signed copy of Peace Talks or Battle Ground.
I have all his contact information on Jim's website.
So yeah, he's the mastermind to the Virtual Signing,
and he'll be feeding us questions, sort of keeping track of the chat, because y'all are insane and excitable
and we're not gonna be able to keep track of all the amazing comments you guys are throwing our way.
So yes! Let's just dive right in. Cool. [laughs] I'm so excited they're finally seeing this trailer!
JB:I know, it's neat! I'm just Brady Bunching here as I try and get used to this.
All right. Teleconferencing, neat. Not something I've needed to do before professionally.
[PS] Well, yeah. Plenty of that happening in
the next few months until we get the whole vaccination situation sorted it out.
So yeah, all righty. Where did my little Google Doc go,
I have like 18 windows open. Doot doot doo...
Here we go, here we go. Excellent.
All right! So everyone right now is flailing their minds out
over the fact that there are going to be two Dresden novels published this year.
How did that happen?
[JB] Well, it started off when I started
writing Peace Talks, and I thought that
what I would do is I would build a
better mousetrap,
and so I started writing a novel
that was essentially it was going to be
about two thirds of a Dresden Files
novel like everybody was used to
that then took this this sudden hard juke to
one side, and then that was the rest of the novel.
Although it really wasn't the rest of a novel, it was it was two-thirds of a novel of its own.
So basically we had this novel that was four-thirds when I sort of got finished,
and it was this Frankenstein thing,
and I tried the longest time to make it work, two or three years,
and finally my editor said, "Well, we can we can publish it like this, and if we do,
it's gonna have a fifty dollar cover
price or maybe more," and I didn't want to
be the first guy that had you know that
had a hardback go up over over $50,
you know, on kind of a popular scale, so I'm like, "Well what's the other option?"
"Oh like, what we can just break it into two
books, and we'll do one this year and one next year."
And so I had to sit down and think
about it. I didn't like either of those,
so I had to test out and think about it,
but finally I thought, well you know
I've got two-thirds of one book 
and two-thirds of another book.
If I can just write the other third of both books like I've done before, then it should turn out okay.
So I set out to do that. So I set out to write, you know,
know two-thirds of the novel over the course of about a month in order to get it done in time,
but then I said, "But if I'm doing this, if we're gonna do this, and do two books though,
we're not going to split it out by a year,
because that's way too long and you guys have been waiting way too long.
So how about we publish them on back-to-back months, and we'll do it like that,
and we'll do it like the old two-part TV episodes that would come out on the various shows that came on."
You always knew the shows were getting exciting when the two-part episode came out back in the day.
And they said, "Well, we can't do it in one month, 
but we can do it two,"
and I was grumpy about it, but I'm like, "Okay fine you can do it two, we can do it in two."
But apparently there's too many of you guys 
now at this point,
So this one's on you you for being too many of ya.
And so you know it causes a bunch of
problems in the publishing schedule, it
causes problems with with budgeting, and
all kinds of other stuff, so it was kind
of a miracle that we were able to pull
this off so I'm really happy that we're
gonna be able to turn them out just like
you know almost back to back. I kind of wanted to do a Steven Spielberg thing with Back to the Future 2,
where at the very end they say, "And Back to the Future 3 comes out next month!"
And it's like oh my god, that was amazing
to live through so I kind of wanted to
share that with you guys.
PS: Fantastic. So will this change the number of case files that we're gonna have in the series
now that we've sort of split this one into two?
JB: Yeah we'll be at whatever it
was gonna be press 1 at this point.
PS: Nice, nice. So it'll be like 21, 22 case books, plus a three book Apocalyptic Trilogy after that.
JB: Yeah yeah I mean at this point I think it'll be 22, and that way it's 25 books, and that's a nice, solid number.
PS: Ooh, yeah, that's nice and round. Yes.
Though will this completely throw off the Denarians appearing in every book that's a multiple of five?
JB: Nah, it should be all right.
PS. Excellent. Cool cool. And then another question
that I've been hearing a lot from the fans: 
Do you know if there's going
to be any like upsets to the publishing
schedule because of coronavirus like do
you know if Marsters was able to like
record everything in time?
JB: I do not know actually if Marsters was able to record everything in time. I assume that he is.
I haven't heard anything yet from Penguin,
but recording voice stuff... It's you in a room by yourself. It's kind of built in isolation, you know.
PS: Excellent, excellent.
Spray some Lysol around it and we're good.
Fantastic.
So, what did you find was the most challenging part of splitting the manuscript, when you're creating that partition?
Coming up with a title for the new book that I hadn't thought about a title for.
Because we argued, you remember that on the beta list we argued about it for a long time,
trying to figure out what the title was, and it
finally just occurred to me, like oh wait a minute,
I'm writing a little a little mini duology book here,
so we'll have a title that links to the previous one,
and then people will just take them both places together in the future.
PS: Excellent, yes. The War and Peace Duology.
JB: Yeah, yeah. Basically, basically.
PS: So, because I am very biased, I want to talk about what you think about the trailer.
JB: Ooh! Okay!
