A Symphony With Sam

Recently, Team Lost put together an incredible Symphonic event in Hawaii, and Lost Co-Producer SAMANTHA THOMAS was behind putting the show together. We'll be covering this event in even more detail next issue, but for now, in her own words, Samantha tells us about her role on the show and how this incredibly innovative event came to be.

BECOMING LOST
After working with Bryan Burk for a couple of years, with the support of the executive producers and the studio, I segued into being an associate producer on Lost. What began with responsibilities including Lost Magazine, trading cards, and a handful of other merchandising products, developed into a role that involved liaising between the producers, the studio, the network and our licensees on a large scope of ancillary products - all enveloping the Lost franchise. It has been an incredible journey. I really do thank Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse] for recognizing and allowing me to grow into this position of Co-Producer that I have now. It's pretty surreal! I do my best to reflect and uphold the creative vision that the writers, producers, cast & crew bring to the show every day. I do everything I can to make sure that is honored. I've been incredibly fortunate to have the guys' full support and trust. If you take the Lost DVDs for example, I'm there from conception through completion. Because the Network and Studio teams are so incredibly supportive of the show's feedback and direct participation, I am able to be very hands-on with our licensees, which is such a win-win. To be able to work with so many creative and talented people from the renowned companies that license products on our show is such a thrill. Many of these products can range 18 months from start to finish, if not more, so it's been quite an interesting and exciting ride so far!

A SYMPHONY IS BORN
What feels like forever ago now, our composer, Michael Giacchino, was in Hawaii when our Co-Executive Producer, Jean Higgins, turned to him and said, "Why don't we do a symphony?" and he said, "Really? Wow! That would be fantastic!" And I think it was just one of those, "Hey let's make this happen!" moments. I believe Jean then put the idea out to Kristin Jackson - who had worked with the Honolulu Symphony Pops and had also done freelance publicity with our show - and the next thing you know, our teams were brought together. Upon returning from Hawaii, Michael than came to me and said, "Hey, do you want to produce the symphony?!" and I said "Hey. sure!" I obviously had no idea what that would entail - I'd never produced a symphony before - but I figured anything that honored Michael Giacchino, well, sign me up! Not only is he what I believe to be one of the most talented composers, he is the most humble, genuine, incredible person.

THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
Realizing a symphony in its own right is an incredible undertaking, if you then consider all the rules and regulations that we have in place to protect Lost and its artists and talent; to really pull this off, we had to ask a lot of people to graciously offer their support and cooperation for something that was truly art just for the sake of art alone and an honor to the music & talent of Michael Giacchino. ABC, ABC Studios, the Producers, Cast, Crew & Guilds were all incredibly supportive and offered invaluable contributions in making this evening possible. Along this journey, everyone was truly helping us out every step of the way. When we got to Hawaii, the moment we walked out on to the stage - it was just absolutely surreal. We had no idea! When you're planning the entire event from LA it doesn't sink in how vast the venue is going to be until you get there. Immediately we began brainstorming the future potential of this event. As producers, it's our job to say, "We want all of our fans to enjoy this experience! Hey, we want to travel the world with this!" But we knew in order to do that we needed to get this event done first; we needed to hit this one out of the park.

STRIVING FOR PERFECTION
For everything we had to decide upon, you start with the wish list, and then you realize you only have a certain amount of time and a certain amount of players. Every now and then you can push the envelope and say, "But I really need a ukulele player," because it was organic and natural to Hawaii and we wanted to honor the Hawaiian culture. Plus, it fit so well with the Hurley piece. Other times you have to let the circumstance guide you. We were able to prepare that before we left LA, and when we got there it was about making sure all the elements came together.

A MULTI-MEDIA EXPERIENCE
We wanted this show to be about the music, but we also wanted it to be a completely Lost experience. So in addition to the incredible orchestration, we had Lost sound effects playing as audience members entered the venue; actual pieces of the fuselage set up throughout the stage; iconic imagery that we projected against the back of the shell; a running montage of photograph stills; plus a very special video montage of Lost's most memorable moments cut by Lost Editor Stephen Semel and Assistant Editor Lance Stubblefield. For live effects, to recreate the famous "light 'em up" scene from The Hunting Party we had guys carrying torches running through the audience. We then had this amazing moment where the hatch door opened and smoke came out. Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and Monica Henderson [a Lost writers' assistant] actually wrote 'messages in a bottle' that spoke to the universal truths and themes of Lost and life, and [actor] Terry O'Quinn very kindly offered to narrate them. So in between pieces of musical orchestration, we had Terry pulling the 'messages from the bottle' and reading them to the audience. They were absolutely heart wrenching. They spoke of what it is to survive and be away from everybody you love; fear and sadness; loneliness, emotions that can affect every one of us every day. even though hopefully those emotions are happiness and love most of the time! It truly was a multi-media experience, and the best part of it was, it honored the music, the sophistication, the beauty and integrity of Michael Giacchino's music. That was first and foremost for all of us.

THE FUTURE OF THE SYMPHONY
We had two rehearsals with the orchestra. On the first night, I remember sitting there beside Michael [Giacchino], Andrea Datzman and Chad Seiter in the very last row of this massive venue at about 11:30pm after an incredibly long day and there was this moment of, "Wow! This is actually happening..." By the second night we just knew it. that this was (just) the beginning of a special journey. I don't believe that this type of performance has ever happened before. I think it encapsulates what Lost stands for: innovation. It's about saying, "What can we do to be bold and outside the box, but also true to what our show is and do what we believe our fans will appreciate?" With that notion came something that is a totally new experience. Symphonies are tremendous in their own right, but traditionally they're a bit more classical. This is a really interesting take on what a symphony can be. We had several cameras and were able to capture the performance, for the most part, in its entirety. It's a two-and-a-half hour show, but hopefully we will be able to combine different highlights of it for the fourth season DVD. We also hope that we will be able to take this show out internationally. It's been a wild, crazy ride building up the symphony, and now I'm in decompressing mode, but I need to build up to the next wave! The greatest thing was honoring Michael's music. It truly is the heart of Lost.

This article appears courtesy the official Lost Magazine. The official companion to TV's most compelling show, Lost Magazine brings you the latest interviews, theories, character diaries, and exclusive input directly from Co-Creator Damon Lindelof. Plus, receive a stunning poster of the Swan Hatch as used to build the set when subscribing online HERE