The New Olympian Agora

The unofficial 'Class of the Titans' fansite's newsblog for keeping fans up-to-date on information about the show. No affiliation with Studio B Productions, Nelvana, and Teletoon. Please e-mail any interesting news to age.of.silicon@gmail.com. Thank you.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

SITE: Season Two News Summary Finally Updated!

We said it was coming, and now it's here. The Season Two news summary has finally been updated with all of the new material that has been released since the last update back in mid-February!

So check it out for all sorts of Season Two goodness, and of course, there are massive spoilers everywhere. Also, please let us know if there are any errors (including spelling, grammar, and formatting) or if we omitted something we can fix it as soon as possible.

We're also thinking of putting together a shorter version of the new summary to go along with the main one. This shorter one would include just lists of new characters, locations, episode titles, etc. without the extra information like the mythology and source links. Basically, it would make looking for information quickly much easier. At this point, we're not sure when that would go up, as the editor is soon leaving to study in England for six weeks, but keep an eye out for it in the future.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

GREATEST HITS: Q&A with Director Brad Goodchild.

Since it seems like there are a lot of new 'Class of the Titans' fans coming into the fandom lately (welcome!) and some questions and requests get re-posted often, we're introducing a new Greatest Hits feature where every once in awhile, we'll post links to old news that would interest fans new and old.

To start-off, we're re-posting links to our old Q&A with Director Brad Goodchild. In the past, fans would e-mail questions they had for the director through the newsblog editor, who would then filter them for repeats or overly trivial things, then finally pass on the good questions to Mr. Goodchild. Though we haven't done that for awhile, we actually do have some leftover material that was never posted, and we'll do so soon.

In the meantime, here are the links to all of the questions and answers that were posted in the past. These will also eventually all be archived on Age of Silicon when it finally opens. Do NOT repost any of this material anywhere unless I have given you permission in writing. Please also read through these before asking question on the director's blog! Thanks.

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1. What was the funniest thing and/or blooper that has happened while working on the show so far? ANSWER

2. Characters go through a lot of changes throughout production. For example, you previously mentioned that Odie was originally NOT African-Canadian, and that you made the change in order to have more diversity among the main heroes. What other major interesting changes did some of the other characters go through as they were being designed? ANSWER

3. There's a huge selection of heroes in Greek mythology. When creating the main characters, how did you select which seven heroes to have the kids be descended from (particularly the choice of Narcissus)? And why seven, no more no less? ANSWER

4. When coming up with the idea of New Olympia, was its design based off a real city like Athens, New York, or Vancouver, or was it just a random idea thrown together so that the gang would have somewhere to live? ANSWER

5. Each of the main seven characters has a specific look, personal style, personality, etc. What inspired the different designs, appearance, style, etc. (ie. general character design) for each of them (or a few select ones you want to talk more about)? ANSWER

6. The press release for the show mentions that the seven modern-day heroes are from all over the world. We know from the original series Bible that Atlanta is from the North-West Territories, Herry's from the Prairies, and Theresa was born into an English family, though she doesn't sound English. Where are the other heroes (Jay, Herry, Odie, and Neil) from? ANSWER

7. In an earlier question, you answered that Teletoon originally wanted three female heroes, but Studio B changed it to two. Who would the third girl be descended from, and what kind of character concept was Teletoon thinking of for her? ANSWER

8. How were the voice actors selected and casted for their parts? It seems like they were chosen before the initial character designs, so did they get a say on what they wanted their character to look or act like? ANSWER

9. Most fans have seen from the draft script of Episode 1.23: Cronus' Flying Circus that an episode's contents can change a lot from the draft script to the final episode. What's another episode (or episodes) that went through many changes, and what things changed? ANSWER

10. How difficult is it to fit each episode into the twenty-two minute timeframe? Does a lot of material end-up being cut-out so it'll fit? ANSWER

11. How much research does it take to find all the details you might use for the myths you put into the episodes? How do you even go around deciding what myth to use in the first place, and which research sources does the crew use? ANSWER

Friday, April 27, 2007

SITE: Newsblog Essay Contest Rules.