PS: Because also, you were there for a filming part of it,
so I want to know, like, A) What was
your favorite part of the trailer completed,
but then also, what was your favorite part 
of seeing it being made?
JB: Oh, of this first one, you mean.
I think I've got to say Marcone is my
favorite part of the first one.
The actor they got playing Marcone, he is sweet. He does such a good job.
I mean, he manages to cook so much menace into a half-second reaction shot,
and not everybody can do that. And that wound up looking awfully nice, I like that.
PS: Yes, yeah, his name is Chris Showerman, and he's just absolutely magnificent,
and also he was the nicest guy to work with.
JB: Yeah, he was! He was a sweetheart! Yeah.
Both Mab and Marcone, who are the two most terrifying characters were just like--
JB: And he did so well with Marcone, 
and so well with George of the Jungle 2...
That is range, man, that is range!
PS: Yes, I was hoping that the fans would google it themselves and discover it on their own,
but yes Chris Showerman, who plays Marcone, like 20
years ago or whenever that came out, was
the titular character in the
direct-to-video sequel to George of the Jungle.
JB: NICE.
PS: So there are some amazing photos of him online all in Georgia the Jungle shape,
so I encourage people to google that and
then just marvel at Chris's range
because holy cow. Who does that?
JB: Right, right.
PS: So, one question that we got in the chat that Alexi sent to us that I was laughing at is
"Can you tell us why Harry and Marcone were getting dressed together?"
JB: No, I can't tell you that. Classified until the proper literature comes out.
PS: Excellent, excellent.
All right let's see...
So I know that when you were writing Cinder Spires,
you actually changed Cavendish's outfit
because of how Kitty decided to cosplay her.
Were there anything that like
over the course of the pre-production
development and whatnot of the trailer
that changed in any way your revising of the novels?
JB: I think there was, wasn't there?
Wasn't there some things that got shot, and at the last minute I was like, "oh let's make 'em consistent,"
and I can't remember what I did,
but I do remember saying, "oh wait a minute it got shot this way, maybe we should change it around,"
and then vice versa, there were a couple things that got shot and I was
like, "Sorry I had to rewrite it."
PS: Yes, yes, yes.
JB: I know, I know, and all the work you did, good lord.
PS: Definitely yes. And actually it
was when I was scripting the trailer
that we started to realize, like, "You know what, you've really written two books here, Jim."
JB: Yeah, yeah, there's actually two books here, yeah.
PS: So I guess that was a small change as a result of that.
JB: And as it turned out, I'm kinda glad turned out I'm kind of glad I'm doing
you know the extra big surprise for the
fans this year.  It's a good year to give
an extra big surprise you know.
JB: He said, from quarantine!
PS: How are you holding up?
JB: Low energy levels, but nothing bad. Kitty's got a bit of a cough, and occasionally running a low fever,
but so far it hasn't become anything outrageous.
PS: Nice. Fenris is taking good care of her though, right?
JB: Yeah he's all he's all curled up
with her right now.
I mean you know you can't be doing stuff
like this. You know, he's got important
stuff to be doing.
Fenris is quite unimpressed with everyone in this house including me.
Yeah for those who don't know, Fenris was a kitten. He was that he was a feral kitten.
Kitty rounded up three feral kittens and was going and finding them homes and everything,
but then we found out later--and he had almost starved to death by the time
we got him, so he was really grateful to
be here--but then we found out later they
want kittens at all, they were all like 5
or 6 years old. They were just little.
And Fenris had swindled us into adopting them and finding them homes and
now they're all fat and happy 
and snuggling people places,
and Fenris is down and snuggling Kitty right now, good lord. Cats should not be trusted.
PS: Are we gonna be seeing him in the next
Cinder Spires book?
JB: Oh yeah absolutely. Yeah, all the cats got to go into the Cinder Spires books because then they're deductible.
So. You know, as long as I show
you cute pictures of them and show you
guys like you pictures and so yeah,
"Look at this cat, he's cute. Go buy my new book!"
You know then they're a promotional expense, so you know I can do that.
PS: Definitely. All right, let's see. I'm going through Alexi's list of questions that he's picked out.
"Who wins, Dresden or McGonagall?" 
Like, McGonagall from Harry Potter?
JB: Oh god, like Harry would hit an old lady, 
for crying out loud!
McGonagall wins.
PS: McGonagall survived cancer. She kicks butt.
Let's see, one person says, "Is there a likelihood of these actors being used in more, longer video segments."
I would love for that to happen.
JB: That would be an awfully cool thing to happen. That would be a great thing to happen. We'll see if it happens.
PS: Excellent. So do you wanna check out the list of questions and toss a few my way regarding the trailer?
JB: Let me see here...
PS: Do you need me to resend you the...
JB: What questions? Where?
Oh, here we go! Alexi's sending it to us. 
Thank you, Alexi
PS: Yay!
JB: All right. Here's one for Priscilla and Jim: 
What were the most fun moments of the trailer to film?
PS: Ooh!
JB: I wasn't actually filming. I was like standing around,
and I was actually editing the revised copy, 
and also working on another project
that had to be done like overnight 
while we were doing the filming
that I can't tell you guys about yet 
'cause it's still super secret.
