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Colony: Exclusive – Ryan Condal Wraps Up the Season

By: Erin Conrad
Colony Ryan Condal USA

The first season of Colony has ended. It was a great ride! But what does its creator, Ryan Condal, think about how it turned out? In an exclusive email interview, he gives us his thoughts on fan reaction, the Visitors and season 2!

Were you pleased by the reaction to the show from its new fans? What surprised you the most? Was there any aspect of the show that had an unexpected reaction?

ryan condalRyan: I truly had no idea what to expect.  We were launching a completely original show.  Not something based on a Marvel comic book, or a Coen brothers’ movie, or the crime of the century, but a wholly original idea crafted specifically for television.  In a world of 400+ scripted TV shows airing every year, I think I was just praying that someone (besides my mom) would watch it.  When millions of people turned up for the pilot, I was thrilled.  And they stuck around!  I think I was surprised most by how many people bring their own expectations to an unknown show and what they think it should be.  “The show’s not sci-fi enough!”  “The show’s too sci-fi!” As an audience, I’d hope people would watch the show and find out what it is instead of applying their preconceptions to it.  It makes, I think, for a more enjoyable viewing experience.  

We don’t really get any definite answers in the finale about the invaders. Was it always your plan to be vague?  (On our conference call), Sarah said that there were rewrites for ep. 9 even as shooting was going on – was the Visitor reveal one of them? Do you feel that the identity of the visitors, as opposed to just the fact that there has been an invasion, is important to the “spy fi” feel (as you called it, and it’s very appropriate) of the show?

Ryan: It wasn’t an intent to be vague for vagueness’s sake.  It honestly is part of the mythology, which everyone will learn more about next year.  But COLONY was always about ‘us,’ not about ‘them.’  It’s about the human reaction — on both sides of the ideology — to an extraordinary and world-disrupting event.  The human enemy — the Nazi collaborators, so to speak — is far more interesting than tentacle monsters from Zeta-Reticulon.  

(They’re not tentacle monsters from Zeta Reticulon).

What characters do you personally really like?

Ryan: I love writing for Peter Jacobson’s character, Proxy Snyder.  I could write a library of his blustery, confidence-lacking rants.  His voice is imprinted on my writer’s brain.  But I love writing for everyone on the show.  The advantage is that all of these characters came out of my and Carlton’s brain, so there’s something about each of them that interests us.  Madeline as the ‘horizontal collaborator,’ the French characters who would sleep with the Nazis to curry favor with them to help their families survive or advance in the world.  Broussard as the Ronin Samurai, looking for some kind of honor or redemption in a world at war.  Bram as the wayward son, desperate to resist, but unable to focus his energies or control his emotions.  And of course, Will and Katie are just tremendous to write for.  I can write Josh Holloway sarcastic-wink/hair-flip lines in my sleep.  He nails every one of them.  And Sarah is just a brilliant person and a deep-thinking actor.  She doesn’t ever let you off the hook.

The show’s online presence, between the USA site and ColonyTV, was outstanding. Was it effective? Did you have any hand in designing or developing the activities? The overall marketing of the show – the Twitter presence in the voice of the TA, mailing the gift packages, etc., is a fun add-on – were there other ideas that were discussed and not used to market the show? Anything you can talk about? I’m a marketer, and I’m very interested in how social media is changing TV and movie promotion.

Ryan: USA and Legendary have done an awesome job for the show.  We wanted them to do this stuff, but didn’t have really any hand at all in creating it.  That was all them trying to figure out a new and efficient way to promote the show.  One thing I did do was really work hard to get all of the ‘propaganda’ posters made for the show in advance.  We had these tremendous artists like Jock, Phantom City Creative, Ken Taylor, Godmachine, Todd Slater work on the show and create these really believable pieces of propaganda for both sides of the conflict.  I think it brought great life to the show and has helped USA market it in a distinct way.  I’m a poster-art nut, so it was fun to bring all these great artists — all of whom I followed religiously already — and have them create work specifically for Colony.  We’re doing it again for Season 2 with a whole raft of new artists.  I’m really excited.

There’s been a fair amount of fan interaction with the show – I started a Facebook group, there’s a podcast, another fan created some great Colony t-shirts, and I’m sure there’s more that I’m not aware of. What do you think of this kind of fan action?

Ryan: I love it.  This is what you really hope for as a creator.  To create something of lasting value.  Since most of my work exists as unproduced movie screenplays, to have something out there that’s real and that has found a foothold with the Comic-Con set (my people!) is surreal.

What’s the process for Season 2? Do you primarily write the episodes, or is there a writers’ room? Has that process started? When will the show go back in production? How far out did you envision the concept when it was pitched? Do you think that your initial storyline idea will change at all based on viewer reaction and feedback, or from how your initial ideas actually played out on screen, since this is your first experience helming a show?

Ryan: Season 2 is in its very early days.  We are in the writers’ room right now working on breaking the back of the whole season story at a 10,000 foot level.  Carlton and I started the room with a great sense of what the season was at 35,000 feet so the process now is all about getting closer and closer, and more detailed, and refining what we already have.  We hired 6 writers beyond ourselves (Carlton and I), so we have a strong team to help us craft 13 episodes.  We break them as a room in excruciating detail, one-by-one, and then assign them off to the writing staff to go and write an outline and then, eventually, a script.  The room really works on everything together so it’s a true group effort.  This process is a very logical one for me.  As a guy who came out of the marketing and advertising world, I like there to be a little bit of structure and process in life.  This helps.  The ideas change and evolve over time, but the nice thing is that the core DNA of the show — what we want it to be — has been the same since the beginning.  

I’m really excited about season 2.  I think season 1 was a very good accomplishment, but we have all the tools in place — and a story — to make season 2 something really special.  Everything is going to get cranked up next year and I really do believe it’s going to be a major improvement over what is already pretty popular with fans.

Thanks, Ryan! I’ll bring you any news  I learn about Colony as we wait for Season 2!

Join us on Facebook at Colony: The Resistance to chat about the show!

Follow me on Twitter: @ErinConrad2 and @threeifbyspace

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