Note: Any time Joss and/or Summer is ready to sit down and give session416.com the official exclusive all-encompassing interview on the R. Tam Sessions, you know where to find me.
• Session 416, Second Excerpt
• Session 1 Excerpt
• Session 22 Excerpt
• Session 165 Excerpt
• Session 416, First Excerpt
• Aftermath
• Serenity Collector's Edition DVD
• Transcript
• Version History
Sometime on August 16, 2005, this clip was posted to the ifilm.com website, although that site claimed the video had been found on an unspecified P2P file-sharing network.
There was some dispute over whether or not that was the case, as no other mention had been found indicating the video came from those networks. It was possible that whoever tipped the ifilm.com website to the video told them they found it on such a network even if they did not, in order to increase the mystique surrounding the clip.
It was rapidly believed to be a piece of viral marketing for Serenity, the major motion picture follow-up to the acclaimed (and short-lived) Joss Whedon television series, Firefly. Up for debate was the matter of whether the video was official marketing or fan-made guerilla marketing.
At the time of its release, the meaning of "Session 416" was unknown, but the clear implication was that it was one of a series of "sessions" with River Tam while she was being held captive and experimented upon by the Alliance.
In the very early days following its release, it was determined that the logo which appeared as part of the clip's title screen in fact was a new logo for the Alliance. Over on WHEDONesque on August 18, gorramit compared it to the top of the baton used in Serenity by Simon Tam during his rescue of River.
Shortly thereafter, kris revealed that this logo/insignia was amongst "artwork for the movie [that] was seen on artist Geoffrey Mandel's website" sometime the previous Winter.
It had also been pointed out that April 16 (4/16) is the birthday of Sean Maher, who portays Simon Tam -- River's brother -- in both Firefly and Serenity, although in retrospect that appears to have been a coincidence.
It was clear, however that this "Session 416" video was meant to be taken as the second excerpt from whatever Session 416 was intended to be.
There was some debate about whether this meant we would eventually see other excerpts from this session (perhaps, it was suggested, a "First Excerpt" which revealed precsely what led up to the events seen in the "Second Excerpt" video), or if the video had been labelled "Second Excerpt" just to give it a sense of narrative "scope" by showing that it was meant to be taken as a small part in some larger context, even if nothing else was ever going to be shown.
The notion of who portrayed River Tam in this clip depended on who you asked. While the majority of viewers appeared to believe it indeed was Summer Glau portraying River Tam, the strong minority was just as certain that it is not.
There was a middle-ground group which argued that it was Summer Glau, but that it was footage taken from some other performance of hers. Most frequently, this group argued that it might be from her performace on the season premier of The 4400, a science-fiction series airing on the USA Network. People who had seen that episode of The 4400 reported that it contained no scene which could have been re-used for the creation of the "Session 416" video.
It was also unknown who portaysed what at the time often was referred to as the Lab-Coated Man. But shortly after the appearance of the video online, people began to suggest that it was either Nathan Fillon (who portays Malcon Reynolds in Firefly and Serenity), or Joss Whedon himself.
Those who argued in favor of Nathan Fillion sometimes pointed to the Lab-Coated Man's fall to the floor, which in movement resembles several of the falls Fillion takes in episodes of Firefly. Those who argued in favor of Joss Whedon sometimes point to the man's build and the apparent wedding ring on his left hand.
It was of course entirely possible, given knowledge at the time, that it was neither of these men.
Also under debate was just what was happening to the Lab-Coated Man at the end of the clip. While many viewers clearly recognized that he pulled a bloody pen out of his own neck, some argued that the clip was an example of River killing him with her brain -- a reference to a line in an episode of Firefly intended not to reveal one of River's abilities, but to scare Jayne into believing it.
At the same time, there was some argument over the apparent someone or something that could be seen on the other side of the Lab-Coated Man in the moments leading up to the pulling out of the pen. Some people said it was a hand, others were just as certain that they saw an eye, and that in fact it was River's eye.
The actual likelihood is that it was some sort of stagehand giving the Lab-Coated Man the pen, and getting himself or herself caught briefly on video.
Also unknown at the time was who produced the "Session 416" video. Much of the debate revolved around whether it was official or fan-made marketing. The thinking was that if it were to be definitively determined whether or not River Tam was portrayed by Summer Glau, that likely would settle the matter, since it was exceedingly unlikely that she would appear in a fan-made video (if for no other reason than union rules).
As stated, one theory said that while it might actually be Summer Glau, it was footage from something else. Originally, this theory suggested that it might have come from Summer's performance on the season premier of The 4400 on USA Network, but those who had seen the episode reported there is nothing about that story or her performance which is consistent with the "Session 416" video.
