Social Media and Behind the Scenes: AKA Everything Else Not "News and Media"

[quarks]

I'm not even sure that it's a good promo for the CW.  It's just shots of good looking people looking intense, Reign's usual what the hell are you doing, oh costuming department, and everyone on Jane the Virgin looking as if they belong on another network, along with repetitions of "TV NOW! TV NOW!"  

 

Also, count me as baffled that the promo spends more time on Supernatural than The Flash. I know Supernatural is their workhorse and the little show that could, but Flash is the major network hit right now.

[Morrigan2575]

I'm always happy when SPN gets some love but I was rather shocked that there was only that itty bitty Flash clip.

[wonderwall]

Stephen posted that he won't be able to make it to MegaCon like he expected because he's going to be shooting the finale episode during that time. I wonder if the others like KC and DR are going to drop out from that as well? 

[jay741982]

There are actually morons on Facebook who actually think Oliver is dead and will be replaced by ATOM SMDH. One moron said they think BR is replacing SA

[wonderwall]

There are actually morons on Facebook who actually think Oliver is dead and will be replaced by ATOM SMDH. One moron said they think BR is replacing SA

Well, I wouldn't call them morons... More, uninformed? :p I'm sure there will be few people who believe Oliver is actually dead, dead and not coming back. Nothing wrong with that, it'll make their viewing experience better when he actually returns. I sort of envy their naivety

[jay741982]

LOL ill call them uniformed but it's silly to think that a show named ARROW would truly kill off Oliver Queen.

[statsgirl]

The international affiliates don't air the episodes yet, do they?  If they air them at the same time as in the US, the only feedback is from people at the station and I doubt they send it to the CW.

 

The EPs seem to rather like boxing themselves in (e.g. killing Sara blue dead rather than just having her kidnapped) so probably the finale episodes are already set and unlikely to be changed no matter what the feedback on the January/February episodes. More likely whether of not Ray Palmer/Atom gets picked up for a spin-off is going to affect the course of the show more.

[Velocity23]

Doesnt NEw Zealand air the episode 1 day after it airs on CW.

[quarks]

If they air them at the same time as in the US, the only feedback is from people at the station and I doubt they send it to the CW.

 

 

I'm not sure about international networks, but U.S. affiliate stations have been known to send feedback before episodes air. The episodes have also been sent to various people at the networks and to corporate sponsors, and quite possibly to various focus groups. Some of these people have a vested financial interest in the show's success, so may very well have said something; the showrunners have said that CW and WB executives do send comments. And it's possible that they asked for copies of any TV reviews before those shows go live. 

 

This doesn't mean, of course, that any of the plans for the finale will change. Based on the Megacon announcement about Stephen Amell, I'd say it's a very safe bet that at least one location shoot is blocked out/locked down for the finale (otherwise the show could probably schedule filming around Amell's Megacon appearance). So that, at least, is unlikely to change.

 

It just means that the plans for the rest of the episode could change. That announcement also told us that the finale will be filmed around April 10-12, which means that the script will not be finalized/sent to the director until the beginning of March. And again, they'll have fan feedback from the Oliver-less episodes (at least the initial few) by then.  Which allows them to change everything not locked in for location shooting - and possibly even parts of that location shooting; for instance, they can decide up until mid-March or even late March/early April whether or not Ray needs to be in the final confrontation scene or not.  And if need be, they can do a last minute pick-up/reshoot of a scene in their soundstages right up until the beginning of May (although I'd imagine they won't want to, given the expense). Or they can make alterations post filming by editing. And there's a remote possibility that they could follow the lead of other shows and film multiple endings and choose which one to air later, although given the way everyone involved with the show keeps complaining about the budget I highly doubt they'll do that.

 

And the important thing is, this isn't unusual for this show:  Arrow does this sort of thing, except the pick-up shots, all the time: they rewrite on set (usually for production reasons; this is sometimes what's happening when they tweet "writer on set") and they overshoot, especially if they know they're doing a particularly difficult stunt sequence/location shot.  This is also a show that, by its own admission, did not decide to kill Tommy off in the May finale until mid/late February, and last year, didn't decide what to do with Isabel, played by a major guest star, until January, and made a fairly significant change to its finale episode after the episode was filmed, about two weeks before it aired. So not unusual.

