All language subtitles for The Making of Charmed.eng

I've been with Aaron Spelling, now,
it will be 29 years this coming October

and so far we've done
47 TV series together.

And as | keep saying to Aaron,
we're gonna do it till we get it right.

This is, by far, the single
most difficult series we've ever done,

mainly because of the optical effects,
the special effects, the CGI

and the complexity
of what we do with the action.

We've never run
into anything like that,

not on any of the action-adventure
shows we've ever done.

Any executive producer in today's
television, if they're hands-on,

it starts, obviously,
with the concept of a script.

We pitch concepts
among each other,

in this case, with Brad Kern
and Jim Conway, the writers.

Brad, being our fearless leader,

is always one step ahead
of the game.

As soon as we finish wrapping
one season,

Brad is already plotting the next one.

And we try to get at least six concepts
to the network,

you know, during the hiatus,
while everybody else is off.

We're kind of getting
the head start on the season.

Then we come up
with kind of a road map,

a loose road map,
for what the series is gonna do and be.

I'm a big believer

that a season should have a beginning,
middle and end to it as well.

| divide the season into three parts.

Once we have that bible
for that season,

then we are looking for concepts,

individual concepts
for different episodes.

And we're looking
for: what are the ways

we can challenge the sisters,
the women,

how can we learn more
about who they are,

what situations can we put them
in, in their love lives,

in their sisterly lives,
in their work lives.

And then from that,
we are looking for the magical stories,

the demonic stories
that might challenge them.

So from the story point of view,

we're looking for those
fundamental elements

that make up the tonal balance
of Charmed:

sisters and witches.

And then we sit down
in the story room,

six or seven or eight writers
and we knock out the stories.

Our process is, you know,
Brad is very much--

He knows how to run
a writers’ room.

And that's one thing | loved
about writing on this show was that

there is a method to the madness.

And there is a process
and it works well, it works quickly

because these are really
difficult stories to break.

They're so multi-layered.

So we'll pitch our story,
we all have crazy, wacky ideas.

You are never gonna believe it.

There's sort of an unwritten rule
of not saying no

to anything right off the bat.

So your craziest, wackiest ideas
sometimes become the best episodes.

It's such a strange job
because you're not--

You're not a doctor
where you show up and you say:

"| have to suture this wound."
Or whatever doctors do.

We have lots of long,
intense sessions of talking

and then we have lots of times
where we throw footballs around

and try to stick pencils in the ceiling
to kind of just, you know,

get our brains revved up.

But then, you know,

it is a very focused room
when it's time to be focused

and, you know, we all work together,

we all come together
to try to, you know--

The goal is always to get the story
that's on the board

off the board as soon as possible
and with the best story

so that the writer,
whoever's doing it, will, you know,

have the equipment that they need
to get it done.

It's a group effort
and we rally to break those stories

so that when we're off alone
writing those scripts,

we don't wanna be stuck
with a story that doesn't work.

So we're all working

to try to prevent that
from happening to anybody else.

Over the course of a year
we use about 11 different directors.

And some do multiples,
some do just one or two.

The first day at prep,
we get a script.

Each script takes us into a whole new
world, depending on who the demon is

and what's gonna happen
to the girls that week.

We have a pre-concept meeting, we
sit down with the department heads,

the production designer,
the stunt coordinator,

the visual effects,
mechanical effects,

and we talk about the script.

And as we come
to each of these scenes,

we discuss the best way

to make all of them all come to life.

And that deals with what
the environment is that they live in,

the stunts that they get involved in,

the kind of powers that they have
when they blow people up

or when they do whatever
nefarious things they're gonna do.

What usually happens
is I'll receive a script here at the shop.

I'll read the script
and highlight a special effect

make-up or a prop
that they may need me to build.

Then | will go to the meeting
at Paramount

and we will sit down
and do a table discussion

about the episode and how
we're gonna approach everything.

A lot of times | will come in with some
computer-generated designs

to show what direction
| would like to take the character

to make sure that it's what
they're thinking in their head.

And then we can use that as a guide
to start the design process.

And then, as soon as | get
a signed-off design,

| go in and | start
sculpting the character,

get the sculpt to a certain point,
send pictures to the guys

to make sure that they like the look
of the finished sculpt

and then it goes into the mold
process, the foam process

and, ultimately, the finished piece.

We use prosthetic-adhesive glues

which are actually used
for the medical field

so that everything
is extremely safe and strong

for any of our prosthetic stuff.

- Kill her.
- Not yet.

On a normal day, we would have
a combination of possible tattoos

that we would use
on backgrounds or principals.

The majority of the make-up that | use
is a lot of this tattoo illustrator.

It's really nice because it works
almost like acrylic paints.

And then we also have a number
of different cream makeups

and brushes
to apply all of the materials.

And, of course, if we're going
to give them a nice bald head,

we have our standard bald cap.