One other possibility within this theory existed. According to the official Summer Glau website, the actress had been filming an untitled project in Romania. No details were known (at that point) as to that project's genre or plot, so at the time it was impossible to determine whether or not the "Session 416" footage could have originated from that project.
One theory advanced was that the footage of the room and the footage of River were two entirely different pieces of video and/or film, with the latter superimposed upon the former. It seemed almost entirely certain that this theory was incorrect.
Watching the video in and around 42 seconds in, focusing on the empty chair in the back, the chair could be seen suddenly to go out of focus, as the camera changed focus in anticipation of River, who would be much closer to the lens when she appears.
There would be no need to shift focus on the room if the River footage was superimposed upon entirely different footage of the room.
It had been suggested, under the superimposition theory, that a clever maker of fan films could possibly have shifted the focus on the background in order to increase the reality of the use of the superimposed footage of River.
While possible, this explanation perhaps didn't quite pass the test of Occam's Razor. Which, it was asked, was the simplest explanation between these two:
That these are two pieces of footage made by a fan who had the forethought to change focus in the footage of the room in order to increase the reality of the sudden appearance of River in some second and superimposed footage?
Or that this is a single piece of video/film, shot in a single location and a single time, with the people actually there?
This question remained open to debate in the days following the release of "Session 416, Second Excerpt", and it was accepted that it likely would remain unanswered until either the video's creators come forward, or another piece in the possible viral marketing campaign was released and/or found.
Upon the release of "Session 416, Second Excerpt" there was some discussion as to whether it was an example only of viral marketing, or if a larger "alternate reality game" was being rolled out for promotional purposes.
If this indeed was some sort of viral marketing campaign and/or alternate reality game, there were a few things people were trying to keep in mind.
First, some (but by no means all) such campaigns in the past have used a weekly update schedule. This may have been relevant to the "Session 416" video because the original clip apepared on the ifilm.com website on August 16. If this campaign were using a weekly update schedule, August 23 would have been the next day for an update.
This meant that the sudden appearance of a "Paul_Probo" on the official Serenity boards a day or two prior to August 23, and the sudden appearance on August 23 itself of a "John Dowses" claiming to have found a new excerpt of "Session 416" suggested that a weekly update schedule in fact was planned.
"Paul Probo" was the name given by the summer-glau.com fansite for the person who tipped them to the existence of the "Session 416" video, which the site posted while asking for information about what it was and where it came from.
If the "Session 416" video truly was just the first piece in a viral marketing campaign (or outright alternate reality game), then anything and everything was subject to questioning. In other words: "Paul Probo" may have been be a hint or clue towards another piece of the unrolling viral marketing campaign, rather than a real person.
Proponents of the possibility that "Paul Probo" is meant to be a clue pointed out that the Summer Glau fansite in question itself placed the name in quotation marks, suggesting that we were supposed to pay it some attention.
Other instances on that same site of crediting a source did not include placing the name of that source in quotation marks.
As of August 20, only a few hits for "Paul Probo" could be found via Google, and none one of them appeared to have any relevance.
Fans investigating whether the clip represented viral marketing or an alternative reality game ran the name through various anagram generators, but that yielded no additional information.
Further likely-irrelevant data someone mentioned at the time: "Probo" (if you put an accent over the second "o") is Spanish for "proved." Alternatively, it appeared to be Latin for, simple, "prove."
Early on August 22, a message from the person who maintains the summer-glau.com fansite on which the name "Paul Probo" appeared was posted on the official Universal boards. In part it read as follows:
"No I'm afraid I'm as intrigued and unfortunately in the dark as the next person.
"Apologies for my lack of replies I'm real busy at the moment but I am still keeping tabs on the situation.
"One of the main things I can think of in regards to the 'paul probo' issue that leads itself to some kind of viral marketing scheme is the earlyness at which the mysterious 'paul probo' informed us about the video. It was a good few days before the video was reported elsewhere on the web but due to my usual lack of free time I didnt have chance to post about it on message boards and inform the fellow Browncoats.
"I also find the fact that the poster on the ifilm.com website said they found it on a file sharing site extremely dubious."
Sometime on August 23, the summer-glau.com fansite reported the following: "The plot thickens. We've been contacted again by the ever mysterious Paul Probo, possible creator of the Session 416 video. Thats all the information that can be shared for now hopefully more will follow soon."
Also on August 23, one poster at one of the boards following this marketing effort managed to track down the apparent email address of "Paul Probo" and sent them a message. "I am looking for information on River Tam and the Session 416 files," they emailed him. "Please contact me as soon as possible."
The response was this: "Please leave me be, I am a private person and I can't say anything about that now."
