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the following video shows the symbolism that is referred to death, birth, and sexuality.

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True Blood address many concepts of our postmodern world. It highlights racism, discrimination, and violence. A fictional world that vampires live among us. It will demonstrate the themes and symbolism shown

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Representing sexuality

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Equality lack of respect

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Violence

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True blood season 1 official trailer

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In 1993, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List brought to the screen a story that had gone untold since the tragic events of the Holocaust. Oskar Schindler, a Nazi party member, used his pull within the party to save the lives of more than 1000 Jewish individuals by recruiting them to work in his Polish factory. Here are some facts about Spielberg's groundbreaking film on its 25th anniversary.

1. The story was relayed to author Thomas Keneally in a Beverly Hills leather goods shop.

In October 1980, Australian novelist Thomas Keneally had stopped into a leather goods shop off of Rodeo Drive after a book tour stopover from a film festival in Sorrento, Italy, where one of his books was adapted into a movie. When the owner of the shop, Leopold Page, learned that Keneally was a writer, he began telling him "the greatest story of humanity man to man." That story was how Page, his wife, and thousands of other Jews were saved by a Nazi factory owner named Oskar Schindler during World War II.

Page gave Keneally photocopies of documents related to Schindler, including speeches, firsthand accounts, testimonies, and the actual list of names of the people he saved. It inspired Keneally to write the book Schindler's Ark, on which the movie is based. Page (whose real name was Poldek Pfefferberg) ended up becoming a consultant on the film.

2. Keneally wasn't the first person Leopold Page told about Oskar Schindler.

The film rights to Page's story were actually first purchased by MGM for $50,000 in the 1960s after Page had similarly ambushed the wife of film producer Marvin Gosch at his leather shop. Mrs. Gosch told the story to her husband, who agreed to produce a film version, even going so far as hiring Casablanca co-screenwriter Howard Koch to write the script. Koch and Gosch began interviewing Schindler Jews in and around the Los Angeles area, and even Schindler himself, before the project stalled, leaving the story unknown to the public at large.

3. Schindler made more than one list.

Seven lists in all were made by Oskar Schindler and his associates during the war, while four are known to still exist. Two are at the Yad Vashem in Israel, one is at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and one privately owned list was unsuccessfully auctioned off via eBay in 2013.

The movie refers to the first two lists created in 1944, otherwise known as "The Lists of Life." The five subsequent lists were updates to the first two versions, which included the names of more than 1000 Jews who Schindler saved by recruiting them to work in his factory.

4. Steven Spielberg first learned of Schindler in the early 1980s.

Former MCA/Universal president Sid Sheinberg, a father figure to Spielberg, gave the director Keneally's book when it was first published in 1982, to which Spielberg allegedly replied, "It'll make a helluva story. Is it true?"

Eventually the studio bought the rights to the book, and when Page met with Spielberg to discuss the story, the director promised the Holocaust survivor that he would make the film adaptation within 10 years. The project languished for over a decade because Spielberg was reluctant to take on such serious subject matter. Spielberg's hesitation actually stopped Hollywood veteran Billy Wilder from making Schindler's List his final film. Wilder tried to buy the rights to Keneally's book, but Spielberg and MCA/Universal scooped them up before he could.

5. Spielberg refused to accept a salary for making the movie.

Though Spielberg is already an extremely wealthy man as a result of the many big-budget movies that have made him one of Hollywood's most successful directors, he decided that a story as important as Schindler's List shouldn't be made with an eye toward financial reward. The director relinquished his salary for the movie and any proceeds he would stand to make in perpetuity, calling any such personal gains " blood money." Instead, Spielberg used the film's profits to found the USC Shoah Foundation, which was established in 1994 to honor and remember the survivors of the Holocaust by collecting personal recollections and audio visual interviews.

6. Before Spielberg agreed to make the movie, he tried to get other directors to make it.

Part of Spielberg's reluctance to make Schindler's List was that he didn't feel that he was prepared or mature enough to tackle a film about the Holocaust. So he tried to recruit other directors to make the film. He first approached director Roman Polanski, a Holocaust survivor whose own mother was killed in Auschwitz. Polanski declined, but would go on to make his own film about the Holocaust, The Pianist, which earned him a Best Director Oscar in 2003. Spielberg then offered the movie to director Sydney Pollack, who also passed.

The job was then offered to legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who accepted. Scorsese was set to put the film into production when Spielberg had an epiphany on the set of the revisionist Peter Pan story and realized that he was finally prepared to make Schindler's List. To make up for the change of heart, Spielberg traded Scorsese the rights to a movie he'd been developing that Scorsese would make into his next film: the remake of

7. The movie was a gamble for Universal, so they made Spielberg a dino-sized deal.

When Spielberg finally decided to make Schindler's List, it had taken him so long that Sheinberg and Universal balked. The relatively low-budget $23 million three-hour black-and-white Holocaust movie was too much of a risk, so they asked Spielberg to make another project that had been brewing at the studio: Jurassic Park. Make the lucrative summer movie first, they said, and then he could go and make his passion project. Spielberg agreed, and both movies were released in 1993; Jurassic Park in June and Schindler's List in December.