We also had-- There's a lot of times
when we needed to come up

with scars and wounds
for people who had been attacked

or killed by demons,

so we have a bunch of scars
that are foam-latex scars

that we can pretty much place
wherever we need to

depending on where
the character's being hurt or attacked.

We have a bunch of different sizes
and a bunch of different looks

so that we can get it
as small of a scar

or as big a gash
as we need to make it.

We do a lot of elves on the show,
also for background characters.

We did the nanny elf and a lot of regal,
upright, tall elves too.

Very Lord of the Rings
and very pristine.

So we came up with a couple
of different sizes of elf ears.

And these are the actual molds
for the elf-nanny ears.

In the last season, season 8,

| played a character
called the krychek demon.

And the interesting thing was that

three different characters turned
into the same demon-type creature.

So, what happened was,

| played the first creature
that one guy would turn into,

then we changed out my lenses,
changed the paint job,

changed my wardrobe

and then another character,
later in the episode,

turned into another version
of that demon

and | played that demon.

Then another character
in the episode

turned into a third version
of that demon.

So for one episode, | actually played
three different characters

that were relatively the same look,

but different wardrobe
and different lenses.

One of the great things
about Charmed, for me, as an actor,

is being able to play so many different
characters for the same show

and being able to variate, you know,
the way | play the characters

so that, ultimately, no one knows
that it's me every time.

And as far as being
a makeup artist,

to be able to do
these really cool makeups

on all these great actors
that they're bringing in.

So on both levels,
as an actor and a makeup artist,

the experience
has just been really cool.

You never know what to expect.

This is the wardrobe department
for the girls,

for all the clothes
of our hero actresses.

Basically, what happens,
we get the script,

we read it,
we break it down for every girl.

What kind of clothes
they should wear, it depends.

If they go to a date,
they'd wear something different

than when they're playing
with the kids, or, you know.

Sometimes we have
specialty costumes.

We had a lot of weddings,
so you need bridesmaids’ dresses

and wedding gowns and all that.

And then we fit,
we see whatever looks best,

then, that-- According to that,
we pick outfits for the show.

A lot of times
we try to change them a little bit,

especially Rose's
and Alyssa's clothes, we--

You know, we play a little bit
with them, sometimes add things.

We're trying to accessorize them

and make them look like
their character.

One of the ones that we really liked
for Rose was this one,

which was because she does love lace
and it's black and white,

it's very classy,
it's very chic and also, you know,

like, blouses like that,
just beautiful, feminine, timeless.

| think Holly, overall,
is a jeans girl, you know.

She starts, in a way,
with jeans or cords

or some cargo pants and as | said,
she likes the earthy colours.

And then just paired
with, like, a cute top.

I mean, | know she herself
| think really, really liked this one.

And you know,
that's kind of a typical Holly look.

So, Alyssa, you know,
likes the colorful and | would say

like something like that
really reflects Alyssa really well.

It's beautiful color
and she does like a little bit of detail.

She does like ethnic things and...

Well, she really likes anything
that's interesting and unusual.

And she, too, like,
normally pairs it either with cords

or black pants or mostly jeans.

You know, jeans is--
Since they fight demons all the time,

it's kind of one
of the best garments to have.

It's easy to do stunts in
and everything.

| do all of the physical effects
on the show.

So it'd be the rain, the wind, the fire.

A lot of our explosions,
large or small,

are done practically, on the set.

Just about every day on Charmed,
we wreck a lot of things.

We've got some witches
that are really powerful and they just--

We've blown out every window,
every door of the manor.

We have lived on that set
for eight years

so | can't even think of one thing
that we haven't done.

| mean,
we have literally done everything.

We have done huge fireballs,
you know,

where we've just leveled the attic
and everything inside of it.

One episode, in particular,

we actually hooked up
a Chevy Suburban

to every piece of furniture
in the attic.

And literally drove the Suburban--
Put a hole in the wall for the cable

and drove the Suburban and yanked
every piece of furniture into the wall.

And just, you know,
a melee of destruction.

The girls trust me
a hundred percent.

And like | said,
we do pyro on the set every day.

And after a week of it,
it's pretty simple stuff.

We do stunts on this thing
left and right,

but the second-to-last episode,
where we demolished the manor

was one of the bigger,
if not the biggest, undertaking

in terms of flying people around,
flying people through things,

that, | think,
we've ever done in a day.

Although we've had some big ones,
this one was monumental

in that we had three people flying
at one time one way,

two people flying
through the banister

in the manor on another shot.

And to do it, to do it safely, you know,
it took a great deal of preparation.

It's one of the rare times

that we actually were given a day
in advance to test and rehearse.

| don't think it gets any bigger
than that.

I think that is, like, the sum total of,

you know, of all eight seasons
of Charmed.

We've lived in this manor for,
you know, the last eight years

and even for me,
just to walk in on this set,

it was mind-boggling
just to see our house in smithereens.

The look of the show hinges
on my shoulders.

I'm in charge of the camera crew.
| work with the Grip Department,

the Electrical Department,
in creating the pictures that you see.

It's a pretty involved process.
You don't work alone.