It was noted by some that he said "now" rather than denying he was somehow involved, or saying he couldn't talk about it at all. There also was some speculation as to whether "I am a private person" meant anything. That the email address used in this exchange was the correct one was confirmed by the ifilm.com website, which also had been in contact with the mysterious "Paul Probo" during this campaign.
One random additional speculation was whether or not stating that he couldn't "talk about that now" had any bearing upon or reference to another Browncoat's suggestion that the name "Paul Probo" (through a clever use of Latin) could be interpreted to mean "showing gradually."
Sometime on August 23, a "John Dowses" signed up for various lists, groups, and boards which have been discussion the "Session 416" video, claiming to have found on Limewire another clip, which he did not describe but allegedly took place prior to the events of "Session 416, Second Excerpt."
Originally, this "John Dowses" reported that he had found the file under the filename "tam_session1" but later said he had gone in and changed it to "RiverTamSession1" instead.
Other people had difficulty in locating this supposed second clip. It was unknown at this time whether or not it truly existed, or if "John Dowses" simply was planting the filename(s) so people knww what to look for next, or if "John Dowses" was a troll with no new or actual information about the campaign
At this stage, three possibilities existed: One, "John Dowses" really did find a new clip and was trying to spread it around; two, "John Dowses" was a plant from the marketing campaign trying to tip us to the new filename(s) we should be looking for (he later claimed to have changed it to "RiverTamSession1"); or three, "John Dowses" was a troll trying to mess with people's heads.
It should be noted that on one board, at least one poster has taken to pronouncing "John Dowses" as "John Doe" (or, perhaps, "John Does") to illustrate their skepticism.
More importantly, it turned out (as demonstrated to the session416.com fansite via email from another fan paying attention to the campaign) that the letters in "John Dowses" could be rearranged to become... "Joss Whedon." That didn't, of course, change the possibilities for who this mystery poster was, and didn't mean that it was actually Joss Whedon.
Eventually, "John Dowses" emailed the file to the maintainer of the session416.com fansite, who then posted it online. It was real, and it was part of the campaign.
This "Session 1 Excerpt" video depicted River Tam (indeed portrayed by Summer Glau) being interviewed by an Academy official (indeed portrayed by Joss Whedon), who is trying to convince River to attend the Academy.
As of the release of "Session 1 Exceprt" it was unquestionable that this was official marketing for the movie, in some fashion, given that Summer Glau and Joss Whedon were directly involved, and that this was footage shot especially for ths viral marketing campaign.
A fan with connections at Universal reported that the studio denied being involved in the production of the "Session 416" video.
At this stage, it was prudent to consider that this denial could be technically correct if it was the product of some marketing firm to whom the task had been outsourced, and also to keep in mind that in order to maintain the mystique necessary to generate buzz about the video, the studio would have to deny being responsible.
Speculation was that the specific name River references when it comes to other students being jealous of her might be some sort of clue. It was unclear just what the name was, but it appeared to be something like "Volger."
On or around August 24, a poster to a UK Serenity board had reported that, in London that night, Joss confirmed that it indeed is him in "Session 416, Second Excerpt" dying from an apparent stabbing-by-pen.
According to the ifilm.com website, also on August 24, they had in their possession four such clips, although it's unclear whether or not that included "Session 1, Excerpt" which so far they had not posted. In addition, the often-mentioned Summer Glau fansite which first mentioned the mysterious "Paul Probo" reported that "Probo" himself had told them that there were four such clips.
By this time, reports began to surface of Joss and Summer commenting upon this viral marketing campaign.
Over at the UK Browncoat Forums, a poster reported: "Joss confirmed tonight at the London CSTS screening that yes it is, indeed, him being whacked by River."
A later post to the same boards said: "Summer saw the clip on Whedonesque.com she said. And grinned. A lot."
Yet another post there said: "The main reason Joss said he was in the clips is because they were organised at such short noticed. They are part of an ongoing story so expect more."
Meanwhile, a message to the Yahoo! group affiliated with the session416.com fansite reported this: "Joss also said that he took the part because they made the videos so quickly that there wasn't enough time to cast an actor. It also appears that he directed them, because he talked about doing a fall (supposedly the best the stunt co-ordinator had seen) and then calling cut while lying on the floor."
As of August 25, "Paul Probo" had not responded to emailed questions from maintainer of the session416.com fansite, who asked if he knew the anagrammed "John Dowses," and if he in fact was meant to be a character from the film.
After "John Dowses" sent "Session 1 Excerpt" to the maintainer of the session416.com fansite, he was not heard from him again. The maintainer of the session416.com fansite did email him to ask if he knew the mysterious "Paul Probo" but no reply was ever received.