Yeah, but for the part that I was there, and that I did see,
what was the part that you liked filming best, Priscilla?
PS: One of the things that was ridiculously fun was getting the Blade Runner eye effect
to work for Lara and Thomas.
JB: Oh, that's cool!
PS: We'd intended to do camera tests, like we'd just
like watched a lot of tutorials on how
to do it, but we hadn't actually
like done any of the tests ahead of time
because things got really crazed toward the end, and so
when we were able to position the light exactly 
so that it reflected into the actors eye,
but not into the camera, you could see 
everyone was watching around the monitors,
and the moment they got it right, the entire room erupted in cheers.
It was so rewarding and exciting.
And then also it was really fun
filming the little sort of
"Marvel End Credits Spider-Man joke," 
because oh my gosh
Jason Bernardo who plays Harry, he was such a trooper. Anything that we would throw at him, he would
just be like, "All right let's do it."
Basically we had him on this inclined plane with these sheets of faux brick facade from Home Depot
and originally the production designer had designed it 
so his knees could be hooked over the edge,
but unfortunately we couldn't get the camera where it needed to be to get the angle it needed to be,
and so essentially we had to have like four grips 
and PAs holding his feet, as his entire body is...
JB: That's right, that's right! Everybody was gathered around Harry, yeah.
All these crew members just trying to hold him up
until he could get to the end of the scene.
PS: Mm-hmm. But then he never complained once, I mean he was such a fantastic actor to collaborate with,
always bringing fun new interpretations,
and was so eager to learn more 
about the character.
He read Skin Game ahead of time and
absolutely loved it. Though oh my gosh,
speaking of actors that really went
over the top in getting into character,
Sara Flannery who plays Murphy... She
started by reading Storm Front just to
get a sense of the character, and then she loved it, and then she ended up reading the entire series.
JB: All the Murphys have done that now. 
Because the one from the TV show did as well.
PS: Yeah, I can't say enough wonderful things about my actors.
JB: There's another question. Is there a likelihood of these actors being used in more--oh, you already asked that one.
PS: Yes. I would love that.
JB: Yeah I thought act like later these
actors being used in longer video
segments you know I think there's a I
think that's supposed to be weighted a
little as a question yeah and yeah we
would both love that that would be cool
all right here's another question from
Joan FM stormy can we expect a trailer
for battlegrounds as well and if so what
about this trailer actually included
scenes from battleground so some of the
folks from that managed to get a copy of
the arc might be a little confused or
you're like wait a second like I don't
remember this scene like yes
yes you don't so yeah yeah okay let's
see here does the winter mantle make
Henry Moore or excuse me make hair a
more venerable - Larry ray I'm
sorry but it was written venerable well
I mean it probably gives them a little
bit more gravitas but I thought that
makes them any older if you I think you
man it doesn't make him more vulnerable
Clara rate and and I would say that yeah
anything that makes you more aggressive
in harmony probably does make you more
vulnerable Valera rage Oh Bridget Lublin
who plays our Lara I mean like she is
just so ridiculously gorgeous they were
motoring like oh my god and I just like
actually like God distracted editing
because we were just putting some
completely entranced by her eyes yeah
yeah good looking woman mm-hmm
well like I said the trailer to my mom
and my dad we're sitting on the end of
the bed like in this hotel room and like
when in the little smirk that Mario he
gives like I'm actually like fell
backwards into a swoon at that I'm so
like dang well well played Chris and
just I'm actually gonna share this
document as well with you Jim from Rian
Johnson so Brody was cutting off her
cast not her leg right no comment Ryan I
mean you know you're just gonna have to
read the book although wow if you could
cut your leg off with it with a dremel
tool respect I mean like that that takes
some doing that would take some work no
no way you would have this too you'd
have to take it off in sections you know
yeah yeah that would be can you tell us
who each of the characters were in the
wrong table theme so uh yes so the folks
on the outside edges are extras that
actually most of them extras from the
fandom who responded to the ad that I
posted on Jimmy's website asking for for
extras and PAS and actually and there
there was an initial posting that I'd
made as well we actually ended up hiring
some of our key crew positions just
because like in Hollywood you're gonna
find a lot of like really incredible
talented film people and there's a
substantial overlap between people that
work in sci-fi fantasy film making and
Dresden Files fans so our costume
designer is a big fan our production
designer and art director like all the
folks that helped me out you know
auditions we're guys and fans are
Justine is a huge Dresden fan lacy yeah
like we just had this in this fabulous
team and like yeah so many pas and
extras that really answered the call and
and just completely just rocked it on
set what was the question who would who
are the characters in the round table
yes the ones on the periphery are
unnamed extra or unnamed accorded
dignitaries though we did have one of
our extras cameo is mr. Farrow you'll
notice the the character with the unlit
cigarette who has smoke sort of coming
out of his nostrils of course center
screen we have mAb camera left with the
the Princess Leia crown braid is Molly
and then Tamales left we have a Vanna
who is the the fart off character that
we see in the beginning scene then I'm
actually not looking at at the moment oh
my my desktop is that scenes I can't I
would yeah that's why I filled it to you
so let's see then of course at the table
to our two camera right we have Marcone
we have Lara and then the other folks
are our extras the the cluster of white
Council folks that we have in the
background we have Ramirez Ebenezer and
warden Chandler warden Chandler is
actually our production designer Wade
wearing Harry warden cloak just because
so we didn't have to make three of them
