Interviews

Fuckyeahlost.com interviews Paul from lostroom23!

Here’s FYL’s second interview! This time I talked to Paul of lostroom23.blogspot.com; he is also responsible for the trading cards that we posted about a few days ago!

Before we get to the interview, I’d like to announce that in celebration of passing 5,000 followers on Tumblr(!) we will be interviewing one follower each week for the remainder of the season! We will be holding a contest on Twitter to see who the lucky interviewees will be; the full details of the contest will be posted on Friday!

And now, check out my interview with Paul and then check out his site!


First of all, introduce yourself! Who are you, what do you do, and where can we find you on the interweb?

My name is Paul Burrows, currently the main blogger on Room 23. http://lostroom23.blogspot.com/ I studied art at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. When I got out of school jobs were very scarce so I became a stay at home Father of two boys while my wife worked as a Children’s Librarian and did freelance jobs on the side along with my own projects.

Now, let’s talk about LOST! How did you get into the show? Did it click right away, and if not what was it that made that click happen?

I was actually a fan of Smallville when Lost came out and when I saw the ads for Lost I thought that looked awesome, but it was at the same time as Smallville and I didn’t want to add another show to that and Star Trek Enterprise. LOL But that summer ABC started showing reruns of the first season so between that and watching episodes that ABC skipped through rentals I got totally hooked. I was totally excited when Season 2 rolled around and I actually really liked it regardless of what others thought.

Later I became part of a group on Ain’t It Cool near the end of season 3 that kept the finale talkback going all through the 8 month break. During that time we were sharing spoilers and Lost news and I decided to start a blog for that and invited others to become part of it. Well eventually they all dropped out and it became just me running things and totally my baby. I’m also currently part of a Lost message board called Lost 4 Life. It’s been a long process, but an awesome one. After Lost is over I plan on keeping Room 23 open and reporting on the different actors from time to time. I also recently created a FlashForward blog called “The Mosaic Collective” http://mosaiccollective.blogspot.com/ so that will keep me busy.

What inspired you to start creating art based on the show?

I was taking an animation/character design class from Stephen Silver (Main designer of Kim Possible/Danny Phantom). That was when season two was in full swing and I was hooked on Lost. For one of the projects we had to design three characters that had totally different body types, so I choose Hurley, Charlie and Eko (which I actually think are my most successful). After that I would design other characters every once in awhile putting them in my art portfolio along with other stuff. http://paulburrows.blogspot.com/ I would sell these in local comicbook stores in Southern California along with sending them out to Animation studios for jobs.

Later I decided that since people seemed to really like my designs that I should create a sketchbook devoted to all of my Lost sketches. I would also post them on my blog. http://lostroom23muses.blogspot.com/ Later I was trying to think of doing something else that would be interesting with my characters that hadn’t been done much since a lot of animation artist make sketchbooks and I came upon the idea of Trading Cards. I collected them as a kid and thought that it would be awesome to have my own. I figured that in order to get my art into more hands that I should create an online store. http://room23store.blogspot.com/

I’m also starting to design characters from Fringe, Glee and FlashForward, along with more Lost characters for a second volume of my Lost sketchbook, more card sets and some other things that I’m working on that I’m extremely excited about.

What do you think was the most shocking moment?

It’s hard to decide on a most shocking moment since I scour the web for spoilers for Room 23’s spoiler page, but I would have to say that even though I knew that it was coming, the combination of Ben telling Keemy that he didn’t love Alex and then Keemy shooting her really threw me for a loop. That actually affected me more then her Mother Danielle and boyfriend Karl’s death.

Where do you stand on Team Jack/Team Locke; Ben/Widmore; Jacob/MIB?