Two days after the release of "Session 1 Excerpt," the Summer Glau fansite in contact with "Paul Probo" suddenly released "Session 22 Excerpt."
It was clear from various reports by this point that there were at least four or five clips in total, and it was also clear from this August 25 release that there was not (as had been speculated) a weekly schedule being maintained. It was anybody's guess when any given new clip could surface.
At various points during these couple of days, both Summer and Joss confirmed (as if it needed confirming at this point) that they were responsible for these clips.
On August 25, not long after Session 22 Excerpt had been released online, Empire Online held a chat with Joss, Nathan, Summer, and Morena. Several questions were asked about the River Tam Sessions, and those exchanges and remarks are included here.
Trienco: The River session videos. How official are they, as Universal still denies knowledge. Are they just playing along or is it handled by someone else?
Summer: Trienco, I don't know...
Joss: Trienco, I also deny knowledge of those things that I wrote and shot and am in.
...
SimonWho: Summer, was it fun stabbing Joss in the throat with a pen?
Summer: Always a good laugh!
...
Joss: beingrad, dance of joy was fun, though I hope never to be asked to do it again. But at the end of the day, what's more fun than being stabbed in the throat with a pen by Summer? About which I know nothing, and deny any involvement.
...
Kayley: Are you having fun making the clips for the marketing campaign? Summer: Kayley, it was a whirlwind.
...
Pete: Joss - when did you come up with the idea for the River Session videos. And when did you and summer get round to filming them?
(This went unanswered, as the chat had just ended.)
Sometime on August 28, the summer-glau.com fansite reported that it the release of a "Session 165 Exceprt" was imminent, likely sometime on August 29. That same source stated that they believed there were five clips in total, and general consensus would indicate that after the release of "Session 165" the only remaining clip left to see would be "Session 416, First Excerpt."
As indicated by that website, "Session 165 Excerpt" indeed was released on August 29.
On that same day, it was learned that Joss himself reportedly said at the Premier that there were a total of five clips, confirming what the summer-glau.com fansite had been reporting.
On August 31, the official Summer Glau website, saying the clips "feature both Summer and Joss Whedon," linked to the session416.com fansite.
As expected, once released on September 5, the fifth and final clip turned out to be "Session 416, First Excerpt." It depicted the exchange between River and her Alliance interviewer which led up to the attack whose aftermath is depicted in the original "Session 416, Second Excerpt" clip.
In the wake of the release of "Session 416, First Excerpt" word from those behind the summer-glau.com fansite was that the mysterious "Paul Probo" had at some point said he would answer their questions, but as of September 5, had not responded to any of them.
On or around September 12, a new discovery was made which may or may not have indicated (at that time) that the viral marketing campaign that was the R. Tam Sessions might not have quite ended with the release of the final "Session 416, First Excerpt" clip.
Many people noticed, upon the release of that final clip, that they could finally see the mysterious Alliance interviewer taking notes upon the pad first seen in the "Session 416, Second Excerpt" clip which launched the campaign. On September 12, it was claimed that those notes existed and in fact had been photographed.
Amongst the information revealed in these mysterious and unconfirmed notes was that there was some sort of "parental waiver" involved in River's time at the Academy/Institute, and that River indeed was prescribed at least one dosage of the Pax. In addition, the Alliance interviewer portrayed by Joss appears to have diagnosed River as "yin underdeveloped."
On September 13, a post to the Serenity Oz boards reported an exchange with Joss about the Sessions clips.
"I asked him about the viral marketing clips – 'Who exactly were you trying to attract to see Serenity, because they are kind of disturbing.'
"He agreed they are disturbing. The idea to do something like that was presented to him by (I think) the UIP people who showed him a clip of (I think) a Dutch(?) guy lipsynching to something. (Other people at the table knew about this clip – I was clueless). They kept saying to Joss 'isn't this cool!' He wasn't so sure. They wanted him to write something and film it with Summer Glau and were all enthusiastic about doing it that Saturday. Joss said 'But, umm, I haven't written it yet. And It's already Thursday. And Summer is in Texas!'
"But they did it anyway. He decided that it would be really great to show River 'slowly going insane at the Academy.'
"And then he realised 'the back of my head is going to have to act… with SUMMER GLAU! Which means I'm going to have to remember everything I wrote or I'm going to look stupid.'
"He agreed with me in a very heartfelt way when I commented on how good Summer was in the clips. He was very proud of the fall he did in the first clip released – 'I had bruises!'.
"'So River killed you with your own pen?'
"Joss: 'Yes, River stabbed me in the throat with a pen – seemed appropriate.'
"I asked if it was specifically the Hands of Blue that River was talking to when she looks through the glass – he said it was just whoever is on the other side of the monitor.