On Monday, I announced that the New Olympian Agora would be hosting its first contest to celebrate its first anniversary.

This entry covers the rules of the contest. Please read over them carefully and remember to check often to see if there are any additions. Failure to follow the rules will result in disqualification, though I will warn you first and give you a chance to fix it.

BASIC RULES

1. For potential legal reasons, you must be at least 13 years old to participate. Please do not attempt to lie about it.

2. Due to the nature of the prize, you and/or your parent/guardian (if you are underage) should be comfortable with privately e-mailing me your address if you win. If this doesn't work for you, but you still really want to enter the contest, let me know and we can work something out.

3. Plagiarism is frowned down upon VERY much here. Your essay must be your own original work and if you quote something or use other people's ideas, you must use proper citations, and I will run searches for this kind of thing.

4. Individual submissions only. No pair or group essays.

ESSAY GUIDELINES

1. The topic, as mentioned in the original announcement, is to take one of the seven main 'Class of the Titans' characters and argue why an alternative mythological ancestor would work, citing specific examples. Entries that try to cop-out of this by arguing why the character's current ancestor is perfect will be disqualified. The alternative ancestor MUST be an existing Greco-Roman mythological character.

2. The word limit is 500-750 words. There is a little bit of leeway beyond this range, but don't be ridiculous about it. Writing more is not necessarily better.

3. Spelling and grammar DO count. A proper essay tone is expected. Take the time to proofread. If English is not your first language, please make sure you let me know, though it's recommended that you get someone more familiar with the language to also proofread for you. Also, use proper paragraphs.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Please send contest entries to age.of.silicon@gmail.com with 'Newsblog Essay Contest -- [NAME]' with your name or online username (whichever you want to be addressed as) where it says [NAME]. Attach the essay either in the body of the e-mail or as a link to where you've posted it online. The current deadline is May 31, 2007.

Rules are subject to change at any time, so please check back regularly to see if anything has since been modified. Judging criteria and perhaps a sample entry (comparing one of the characters to their current ancestor, so that I'm not potentially infringing on anyone's essay idea) to come in another post.

If you have any further questions, please leave a comment to this entry.

Storyboard Artist Craig Wilson's Blog and Website.

Yesterday, director Brad Goodchild noted that storyboard artist Craig Wilson has both a blog and website and that links to both were added to his blog's sidebar. If you search around the website, you can also find a sample storyboard from Episode 1.02: Chaos 101, Part II.

The newsblog's sidebar will be updated soon to add an appropriate link to the blog. Thanks for your patience once again.

More Incidental Thursday Animals at 'Brad's Corner'.

For this week's Incidental Thursday, director Brad Goodchild has done another animal-themed edition of the feature on his blog. Available for viewing here, here, here, here, here, and here are 26 different images. As per usual, it's probably best to leave general comments at the first entry we've linked to.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

More Opening Video Clips and Background Keys at 'Brad's Corner'.

On the non-spoiler front, director Brad Goodchild posted two more clips to his blog yesterday. You can now watch the opening scene and titles for Episode 1.08: See You at the Crossroads and Episode 1.14: Make-Up Exam here and here respectively.

The spoiler-free part of this week's Background Tuesday can also be seen here, with the spotlighted episode being Episode 1.24: Sybaris Fountain.

THE REST OF THIS ENTRY AND ITS LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SEASON TWO OF 'CLASS OF THE TITANS'. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED, THEN PLEASE NEITHER CLICK ON ANY LINKS NOR READ ANY FURTHER. THANK YOU.

This week's Background Tuesday also has a second part with four new background keys from Season Two. The first two lineart images, according to the names of the files, appear to be for Poseidon's underwater palace, possibly the one that was first mentioned in Epidsode 1.16: Get Kraken. Mere speculation on our part though, and there's no confirmation if that's the case yet.