8. Spielberg didn't want a movie star with Hollywood clout to portray Schindler.

Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson auditioned for the role of Oskar Schindler, and actor Warren Beatty was far enough along in the process that he even made it as far as a script reading. But according to Spielberg, Beatty was dropped because, "Warren would have played it like Oskar Schindler through Warren Beatty."

For the role, Spielberg cast then relatively unknown Irish actor Liam Neeson, whom the director had seen in a Broadway play called Anna Christie. "Liam was the closest in my experience of what Schindler was like," Spielberg told The New York Times. "His charm, the way women love him, his strength. He actually looks a little bit like Schindler, the same height, although Schindler was a rotund man," he said. "If I had made the movie in 1964, I would have cast GertFrobe, the late German actor. That's what he looked like."

Besides having Neeson listen to recordings of Schindler, the director also told him to study the gestures of former Time Warner chairman Steven J. Ross, another of Spielberg's mentors, and the man to whom he dedicated the film.

9. Spielberg did his own research.

In order to gain a more personal perspective on the film, Spielberg traveled to Poland before principal photography began to interview Holocaust survivors and visit the real-life locations that he planned to portray in the movie. While there, he visited the former Gestapo headquarters on Pomorska Street, Schindler's actual apartment, and Amon Goeth's villa.

Eventually the film shot on location for 92 days in Poland by recreating the Płaszów camp in a nearby abandoned rock quarry. The production was also allowed to shoot scenes outside the gates of Auschwitz.

10. The little girl in the red coat was real.

A symbol of innocence in the movie, the little girl in the red coat who appears during the liquidation of the ghetto in the movie was based on a real person. In the film, the little girl is played by actress Oliwia Dabrowska, who-at the age of three-promised Spielberg that she would not watch the film until she was 18 years old. She allegedly watched the movie when she was 11, breaking her promise, and spent years rejecting the experience. Later, she told the Daily Mail, "I realized I had been part of something I could be proud of. Spielberg was right: I had to grow up to watch the film."

The actual girl in the red coat was named Roma Ligocka; a survivor of the Krakow ghetto, she was known amongst the Jews living there by her red winter coat. Ligocka, now a painter who lives in Germany, later wrote a biography about surviving the Holocaust called The Girl in the Red Coat.

11. The movie wasn't supposed to be in English.

For a better sense of reality, Spielberg originally wanted to shoot the movie completely in Polish and German using subtitles, but he eventually decided against it because he felt that it would take away from the urgency and importance of the images onscreen. According to Spielberg, "I wanted people to watch the images, not read the subtitles. There's too much safety in reading. It would have been an excuse to take their eyes off the screen and watch something else."

12. The studio didn't want the movie to be in black and white.

The only person at MCA/Universal who agreed with Spielberg and director of cinematography Janusz Kaminski's decision to shoot the movie in black and white was Sheinberg. Everyone else lobbied against the idea, saying that it would stylize the Holocaust. Spielberg and Kaminski chose to shoot the film in a grimy, unstylish fashion and format inspired by German Expressionist and Italian Neorealist films. Also, according to Spielberg, "It's entirely appropriate because I've only experienced the Holocaust through other people's testimonies and through archival footage which is, of course, all in black and white."

13. Spielberg's passion project paid off in Oscars.

Schindler's List was the big winner at the 66th Academy Awards. The film won a total of seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director awards for Spielberg. Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were both nominated for their performances, and the film also received nods for Costume Design, Makeup, and Sound.

14. Schindler's List is technically a student film.

Thirty-three years after dropping out of college, Spielberg finally received a BA in Film and Video Production from his newly minted alma mater, Cal State Long Beach, in 2002. The director re-enrolled in secret, and gained his remaining credits by writing essays and submitting projects under a pseudonym. In order to pass a film course, he submitted Schindler's List as his student project.Spielberg describes the time gap between leaving school and earning his degree as his "longest post-production schedule."

15. Spielberg thinks the film may be even more important to watch today.

In honor of the film's 25th anniversary, it's currently back in theaters. But Spielberg believes that the film may be even more important for today's audiences to see. "I think this is maybe the most important time to re-release this film," the director said in a recent interview with Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News. Citing the spike in hate crimes targeting religious minorities since
2016, he said, "Hate's less parenthetical today, it's more a headline."

Additional Sources:
The Making of Schindler's List: Behind the Scenes of an Epic Film, by Franciszek Palowski
An earlier version of this article appeared in 2015.

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In 1993, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List brought to the screen a story that had gone untold since the tragic events of the Holocaust. Oskar Schindler, a Nazi party member, used his pull within the party to save the lives of more than 1000 Jewish individuals by recruiting them to work in his Polish factory.

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1. The fictional town of Bon Temps is based on the real city of Clifton, Louisiana.