"He said his one regret about the viral marketing clips was that he didn't find a way to get a shot of Summer's feet in them. I said there was a good shot of them in the BDM and he said 'Oh, more than one!'"
During a publicity tour of Australia, Joss Whedon was asked by Anne, a member of the Yahoo! group affiliated with the session416.com fansite about the mysterious just-surfaced R. Tam Sessions notebook (of which more had been posted). The short answer: These pages appeared to be, for lack of a better term, fanfic.
Anne reported the following: "When asking Joss about the viral marketing campaign, I asked if there intended to have more released as there was now photos of the journal online. He asked for more information as he did not know what was written in the journal, I told him it had information about River's treatment and the word "Udderific" as some fans wanted to know what it meant. He said that he never did it but was happy that there was the interest amongst fans to do something like this."
Via a post to the Universal boards came more from Joss in Australia, where in Melbourne he reportedly said: "It ain't a virus if somebody doesn't catch it. I didn't do that somebody else did. But I love it."
On or around September 19, The Movieguy posted a video (which later appeared on YouTube) of his interview with Seam Maher (Simon Tam) and Summer Glau (River Tam), presumably from the recent official press junket. In it, he asked Summer about the Session clips.
At the start of this part, Summer's face lit up and she leaned forward expectantly, as if she was fairly excited that a press person on this junket was actually asking her about these clips.
CHUCK: "... but can we talk a little about Session 416? Because I stumbled across it and I just thought it was a great... I'm like 'what is going on here?' Wha... wha... why did that happen?"
SUMMER: "Well, it was um... it was an idea that Joss had and I had been shooting a movie in Louisiana and he called me and he said, 'Are you coming to town soon?' and I said, 'well actually I'm coming in for a few days' and he said, 'well we're gonna do this thing and I haven't written it yet but just um... be ready.' And when I read it I just, I thought it was a fantastic idea because most people had a vision of what they thought had happened to River before Firefly, the story began and I... My favorite thing about that process, the short story that we told, was that you got to see River before the Alliance had gotten their hands on her and see how happy she was and how innocent and how ready for the world she was and her slow decent into what she had become in the film."
Interview with Joss Whedon by Gabriel Wilder, Sydney, September 12. Original transcript of an interview that was used as the basis for a story that appeared in Icon in The Sydney Morning Herald on October 1.
GW: "How did you come to make the Sessions?"
JW: "They [Universal executives] said, 'Here's this cool thing on the internet, you can do things that can attract people that don't know about the show by doing something weird and interesting. Like there's this guy - he's a fat guy lipsynching to a Dutch [note: actually Romanian] song in his room on his web cam.'"
GW: "Oh yeah, that was funny."
JW: "It was very funny; but I was like: 'What exactly am I s'posed to do with this information? That you like this?' They were just like, 'We just think this is cool'. And I said, 'I think it's cool too, I think cars are cool, but I don't know how to use one to sell a movie.'"
[Then he adds, very quickly, almost in one breath] "And I said, 'I mean if you're going to do something like that, a little thing, one person in a room, it would be cool. We might do maybe a series of interviews where we go back from before the show or the movie and show River Tam happy and see what she was like before and see how she slowly went insane. And maybe we could start with something horrible and get people in that way and backtrack'. And I pitched the whole thing out and they were like, '... Oh ... kay ... Great, let's do it on Saturday.'"
"And I'm like, 'It's Thursday, and Summer's in Texas and I haven't written it', and they're like, 'Yeah, Saturday's good.'"
"So I went and wrote it, got together a tiny video crew, and I was like, 'I'll be the doctor, cause you just see the back of his head and it will save money and time and it will be cheap and Summer will learn nine pages of very difficult dialogue of somebody at five completely different stages in her life and do them all in a row, in one day, cause she's Summer, and it will all be great.' And so it was really fun."
"The idea of the first one was very much just to do something very unsettling, that moment of her looking at the camera and saying, [whispers] 'I can see you ...' If you're alone in your room and you're just trolling through videos and this girl says that to you, I think it's a little scary. And then we see the pathos of how she got to become that, and it informs the movie - it's different than the movie. You know, some people were like, 'Well do you think it's a good marketing tool, because it's kind of horrific', but it's also kinda tragic and ultimately ... she breaks my heart.'"
"[Summer] is amazing - that one scene where she's asking to be let out at the very end after her last line, and that one tear runs down her cheek. [Traces a line down his cheek] It's just fabulous."
GW: "Buffy could do that too."
JW: "Yeah. I can't do that. I can do a little [puts his finger under one nostril] on cue, but not with the tears."
GW: "Is a performance like that difficult for Summer?"