The two full-colour keys are of a cave in Mount Aigaion and the Brownstone in Christmas decor. They both appear to be for the same episode, and given the Christmas theme and the reference to the cave where Amalthea the goat suckled the infant Zeus while in hiding from Cronus, they are probably for the Season Two episode titled The Game Plan, even though Mr. Goodchild didn't specify it in his comments.

We have one more final exam left on Friday, and then we'll finally do a HUGE update on the Season Two new summary with almost a good three months' worth of material.

Monday, April 23, 2007

SITE: The First Newsblog Contest! With Prizes!

The first anniversary of the New Olympian Agora, the fan-run newsblog for 'Class of the Titans', is coming-up very soon on May 7, 2007. Since we're so excited, we thought we'd celebrate by making like Achilles in Book XXIII of the 'Iliad' and hosting a fabulous contest with fabulous prizes!

Since I'm in a rush right now, I'll elaborate on things like rules, submission guidelines, etc. in a later entry. Below is the basic information, though it's subject to change until I set the final rules.

What kind of fabulous contest is this? Will I have to wrestle Odysseus like Telamonian Ajax did?

The contest will be a test of your knowledge of the show AND Greco-Roman mythology. Basically, you will write a short (emphasis on short) 500-750 word (informal) essay where you will take one of the show's seven main characters, select an alternate mythological ancestor, and explain why your choice works.

By explain, I mean you should cite specific examples from both the show and mythology to support your argument -- for example, if you think Turnus (of Vergil's 'Aeneid') is a good alternative ancestor for Archie because they're both kind of angry sometimes, you have to write-down examples for both. If I have time after my exams, I will write a quick example comparing Jay and Aeneas.

What about the fabulous prizes? Tripods? Trojan slave-girls? Cows?

At the moment, I will award the winner of the contest -- judged on creativity, strength of argument, writing, etc. -- with his or her choice of a classical work. The choices right now include Homer's 'Iliad' or 'Odyssey', Apollonius' 'Argonautica', Vergil's 'Aeneid', and Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'. If the winner has a strong preference for something else, I will consider it. Runner-up prizes have not yet been decided at this point.

Depending on how many submissions I receive, there may be two prize categories -- one for fans whose mythology knowledge is fairly basic and one for fans who have a strong classics background and can quote the likes of Homer, Pindar, etc. That's just to be fair, not to insult anyone. But again, this depends on the number of contest entries and their quality.

That's all I have time to elaborate on for now. More information to come later, but if you're potentially interested (you don't have to know for sure yet), please leave a comment so I can get some idea of the numbers. Thank you.

Official 'Class of the Titans' Teasers on YouTube and at 'Brad's Corner'.

Studio B Productions (website) seems to have joined the YouTube trend, as they now have an account there that is currently hosting three 'Class of the Titans' Season One teasers.

Director Brad Goodchild has also posted the three teasers to his blog. You can view the teasers for Episode 1.01: Chaos 101, Part I here, Episode 1.02: Chaos 101, Part II here, and Episode 1.13: Little Box of Horrors here. Each clip includes the respective episode's opening teaser followed by the main titles. General comments are probably best directed to this entry.

EDIT (3:05PM): The newsblog's sidebar has been updated to include a link to the show's official YouTube account.

EDIT (4:17PM): Storyboard artist Lyn Hart has also provided links to the teasers on her blog.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

'Class of the Titans' Nominated for an ACT 2007 Award of Excellence.

'Class of the Titans' has once again been nominated for another award! According to Broadcaster Magazine, the show received a nomination in the Animation 9-14 category for the 2007 Awards of Excellence, which honours Canadian English-language youth programs and is hosted by the Alliance for Children and Television (ACT).

ACT's official website also has more information about the awards, including press releases and ordering tickets to the gala. The award ceremony itself will take place on May 31, 2007 at 7:30PM ET/PT at the CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Ontario. No word yet on whether the presentation of the awards will be broadcast or not.