2. You can actually buy the True Blood drink online. (It tastes like orange soda, not blood.)

3. Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie Stackhouse, received an Oscar for her role in The Piano. She was 11 years old.

4. The actors who play Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) are married in real life.

5. Alexander Skarsgård, who plays Eric Northman, played one of Derek Zoolander's modeling friends in the movie Zoolander.

6. He also originally auditioned for the roll of Bill Compton.

7. His father happens to be famed Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård who has starred in Good Will Hunting and The Pirates of the Caribbean series.

8. Joe Manganiello, who plays Alcide Herveaux, used to get paid $25 a week to dress up like Captain Morgan at bars.

9. All the scenes filmed at the bar Fangtasia are actually filmed at Alex's Bar in Long Beach, Calif.

10. The series has its own porn parody.

11. Sam Merlotte, played by Sam Tramell, is the only member of the cast who is actually from Louisiana.

12. He also plays the father in The Fault in Our Stars.

13. Most of the main cast members do not have a genuine Southern accent.

14. Unlike the show, it is illegal for humans to marry vampires in the book series.

15. Michael Raymond-James, who plays René Lenier, paid money out of his own pocket to hire a dialect coach to master a Cajun accent.

16. The actor who plays Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwnaten) once accidentally left his bike in Steven Spielberg's parking space before a meeting for a role. He did not get the part.

17. The actress who plays Pam De Beaufort (Kristin Bauer van Straten) was Gillian, or the woman with man hands, on Seinfeld's "The Bizzaro Jerry" episode.

18. Deborah Ann Woll, who plays Jessica, actually does not have red hair. She's a natural blonde and has been dyeing it red since she was 14.

19. Each episode title is also the title of a song from pop or Christian music.

20. Alexander Skarsgård was once enlisted in the Swedish navy.

21. Charlaine Harris, the author of the books True Blood is based on, made a cameo appearance in the Season 2 finale.

22. The town name of Bon Temps was taken from the French saying "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" It means "Let the good times roll!"

23. Godric, played by Allan Hyde, is a teenager in the novels.

24. Born in 1835, Bill Compton is currently 179 years old.

25. Since silver hurts vampires, all of Russell Edgington's (Denis O'Hare) flatware is made out of gold.

26. The actor who plays Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) wrote an award-winning play about domestic violence when he was a student at Julliard.

27. Lauren Bowles, who plays Holly Cleary, is the real life half-sister of Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

28. Tara Thornton was originally played by actress Brook Kerr. Rutina Wesley replaced her after two episodes were filmed. All of Kerr's scenes were re-shot.

29. Anna Paquin is bisexual and highly involved in supporting LGBT causes.

30. Contrary to most vampire lore, vampires in True Blood are able see their own shadows, and appear in photographs.

31. Ryan Kwanten thought the sex scene between him and Alexander Skarsgård was fantastic.

32. The actors who portray vampires had to be trained on how to speak with prosthetic fangs.

33. Ian Somerhalder auditioned for the role of Jason Stackhouse but didn't get it.

34. Kristin Bauer van Straten practices reciting her Swedish lines hundreds of times so she can get them right on the show.

35. Jessica's (Deborah Ann Woll) real-life boyfriend Edward Scott suffers from choroideremia, which ultimately results in blindness. She uses her fame to spread awareness about the disease.

36. Snoop Dogg has a crush on Sookie Stackhouse, and he even made a video about it.

37. To get into character to play Lafayette, actor Nelsan Ellis listens to Rihanna.

38. The series has a cookbook with recipes and drinks inspired by the show.

39. Anna Camp, who plays Sarah Newlin on the show, also plays Aubrey Posen in Pitch Perfect.

40. Tara Thornton only plays a minor role in the books, but is Sookie's best friend in the TV series.

41. Stephen Moyer voices the vampire Jared on the Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb.

42. The effects staff made a version of drinkable carb-free prop blood at the request of a cast member.

43. Alexander Skarsgård got naked and exposed himself to the elements during an expedition to the South Pole in 2013.

44. Stephen Moyer is so protective of his prosthetic fangs that they are insured and washed daily.

45. Some of the makeup for the vampire characters takes the makeup artists up to five hours to apply.

46. There is a Tumblr page strictly dedicated to turning True Blood cast members into Sims characters.

47. Anna Paquin is actually a brunette. She dyes her hair blonde for the show.

48. The people of Waterford Crystal like True Blood so much that they loan out pieces to the show to use as props.

49. Queen Sophie's mansion for the show is located in Malibu, Calif., and is on the market for $34 million.

50. The house that is used for Russell Edgington's mansion is a registered historical landmark, and was built before the Civil War.