JW: "She has to take her moment like any actress, but it's amazingly easy and it's hilarious because my imitation of her is that she's Mickey Mantle, the baseball player, going up to the plate saying, 'Ooh, what's gonna happen? Is he going to throw this sphere at me? Do I swing this? Is it good? Is this the plate? What do I do?' Then, boom, home run. She gets so unsure of herself, then gives these performances and grips are weeping, the sound guy is welling up with tears; and she's like, 'Was that OK? Cause I don't know if it's good that I hit the home run...'"
On October 5, Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau participated in a web-based chat in the UK. There was a brief exchange about the R. Tam Sessions.
Donna: "Summer, I loved the sessions, they were an amazing way to promote the film. Any chance they will be on the dvd release?"
Summer: "I hope so. We worked hard on them. And I had lots of bad dreams."
Early in October, someone finally responded to the front-page plea on the session416.com fansite for people involved in the R. Tam Sessions to get in touch. Someone who said they were involved in the shoot sent some information.
According to this source, the Sessions were shot at a very small studio in Studio City, on June 18, 2005 (this matches what Joss has said about the shoot occuring on a Saturday). The crew apparently was "fairly minimal" (a director of photography, an assistant director, a handful of grips, a couple of producers and a few production assistants). This source says there was also a set dresser but that "his job took all of 15 minutes" since it involved just a table, a couple of chairs, and a grey backdrop.
Joss reportedly often "stayed in character" when directing the Sessions (for example, when yelling "cut" at the end of a take).
It was an all day shoot, with several takes of each segment.
For those obsessed, like Joss, with Summer's feet, she apparently was wearing UGG boots the entire time (since you never actually see her feet in the Sessions clips.
During an exclusive interview with Summer in November by her official website, she was asked about the Sessions.
Q: Moving on to Serenity the film had an incredibly innovative marketing campaign and part of that was The River Tam sessions which were incredibly haunting. How did you get involved with that and what was it like to portray River at such different stages of mental deterioration?
A: It was very exciting for me to be involved in that. I was in Texas and I was getting ready to go to Louisiana to shoot Mammoth, although we didn't end up shooting there. Joss called me and said "Where are you? Can you come back for the weekend? I have this idea but I need to write it!" I was thrilled and I felt it was really important for people to see River before anything happened to her, when she was happy and full of hope.
I loved doing it. It was just Joss and me and it's a really special memory for me. I thought the script was very haunting. I remember when I was trying to memorize it, I hadn't been in my LA apartment for a month. I was lying in bed trying to memorize the dialogue that I was going to shoot the next morning. I couldn't sleep that night going in and out of bad dreams and talking to myself. I got scared from trying to prepare for those emotional scenes. It was a hard night to get through, the words were powerful.
Q: Plus you got to stab Joss with a pencil!
A: I know! That was so funny because the camera was very tight on Joss and I was having to lean out of the shot and Vickie, who is one of my dear friends who does my hair and did my hair for the feature, was pouring all the fake blood. It was all very makeshift. It felt like we were making a home movie in the garage. It was really fun!
I love the way Joss chose to do it (the viral marketing campaign). I thought it was brilliant- really fun. Because we had to wait so long for the movie to come out after we shot it, it was a nice little snack for the fans to tide them over.
On December 13, someone posted a Flanvention report which included the following regarding Summer and the Sessions clips.
One more little item that came up in the Q&A sessions: Summer was asked about doing the River Tam Sessions. It's a pretty good story. One day she gets a call from Joss, who asks, what are you doing tomorrow? Can you get down here real quick and shoot these scenes? Turns out Joss had sold someone at Universal on doing the viral marketing thing, and had scheduled studio time -- but hadn't written them yet!
Summer said it was really a blast making them. She'd been worried she wouldn't have time to get herself in character (she likes a lot of prep time, especially for the big emotional scenes like the ones with Simon in the BDM) but it turned out fine. She said how nice it was to be able to portray the "sane" River, the happy and enthusiastic girl she was before they broke her.
I asked a followup question: would the sessions ever be available in better resolution versions? The online vids are pretty grainy... Summer answered simply, "I think that's part of their charm."
Months later, in July 2006, another Flanvention report was posted which provided further comment from Summer regarding the R. Tam Sessions.
Regarding the Tam Sessions: Summer had been in Texas rennovating her parents' house, and was scheduled to stop back in L.A. for a day en route to a movie shoot when she got a call from Joss, who wanted her for the Tam Sessions, which he hadn't even yet written.
It all came together very quickly, with Summer's hairdresser and friend doing the blood makeup on Joss. Summer said it was very makeshift, very much like a home movie, and also very much fun to do. She said the crew was creeped out by her performance and was scared to talk to her. "I'm really not crazy in real life," she assured them and us. She said that after studying her lines, she was in her house alone at night and started hallucinating as she was falling asleep -- something about her dad and she swore she saw him tiling her house.