Congratulations to Studio B Productions (website) and all of those involved on the show once again!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

'Dream Weaver' Storyboard Sketches at 'HartWorks'.

THIS ENTRY AND ITS LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SEASON TWO OF 'CLASS OF THE TITANS'. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED, THEN PLEASE NEITHER CLICK ON ANY LINKS NOR READ ANY FURTHER. THANK YOU.

And now for something different! Storyboard artist Lyn Hart has posted two fantastic rough storyboard sketches to her blog. The two images are from the Season Two episode titled Dream Weaver (more information here). According to Ms. Hart, the storyboard are for a scene that horizontally pans to reveal a battle scene with dead Titans, but that's all that's been revealed (in addition to the previous background key) for now.

We're still on hiatus at the moment, but we will definitely try to get the Season Two news summary (it has NOT been forgotten!) updated sometime between an exam on Roman history and a flight to England. Thanks for being (very) patient.

EDIT (8:56PM): We've updated the newblog's sidebar to include links to the two new crew blogs that were recently established. If you haven't checked them out yet, please do! You won't be disappointed.

Incidental Thursday Animal Edition at 'Brad's Corner'.

For this week's Incidental Thursday, director Brad Goodchild has posted the first of hopefully more animal editions at his blog. There are 20 images in total, and they can be viewed here, here, here, and here. As per usual, the first link is the one containing the director's comments, which includes some mentions of possible featured models for the future.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

'Antikythera Device' Background Keys at 'Brad's Corner'.

For this week's Background Tuesday, director Brad Goodchild has posted twelve full-colour background keys from Episode 1.07: Antikythera Device to his blog. They can be viewed here, here, and here, and please direct comments to to the first entry that has the blurb. Ancient Egypt enthusiasts should really enjoy some of the museum background keys.

We're still technically on hiatus right now.

Friday, April 13, 2007

'Antikythera Device' Storyboards and Storyboard Revisionist Lyn Hart's Blog.

Despite the fact that we're technically on a hiatus, it seems like today's a busy day for 'Class of the Titans' news, at least in terms of of production art and crew blogs.

Storyboard artist Lyn Hart, who worked on storyboard revisions for Season One, also recently started her own blog and has already posted six sheets of storyboards from Episode 1.07: Antikythera Device. There are also other storyboards and character designs from other projects that are definitely worth checking-out.

As mentioned previously, the links on the newsblog's sidebar will be updated accordingly in due time. Also, we'd like to take this moment to remind fans and general readers that any artwork you may find on the various crew members' blogs are either their own or studio property, so please do NOT take anything unless informed that you may. Thank you.

Lead Character Designer (Season One) Kenny Park Now Has a Blog!

You've seen many of his character designs on director Brad Goodchild's blog and you may have caught his name in the show's closing credits -- lead character designer (Season One) and storyboard artist (Season Two) Kenny Park now has his own fantastic blog! There are only two entries up at this time, but they're both very much worth taking a look at.

The first entry has a piece of promotional artwork by Mr. Park that you may have seen on the director's blog several months ago (without the text), as well as some interesting and insightful personal comments about his experience with the show. There is also some possible news about a Season Three (or lack thereof, but keep in mind that there's been no official announcement yet).

The second entry features the uncoloured pencils for another unused promotional piece featuring many of the major villains -- both regular and guest stars -- from the show. A coloured version may appear on the blog sometime in the future.

We'll be adding a link to the blog in due time, though please keep in mind that we are still officially on hiatus right now, which includes the Season Two news summary that hasn't been updated for awhile (but WILL be eventually). For now, enjoy the new crew blog and the artwork!

This Week's Recap of 'Brad's Corner'.

THIS ENTRY AND ITS LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SEASON TWO OF 'CLASS OF THE TITANS'. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED, THEN PLEASE NEITHER CLICK ON ANY LINKS NOR READ ANY FURTHER. THANK YOU.

