Whedonage.com talks to PJ Haarsma about his involvement with Dr Horrible.
[Be sure to click on the link, below to read the full interview.]
How did you first become involved in Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?
Nathan called me one night and asked me if I could make a “thing” that would work on his iPhone. He was vague and I really didn’t understand what he was doing. He mentioned something about a remote, Joss, and a musical. I remember thinking, “I hope you’re not singing.”
Did you meet with Joss Whedon and the rest of the team or was the design done remotely?
Nathan and I did this ourselves. We went back and forth together on the design a few times. I don’t have an iPhone so I would call Nathan to keep testing it out. I tried to make it as interactive as possible. All I knew was that someone was going to push a button to make a van move. When Nathan showed Joss he loved it. He just wanted the GAS and BRAKE buttons to be bigger.
Did you visit the set to see your remote control in action? Will you be doing more work with the team in the future?
Again no. Remember, I’m the guy who didn’t see Firefly until just last year. The whole process was very informal. My friend called and asked for help and I did my best for him. Next thing I know I hear servers are crashing from his project. I’m just glad to have been a part of it. After Nathan announced it at Comic-Con, over 28,000 people clicked on the Softwire link in just 24 hours. I housed the remote on the Softwire server because that just happened to be the one I was working on when Nathan called. If they need something in the future of course I would help.
Have you been following the intense Internet coverage of Dr Horrible and have you been surprised at the amount of interest in it?
I watched the whole thing at Nate’s house laughing the entire time, but I did not expect the enormous response at all. Before the con Nathan called and told me about the strain on the servers from the popularity. He thought if he announced it he might crash my game servers but I told him do it anyway.
Have you seen an increase in traffic since the news broke. Do you think Dr Horrible will change the way future entertainment is produced?
In the past 48 hours over 39,000 people have come to the website. That’s a huge jump in traffic. As for the future of entertainment I don’t know. I would like to think the case of Dr. Horrible illustrates the success artists can obtain when they control their own content, but the suits in Hollywood are a pretty formidable bunch.
This genuine remote control “prop” was used during filming was designed by Nathan Fillion’s friend PJ Haarsma, author of The Softwire sci-fi series. If you click on the buttons on the remote below you’ll be whisked away to PJ Haarsma’s websites but they’ll try and open in a tiny little window instead of a whole page so you’d best click on the link at the bottom of this post before trying out the remote!
Available at http://thesoftwire.com/horrible_remote.html
If you’re a fan of Dr Horrible, no doubt you’d love your very own Dr Horrible shirt - these are available at J!nx and new designs will be added soon!