In late November 2006, the Firefly Talk podcast included in an episode part of a question and answer session Summer did at a convention in New Zealand (likely one that occured the weekend of October 21-23). It included a rather lengthy set of comments about the Sessions.
You know what really freaked me out?
Did any of you all see the River Tam Sessions, on the computer? The little creepy black and whites that Joss and I did? It was like a four-parter thing, with the pen?
I was getting ready to go shoot Mammoth in Louisiana and Joss called me. I had been home in Texas, we were renovating my parents new house. And he said, "What are you doing this weekend?" And I said, "I'm going to Louisiana." And I said, "I'm going to be home in LA for two days." And he said, "Well I have this idea, we're going to do this thing and we're going to put it online and see if anybody finds it."
And he said, "I haven't written it yet, but I'm going to write it tonight." And I said, "Okay."
And it kind of felt like a home movie in our garage or something. And me and Joss and Vicky, the girl who did my hair for Serenity, we all went to this little studio, and Joss gave me the material, and I memorized it. I was only in town for two nights, and I hadn't been in my apartment for a long time because I'd been in Texas. So I was all alone, and I was exhausted because I'd been tiling the house, and we'd just been doing construction, construction for a month. And so I got up to my apartment, and I was trying to memorize it. It was a lot of dialogue to learn in one night.
And I remember i was delirious, and I thought I saw my Dad in my kitchen, and he was tiling my kitchen, and I was like, "Dad..." And I saw -- what did I see?
I was so scared, I was so creeped out by the second part, where I had to talk about the needles and my bed, it was really the only time... I mean, River was sad but the stuff we did on the computer really -- I had a hard time with it because I had to memorize it so quickly, and it was even more disturbing than the movie.
But Joss and I had a great time doing that, and Vicky too. And I still haven't gotten a copy of it. I wonder if I can find a copy of it. I want to put it on my reel. "I can be really scary."
Meanwhile, an attempt in late December 2006 to contact "John Dowses" resulted in a delivery failure notification message stating that the email account in question had been "disabled or discontinued".
Sometime on 11 January 2007, nearly a year and a half since the Sessions' original release, someone posted to Digg an item pointing to the session416.com fansite: "These sessions shed some light on the on what happened to River while she was at 'The Academy'. The counselor in the video is played by Joss Whedon."
During the first twenty-four hours after that post, the so-called Digg Effect hammered the session416.com fansite to the tune of more than 25,000 hits. For varying periods of time the site was inaccessible. In addition, the Internet Archive server which hosts the .mov file of the complete Sessions embedded on the main page of the session416.com fansite went down as well, seemingly promoting the Archive to move the file to a new server, temporarily breaking the session416.com embed.
Sometime after the Sessions were posted to Digg, they were posted to Netscape and then picked up by TV Squad, which mistakenly referred to them as "never released".
In February 2007, as that year's second annual charity screenings of Serenity to benefit Equality Now were being organized, one organizer asked about the legalities behind playing the R. Tam Sessions at such a screening. Universal confirmed that the Sessions are in the public domain and may be used in such a fashion.
At the start of March 2007, Joss Whedon confirmed a rumor that a special edition Serenity DVD was scheduled for a summer release and is intended to include the R. Tam Sessions.
Around the middle of May 2007, DVDActive posted captures of the menus for the Collector's Edition DVD, which would appear to indicate that "Session 416" is the official title of the clips. Until now, it never was clear if they had an official name. It perhaps makes some sense for that to be the official name, because when the first one hit, before anyone knew what was going on, that's what everyone called it -- and, of course, would be why that was the domain registered for the session416.com fansite.
In late July at Comic-Con, Joss Whedon presented a promotional clip for the Collector's Edition DVD. Unlike the listing on the DVD itself, this clip referred to "The River Tam Sessions" rather than to "Session 416", re-opening the question of the work's official name.
Also in late July, Universal issued the official press release for the new DVD, which (somewhat poorly) described the Sessions thusly: "These Internet pieces document a portion of River's participation in a psychological study and her interactions with her therapist."
In early August 2007, a reviewer with a screener copy of the Collector's Edition DVD reported that the Sessions are presented in their release order, and not (as some have argued) in chronological order. The maintainer of the session416.com fansite has argued from the beginning that release order is the only order which makes sense from the standpoint of structure.
Editorial note: While the maintainer of session416.com believes it's a fallacy that artist's intent is required to discern structure, for those who think otherwise consider the following remark by Joss Whedon in an October 2005 article in The Sydney Morning Herald: "And maybe we could start with something horrible and get people in that way and backtrack."