 

Speaking of budget, Arrow seems to be getting some sort of general "this is about what you'll be able to play with financially next season" in February (or at least, that apparently happened in the last two seasons), which not coincidentally seems to be about when they make some of their decisions about the following season. (It's not a hard and fast rule, since they were negotiating with Barrowman to return as a regular before that.)  Given the way budgets control a lot of this show, right down to "Yeah, we'll have Felicity in the QC offices so we can keep that set, and also we'll have Ray Palmer give a speech there so we can keep that set, and we'll have the Felicity/Ray kiss there for..." (I think you see where I'm going with this), my guess is that whatever they hear from the network in February will also have some impact on the finale, assuming they do hear anything. 

[Danny Franks]

From io9's preview of fantasy and scifi TV in 2015:

 

Arrow

 

Oliver Queen has suffered a wee setback in his quest to save Starling City. But don't worry — Laurel Lance is finally ready to step up and claim her sister's mantle as the Black Canary. Okay, maybe you should worry after all.

 

Where: CW

When: Jan. 21

 

 

Heh. It's not really a good sign for this Canary Trilogy when media outlets are taking potshots at Laurel already, is it?

[SmallScreenDiva]

I also find it interesting that out of 165 replies so far, nobody has reacted to that blurb or mentioned Laurel or the Canary. Apathy setting in? Or is it just too early in the day? ;)

Edited January 7, 2015 by SmallScreenDiva

[Velocity23]

Arrow will have a joint panel with the Flash at TCAs on Sunday. Stephen comfirmed he is going.

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/tca-press-tour-preview-hello-better-call-saul-goodbye-mad-men-parks-and-rec/

[Velocity23]

Also seems like Arrow & Flash are gonna have a joint panel at Paley Fest in March.

[manbearpig]

Quarks, out of curiosity, what change did the writes make to the finale after it had been filmed?

[Starfish35]

I wonder if that's referring to the Olicity kiss being cut.

[tv echo]

Also seems like Arrow & Flash are gonna have a joint panel at Paley Fest in March.

Here's some more info...

 

Paleyfest 2015 - First Four Panels Announced

Posted by Bradley Adams at Wednesday, January 07, 2015

http://www.spoilertv.com/2015/01/paleyfest-2015-first-four-panels.html

 

‘Scandal,’ ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘Arrow,’ ‘The Flash’ Among 2015 PaleyFest Participants

JANUARY 7, 2015 | 12:22PM PT  Kevin Noonan

http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/scandal-the-good-wife-arrow-the-flash-among-2015-paleyfest-participants-1201394937/

Edited January 7, 2015 by tv echo

[statsgirl]

The finale this season must be really something if SA already knows he won't be able to make Megacon. I wonder if it's the location that has to be booked so far in advance, or if they're giving themselves that time to shoot it.

It just means that the plans for the rest of the episode could change. That announcement also told us that the finale will be filmed around April 10-12, which means that the script will not be finalized/sent to the director until the beginning of March. And again, they'll have fan feedback from the Oliver-less episodes (at least the initial few) by then.  Which allows them to change everything not locked in for location shooting - and possibly even parts of that location shooting; for instance, they can decide up until mid-March or even late March/early April whether or not Ray needs to be in the final confrontation scene or not.  And if need be, they can do a last minute pick-up/reshoot of a scene in their soundstages right up until the beginning of May (although I'd imagine they won't want to, given the expense). Or they can make alterations post filming by editing. And there's a remote possibility that they could follow the lead of other shows and film multiple endings and choose which one to air later, although given the way everyone involved with the show keeps complaining about the budget I highly doubt they'll do that.

Do shows make substantial changes in editing?  The tweaking that they did in s2 by cutting the kiss seems to me to be more in the nature of making the planned scene stronger rather than changing the story.

 

But you're right, they do have the room to make changes after the feedback from the January and February episodes.