but yeah yeah that was such a fun shot
to do and it's actually a little
different one how you describe it in the
book like there was a different group of
characters that you decide sort of in
the Last Supper tableau but like
that image stuck with me and I was like
this is too cool not to put in the
trailer so artistic license I hope you
don't mind
oh no no I I don't I don't care
rule of cool always applies that's why
you should always the rule of cool
should never be in conflict with your
story you know but in this case it isn't
so all right um let's see
what's the here several questions all
together kind of here in in the QA who
is about out why Thomas why Harry and
Laura
hey this is Ebenezer why do you do this
to us because I can then that might have
been the most fun part of the trailer
because like I've been sort of at the
front row of like Jim torturing the
beta's and then torturing his fans so
like I've been always been one of the
tortured and it feels so good to be like
the torturer instead of the torturer
buried yeah but it's not sadism and
here's why because it's a this takes
pleasure in in the actual suffering of
the people that they're doing so that's
not what we're doing you know we want
you to have a good time yeah we're not
actually sadists we're more evangelical
masochist
we heard so good and we just want to
share that with everyone you know but
yeah in a good story yeah a good story
should break your heart sometimes I mean
that's that's what the good ones do how
that's how that's why we care about them
let's see here
so here's a question that we had from
Kendall abow I'm can I go ahead okay so
I Kenda asks which characters were
hardest slash easiest to cast how much
input did Jim have when casting actors
for the parts so definitely like my
favorites so that you could weigh in oh
yeah oh yeah yeah no no I had handed it
to Priscilla the superfan I know the
whole point of that was I wouldn't
wasn't gonna have to worry about it
so definitely yeah yeah this was
Priscilla put this together and I
entrusted her so I just had put it
together let's let's see what you do and
and I was very pleased with results so
yes for me and good for me ii wrote to
you know not try and control absolutely
everything you know yes I'm sure it's a
healthy healthy delegation and probably
the most valuable tree to learn
something that I also struggled with
being they were both kind of
perfectionistic and very protective of
our babies let's see are we ever going
to see a published account of the short
fiction like the Christmas short and the
micro fiction you will get the Christmas
short it's gonna I mean it's going to be
included at the end of battleground
because you're gonna need a cup of hot
chocolate and let's see and let's see at
the micro fiction I don't know I guess
we my a my my cue something with it
sometime I mean I'm mostly just wrote it
just to write it and give it to you guys
on the website yeah the Challenger is
that because they're so short it's gonna
hard to see me hard to sort of accrue
enough to justify a publication I don't
remember if I wound up doing another
anthology then yeah that'll that'll
probably happen they'll probably get
thrown in there yeah yeah at the moment
we have about like 1/10 of the length of
briefcases or side jobs in terms of like
supplemental or like short story
material that hasn't that wasn't
included in either of those anthologies
so it'll be a while before we get to a
third one if that
that's happening but in the meantime
like although my convictions are
available for free on Jim's website so
yeah you can enjoy those oh yeah that's
the thing that's happening for anyone
that is not aware we're 2020 is the year
of Dresden this is the 20th anniversary
of actually right April is the 20th
anniversary of the publication of storm
front so every Tuesday this year we're
doing posts with new fun material micro
fictions new art contests giveaways yeah
I was suggested to do all this on April
1st and just let people be sure it
wasn't it was it was a fake because of
our April Fool's prank I really didn't
want to do that everybody but no Jim no
no no the third question which
characters were the hardest the easiest
to cast I'd probably say that the
hardest were at Harry Thomas and Lara
because he had to find three actors that
like not only like look like the
characters could act the parts
brilliantly but then also like looked
like they could be related to each other
yeah good to find a Harry that could be
related to Thomas who could be related
to Lara and so that was very difficult
then easiest oddly enough I'm the
actress that we ended up choosing for
Molly
like she must be the only actress in
Hollywood whose headshots make her look
older than she actually is like usually
like you just have to imagine that like
whatever headshot you're looking at like
imagine the person five years older and
that's what they actually look like
right for some reason she was the other
way around and like she looked so much
like Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica
who is like my mental headcanon for
Murphy and I'm like like ooh like if we
end up choosing a younger Dresden then
we would have to have a younger Murphy
to sort of go along with yeah that was
another challenge like finding
age-appropriate Harry's and Murphy is
that kind of that looked like they're in
there like that like late 30s early 40s
yeah like that the correct age is
relative to me but yes so I actually
ended up calling her fur Murphy
originally and she actually emailed me
saying like like you know that like this
isn't this isn't the age range for me
like like are you sure like that this is
the part you want to call before and
like yes just just please come here
here's the reason why she came and then
like as she was delivering Murphy's
lines I'm like oh she's Molly you're
mine so I actually like had I gave her a
copy of the Molly audition sides and had
her just like go out in the hall hallway
for 15 minutes and she came back and
then just completely crushed her old
mouse though and I'm so sad that we
ended up not being able to use very much
of her because she's just a phenomenal
actress catallena otter and yeah like I
I wonder if like if our sag agreement
will allow me to share some of the
audition material because I with the
actors permission because like I want
the fandom to see how great she is
oh okay here's here's the question so we
were able to meet James Marsters and had
