True Blood shrine
The show's second 12-episode season premiered on June 14, 2009. On July 30, 2009, HBO confirmed that a third season of True Blood will be released in the summer of 2010.Alan Ball has said that he plans to start shooting the third season before Christmas 2009.
True Blood details the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps (meaning "good times" in French), a fictional small northern Louisiana town. The series centers on Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress at a bar, who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
The first season received critical acclaim and won several awards, including one Golden Globe.
True Blood Development history
Series creator Alan Ball had previously worked with premium cable channel HBO on Six Feet Under, which ran five seasons. In October 2005, after Six Feet Under's finale, Ball signed a two-year agreement with HBO to develop and produce original programming for the network. True Blood became the first project under the deal, after Ball became acquainted with Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mystery books. One day, while early for a dentist appointment, Ball was browsing through Barnes and Noble and came across Dead Until Dark, the first installment in Harris' series. Enjoying it, he read the following entries and became interested in "bringing Harris' vision to television." However, Harris had two other adaptation options for the books when Ball approached her. He said she chose to work with him, though, because " really 'got' me. That's how he convinced me to go with him. I just felt that he understood what I was doing with the books."The project's hour-long pilot was ordered concurrently with the finalization of the aforementioned development deal and was written, directed and produced by Ball. Cast members Paquin, Kwanten and Trammell were announced in February 2007 and Moyer later on in April. The pilot was shot in the early summer of 2007 and was officially ordered to series in August, at which point Ball had already written several more episodes. Production on the series began later that fall, with Brook Kerr, who portrayed Tara Thornton in the original pilot, being replaced by Rutina Wesley. Two more episodes of the series had been filmed before the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike shut down production of the 12-episode first season until 2008. That September, after only the first two episodes of the series had aired, HBO placed an order for a second season of twelve episodes of the show, with production scheduled to commence in January 2009 for a summer premiere.
True Blood Opening title sequence
True Blood's title sequence was created by Digital Kitchen, a production studio that was also responsible for creating the title sequence of Six Feet Under. The sequence, which is primarily composed of portrayals of the show's deep South setting, is played to "Bad Things" by Jace Everett.Digital Kitchen wished to explore themes of redemption and forgiveness in the opening title sequence.
Conceptually, Digital Kitchen elected to construct the sequence around the idea of "the whore in the house of prayer" by intermingling contradictory images of sex, violence and religion and displaying them from the point of view of "a supernatural, predatory creature observing human beings from the shadows ..." Digital Kitchen also wished to explore ideas of redemption and forgiveness, and thus arranged for the sequence to progress from morning to night and to culminate in a baptism.
Most of the footage used in the sequence was filmed on location by Digital Kitchen. Crew members took a four-day trip to Louisiana to film and also shot at a Chicago church and on a stage and in a bar in Seattle. Additionally, several Digital Kitchen crew members made cameo appearances in the sequence.
In editing the opening, Digital Kitchen wanted to express how "religious fanaticism" and "sexual energy" could corrupt humans and make them animalistic. Accordingly, several frames of some shots were cut to give movements a jittery feel, while other shots were simply played back very slowly. Individual frames were also splattered with drops of blood. The sequence's transitions were constructed differently, though; they were made with a Polaroid transfer technique. The last frame of one shot and the first frame of another were taken as a single Polaroid photo, which was then divided between emulsion and backing. The emulsion was then filmed being further separated by chemicals and those shots of this separation were placed back into the final edit.
Eight different typefaces, inspired by Southern road signage, were also created manually by Camm Rowland for cast and crew credits, as well as the show's title card.
True Blood Music
Gary Calamar, the music supervisor for the series, said that his goal for the soundtrack to the show is to create something "swampy, bluesy and spooky" and to feature local Louisiana musicians. Composer Nathan Barr writes the original score for the series which features cello, guitar, prepared piano and glass harmonica among other instruments, all of which he performs himself. The main theme song is "Bad Things" by country music artist Jace Everett, from his 2005 self-titled debut.Elektra/Atlantic Records released a True Blood soundtrack on May 19, 2009, the same day as the release of the DVD and Blu-Ray of the first season. Nathan Barr's original score for True Blood will be released on CD in August 2009.
Both Nathan Barr and Jace Everett won 2009 awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated in the BMI Cable Awards category for, respectively, True Blood's original score and theme song.
True Blood Viral marketing campaign
The premiere of True Blood was prefaced with a viral marketing/alternate reality game (ARG) campaign, based at BloodCopy.com. This included setting up multiple websites, encoding web address into unmarked envelopes mailed to high profile blog writers and others, and even performances by a "vampire" who attempted to reach out to others of their kind, to discuss the recent creation of "TruBlood", a fictional beverage which is featured in the show.A MySpace account with the username "Blood" had, as of June 19, uploaded two videos; one entitled "Vampire Taste Test - Tru Blood vs Human", and one called "BloodCopy Exclusive INTERVIEW WITH SAMSON THE VAMPIRE".
A prequel comic was handed out to attendees of the 2008 Comic-Con. The comic centers around an old vampire named Lamar, who tells the reader about how TruBlood surfaced and was discussed between many vampires before going public. At one point, Lamar wonders if TruBlood is making the world safe for vampires or from them.
Several commercials featured on HBO and Facebook aired prior to the series premiere, placing vampires in ads similar to those of beer and wine. Some beverage vending machines across the US were also fitted with cards indicating that they were "sold out" of TruBlood.