51. The show sponsors blood drives whenever it participates in Comic-Con.

52. In March 2014, Joe Manganiello made an appearance on WWE's Monday Night Raw and roughed up career wrestler The Miz.

53. The meat statue is Season 2, Episode 12 was real. It cost $500 to make, and the rotting smell was authentic.

54. This is what Joe Manganiello looked like as a teenager:

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54 Things You Never Knew About "True Blood"

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1. The fictional town of Bon Temps is based on the real city of Clifton, Louisiana. 2. You can actually buy the True Blood drink online. (It tastes like orange soda, not blood.) 3. Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie Stackhouse, received an Oscar for her role in The Piano.

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Blood, apparently, tastes like oranges. At least in the mind of Hollywood network executives. HBO is selling bottles of actual, real Tru Blood at $16 per four-pack.

There is, however, no real human (or other creature's) blood in it. Only a "delicious blood orange carbonated drink." The bottles are replicas of the ones used on the show. But watch out: it's caffeinated.

The good marketers at HBO even have some cocktail suggestions:

The Fangbanger - Tru Blood, Vodka

Death on the Beach - Tru Blood, Peach Schnapps, Pineapple Juice, Vodka

Plasmapolitan - Tru Blood, Citron, Cointreau, Fresh Lime Juice

You can pre-order now for shipment on September 8. The season finale of True Blood is almost upon us and I'm told fans are picking up this stuff for episode viewing parties. Will Vampire Eric and Sookie hook up? Will Vampire Bill be devastated? Will Maryann finally stop making people have orgies? Will Lafayette get the screen time he deserves? And more importantly, will HBO be making diet Tru Blood?

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Tru Blood For Sale: The Fake Blood Substitute Vampire Drink Now Available

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Blood, apparently, tastes like oranges. At least in the mind of Hollywood network executives. HBO is selling bottles of actual, real Tru Blood at $16 per four-pack. There is, however, no real human (or other creature's) blood in it. Only a "delicious blood orange carbonated drink." The bottles are replicas...

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The broadcast of the final episode of The Sopranos in 2007 caused some concern over the future of HBO. When Sex and the City ended in 2004, it was up to Tony Soprano to carry the network.

This could be seen in the numbers, as many people only renewed their HBO subscription when a new series of The Sopranos was due. It was up to HBO to come up with new programming that could keep the network going.

True Blood is the successor to the other hit shows on HBO. It was a dark and intimate supernatural drama, which brought vampires and other creatures of the night into the modern world.

The vampires of True Blood wanted equal rights and standing in society, even if many of their brethren were only interested in chaos and murder. True Blood was an adaptation of The Southern Vampire Mysteries novel series, though it quickly found an identity of its own.

True Blood was a huge hit for HBO, running for seven seasons. It couldn't have been easy for the cast and crew to have filmed so many episodes of a show that required many night shoots and special effects shots. As such, there was a lot of turmoil going on behind the cameras.

We are here today to look at the secrets of True Blood that rival the dark stories that took place on the show.

From one actor abandoning ship due to not wanting to partake in a gay romance storyline to the real-life drink that will let you pretend to be a vampire, here are the 15 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets You Didn't Know About True Blood!

15 Luke Grimes Left The Show Over A Gay Romance Storyline

A vampire named James Kent was introduced in the sixth season of True Blood. James would fall in love with Jessica and the two of them would escape the camp in which they were imprisoned. James eventually left Jessica for Lafayette and the two were still together as of the final episode.

James was originally played by Luke Grimes in season six. It was reported that Grimes left the show as he didn't want to perform a gay romance storyline. The role of James was recast, with Nathan Parsons taking over for the final season. Nelson Ellis publically denounced Grimes over his choice to leave the role.

It seems that Luke Grimes objections to appearing in certain roles haven't affected his career, as he has appeared in numerous films since leaving True Blood, which has included playing Elliot Grey in the Fifty Shades franchise.

14 Stephen Moyer Directed A Lot Of His Wife's Love Scenes (With Other Men)

When a TV show becomes popular and runs for several years, the main actors can ask for perks outside of a pay raise in order for them to renew their contracts. This can sometimes lead to actors being allowed to take over director or producer roles on the show.

Star Trek: The Next Generation had several episodes that were directed by members of the cast. Kelsey Grammer also directed many episodes of Frasier during its run.

Stephen Moyer (who played Bill Compton) asked to direct some of the episodes of True Blood. This meant that Moyer had to direct his wife (Anna Paquin) in several intimate scenes with other men.

The Bill/Sookie relationship petered out over the course of True Blood, which allowed her to pursue other men. Moyer not only had to watch his wife cavort with other guys, but had to give them both instructions on how to do it better.

13 The Creator Has Criticised People For Interpreting The Show As Being About Gay Rights

The common consensus among many fans of True Blood is that the story of vampires seeking equal rights is an allegory for the real-life struggle of gay people seeking equal rights.

The terminology used for vampires in True Blood by those who hate them is "fangers" and the moment when someone reveals that they are a vampire is referred to as "coming out of the coffin." The fact that Alan Ball (the creator of the show) himself is gay has encouraged this interpretation.

