#zerbe does hawaii | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

neven-ebrez · 7 years

Text

Wayward cocktails with Jerry Wanek in Hawaii

Okay! So I was extremely lucky to get to sit down right beside production designer Jerry Wanek along with some other fans and talk to him for over an hour on Sunday night after Honolulu con wrapped. I recorded a bit of the audio of the meeting for notes so here’s some highlights from our group chat.

Jerry has an office upstairs where the studios are. There’s no doors. There’s nine people in the art department including the art director, set designer, and the graphic director. The whole process is extremely collaborative and the best idea usually wins! I brought up the fact that there’s always discussions of intent when analyzing the show and how its very hard to pin down because there are so many hands in the cookie jar! Jerry said a lot of it goes back to the boys, which provide the most focus in his opinion.

Jerry says he reads lots of scripts every day, some of which have stupid ideas (”This is so stupid I want to cry” his words, lol). He said after they get the first draft that they all submit their ideas, “What if we do this? What if we do that?” Jerry works very close with every director. He looks over the scripts and helps point out what is pretty much impossible (or otherwise VERY tough/expensive). He says he has a script right now that is 14 pages long at NIGHT, OUTSIDE, and RAINING. (FYI: this is a production/cost/logistics/timing nightmare for those who don’t know this). Jerry says they can’t even get this done on their 8 day schedule, that there’s simply not enough TIME. He says he had to call up Andrew Dabb and be like, “Uh... Andrew... you’re gonna have to cut some of this!”

Jerry spoke well of John Showalter and Phil Sgriccia, saying Phil’s history in editing helps him tremendously in directing (and I guess fixing problems like being given a script with 14 pages of night shoots, lol). He spoke of how Phil cares about the show’s mythology and legacy compared to some writers who do things that change the mythology. He said everyone was confused by Asmodeus in the fact that he could shapeshift. He didn’t like the fact that all the other Princes of Hell didn’t have that ability but apparently Asmodeus did.

I asked him if there’s ever been a set that he especially hated to tear down and he said “Yes and no.” He went on to talk about the lake house from 12x23 and 13x01. He looked for 2 weeks for a house for that shoot. He was out looking for a spot to shoot the angel blades from the AU and the guy that had that property mentioned another spit of land he had and then he and Jerry drove out there and then Jerry saw that it was perfect and so he immediately called up Bob and they decided to build the house as a complete set there instead of finding a house already built.

I told him it was amazing that they could build these things all so fast. He said that it’s taken a lot of years to acquire those skills. He’s been in the film business for 40 years. He spoke of the freedom he had on the Dark Angel set, that they told him “just take care of the sets” and that James Cameron and them had other things to worry about, so there was a lot of trust there. He said that since then he’s only had to get “okay’d” on maybe half a dozen sets. Basically, he has a lot of free reign on whether the location is a bunker, an abandoned warehouse, whatever. He spoke fondly of the distillery set from 10x21 and said it had been written as an abandoned warehouse. Coming up in 13x07 the script called for a concrete bunker in the desert, but Jerry designed a church instead. I suggested that “concrete bunker” was just script shorthand for “let Jerry do what he wants” and he said, “pretty much” lol.

@obsessionisaperfume then piped in about the wallpaper and how you could write a dissertation just on it. I mentioned the Hansel and Gretel wallpaper and Jerry said that one came from France. Dori said her favorite was the Siren wallpaper. I said my favorite was the red/green tartan codependency wallpaper because it was so striking. (Here is where @nicky36 and @ibelieveinthelittletreetopper arrived). Jerry said anytime Misha calls something a “masterpiece” is when he knows he hit a homerun. :’) He said set reveals are somewhat like an art opening and he loves all the reactions they get. He said that any time the reaction to a hotel set is low, that it’s “game on” and it’s time to raise the bar with the wild and wacky. I asked him what his favorite themed motel was and then immediately told him my favorite, which was the “Too Tired” motel and that it was a motel dedicated to me. He loved that one. He said it was two tires in the “too” and that the location of that motel was in one of the biggest tire manufacturers in the country, so the whole thing was a pun with a double meaning!