our copy of storm front sign we asked if
he could play any on anyone who would it
be
he says butters how do you guys feel
about that
you
you
I would pick someone different yeah
probably because like marketers were
just so completely rock as like
Nicodemus or Marco yeah I would want
someone that that sort of is a little
closer to the physical description or
Richard at a yachty whoever's whoever's
available no no what do mean whoever's
available Weird Al Yankovic is available
excellent excellent I see let's see one
person asks what were the biggest
changes between the scripting and the
final edit actually like because we had
to sort of cram so much in such a short
amount of time and like one of the
locations was was slightly rained out we
ended up having to cut this like an
additional scene with Lara I won't go
into any of the details because it
didn't get into the trailer so in my
mind it now is categorized as spoiler
but but yeah there's a lot of really
great olara stuff that you can look
forward to and wouldn't get the book
that unfortunately wasn't able to make
it into the trailer but my editor
Stefanie Piotrowski actually she works
as a trailer editor for AMC like the
television network and and oh she was
another of the fans that I that was able
to join the crew based on the posting I
did on Jim's website and she has just
been absolutely incredible to work but
just because she knows the series
backwards and forwards and the ideas
that she presents have just been so
incredibly invaluable ok let's see what
else we got here
questions like what is Kincaid doing
where were each of these or what is
Molly doing when she's pointing we're
not gonna tell you that that's what we
have a trailer make you ask those
questions
as soon as it's available you know let's
see where did you fill me everything was
filmed in LA um the the the castle stuff
is Lobo castle just kind of north Malibu
and yeah this is this beautiful home
that sort of has this kind of Castle E
style facade and yeah it was just such a
treat to film there yeah then like
Murphy's home actually both Murphy's
home and Thomas's apartment are and and
Harry's apartment all my or all my house
then let's see what else do we have
going on the scene where Harry and Mark
own or changing as well as all the the
sort of Thomas's cell those were
actually filmed at my old job site as eh
productions they very generously let me
film there and I don't think they had
any idea like what scale we were going
but but yeah they were they're all like
in the film scene and so they're they're
super jazzed about what we were what we
were doing with their space and they're
so excited to see how just like with
lighting we completely transformed these
spaces that they like walk past every
day so that was really fun yeah let's
see how they deeply was we're feeding on
Dresden in the trailer but I don't know
I didn't film it asked for so I think
very fed upon yeah let's see
so does Peace Talks end with a big
cliffhanger I tried not to make it like
the worst
I tried to set it up to where it was
like you know it's obvious you're not
going to see all of this play out right
now and to wrap up the story you know
the big stories that were one that get
started for this book that we're
wondering about like this stuff like you
see at the beginning a chapter one stuff
like that I try and you know I tried to
find whatever resolution I could for all
the short-term stuff but you know it's
easy to it's easy to wrap things up real
neatly when there's a happy ending when
there's not one it's not so it's not so
easy oh did I give away anything there I
might have or have I okay let's see what
fashion does Ivana belong to about as a
smart house oh yeah she mostly appeared
to Iranian bombshells
yeah she was just appearing in short
stories with where the Sparra dogs got
involved earlier but but yeah she's not
like anybody new she's been there before
here's a good paranoid question in cold
days during the mine battle between
Harry and shark face near a demon reach
Ark they says the following I am big
breaker Harbinger I am fear giver hopes
lair I am he walks before the commas
between gay brick breaker and Harbinger
between fear giver and helps layer maybe
wonder knowing how evil you are is
sharks poisoning in himself in all five
of those instances or is he naming
Dresden in the first half of the second
- int ie is he calling Dresden Harbinger
and hope Slayer
III don't know I just write these books
man I that's all I do I just kind of
write down what goes through my head -
comma in the middle of a phrase that
changed the meaning did you intend this
well I mean did it change the meaning it
all sort of depends on how it's being
delivered doesn't it I don't know we
should listen to that we should listen
to the audio see what James thinks
there's a guy he really doesn't changes
the story occasionally based upon the
inflections and and a an emphasis that
he puts on his words and and the way he
delivers the line DK
only changes things a couple of times he
just broken my heart doing that it's
like change your evil that's amazing
that so is that spider-man scene part of
the books are just a joke no no we
didn't put any jokes in the trailer let
me put a couple jokes in the trailer but
not but not like like like false April
Fool's stuff we can put that in the
trailer if there's a second trailer is
there any chance general cameo anything
on the character I think you could pull
off the elder grass and he started the
character you would want to you would
play what do you think critique asked me
ask for so on who I mean I know who I
got cast as I got cast as Jay random
corpse but that's okay I'm there she
just probably won't be able to see me
yes yeah I think if you're gonna catch
me as somebody in the trailer who would
you catch me um captain girl oh okay I'm
too old for Grimm he's looking at 30s
it's two hours oh my gosh people in
Hollywood they actually say that when
you talked about casting and you
mentioned someone for casting and they
got that two out sounds exactly like
that
it doesn't shock me two out against this
50 year old man this 35 year old woman
it no too old
okay I'm not huge oh yes yes exactly
let's see is there a good deal with book
dedicated Ares kids
perhaps eats ask kids or does peace
talks take place over very short deal of
time like most of the Dresden Files
novels peace talks is essentially you
know it's about Harry's worst weekend of