We're still on hiatus, but we'll try, at the very least, to do a recap at the end of each week at the very least regarding new entries on director Brad Goodchild's blog.

For the week of April 9-13, we've had the following posts:
  • Background Tuesday -- Twelve full-colour background keys from Episode 1.06: Trojan Horse and/or the stock pile. They can be seen here, here, and here. Please leave comments at the first entry we've linked to.

  • Thursday Surprise -- Instead of a usual Incidental Thursday, Mr. Goodchild posted character designs of six different Argonauts that will appear in an unspecified Season Two episode. Each character has a distinct look, but we do not yet know if each one is supposed to correspond to a specific named Argonaut from mythology or if they're generic Argonauts. The designs can be viewed here and here, and again, please leave comments at the first entry we've linked to.

  • Friday Surprise -- Just as we were about to post this entry, Mr. Goodchild posted yet another new entry! Yesterday, he noted an upcoming episode featuring a funny design of Neil as a baby in response to a piece of fanart, and just now, he posted two more character design sheets. The first one features Jay as a baby and at five and ten years old (with 'Jay getting younger' as the file's title), and the second is the aforementioned Neil as a baby. No story details have been revealed yet.


That's our recap for this week. We now return to our epic poetry reading marathon and musing on Turnus's changing roles as both Achilles and Hector in Vergil's 'Aeneid' for an essay and we hope you'll have a great weekend.

EDIT (April 19; 8:42PM): In our haste, we accidentally forgot to include a Season Two spoiler warning at the beginning of this entry. Many apologies.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

SITE: Hiatus on Account of Final Exams.

This is NOT a joke post, as it is NOT April 1.

Updates over the next month will either be very slow or not happening on account of the fact that I am writing final exams right now and my schedule is very crammed -- for example, I am not having very much fun right now memorizing details of a hundred or so classical and Hellenistic Greek sculptures, reliefs, temples, cities, etc., nor am I looking forward to re-reading Homer, Apollonius, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, etc. within three days immediately afterwards.

More regular updates will probably return in May, though I will be studying in England during May and June. For now, I return to memorizing every little detail of the Parthenon. Hooray.

-- xanthophiliac

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Incidental Thursday and a 'Recipe for Disaster' Character Design at 'Brad's Corner'.

For this week's Incidental Thursday, director Brad Goodchild has posted eight new background character designs to his blog. Check-out the two sets here and here, both of which seem to have a student theme this time around.

THE REST OF THIS ENTRY AND ITS LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SEASON TWO OF 'CLASS OF THE TITANS'. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED, THEN PLEASE NEITHER CLICK ON ANY LINKS NOR READ ANY FURTHER. THANK YOU.

As an extra holiday treat, Mr. Goodchild also posted two night character designs (one hooded, one not) of Perithous, a new mythological character who will make an appearance in the Season Two episode titled Recipe for Disaster. For those in need of some background, Perithous is best known in mythology for trying to abduct Persephone to be his wife (along with his friend, Theseus, who had chosen Helen of Sparta), but Hades trapped him in a special chair.

Also, be sure to check-out the entry for some interesting comments by Mr. Goodchild on the homage the design pays to a character from a 1960's Hercules cartoon.

EDIT (10:10PM): The entry now contains a small screencap of the 1960's character in-question.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

'The Nature of Things' Background Keys at 'Brad's Corner'.

For this week's Backgrounds Tuesday, director Brad Goodchild has posted seven background keys from Episode 1.05: The Nature of Things to his blog. The images can be viewed here and here, though it's probably best to leave general comments at the first entry we've linked to. Enjoy.

REMINDER: 'The Making of Class of the Titans' Special on CityTV Vancouver's 'Razor 696' Airing Tomorrow.