 

 

This is also a show that, by its own admission, did not decide to kill Tommy off in the May finale until mid/late February, and last year, didn't decide what to do with Isabel, played by a major guest star, until January, and made a fairly significant change to its finale episode after the episode was filmed, about two weeks before it aired. So not unusual.

Did not make the decision until then, or didn't tell Colin Donnell until then?  I can't quite remember. If it's the former, that's very interesting and quite bold of them because they've had to do quite a bit of re-writing for it.

[Angel12d]

I know this doesn't really mean anything, at least I hope it doesn't, but where's Felicity in this picture? 

 

https://twitter.com/CW_Arrow/status/552923209712955392

 

Laurel as BC is very clearly the only female there and I find that strange considering Felicity has been more of a hero these last two seasons than Laurel ever has (so far). I understand they need to promote this BC arc but let's not forget the others who are important too. Also, where's Thea? There's just a shocking lack of women there. I'm not saying it means anything but I see things like this and it doesn't exactly make me excited for what's coming (combined with what we know about). 

[Danny Franks]

I know this doesn't really mean anything, at least I hope it doesn't, but where's Felicity in this picture? 

 

https://twitter.com/CW_Arrow/status/552923209712955392

 

Laurel as BC is very clearly the only female there and I find that strange considering Felicity has been more of a hero these last two seasons than Laurel ever has (so far). I understand they need to promote this BC arc but let's not forget the others who are important too. Also, where's Thea? There's just a shocking lack of women there. I'm not saying it means anything but I see things like this and it doesn't exactly make me excited for what's coming (combined with what we know about). 

 

And about half the questions so far seem to be about Felicity, in some form. It's almost funny, in a way. Why do they need women on the poster, though? None of those guys are dating anyone, so women are inconsequential.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Danny Franks

[statsgirl]

Why do they need women on the poster, though? None of those guys are dating anyone, so women are inconsequential.

Gibbs slap;

 

They should have Lyla there too. She and Felicity have done a lot more hero stuff than Ray or Laurel.

[Angel12d]

And about half the questions so far seem to be about Felicity, in some form. It's almost funny, in a way. Why do they need women on the poster, though? None of those guys are dating anyone, so women are inconsequential.

 

Damn right people should be asking about Felicity. It's like saying the only people who are important are the ones who wear a costume and put on a mask. WRONG. They're lucky Diggle is in the picture though, otherwise I'd really start to wonder if something strange was going on. As it stands I think this is just a dumb oversight by someone in the promo department, although that seems to be non-existent for the CW tbh.

 

 

Gibbs slap;

 

They should have Lyla there too. She and Felicity have done a lot more hero stuff than Ray or Laurel.

 

 

WORD. 

Edited January 7, 2015 by Angel12d

[tv echo]

That's because Felicity isn't considered a "hero" because she's not in costume and/or out in the field fighting.  She's computer support.  (sarcasm)

 

I swear, every time some fan insists that Laurel has to be the Black Canary because of comics, I just want to respond that the Black Canary has to be a martial artist and one of the greatest fighters in the DC universe because of comics - but Laurel has yet to take one martial arts lesson.

Edited January 7, 2015 by tv echo

[Velocity23]

 

David posted this on his instagram

[calliope1975]

That pic is so woefully misguided and easily fixed. They could have done quad pics on either side of Oliver adding Felicity to the hero side and maybe Thea to the villain thus raising the debate if she'll be one. Of course, they already took her agency away so I'm not surprised they left her off the pic. But, yeah, the lack of ladies is lame and I'm glad they're getting called on it a bit. The Flash pic they posted on Facebook for their question submission also only has dudes on it. WTF, CW?

[jay741982]

It's stupid that Felicity isn't on that picture she's more popular than almost everyone on that Pic

[Sakura12]

I actually think they don't include Felicity on purpose. Because they know everyone will be talking, tweeting and posting everywhere about how Felicity is not there giving them all the publicity they need to get the show noticed.

[DrSpaceman10]

I actually think they don't include Felicity on purpose. Because they know everyone will be talking, tweeting and posting everywhere about how Felicity is not there giving them all the publicity they need to get the show noticed.