the year although in this case we're
doing a double weekend so it's like up
to that point his worst weekend of the
year but but I mean we're going to hit
on some stuff with with with what
Harry's family life is like as we're
going but these aren't really family
drama book
so much as much as they are adventure
books that have occasionally at families
in them let's see what else we got here
you
so it's Mirror Mirror after battleground
now yeah probably so yeah I've actually
I've found that I can change the order
of some of the books of which way I drop
them into the series and if I'm if I'm
if I'm careful about it it's not really
a big deal like that's what happened
with proven guilty and deadbeat
originally improving guilty was going to
be book 7 and deadbeat was going to be
book 8 but my editor came in and said no
that's a little - that's a little more
family drama let's listen we need
something we something bigger you know
for a four year premiere for our back so
so I said okay well let's let's have a
city level apocalypse right now so one
question for me from Jacob Womack he
asks what were some of the challenges
creating a live-action version of this
world especially considering how long
vividly living in your head part of it
was just like me
deciding like when I needed to let go of
certain things because I've kind of
established this reputation in the
fandom as being someone who is like like
continuity ninja expert and I knew that
like if I depicted to any detail the way
like a contrary to the way that it's
depicted in Canon people are gonna call
me out on it and like as if that were
some sort of gotcha like Oh like
Ebenezer is depicted as bald and you
have him having hair
well like no like that's that was the
best actor for the role and so anytime
that there was any situation where there
was like a deviation in terms of like
like this person looks a little bit more
like the character that Jemma's
describes but this actor just absolutely
nailed it and there's so much better for
the part I always went with a
performance and yeah and III think
that's always the the right way to go
like you're going with with performance
first I sort of like being that that
kind of guiding touchdown because
everyone imagines the characters looking
differently and if I picked people that
looked exactly like my versions of the
characters in my head there's no
guarantee that that they would match the
descriptions and someone else's head so
so yeah like kind of like
letting go that sort of like knowing
where like which battles I needed to
pick and then also just like there were
some situations where like yeah I like
learning when artistic license was the
best direction to go like I think that
in in the scene like at the at the peace
summit you described Lara is wearing
like a black or a navy blue dress and
because so many of the iconic costumes
that we've seen Lara wearing have been
white
I wanted the for the additional visual
recognition factor like it was important
to me that I depict her in a white dress
and so I went that direction and I'm
pleased with that choice so yeah and
also it makes me laugh because this is
gonna be like a really really in moods
but like I originally sort of picked
outfits for like hearing and Murphy so
that they would look sort of like
they're in sync with each other and like
like they're kind of this team like
sitting on there on the couch but like
once we put that that sort of blue green
top under the the theatrical lighting it
just completely turned gray so like
suddenly Harry and Murphy looks like
completely out of sync there and then he
looked like he was in sync with Lara and
Marcone with like wearing the white
shirts like no oh what am I done
so that was unintentional but ended up
being hilarious my brain is in a really
fun place today guys I'm so so happy
that you guys are responding so
positively to everything I mean you're
so excited yeah just posting on that
this this cloud and you have a question
next Jim earlier in this live feed Jim
said a good story should break your
heart sometimes that's why we care about
them can I clip this can you I mean I
said it and this is this is definitely
going up on you on YouTube so
everybody's gonna be able to see it you
might as well if you wanna I mean I'll
stand by that yeah I mean it's a good
story yeah it's got to do that to you
sometimes or or you're not you're not it
sitting on the full range of human
experience you know Priscilla will we
ever get out takes from the trailer
absolutely yes okay please so oh yes
yeah I'm not sure when that's gonna
happen like when in the are various
dressing drop schedule that's going to
be it might end up actually kind of
being later in the year but but yeah we
do have some yeah let's see can we
expect a curve at nineteen inspired
event in future Dresden adventures
probably not in future Dresden
adventures although there's going to be
a plague story because there's always a
plague story whenever you got a long run
that story almost be Stern here always
but I think I am I may well be writing
up a a a essentially my an au stanza of
The Dresden Files that I'll just write
myself and give to you guys and we'll
see and we'll set that in a parallel
Dresden universe that that's that starts
at the same place right after skin game
and we'll see see what we can do
something with that maybe I can get some
of that written over the next over the
next several weeks just so people have
something to think about other than ugly
stuff because that's a good thing now is
the time when entertainers this is the
the time in life where entertainers it's
time for us to go to war so we're gonna
I think you're going to see a lot of us
new and everything we can to to provide
stuff to our readers and our fans and
our viewers because there's there's a
lot of folks have just like me on this
even you want to help I can't make
anybody better but maybe I can make you
not afraid for a little while while
you're reading my stuff if you get
you're worried about it that's worth
doing I'll do that
can we do more of these q and A's
possibly this would be is it would seem
like this would be a great summer for it
right maybe I can round up some people
and you know maybe I can I can call up
Sanderson drop this and guys like that
hey let's do a panel and just just talk
to people online
I bet to get behind that quick show of
hands on the chat that is that a good