Alan Ball has stated in interviews that True Blood is not about gay rights and any such interpretation would be considered lazy and possibly homophobic. This is due to the fact that many vampires in True Blood are dangerous killers, so the public has every right to feel threatened by them.

12 The Controversial Scene From The True Blood Comic

Sookie Stackhouse's Fae heritage gave her telepathy and the ability to fire bolts of light from her hands. Jason Stackhouse is kind of lacking in the superpower department, but he also did gain some benefits from his Fae blood. It is revealed that Jason's good looks and charming nature can be attributed to his Fae ancestry.

Jason's seductive nature manifested at a young age, as it was revealed that he slept with one of his teachers when he was a teenager. This was actually a reused plot point from the True Blood comic series, which Alan Ball also had a hand in.

The True Blood comic shows Jason sleeping with his much older teacher at the age of fifteen. This sequence was played for titillation and fanservice, even though it depicted intimate acts involving a minor.

11 Jason's "Comeuppance"

Jason Stackhouse might have had the most love scenes out of any character in True Blood. He was shown to have numerous girlfriends and one night stands throughout the course of the show.

The most controversial storyline in True Blood involved the werepanthers who kidnapped Jason. Their clan was dying out, so they strapped him to a bed, bit him while in their panther forms, and drugged him with Viagra. The women of the clan then took turns sleeping with Jason, including ones who appeared to be underage.

Alan Ball and David Petrarca (the director of the episode) both claimed that this scene was Jason's "comeuppance" for his earlier promiscuous behavior. This is a totally misguided and frankly quite disgusting reason to include the scene.

Jason might have slept around, but all of his partners were willing and gave their consent. How can assault ever be justified in this way?

10 Rutina Wesley Replaced Brook Kerr Due To "Creative Differences"

It's not unusual for the cast of a TV show to be changed after a pilot is filmed and is then brought to series. This was the case with 30 Rock, as the original actresses for Cerie and Jenna were replaced when the first season was commissioned. Game of Thrones also has a pilot that has never officially been released which used numerous different actors.

True Blood had a pilot episode that was commissioned by HBO. It was strong enough to be picked up, which was likely helped by Alan Ball's passion for the project.

The True Blood pilot is practically identical to the first episode of the TV show. The main difference is that the role of Tara was played by Brook Kerr. She left the series due to "creative differences" and was replaced by Rutina Wesley. The true reason for Kerr leaving the show has never been revealed.

9 No Snoop Dogg Cameos Allowed!

It didn't take long for True Blood to break HBO's viewing record for a single episode, which had previously been set by the final episode of The Sopranos. The second season premiere of True Blood broke The Sopranos record and the figures only went higher from there. These numbers would later be topped by Game of Thrones.

True Blood might have been hitting high ratings, but the people at HBO still felt the need to go the extra mile to promote the show. They hired Snoop Dogg to perform a rap song about Sookie which was filled with references to the show.

It seems that Snoop Dogg wasn't actually welcome in Bon Temps. Sam Trammell (who played Sam Merlotte) confirmed that Alan Ball wouldn't allow a Snoop Dogg cameo, as he was too high profile. It was felt that Snoop Dogg's presence would be distracting.

8 The True Blood Cookbook

A popular TV show or movie series will inspire merchandise in all of its forms. Most of you have likely seen this recently with the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, as Rey and Kylo Ren's faces have been plastered on every product known to man.

It is quite common for a popular franchise to inspire the creation of a cookbook that teaches you how to make the fictional foods from the property. We have seen cookbooks for every kind of franchise, including Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and even Hannibal.

True Blood also has an official cookbook that contains a mixture of traditional southern recipes and cocktails from Fangtasia that have vampire-themed names. These include cringeworthy introductions for each dish that were attempted to be written from the perspective of different characters from the show.

7 The Meat Statue From Season 2 Was Real

The second season of True Blood introduced a Maenad named Maryann to the series. Maryann was a powerful supernatural being who wanted to marry Dionysus. She used her considerable magical powers to take control of the residents of Bon Temps.

Maryann orders the creation of a food statue, which is made up of raw meat and vegetables. You might think that such a structure would need to be made from artificial food, but Alan Ball insisted that the statue be as real as possible.

The production crew spent five-hundred dollars a day on food and then had to hire security guards to protect it from being ravaged by wild animals. The presence of the meat statue in an outdoor shoot in the middle of summer also meant that it absolutely reeked.

6 One Of The Actresses Demanded Carb-Free Blood

All of the actors who played vampires in True Blood were still alive and as such couldn't be sustained on the blood of the living. They needed to drink a blood substitute for the scenes when their characters were actually feeding.

This meant that a separate formula was used for a fake blood that was drinkable, rather than the kinds used in other scenes.

It seems that one of the actresses on True Blood was worried about the calorie intake of drinking so much fake blood, so she demanded that they create a carb-free version, as she had to consume so much of it.

The special effects expert who confirmed this has kept mum on the identity of the actress who complained, though he did reveal that it wasn't Anna Paquin.