 

I don't think The CW's that smart.

[Morrigan2575]

Did not make the decision until then, or didn't tell Colin Donnell until then? I can't quite remember. If it's the former, that's very interesting and quite bold of them because they've had to do quite a bit of re-writing for it.

According to the EPs they started talking about killing Tommy when they were writing 16 and came to the final decision to go for it when they were writing 18 and they told Colin when they made the decision which ended up being end of February.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Morrigan2575

[apinknightmare]

I actually think they don't include Felicity on purpose. Because they know everyone will be talking, tweeting and posting everywhere about how Felicity is not there giving them all the publicity they need to get the show noticed.

How would that give them publicity? You'd have to look at their @replies or on their Facebook page to even see people getting upset about it. The people who are going to see it are people who would've looked anyway.

[quarks]

Manbearpig, it was the Oliver/Felicity kiss. They also cut bits of the tunnel scene, and the early scene where Oliver remembers a different version of what happened with his mother - that scene ended up on the DVD. 

 

Statsgirl, I don't know how often it's done, but shows have made substantial changes post filming, sometimes because of network response, or because of a production error found post-filming.  Or, with sitcoms, because certain gags end up not working. 

 

With Arrow, the showrunners did not make the decision to kill off Tommy until mid/late February; the actor wasn't told until early March. Edit: I see Morrigan2575 is saying late February is when Colin was told.  Sometime then.

Edited January 7, 2015 by quarks

[Morrigan2575]

MG was also re-writing the beach scene in 223 while they were filming.

IIRC the kiss was a very late edit, I believe it was included in the copy that was sent to SA to view.

[dtissagirl]

You can do A LOT of changes in editing. I once worked on a movie that changed narrative POV entirely in editing. Script was written focusing on one character's POV, and filming went through following script, but the third billed actor blew the director's mind with his performance, so in post they decided to tell the story from this guy's POV. There was no budget for reshooting anything, so what they did was go into the recording studio to loop a few lines of dialog, and they added a voiceover for the new guy. You'd think the movie was written for that guy, it worked out so well.

Arrow probably has no money for reshoots either, but clever editing and dialog looping is easy and cheap. Most external scenes need looping anyway [mics capture all sorts of unwanted sounds], so the recording studio is budgeted and available.

[statsgirl]

I agree, you can do a lot in editing.  (I once worked for an ad agency who was hired by a fairly unpopular candidate to do streeter interviews for a commercial and they were a masterwork of editing.) And taking out gags that aren't working in sitcoms.  (I went to the taping of the Air Farce New Year's Special and when they showed it, they left out a couple of really good skits IMO.)

 

I was wondering if the Arrow EPs ever changed direction late in the season (i.e. in February) after viewer response, specifically

this year after the Oliver-less episodes.

 

Following Morrigan's timeline, they would have started talking about killing Tommy before Christmas, since they would have been shooting 1x14 then and writing 16. I wish I knew what MG was writing on the beach when they were shooting the finale, it could have been substantive in setting up season 3 or it could have been more minor, such as Oliver's reaction to Felicity's prodding.  The edit in the hallway scene cutting the kiss seems only a minor change to tighten the scene rather than something that changed the storyline.

[wonderwall]

I don't really care that Felicity wasn't in that picture because most of the people are asking about her anyways :p If their plan was to make people talk about other aspects of the show, well it backfired. 

[Starfish35]

So are Katie Cassidy and Dana Brunetti officially dating now? I'd seen some rumors, but I just noticed that tweet from him that she retweeted.

[Velocity23]

She drag him to the Arrow Christmas party so i would say pretty much yes.

[Starfish35]

Haha ok. :)

[Velocity23]

The thing i find funny he keeps circling around women with the initials KC.

[chaos is welcome]

From io9's preview of fantasy and scifi TV in 2015:

 

 

Heh. It's not really a good sign for this Canary Trilogy when media outlets are taking potshots at Laurel already, is it?

Bahahaha. This post is everything.