idea yes okay let's come into that to
read a lot of exclamation points though
okay good that's a good idea
oh I can't make any promises because I
can only only speak for myself but I'll
see what I can do
all right what else we got uh see whoops
hang on my phone did weird things to me
didn't work for myself
here's a good question what was the most
challenging part of part of splitting
the manuscript did you have to kill any
darlings to do it and were you able to
and I didn't get the rest of the
question just did were you able to was
able to kill my darlings um oh um the
the general gist of what was gonna what
I was gonna write next was like were
there any really cool things that you
were able to add as a results like like
sort of balance the the things that you
were very disappointed to have to cut
like what were things that you were
really excited that you got to add
because you had so much more sort of
space to work in mmm it's not really a
question that applies I mean this is my
work and I've been doing this for a long
time so I don't I don't really get too
particularly excited except when I'm
writing like like like big stuff that
I've been planning to write for a long
time most of the stuff for instance
there's part there's part of it where
he's he's fighting a bunch of corner
hounds and and the corner hounds hit him
with with an ability with with you know
one of their cool special special
attacks and their cool special attack
wiped out his short-term memory in the
first draft and the experience of having
your short-term memory not work properly
is a very disorienting one because
you're essentially you're following
along about 11 seconds behind what's
actually happening in the world around
you cuz that's how long it takes for
memories get transferred from from
short-term memory to long-term memory
but I I wrote this scene it was very
intensive and very very viewpoint
intensive and kind of confusing because
because of I was trying to write it from
the viewpoint of the person experiencing
that and it just it was just
unintelligible so I wanted that
possibility to delete that part and not
kind of write it that way and that was
the that was one of the things that got
changed on the on the trailer was
because I deleted this whole different
changing the trailer it was a cool
effect so that's that's cool
my defense there was like in tech scenes
that were in like the Iron Man two or
three trailer that we're not actually in
the movie and then in like rogue one
from the trailer actually ends up in the
movie so it says they were born in Rome
one as far as killing darlings though
now that's not really I mean it's not
really a question because I don't have
any darlings I just kill things when
they need killing that's that's part of
being a professional writer so I'm not
really sure how to answer the question I
did have to change a bunch of things
around mostly though by breaking it into
two books and giving myself a little
more time on each of them and a little
more space on each of them to be able to
handle all the plots I was essentially
just able to hurt everyone a lot more
which you know that's good writing is
when people are suffering but yeah that
was what I was that's what I was doing
to it when I really would when we did it
I didn't really have to I don't know
that I killed anything but they torture
them quite a bit more than I would not I
remember doing a compare documents from
like the first version in the last just
so I could see like exactly what God
changed they're like you monster why
Thomas why well it's promise come on yes
he means well cam to 702 to a paramedic
and ER attack in Chicago so are
seemingly extremely powerful how come
they seem to have been minor power
before the fall of the red Court um
because they would be because they were
living in a place where they had no
competition before martyrs they hang out
under the ocean nobody else is there
they can do anything they want they have
no need to exercise our elsewhere
because they're you know they're happy
at home that is starting to change now
with it with it with it without a text
of the story but yeah I mean there
the foam or I've got a lot going over it
means when you don't have to when you're
the only ones who don't have to hide
from the human that gives you this huge
amor
let's see David whose deliver include
two people what was the uncie li
incursion of 1994 and what happened in
milwaukee during that time i wonder like
that up still i'm sure it hasn't been
written yet and i want to i want to make
it happen i can probably go there with
like a bunch of people who are dead and
have them doing stuff and i'd be fun so
just set you know before this the series
starts let's see is the snowflake pen
that harry's it where is similar to the
silver leaf pen harry received from
summer why yes they are almost part of a
map said if you were pitching if you put
them down together let's see will we get
more colors in both books the dynamic
between him and herring or some of my
favorite moments oh dear yeah yeah
you're giving once you asked for be
careful what you ask for Doc Morris
let's see
using the trailer so you know he appears
at least is there any chance of a
necklace okay is there any talk chance
of a Netflix series for Dresden Files
similar to what they did with The
Witcher probably not Netflix
let's see how many writing all-nighters
did you fall as you push to make he
stocks battleground into to complete
novels there were a great many there
were I think 14 or 15 16-hour days in a
row and then and then I got sick and
crashed for crash for a while and they
did some more 16-hour days after that
and I think in the future I'll I'll make
sure to get more sleep and maybe do 12
hour days and spend some time being sane
and that way I keep the pace up longer
when I mean - we like same gym same gym
to be around more often yeah I think Jim
is a friendlier person let's see what
else we got here
oh you guys keep adding more here in the
chat the release falling on Bastille Day
that was as soon as I could get it done
it was also the publishers decision yeah
I really wanted this thing out I really
wanted this thing to come out April 1st
but about the publisher you know there's
there's too many of you guys so the
publishers got to make too many copies
so they have to you know I'm one of the
heavyweights now so they have to put me
in a heavyweight slot there's only so
many of those every month only so many