Thousands of DVDs of the first episode were handed out to attendees of Midnight Madness, a special screenings event of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.
Blockbuster Video provided free rental of the first episode of True Blood several days before it was broadcast on HBO. The video had a faint promotional watermark throughout the episode.
On April 16, 2009, HBO released the first teaser poster for Season 2. The image uses a perspective technique that shows observers one of two images.
A minute-long promotional video advertising season two, which featured Bob Dylan's "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'", was released via Entertainment Tonight in early May.
In July 2009 HBO.com began selling Tru Blood, the fictional drink that appears in the show. In real life, it is a blood orange carbonated drink, developed and manufactured by Omni Consumer Products, a company that specializes in defictionalizing brands from television and movies.
True Blood Plot
Following the creation of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is a telepath and waitress at Merlotte's in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, owned by Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), a shapeshifter—though this secret is kept hidden. One night, Sookie meets Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a handsome 173-year-old vampire who has returned to Bon Temps following the death of his last remaining relative. As she cannot hear his thoughts, she finds it easy to be in his company and over the first season, the two become romantically involved.True Blood Season one
The main mystery of the first season concerns the murders of women connected to Sookie's brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten). Maudette Pickens and Dawn Green are both strangled shortly after having been alone with Jason. Though Detective Bellefleur has little doubt that Jason is the killer, the town sheriff does not suspect him. Jason and Sookie's grandmother is murdered shortly afterward. At the end of the season it is revealed that Arlene Fowler's fiancé, Rene Lenier, is actually a man named Drew Marshall who created a fake identity, Cajun accent and all. He has been killing women he considers "fang-bangers."The first season also focuses on Sookie's relationship with Bill and Sam's relationship with Sookie's friend Tara. Bill explains the rules of being a vampire to Sookie and, after he finds himself killing a vampire to defend Sookie, he is forced to turn a young girl, Jessica, as punishment. In the last episode of the season, this new vampire is left with Bill under his care. After Maudette and Dawn's murders Jason becomes addicted to vampire blood and has a short relationship with another addict, Amy Burley, which ends when she is murdered by Drew. Season one ends with the discovery of a body in Detective Andy Bellefleur's car in Merlotte's parking lot. The first episode of season two reveals the body to be that of Miss Jeannette, the drugstore clerk who has given phony exorcisms to Tara and her mother.
True Blood Season two
Season two centers around the disappearance in Dallas of the 2,000-year old vampire Sheriff of Area 9, Godric. There are also a number of sub-plots.True Blood Cast and characters
Set in the small fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, the main thrust of the show revolves around Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress. Her ability makes it difficult for her to form lasting human relationships. She is attracted to Bill Compton played by Stephen Moyer because she cannot hear his thoughts. He is a vampire recently returned home to Bon Temps after 150 years. Throughout the first season they grow close, with Bill becoming protective of Sookie.Alexander Skarsgård plays Eric Northman, Sheriff of Area 5, an ancient and powerful Nordic vampire to whom Bill owes fealty. Eric disdains human life but is fascinated by Sookie and her telepathic powers.
Sam Trammell stars as Sam Merlotte, the owner of Merlotte's, where Sookie works. He is a shapeshifter, often watching over Sookie in the form of a dog. Rutina Wesley plays Tara Thornton, Sookie's best friend and a bartender at Merlotte's. Tara grew up in an abusive home and has difficulty trusting others as a result. She has a brief relationship with Sam. Sookie's brother, Jason, played by Ryan Kwanten, is a road crew supervisor for Bon Temps. After losing the girl he loves, he turns himself in for a string of murders which he did not commit and, while in jail, is recruited by the anti-vampire church the "Fellowship of the Sun".
Tara's cousin, Lafayette Reynolds, played by Nelsan Ellis, is the short order cook at Merlotte's; he is also a drug dealer and gay prostitute. He sells Vampire Blood to Jason, but refuses to sell him any more after Jason takes too much at once. After his Vampire supplier goes missing, he is kidnapped by Eric and locked in a dungeon as a punishment for dealing and being implicated in the supplier's disappearance.
Jim Parrack stars as Hoyt Fortenberry, a friend of Jason and Rene who works on the road crew. Sweet and good-hearted, he is the only person whose thoughts are consistently kind when Sookie eavesdrops. For the majority of the first season he is bossed around by his mother, but stands up to her after Jason leaves his comfort zone to be with Amy. Hoyt meets Jessica in the second season and expresses deep interest in her, even after finding out she's a vampire. Carrie Preston stars as Arlene Fowler, a waitress working with Sookie. She has been married four times and is supporting two children from one of them. Toward the end of the first season she becomes engaged to her boyfriend Rene, but her happiness is short-lived after she discovers evidence implicating him in the murders.
Chris Bauer plays Detective Andy Bellefleur, a detective in Bon Temps who is regularly disrespected by the town's citizens. He is assigned the investigation of the murders that occur during the first season, and is set on arresting Jason Stackhouse for the crimes. While he is initially praised for his actions, once the true killer's identity is revealed, he begins drinking heavily. During one of his binges at Merlotte's, the body of Miss Jeanette, a drugstore clerk who performs phony exorcisms, is left in his car, making him a suspect in her death. William Sanderson plays Sheriff Bud Dearborne, the town sheriff, and an old friend of Sookie's parents. He doesn't believe Jason is a serial killer and regularly scolds Andy for being unfair and biased toward suspects. He is currently investigating the murder of Miss Jeanette.