I thanked him for not giving into the motel 6 suggestion and he said he would have left the show, no doubt. Jerry loves Americana and time period stuff, classic stuff like the 50s and 60s, Route 66. I mentioned the Elysian Field motel from 5x19. He said that that was when the Olympics was in Vancouver and that he told the writers “whatever you do, DO NOT write an episode that is motel heavy right now” because all the motels were booked up. “So what do the writers do?” Jerry asked, “They, of course, made a whole episode in a motel.” I said, “No one listens to you?” He laughed and said, “No, they don’t!” He said that whole motel was built on a stage and that he was very pleased with it because of all the detail they could do. He then went a little in depth into intention so I’m going to simply transcribe the next bit:

“You can get as wacky as you want, but, if you just put something wacky in, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the script, and it doesn’t have any support- You know, if I put a screen in, then there’s going to be another complementing element in there, in color, in texture, in glass, whatever that makes it seem integral, that when someone built that motel room, that they had a plan. It wasn’t just like... ‘Oh I want a cool screen to shoot through, that’s not good enough! Because it just sticks out, I mean, this guy who was watching the show, he was friend of mine, and he did a headboard and he was a young person so he put bubble wrap over it and twinkle light behind it and I'm going like... ‘Well, well it’s different. You know, but it looks- It looks-’ (me: laughing, “I appreciate your input”) ‘Yeah. But it looks really stupid. It wasn’t on our show’. Which.. he showed me a picture of his show. And I went, ‘Oh yeah... Nice... nice... real nice.. yeah...’

Someone goes on to say that it infuriates them that someone would go on and say (about set design), “Oh, they just went and found whatever.” I then said that I would fight somebody. “You can hit them for me.” (cheers) I said one of my favorite things was the sunshine rag rugs that cropped up when Cas was back and “home” and I told him I recalled a story on Tumblr a few seasons back where someone said their mother/grandmother was commissioned by him to hand make those. I asked him if that was fake. Jerry thought for a second and said, “No. I don’t think so.” Jerry then switched topics to the beer on set. We all knew the story behind “the mom beer” and we told him that’s what we all called it. He said it’s based on a real beer in Wiscousin called Leinenkugel’s (I remember this but didn’t want to tell him in case others didn’t know). Jerry’s Winnipeg graphic artist wrote the story on the back of the beer label.

Someone mentioned the set design coffee table book and I told him I was upset that it existed and that I couldn’t buy it. Someone mentioned the Impala they were restoring and that they wanted some beer bottle labels for it. I asked the fan the name of their Impala (Angel) and said that I had one, too (Grace)! Jerry was surprised to hear that two of us in our small group had bought the car. He asked if I got mine from the guy in Kansas and I said that I got mine from a guy in Maryland. The other fan asked if it was possible for her to get some beer labels and Jerry said absolutely, that he’d be happy to do that. <3

Jess then said that she was glad to see he was doing well from his surgery from the last time she saw him at the Wayward Cocktails thing. Everyone agreed and was grateful he is doing good! He said he was out for 3 months (end of October, November and December). And that he really got upset about some of the diners in his absence. I said that we could tell he was gone right away. He said that he almost got out of his hospital bed, threw things at the tv over some of it. He said the guy that had took over in his absence was a really good friend of his, but that he couldn’t really replicate his style, nor did he include subtext from the script like he does.

Okay this is where my recorded audio ends so the rest is by my memory.