printing presses that they could have
access to something like that I don't
know what it is one take away from
making this trailer that will allow
future trailers to kick even more ass I
think that like I had because we were
trying to pack so much into so little
time I wanted to have this like very
exact exacting and type-a like shot list
that like there was very lean in terms
of like only the shots that we
absolutely needed and I think that I
would have been better served like
somehow reducing like the the the number
of places we went like like making the
the whole script a little bit saner so
that we could like get a little bit more
coverage for things that like I didn't
think that I would necessarily need but
would probably be a good idea to have in
the editor
like I never got a shot of like people
arriving at the peace talks and like
because of the way that our filming
night ended up shaking out because of
the rain delays and stuff we weren't
able to get like a real entrance for
Lara and so we ended up having to sort
of like cobble something together that
that felt a little bit more like
emotional than literal and like rather
than sort of like that that long shot of
Harry on the balcony like it would have
been really cool that like have people
arriving or sort of show that this is
something that like was involving a lot
of people and would help kind of sell
the idea that that Harry is kind of
surrounded and and sort of being
compressed into this more tense space so
so yeah like making more time for shots
that would give more creative options in
it in the editing room I think would
have been very wise and also um like I I
worked with this an incredible artist
from DreamWorks Megan Lloyd to create
this all of our storyboards and actually
you can see a lot of her storyboards
there they were posted in a dresden drop
a few weeks ago so you can check out her
amazing art and but we didn't actually
like take the time to like put the
storyboards to music and make an
animatic and like in my mind as I was
sort of like reading the script to
myself it's like we had more than enough
time it was plenty but then like once we
actually cut everything together like it
was a lot more kind of hairy than then
we would have really wanted and so I
think that like if we'd actually taken
the extra time to sort of create that
full-on animatic so we knew exactly like
how long each shot needed to last I
think that we would have like realized
they're like hey like we don't have
enough time for all this material like
we need to sort of reduce things
somewhat so so and the answer is more
preparation this is the person who spent
ten months working on this trailer more
prep yes
hmm more prep okay for me I just want to
say I just I mean if we do well then the
I want to be able to spend the money for
actual stunts good yeah you know that
was one of the biggest challenges that
we had to face like based on our budget
like we could either like work with sag
actors to have like that that sort of
like kind of top tier of talent and then
just like the sheer talent pool or but
like with the the tier no one cares
about this I should not talk about this
anymore
yeah basically like long story short
like we get a choice of like do we want
the higher tier actors or do we want to
be able to do stunts and so we ended up
actually casting mostly not here
oh here's the one if I be attending
alone yes okay that's a rare answer
where I just give you a straight one
Priscilla do you search pressure from
the fan base as you created the trailer
or did you feel more like you were
getting to be a fan along with us and
helping expand the universe uh-huh
all of the above I did feel a whole lot
of pressure and not like pressure from
the fan base but just like kind of
pressure in my own mind kind of like
seeing how people had reacted to
previous fan endeavors and and just like
fans can be very harsh critics and in
some cases I feel like undeservedly
harsh like once I see like all the work
that my that my friends put into like
that the skin game trailer and like
night light and red Sun and those
projects and just I mean like like all
the passion and all the love that went
into those trailers and then just to see
people like me most reward a very
complimentary but there were just those
kind of bad apples they just wanted to
tear everything apart and was like what
is wrong with you people
and somebody's like that yeah and so in
my mind I was sort of constantly making
like weighing the choices like okay like
here are the two like based on these two
choices that I could make like fans
would say this about this choice and
fans would would say this about this
choice like like in terms of criticism
which criticism do I want to receive and
so yeah with some folks there's just
there's no winning so you just do what
you think is you have the most artistic
value and and go on to the next project
yeah but it was also really fun like
getting like really really into the
weeds and doing details that I knew that
that like only like that like frame by
frame watching obsessed people are we
gonna pick up on like like I
deliberately shot in Marcone so like we
would see his left side so that like I
could put like like CG
like a tiny little scar on his ear like
whatever plastic surgeon had to reattach
it after he was kidnapped by the
Denarius the shots in the Last Supper
scene I hear too much in shadow in the
locker room scene yeah alright guys well
that's that's been about an hour of our
time so whole wrap this up now if you
get the folks who are watching this I
mean if you could do me a favor and just
share this on social media
we're supposed to be having this big
premiere at Emerald City and all the
press would have been all over and all
the but we're gonna have to do it we're
gonna have to go go viral this way but
you know I took everybody sitting home
watching videos they might want to hear
about stuff like this so if you know
anybody who's a fan and who might be
worried you know let them know they're
gonna have a couple of books this year
maybe they'll give me something else to
think about alright guys thank you very
much - - Priscilla Spencer director of
the trailer - Alexei Vandenberg our
spider behind the scenes making sure
things go well and thank you very much
guys thank spring time this morning and
I hope you enjoyed the talk
see around are we clear
we're let me stop recording stop
recording and we're not clear yet let's
see