You work in conjunction
with a pretty great production team.

On a series,

you do have a tendency to have
a similarity from scene to scene.

You have a continuity

of look in the show.

And when | came to the show
four years ago,

| was asked how
| would change the look.

And | found that a lot of the artwork
in the California impressionist school

was of Victorian manors.

And the lifestyles
that were created there,

the sunlight coming through
the stained glass windows,

soft tones on the actor's skin,

very soft light
wrapped around the women's faces.

And everything seemed
to fall into place

as far as what Charmed could offer
using that type of style in the manor.

And that was also contrasted
by the fact that we deal with demons.

We deal with the dark side
of the world

and that school of art
also had a dark side.

They are street scenes in there

that are very muted
and filled with shadows.

It starts here,

you know, in your head,
not just your eyes.

And if you can see it there,
you can generally put it on film.

We've gone through several crews,
as far as directors of photography

and I've enjoyed working
with all of them.

It's gaining their trust

and having them know
that I'll take their film

and give it a look
that's gonna be good

and that's gonna go with what they had
in mind when they filmed the scenes.

I'll know what they have in their mind
for certain scenes.

We want it to be really cool,

or we want it to be really warm
and orangey.

And I'll take those notes
and I'll apply them to the picture

and they'll look at it on the air and be
really happy with what they're seeing.

And if there's something
that's slightly off,

you know, we'll talk about it
and it's a work in progress.

It's been really enjoyable to work
with people like that

because it's very collaborative.

We're creating the effects
for some of the final scenes

for the grand finale for Charmed.

It includes the big climactic finale

between the Jenkins
and the Halliwells.

The destruction of the house

where we see a couple shots
inside the house

as their power is unleashed and rips
through the interior of the house.

And then when we cut
to outside the house,

we see the whole house destroyed,
blown off its foundations.

And then we're also dealing
with the final aftermath,

what happens once the house
is destroyed and who survived

and what we're gonna see from that,
you know, from the foundation.

Interpreting episode 21
from a visual effects standpoint,

I saw it as a huge challenge. | mean
we have 200-plus visual effects.

We're gonna be
blowing up the manor.

We went as far as going up
in a helicopter.

| went up with Steve Lebed,
our visual-effects supervisor.

We took some aerial shots

so we could get a high angle
of the explosion.

The challenge of taking
this manor and blowing it up,

| mean, it's a huge, huge project
just to encompass the visual effects

and the practical effects
necessary to do that.

| mean, they literally
tore the whole manor apart.

They made it look
like a bomb went off

and scorched it and destroyed it.

And to go and work
on the visual effects

of blowing up the house,
taking a stock shot

that | had actually shot,
establishing the house

and seeing how we're blowing it up.

And taking the high-angle
and seeing the explosion

from the high-angle down to the detail
of a car in the driveway next door,

you'll see it flashing,
where the car alarm is going off.

| mean, we spent a lot of time
and worked out a lot of detail

to really make it seem
as realistic as possible.

There's been so many
unique shots we've done.

It's hard to say exactly
what the most challenging would be.

We've blown a lot of bad guys up
in the show.

At least once an episode,
so that's quite a number.

And, certainly,
when the show first started

it was really an interesting time
to sit there

and take some of these characters
and blow them up.

And as the show progressed,
as we upped the stakes,

obviously, we had to come up
with more interesting ways

of blowing up bad guys.

So now that came down
to all the artists

who were tasked with coming up
with interesting, unique ways.

for them to die because one of
the things that the production wanted

was a different kind
of vanquish each week.

They didn't wanna see
the same guy die time in, time out.

They really wanted to kind
of push the envelope with that.

So it really kind of--
All the artists pulled together

and came up
with some really interesting stuff.

This is where we do the final mix
of the show.

We combine the music
that our composers have created,

all the sound design work
for our visual effects,

all the dialogue and ADR,
which is voice replacement.

And I'll spot the music
with the composer.

We'll look at a scene, I'll say,
"Okay, | want the cue to start here."

At the same time, | will sit
with the sound-effects supervisor

and we'll say,
"Okay, we need to have the sound

for the dark guy orbing in here
and Paige orbing out there.

| want backgrounds for the street
on Phoebe's apartment.

| want to hear cable cars
in the distance."

All those sorts of things.

This is unbelievable.
Piper takes the car, Paige orbs

does anyone stop and think
that Phoebe can't orb?

No, of course not. Why?
Because it's all about them.

Okay, hi, yeah,
| can't get this thing off.

All those elements will then be cut
and put in the correct positions

and they come here to the stage
where our mixers, behind me,

will blend it all together
and work on the final mix.

And then we satellite it off and it airs.
And we do it all again.

It's a remarkable process, not just
on Charmed, but just on television.

It always amazes me
that television is as good as it is

when they make 22 or 24
movies a year.

And whether the audience
likes the episodes or not,

they're always impossible
to accomplish and achieve.

And somehow, some way,
the magic of Hollywood works.