Last week, director Brad Goodchild's blog updates included some information and screenshots for a 'The Making of Class of the Titans' special for a CityTV Vancouver show called 'Razor 696' (official website here). As stated earlier, the special will be airing on Wednesday April 4, 2007 (tomorrow) at 11:00AM, according to CityTV Vancouver's schedule for that day -- Mr. Goodchild had originally announced a 10:00AM air-time, but that seems to have since changed.

A number of fans have been asking when the special will air if they're not in Vancouver. Unfortunately, we've researched every CityTV website and found that the Vancouver version of CityTV is the ONLY one that will be airing it. Therefore, you CANNOT watch the special if you do not have access to CityTV Vancouver. It is NOT being shown CityTV Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Winnipeg, unless we overlooked a crucial detail -- and if we did, please correct us and provide a source to back you up.

So, Vancouver fans, enjoy the special and get a neat look at the stuff that goes on behind-the-scenes at the studio!

Monday, April 02, 2007

Additional New Air-Times for 'Class of the Titans' on Teletoon.

The English version of Teletoon seems to have made some changes to its Season One re-run schedule much sooner than we had anticipated -- in addition to the weekends (Saturday and Sunday) at 2:00PM ET/PT timeslot that started on March 17, 2007, Teletoon's website states that as of Friday March 23, 2007, two more air-times have been added. You can now also watch re-runs on Fridays at 7:00PM ET/PT, as well as Sundays at 6:30PM ET/PT. At present, it looks like this schedule will, at the very least, continue until the end of April 2007.

To summarize, these are the following times you can now watch Season One re-runs of 'Class of the Titans' on the English version of the channel:
  • Fridays -- 7:00PM ET/PT
  • Saturdays -- 2:00PM ET/PT
  • Sundays -- 2:00PM and 6:30PM ET/PT

Thanks for reading, and we apologize for not getting this up sooner, as we only just noticed the new changes earlier yesterday.

SITE: April Fool's Day Clarification and More Serious Theft Issues.

Since yesterday was April 1 -- April Fool's Day -- yesterday's entry about the newsblog being shutdown was, in fact, a hoax, which the 'newfound interest' for 'Troy' and 'Troy 2' probably should have given away. The newsblog is NOT shutting-down, the Season Two news summary WILL be updated (eventually), and the fansite will still eventually go ahead once I get the all-clear.

HOWEVER -- I was NOT joking about issues of fans stealing my newsblog logo (as well as other people's fanart) and other newsblog material without my permission and credit. And don't use 'it's the internet, I can steal whatever I want!' as an excuse -- be a decent and moral human being instead of a jerk by showing some respect in asking first. That, and just because something is posted on the internet doesn't mean that someone doesn't own the rights to it, and that includes things like fanart and websites.

So that said -- even though I'm NOT shutting the blog down, be warned that if the above keeps happening, I may very well be provoked into closing shop. And you'll know if it's a real announcement if it's not posted on April Fool's Day. Thank you.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

SITE: Newsblog to Shut-Down Based on Declining Interest in 'Class of the Titans'.

Over the last while, we at the newsblog have noticed that there's been a decline in interest in 'Class of the Titans' over the last while -- whether it's a mass exodus from the TV.com forum or this week's FicWad post from a random fan on how she's leaving the site because of meanies or on account of being grounded, it seems like there's a big lull in enthusiasm right now.

As such, it only seems right that the newblog shut-down for the meantime, at least until Season Two begins to air in September 2007. What's the point of continuing a project that no one's going to bother looking at or commenting on? There's only so much time I have. I'm also getting a little bored of the show and am tired of seeing more and more fans ripping-off the newsblog logo as if it's free clipart for their Piczo sites.

That, and final exams are coming up and I've recently taken an interest in that 'Troy' film -- I think it's wonderful how Hollywood decided to adapt the Trojan Cycle with such accuracy and respect, and I hope there's a 'Troy 2' sequel soon, where Aeneas has to take the Sword of Troy to Italy and found the city of Rome.

So, thanks for the good times in the last year, and maybe if I'm interested again come Season Two, I'll start this newsblog up again.