I asked Jerry about this piece of graffiti from my business Twitter earlier in the day. I asked about whether it was intentional and that some of us saw it as a shout out to those that read into the graffiti and set design. He said, “Everything is intentional.” :) In regards to graffiti especially, they have to do all their own graffiti and that if graffiti exists in the shot that is NOT THEIRS, then they have to remove it, otherwise they could get sued by the artist. Someone joked about how the front bunker location always gets graffiti’d IRL and how if they couldn’t clean it in time they could just write it into the script and have Dean complain that the door had been tagged. They have several of their own graffiti artists that they use when they want graffiti. Jerry praised the artist from 8x19. I brought up warding and whether or not Jared or Jensen had messed up a set by accident and if they had ever had to repaint it and reset and he admitted, “Yes” with a chuckle. He said that they try to do 95% of it so that the boys only had to spray like one line/curve so there is a low chance of them messing up. I asked how challenging 4x01 was with the warding on the barnyard and he said it was quite a challenge! He said he felt like he was seeing symbols in his sleep after that! He was very pleased with the end result tho!

When he talked about the S12 finale lake house to another fan he said they tore it down after the finale and then had to build it again for the S13 premiere! So that entire set was built twice!

I asked about who made Billie’s new scythe and Jerry said I was forgetting the most important thing! The library set! He said originally the set was supposed to be a little country cottage with lots of books but that he was like, “Nah.” and did the polished minimalism set instead. Everyone praised it and we all said we loved it very much and that we felt it had a similar style as Heaven so they coordinated in a way. It’s been one of his favorites of the season so far. He never answered the scythe question, lol. He said that overall that he’s been loving the new season very much and that the whole thing has felt very fresh. He brought up the new stunt coordinator and praised him. He said that the old guy was good but he had some very dated (old school) ideas and that the new guy was a real breath of fresh air. I told him that everyone could instantly tell that we had a new guy doing the fight scenes and that everyone was really impressed and that there was even a lot of symbolism in them.

Tula (Jerry’s dog) came by a few times and everyone petted Tula. Jerry said that Tula isn’t allowed on set very often because of regulations. He also has to screen Tula three months early for travel to Hawaii because of the strict pet regulations here (Hawai’i doesn’t have rabies for example).

I asked Jerry if he would be directing again anytime soon and he said probably not, due to something about crew being unable to direct because of some law or complaint or something. Everyone was sad because 9x14 was one of our favorite episodes. Jerry said that he still didn’t have *complete* freedom the way he wanted on that episode, that there were all these neat different shots he wanted to do but that he couldn’t for whatever reason. I said I love the door/screen transition there and he said he wished he could do more stuff like that.

We talked about Jensen directing and I asked him if Jensen asked for any advice and he said that Jensen didn’t, but that didn’t stop Jerry from talking to him and giving him some anyway! He praised Jensen’s directing and said that it was good to switch between directors with different backgrounds (acting, editing, set design) and that they all would bring something unique to the directing chair.

Jerry showed us the photos he later posted on Twitter from the church in the alternate world in 13x07. He said the script just read “concrete bunker” and he was basically like “fuck that” and built the church with the iron maiden instead.

I asked Jerry if things ever got left on set and ended up in the shot that weren’t strictly intended and he admitted that it didn’t happen often but it had happened before (the example I used was crew cell phones lying on the table). It’s worth noting that Jerry admitted this with extreme reluctance lol.

+EDIT+

Oh! Three more things I forgot to mention!

Jerry spoke very well of Misha and how S4 changed everything for the show and how everyone became so excited to work on the show again! The mythology of just demons had gotten really stale and to throw angels into the mix just really got everyone pumped.

Jerry said he loved Alaina Huffman as Abaddon. We all agreed she was great. Commenting on her exit, I said that we loved the foreshadowing of the martini shot that signaled her departure and how clever it was at least.

Jerry also spoke about the challenges of building train sets and how he was excited to be working on the “Stakes on a Train” episode but that it ultimately got scrapped because of the budget. He said it was going to have a similar feel to 11x14 (which he LOVED), and he was sad it fell through and that he hoped they’d bring it back another season.

+ +

This is all I remember being discussed and at this point Jules asked everyone to switch it up so everyone would get the chance to talk to Jerry. We all stood and hugged him goodbye and thanked him. After this @thevioletcaptain and @deathbycoldopen took mine and @nicky36‘s spots beside Jerry so I’m going to open this write up up for them to include anything interesting they learned. ^_^