5 The Long Second Life Of Lafayette Reynolds

An amazing performance can lead to a character remaining on a TV show for far longer than was originally planned. Jessie was planned to die during the early episodes of Breaking Bad, while Bronn's repeated returns as an associate of the Lannister regime in Game of Thrones is wholly inspired by the adoration earned for Jerome Flynn's performance.

Nelson Ellis managed to earn his character a stay of execution thanks to his amazing performance. Ellis played Lafayette Reynolds in the first season of True Blood.

The character actually dies in the second book in The Southern Vampire Mysteries series, though he was kept alive for the remainder of True Blood. Ellis became one of only four actors who appeared in every single episode of True Blood.

4 Godric Was Way More Evil In The Books

The character of Godric in True Blood is actually a composite of two people from The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels. Godric is a mixture of Appius Livius Ocella and Godfrey, who is sometimes known as Godric.

Appius was Eric's maker in the books, while Godfrey was an evil vampire who had repented and sought death by stepping out into the sun in order to be absolved of his sins.

Godric talked about his sins in True Blood, but they pale in comparison to those of Godfrey. It is revealed to Sookie that Godfrey was both a child abuser and a serial killer before he changed his ways.

Godfrey also admits to murdering children, as well as willingly feeding on them. These elements were left out of True Blood, as the TV show tried to make Godric more of a benevolent mentor figure to Eric and Nora.

3 Everyone Hated The Endings (Both Of Them)

It is rare for the final episode of a TV show to please all of the fans. This is due to people being unhappy with certain characters ending up together romantically, or plotlines being left unresolved.

True Blood certainly had a polarizing response to its finale. There are a lot of reasons for this, though the most common one is that we never learn the identity of Sookie's husband/father of her unborn child.

Fans of True Blood weren't alone in their disappointment of the ending, as The Southern Vampire Mysteries fans also disliked the ending of the book series. This was due to the fact that Sookie ended up with Sam, who was a divisive character on his own.

The fact that Sookie didn't end up with any of the more popular characters in the series enraged many fans to the point where they sent the author death threats online.

2 Elvis The Cat Killer

There have been repeated sightings of Elvis Presley in the real world, even though he passed away in 1977.

The world of The Southern Vampire Mysteries actually has a reason for these sightings: Elvis is still alive, or dead, considering the fact that he is now a vampire.

When Elvis died in 1977, he was taken to a morgue that was staffed by a vampire. This vampire happened to be a big fan, so he turned Elvis into one of the undead. Elvis was so far gone before the turning could be performed that he came back in a damaged form. Elvis now referred to himself as Bubba and hated being reminded of his past.

The most disturbing thing about Bubba is the fact that herefuses to feed on human blood and only feasts on cats instead.

1 There Is A Real Tru Blood Drink

The name True Blood refers to a drink within the universe of the show called Tru Blood, which is a synthetic version of plasma that vampires can drink in order to stay alive.

The invention of Tru Blood is what prompted vampires to reveal themselves to the public at last, as they now had a means of sustaining themselves without needing to feed on a human.

HBO never want to miss an opportunity to sell overpriced merchandise on their website. This is what led to them creating a real Tru Blood drink and selling it for a limited period of time on their online store. Tru Blood is essentially orange soda in a replica bottle.

Those of you looking to pretend that you are a vampire might want to start saving up, as even empty Tru Blood bottles can cost a lot of money online.

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Can you think of any other dark secrets about True Blood? Sound off in the comments!

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15 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets You Didn't Know About True Blood

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The broadcast of the final episode of The Sopranos in 2007 caused some concern over the future of HBO. When Sex and the City ended in 2004, it was up to Tony Soprano to carry the network. This could be seen in the numbers, as many people only renewed their HBO subscription when a new series of The Sopranos was due.

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Article on American Cinematographer by Jay Holben

When writer/director Alan Ball hired Checco Varese, AMC to shoot the pilot for HBO's horror fantasy True Blood, the cinematographer spent the next several nights "doing my homework," he says. "I watched everything I could that was on TV at 10 p.m. I flipped to one channel, and it looked fantastic; the show was moody and had lots of camera energy and a bit of a blue tone. Then I flipped the channel, and that show looked great, but it looked just like the first one. Then I flipped again, and again, and saw that most of the shows looked the same. That's not the case now - there are a lot of great shows with a lot of great looks - but at the time, they all looked the same to me! I thought True Blood merited a very different look, something sweaty, hot and sexy, which is what Louisiana feels like. Alan, [production designer] Suzuki Ingerslev and I decided to make it a saturated show, with red reds and green greens."

Another key component of the look is humidity, which had to be artificially created for the Los Angeles-based production. "When you're in a very humid climate, there isn't any dust," notes Varese. "So whenever we shot an exterior, I made sure every inch was wet down." Fire hoses were used to wet down the vegetation in the background and Hudson sprayers were used to saturate the closer greens. "I was obsessed with that detail because I think it really refines the look," says Varese. "When you see those details in the trees in the background and the sheen in the foreground, it really looks like Louisiana. The constant wetness was tough on the actors, but it really enhanced the look."

