After our visit with Ben McKenzie, the PR staff brought Regina back in for a second round of questions with us since we (and she) had some extra time while Ben & Mike shot their scene out in the Gang squad room. At the very last second, they had a technical glitch that delayed shooting, so Mike decided to pop back in and join us, giving us all the rate opportunity to see both him and Regina together for the interview.

At the very end of the video, which gets cut off slightly, you hear one of the PR people say something about wrapping things up. This is so that we media reps can go out and quietly watch from a corner as Mike & Ben shoot an actual scene from episode 3x05 in the Gang squad room. Of course we weren’t going to say No! It was quite interesting to watch, especially as the scene itself was perhaps 15-30 seconds long at most, but the exacting standards of Southland required that EVERYTHING be perfect and took multiple times to shoot it just right - partly due to the fact that a badly behaving door hing kept squeaking and interfering with the audio on the cameras (perfectionists! Gotta love ‘em!). Needless to say, all 4 of us will be sitting there in front of our televisions during the episode saying “We were there!” when it finally airs, a rare treat indeed.

Now with no further ado…. Michael and Regina (mostly Regina!):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn71zPBWNrI

This is the next in our series of videos from our visit to the set of Southland on December 17th, an interview with Michael Cudlitz who plays Officer John Cooper. We get a bit off track towards the end, but I left it in anyway because it gets a bit funny - you’ll see when you watch. You’ll also notice what I’ve observed in the past about interviews with Michael. He is very animated and boisterous, an extremely lively and fun interviewee.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E_8x_pS5jw

Still to come - Michael and Regina together, Regina Part 2 and Chic Daniels!

Due to the limitations of video lengths on YouTube, as well as my desire not to give away too much in the way of spoilers for the upcoming Season 3 of SouthLAnd, there are 2 small sections of the interview in this video that have been “redacted” - sorry folks! Ben got to talking when one of the other media reps asked some questions she shouldn’t have and gave away more than was appropriate for general consumption at this stage, so you’ll just have to wait for the episodes to air!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFTl4rhz8Wg

If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to check out yesterday’s video interview with Regina King, and the picture gallery from the visit!

More to come - probably tomorrow!

Regina was amazingly gracious and friendly, although she had to have been under immense pressure. In fact, all 3 of them - Regina, Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz, plus technical adviser Chic Daniels - were very pleasant and wonderful with us the whole time. It was their last day of filming for 2010, they had a very long day ahead of them still, after a very early start, the weather was horrible outside, and yet they all still treated us like old friends there for a chat instead of website reporters there to pick their brains. They know, as does TNT, that the fans are the ones that helped save this show not once, but twice. They know who they are making the show for and they appreciate it.

So on with the video interview!

The initial question got cut off, because we had just sat down from greeting Regina and shaking her hand, when the guy from one of the other media outlets jumped right into his first question before I could start the camera! His question as something along the lines of “How valuable is it to have the real, off-duty LAPD Detectives on set with you working as extras?”

If you have trouble viewing the video as it is embedded here in it’s HD format, try viewing it directly on YouTube here. You can also download this and our other videos in a variety of formats for your mobile phone, iPod, AppleTV, etc., from our YouTube Channel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gw4HjivBHM

Importing, processing and editing each of these videos takes a LONG time - this 7 minute clip took approximately 2+ hours alone, so please be patient with me! I will try to get one done per day until all 5 remaining videos are done. The remaining videos will be:

Part 3: Ben McKenzie

Part 4: Michael Cudlitz

Part 5: Michael Cudlitz & Regina King

Part 6: Regina King Redux

Part 7: Chic Daniels Weapons Discussion (part video, part written description - the battery died on the camera!)

TNT promo video, ‘FLASH’ posted in the Southland Facebook

From the SpoilerTV.com site:

You can also view it on the SouthLAnd Facebook page directly, here:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150349746780142&oid=326682460095

For those that asked (or may ask in the fugure) – here it is, not just the song, but the video from YouTube that goes with it.

Canção Do Mar is a Portuguese song (meaning “Song of the Sea”) by Dulce Pontes. Obviously it was slightly adapted and only used as an instrumental version for the opening credits of the show, but the full version is very beautiful and somewhat haunting in itself.

Enjoy!

The chat will be online at 11pm Eastern, 8pm Pacific. You can access the chat from the SouthLAnd Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/southland, or you can go directly to the TNT website at http://www.tnt.tv/title/display/?oid=53840

“Phase Three” is the first of 6 never before seen episodes of the show that were produced before the show was canceled by NBC immediately before its scheduled return last fall. To date, ratings have been (based on all reports that I’ve seen) “good” and TNT has been “happy”, but we really need to blow them out of the water now to ensure that new episodes are ordered! Make sure you are watching this show! Tell everyone you know about SouthLAnd – friends, family, neighbors, coworkers – EVERYONE! Even more important, if you know anyone at all that is a “Nielsen Family”, make sure THEY are watching, so their numbers get counted “officially”.

If you have never seen SouthLAnd before, then now is the perfect time for you. TNT will be airing a marathon of the first 7 episodes of the show immediately before the Season 2 premiere, starting at 3pm Easter, 2pm Central. Now is the chance to catch up on what you have been missing!

If you are already a fan, you absolutely do not want to miss “Phase Three”! Trust me – I was privileged to see this episode at an advanced screening in Los Angeles in January and it will leave you breathless! We will have a full recap and review here on the site after the airing (with time for the West Coast viewers to see it, too), but until then, you can check out a special preview courtesy of TNT right here:

Stars included on the video are Ben McKenzie, Michael Cudlitz, Regina King and Kevin Alejandro.