I’m actually on both sides with Jack and Locke because I can see bits of both of them in me. I’m very stubborn like Jack, but I also believe in things to a fault like Locke. I fall more on the spiritual side of things though. As for Ben/Widmore I tend to fall more on Ben’s side, I love Michael Emerson’s performance and his staring eyes, but he has done so many bad things in the name of good that it’s hard to always think of him as a good guy and last season Widmore was almost painted in a good light. Buts he’s done a lot of bad things also. As for Jacob/MIB I think that I’m on Jacob’s side because of him always being on the side of free will, but I know that we don’t have all of the pieces yet so my opinion might change.


Have you ever had a theory that seemed crazy at the time but turned out to be true?

Not one that came true. But the Ain’t It Cool group likes to come up with what each seasons opening scene would be. For Season 4 I guessed that there would be a big reveal that the Others had cloned all of the castaways. Its funny how with Lost almost anything is possible, even if it doesn’t actually happen. That’s what’s great about being a Lost fan. You could come up with a multitude of theories that are plausible.

Favorite character and why? Least favorite character and why?

That’s a hard one to tie down to just one character. I mentioned how I identify with Jack and Locke. I love Hurley, because he always has such a cool attitude and Claire because she’s pretty. I also love Ben because of his creepiness and Daniel Faraday because he’s neurotic.

As for least favorite I never really liked Shannon and never really liked Shannon and Sayid being together. I remember in the first few episodes that it seemed like Darlton was going to pair Sayid with Kate, but changed their minds, that might have been better. I also never really liked Ms Klugh the Other, I think that it was because of the way that she treated Michael when he was captured.

If you had to have one character who is still alive die, who would it be and why?

Sawyer and not because I don’t like him, I would love to see him reunite with Juliet and I’m thinking that might be a way for that to happen, maybe they would be able to be together in the afterlife.

What moment made you the happiest?

It’s so hard to narrow it down to just one, but most of the happiest moments on Lost have to do with Michael Giacchino’s awesome music. I loved the moment when the raft was leaving and then later the moment when Sawyer, Jin, Michael and Bernard were reunited in the next season. I also loved the moment between Desmond and Penny on the phone in “The Constant”.

Which characters death hit you the hardest?

It’s a toss up between Charlie and Juliet, but I would have to say that while I love Juliet and Sawyer together I feel that Charlie’s death probably hit me the hardest. I loved Charlie from the start, and loved seeing his progression of kicking drugs and then being tempted again and not falling again into it even while being accused of it. Plus he was dating Claire who in my opinion is the hottest woman on Lost. Plus he was part of the greatest duo on Lost of him and Hurley.

I loved how they took a whole episode to show his five “Greatest Hits” making you think that he was going to die, but then at the end of the episode making you think otherwise and then in the finale him giving the ultimate sacrifice to save Desmond, such an emotional moment.

What has been your favorite part of the entire experience of the show?

Well besides the awesome stories, music, characters, etc. I’ve really just loved the awesome people that I’ve met and friendships that I’ve made. I’ve made a lot of good friends from our Ain’t It Cool group and from Lost 4 Life. I have loved working with those AICN friends on Room 23. Especially my close friend and right hand man Ed. When we first started he was always there. It’s also been great to become friends with fellow bloggers like Anil of “ODI”, Ana of “The Four Toed Foot”, Chris of “Stream of Consciousness”, Crit of this site and I look forward to meeting other blog/website individuals. Also it’s just been great hanging out with fellow fans at Comic-Con Lost panels, the Art Gallery event, etc.

It’s also been great to be able meet some of the people who work on Lost like Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and Michael Giacchino’s. Also I mailed a set of my Trading cards to Jorge Garcia and he was nice enough to mail me two signed autographs.

What would be the perfect way for the show to end in your opinion?

I’m not really looking for everything to be answered; I love the debate and want that to go on. I just love this show because of the great characters and writing, so as long as all of the characters find some sort of redemption and we get the most important answers I will be overjoyed.

A big thanks goes out to Paul for taking the time to answer my questions! Be sure to check out lostroom23 if you haven’t already!

http://fuckyeahlost.com/search/Room+23