Set in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, La., True Blood is based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Series, which was begun in 2001 with the publication of Dead Until Dark. The invention of synthetic blood has enabled vampires to integrate themselves into human society, but the transition has not been smooth. Tensions in town reach a boiling point when a comely local, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), takes up with a vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and Sookie's associates and loved ones begin turning up dead.

Varese achieved his night-exterior look by pushing Kodak Vision2 Expression 500T 5229 by 1 1/2 stops (to 1,500 ISO) and overexposing his highlights and deeply underexposing the shadows while maintaining skin tones right at key. "I wanted the night look to have a rough-around-the-edges feeling, and pushing the stock a stop and a half gave it more texture and grain without making it grainy. You have to control your tones, however."

To create overall ambience for night exteriors, key grip Miguel Benavides and gaffer Jonathon Bradley strung lines of aircraft cable 40′ above the ground, just over the trees, in a small section of the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank. From the cables, they hung rows of 6K space lights. Then Varese incorporated an LRX Piranha, an 80′ boom arm with three remote-controlled fixtures, a 12K HMI and a 12K tungsten as his moonlight backlight.

Varese always made sure the "good guys" had an eyelight. For "bad guys" and ambiguous characters, he eliminated any reflections in their eyes, ensuring they had a dull-eyed look. He even went as far as blocking out windows and masking set items to eliminate any reflective sparkle in the characters' eyes.

When shooting a pilot, "you're responsible for creating something that's repeatable," Varese notes. "So even though you always have extra time on a pilot, you can't get too extravagant or too exotic. If the show is picked up, what you're doing has to translate into the flow of a regular production. You have to make sure your choices are flexible enough to last."

After True Blood was picked up for a full season, Varese began working in rotation with cinematographer Matthew Jensen, but after the first few episodes, the writers' strike brought production to a halt. Varese took a job on a feature, and when the strike was resolved, he was unavailable to return to True Blood, so Jensen took over as the show's primary cinematographer. (John B. Aronson and Amy Vincent, ASC also shot episodes in the first season. For the second season, which will begin airing in June, Romeo Tirone will alternate episodes with Jensen.)

"Matt and I collaborated in a very organic way," Varese recalls. "I never sat down with him and said, 'This is how you have to do it,' because every cinematographer has his own style." Jensen adds, "Checco and I talked a little bit about a few aesthetic ideas, but the beginning of the season was so crazy that we didn't have much time to talk. I watched the pilot many times, and we discussed the improvements Checco wanted to make."

Jensen helped refine the show's visual language through lens selection and camera positioning. "I wanted to avoid shooting on long lenses because that has become standard TV grammar, and also, I feel Suzuki's phenomenal sets really lend themselves to shooting with wider lenses," says Jensen. "Most of them have actual hardwood floors and hard ceilings, so you want to see the whole set. I also wanted to experiment with moving the camera closer to the actor for a close-up instead of shooting it with a 75mm lens; I'd rather use a 40mm and move closer because that puts the audience in the middle of the action. We were usually shooting with a 25mm, 27mm or 40mm Cooke S4, and occasionally even an 18mm. For day exteriors, I'd usually pull out the Optimo zoom, but onstage we were mostly shooting with primes."

Jensen typically lights the sets to a T2.8 and works at T5.6/8 for day exteriors. "With the wider lenses at a T2.8, there's a nice feeling to the falloff. I love to get the camera close to someone with a 40mm lens and see that shallow depth of field with a very gentle falloff in the focus."

One of the show's key sets is Merlotte's Bar and Grill, where Sookie is a waitress. It's a place where several of the main characters gather at least once per episode. "That's where we do our highest page count each episode," says Jensen. "Alan [Ball] was very specific that he wanted it to feel like a family place. We first considered using practicals and neon to light the set, but that proved to be a little too moody, so then we started rigging all the ceilings with fixtures, but that was tough because they're hard ceilings, and we're shooting so wide that we're nearly always seeing them. We had to cut away sections of the ceiling that could be removed when they were off-camera so we could position Kino Flo DMX fixtures there. For season two, we're cutting back a bit on the lighting budget, so the Kinos had to go. My gaffer, Evans Brown, came up with a fixture he calls 'Triffids' [named for The Day of the Triffids], which are basically homemade lightboxes. He took 750-watt Nooks and built an aluminum casing around them, sprayed black on the outside and white on the inside, and then faced them with 1000H. We have dozens of them in the ceiling; they have a nice, soft spread but can be really punchy. They've enabled me to lift the base in Merlotte's and get more exposure to show off more wood in the sets."