The tweet angel12d posted...everyone has crazy eyes. I just can't with this show right now...sometimes I think these show runners really don't know their fan base. At all.

[foreverevolving]

Here's some more info...

 

Paleyfest 2015 - First Four Panels Announced

Posted by Bradley Adams at Wednesday, January 07, 2015

http://www.spoilertv.com/2015/01/paleyfest-2015-first-four-panels.html

 

‘Scandal,’ ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘Arrow,’ ‘The Flash’ Among 2015 PaleyFest Participants

JANUARY 7, 2015 | 12:22PM PT  Kevin Noonanhttp://variety.com/2015/biz/news/scandal-the-good-wife-arrow-the-flash-among-2015-paleyfest-participants-1201394937/

I'm confused because i know Paley did an Arrow and Good Wife casts panel a couple of years ago, so.. why another one?

[foreverevolving]

The international affiliates don't air the episodes yet, do they? If they air them at the same time as in the US, the only feedback is from people at the station and I doubt they send it to the CW.

These days a great deal of international local channels will air a show within a day to a month after it has originally aired in the US, depending on the show popularity and if subtitles in the local language are added. For example in my home country Mad Men is usually airing within three days after the episode aired in the US, while for Arrow (at least for season 3 from i read not sure about past seasons) the channel started airing episodes about 3-4 weeks after the season premiered. Delay in airing can be done for many reason, in Arrow's case in my country it's probably because we don't celebrate Christmas so while the show is on hiatus here in the US they continue to air the episodes until they'll catch up,, but we do have other holidays as we get closer to the final episodes of the season which will get in the way of airing an episode straight away, although even than the channel will still air a shows episode, unless the holiday eve is on the night that show is aired in that case they'll air a special or a rerun, for the rest of the holiday week they'll continue with the regular schedule. we don't really do hiatus breaks back home.

Edited January 8, 2015 by foreverevolving

[Velocity23]

Seems Amell, Cassidy, Barrowman, Ramsey, Haynes & Routh are confirmed for TCAs. Makes me sad we dont hear anything about Willa & Emily

Edited January 8, 2015 by Velocity23

[looptab]

So, Stephen Amell posted this on his facebook page:

 

Very excited about some excellent additions and achievements amongst the Arrow Family.

What could this be about? 

[chaos is welcome]

^ my only hope is Dig/Lyla tying the knot, but probably means they have added additional characters to further undermine the ones we love.Sigh. 

[Morrigan2575]

I'm thinking Mark Pedowitz will officially announce plans for an ATOM spinoff after S4 of Arrow. If nothing else I think BR just got promoted to serious regular.

[tv echo]

If EBR isn't included at both the TCAs and PaleyFest, then it really would seem like Felicity is being pushed back in order to promote Laurel on the show.  I don't know if that would be the reason, but that certainly would be the impression.

 

And my cynical side is saying that the only reason Diggle was included in that twitter "heroes and villains" collage was either (1) so they don't get criticized for lack of diversity or (2) because Diggle is going to turn out to be a DC superhero.  Otherwise, it would probably be limited to characters with comic book monikers - Arsenal, Black Canary, (Green) Arrow, Atom, Ra's al Ghul, and The Dark Archer.

Edited January 8, 2015 by tv echo

[Velocity23]

i rather have them announce that Ray will be moving to Flash in season 2. Arrow could barely afford Barrowman as a regular. So unless someone gets demoted i dont see Brandon Rouths character become a series regular.

[Morrigan2575]

i rather have them announce that Ray will be moving to Flash in season 2. Arrow could barely afford Barrowman as a regular. So unless someone gets demoted i dont see Brandon Rouths character become a series regular.

I'm actually assuming Barrowman is gone next year, he doesn't really have longevity as a regular, IMO.  I figure they're just swapping out Routh for Barrowman but it's all speculation. 

[Velocity23]

i just cant stand those creepy eyes anymore. And he can be a mentor to Firestorm on the Flash.

[looptab]

Yes, I thought it could be a new regular..isn't this usually the time when they promote people? My guesses were BR or

Colin Donnell being reintegrated.