Jensen also found lighting behind the bar to be a bit of a challenge, thanks to a header built into the set above the bar. He and Brown incorporated "Razor" lights, which were created by Denny Eccelston, Varese's feature-film gaffer; the fixtures feature two black PVC pipes with long slots cut into one side, and a 2′ or 4′ Kino Flo tube is placed inside the inner pipe. By rotating the two pipes in opposite directions, the user can adjust the intensity of the light (by controlling how much light spills out the larger slot) as well as its direction. "They're great tools for getting an edgelight or a little keylight into places where you just can't put any other fixture," Jensen says.

The house Sookie shares with her grandmother, Adele (Lois Smith), is a location that initially gave Jensen some problems. "The house is small, and there's a lot of white, especially in the kitchen, where a lot of action takes place," he says. "Although white walls are usually something a cinematographer shies away from, I found them to be a blessing. We're normally in the kitchen in the mornings or during the day, and I found I could really underlight the interior and have a lot of light blasting outside on our TransLite and Chromatrans backings. I try to light them to about 3 to 5 stops over key, reflected reading. I shoot on 5229, and I'm amazed at how much detail holds in the highlights and the blacks. Because the drops are highly reflective, we found that any unit on the floor could cause a really bad glare, so we rigged cyc-strips on pipes far above the drops. We have I-beams on chain motors that hold our 'sun,' which we made with a 20K tungsten and 12-Light MaxiBrutes in season one. For season two, we've replaced them with Big-Eye 10Ks with T-12 globes and Leonetti's Master Blasters, single fixtures with four 1K FCM globes; they're really punchy but take up less space."

With the overexposure outside the windows, Jensen will set the interior exposure as much as 2 stops under. "I also tend to fill inside with 1/4 CTB, and we use a lot of smoke in the kitchen to add atmosphere and a sense of humidity. It works well.

"So much of the first season of a show is trying to figure out what works and what doesn't," he concludes. "It's really a process because you rarely have time for extensive testing. You need four or five episodes to figure out how the actors photograph, what effects look realistic, how dark the night should be and so forth. We try to continue to refine the look to keep it fresh for us and the audience."

TECHNICAL SPECS
1.78:1
35mm (3-perf)
Arricam System
Cooke S4, Angenieux Optimo lenses
Kodak Vision2 200T 5217,
Expression 500T 5229

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Article on American Cinematographer by Jay Holben When writer/director Alan Ball hired Checco Varese, AMC to shoot the pilot for HBO's horror fantasy True Blood, the cinematographer spent the next several nights "doing my homework," he says. "I watched everything I could that was on TV at 10 p.m.

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Depot Liquor in Texas recently purchased some authentic costumes and props from the from the HBO True Blood studio auction. These items are now on display at their store in Brownwood, Texas.
In the Halloween spirit, authenticated items used on the set of "True Blood" are on display at Depot Liquor.

They include

Sookie's season three outfit from her first time going to a werewolf bar which includes white lace shirt, blue jean skirt, wedge shoes and earrings.

Tara's season six vamp camp uniform with her number 3 on it (which is also a little bloody) and her fangs are also present for viewing.

Jason's season five bloody shades from shooting up the authorities,

a full wine glass from Fangtasia,

an empty true blood bottle are also on display.

The Depot Liquor gang, being huge fans of the show, is hosting a True Blood themed taste testing from 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 25th. The public, ages 21 and over, are invited to come in costume and to enjoy the tasting. So plan to dress up and visit Depot Liquor to see a part of Hollywood come to Brownwood and enjoy a little Halloween fun on Saturday.
Pictured below are some of the props and costumes:
source: brownwoodnews.com

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True Blood costumes and props on display

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Depot Liquor in Texas recently purchased some authentic costumes and props from the from the HBO True Blood studio auction. These items are now on display at their store in Brownwood, Texas. In the Halloween spirit, authenticated items used on the set of "True Blood" are on display at Depot Liquor.

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With its graphic depictions of sex and violence, "True Blood" isn't exactly a family friendly TV show. But this "Sesame Street" parody of the show can certainly be watched before bedtime.

In time for the June 22nd premiere of "True Blood's" seventh and final season, "Sesame Street" released "True Mud: The Yuckiest Show on Television." From the country-blues theme song to Bill Compton's signature bangs, the parody is spot on, but of course it adds a PG twist.

Instead of blood, the sullen male protagonist is seeking mud, which according to "True Mud" folklore, means he is a (gasp!) "grouch." His request for mud paves the way for a lesson in rhyming -- the characters around him mistakenly bring him a spud, a dud, a man named Bud, and even cud before finally getting it right.

It's a muddy delight.

Great Sesame Street Clips

SEE GALLERY

Parents True Blood Sesame Street

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Now You Can Finally Watch 'True Blood' With Your Kids, Sort Of

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With its graphic depictions of sex and violence, "True Blood" isn't exactly a family friendly TV show. But this "Sesame Street" parody of the show can certainly be watched before bedtime. In time for the June 22nd premiere of "True Blood's" seventh and final season, "Sesame Street" released "True Mud: The Yuckiest Show on Television."