A mid-August IGN review of the Collector's Edition DVD says: the Sessions are "a small bit of a theatre caught on grainy, black-and-white film - prologue footage of Glau's character, River Tam, in an interview with one of the doctors keeping her at the film's opening. It's a dialogue-driven, two-person scene which adds little in the way of new information, but it remains interesting - and interestingly-made - nonetheless."
A review by a Rope of Silicon writer said of the Sessions that they "got the impression that they were made for the film and never used". (Editorial note: Google is your friend.)
The week of the release of the Collector's Edition DVD brought further references to the Sessions in reviews of the DVD itself.
"Session 416" is a compilation of all 5 of the "R. Tam Sessions" that were released on the internet as a form of viral marketing leading up to the film's release. Set during River's time at "The Academy" (before Firefly and Serenity), these low quality recordings provide a glimpse into her state of mind during her progression from sweet little girl who loves to dance into the mentally unstable River we've come to know. Most fans have probably already seen this, but they're nice to have on DVD anyway.
Joss Whedon’s unofficial viral videos known as the R. Tam Sessions are also packaged in. While I’ve always known that Summer Glau (River) was a good actress, the sessions really show her chops.
Having purchased his copy of the Collector's Edition DVD, the maintainer of session416.com can confirm that they remastered the Sessions for their DVD appearance. Gone is the heavy artifacting, replaced by simple graininess. In addition, there is a subtitle track, which means we now can get the official transcript.
An interview by Film School Rejects includes Joss saying this:
We got to put the River Tam sessions on it, which is a video thing I did that doesn’t exist anywhere, so I’m glad that it has a home finally.
Editorial note: The maintainer of session416.com does in fact understand what he means by that comment, but will admit that, to him, it reads a little strange.
TITLE CARD: R. Tam Session 416 Second Excerpt
Interviewer: (Choking) (Gasping) (Gagging) (Grunting) (Coughs) (Gasping)
River: (Whispering) I can see you.
(Static)
TITLE CARD: R. Tam Session 1 Excerpt
Interviewer: And you like school?
River: I do. It's... Sometimes things move a little slowly for me.
Interviewer: I imagine they do. What's your favorite subject?
River: I'm finding physics a challenge.
Interviewer: You're in the graduate program already.
River: They call me "Little Mouse".
Interviewer: Do you think they're jealous because you're so young?
River: Volger is, a little. He plans to become very important.
Interviewer: Did he tell you he was jealous?
River: Oh, no. I just...
Interviewer: You feel it.
River: People tell you things all the time without talking. The way they move, the way they aren't talking.
Interviewer: You're very intuitive.
River: Simon says I was born with the third eye. He hates when I can tell which girls he likes.
Interviewer: Your brother, he's a doctor, right?
River: He's a trauma surgeon in Capital City.
Interviewer: Quite a family.
River: Simon's a genius. I could never do what he does.
Interviewer: I think you could do whatever you put your mind to. That's what the Alliance needs. That's what this institute is all about. Your mind, letting it do everthing it could. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?
River: Would I still be allowed to dance?
(Static)
TITLE CARD: R. Tam Session 22 Excerpt
Interviewer: But you understand why these treatments are important?
River: I don't think... I'm sorry. I think there's been an error. I don't think... I think I may not be the right subject for these... For this program.
Interviewer: It's perfectly natural to feel a little nervous.
River: I just... If it were possible to be transferred, I would make a... I would like to request a transfer.
Interviewer: You want to be back in GenEd.
River: Please.
Interviewer: You told us that was no good for you, that it was too slow. That's why you're here.
River: Please. It hurts.
Interviewer: Well, I can help you with that. You know how proud Dr. Mathias is of how you're progressing.
River: I'm not progressing.
(Static)
River: It's the Pax.
Interviewer: Tell me what you see.
River: You lost the first one. You cut too deep, he died on the table. One of your attendants cried and you comforted her. "We're doing such good work."
Interviewer: Do you understand that that is true? Work we do here is very important, and you're a part of that.
River: I would like to see my brother.
Interviewer: Well, you can write to him anytime you like.
River: I need to... I would like, please, to see him.
Interviewer: Well, I'm sure he's very busy.
River: Yes. Yes, I'm sure.
(Static)
TITLE CARD: R. Tam Session 165 Excerpt
River: I have a system. You make an assumption because you have a system. Your system. You're symptomatic. It's chronic. You think it's benign, but it has to be cut out. This system is simple. Blanket folded thus, the sheet pulled taut, the mattress. The mattress can't be trusted. It has to be gutted. I looked under 20 and found a pea, and you wonder why I'm not sleeping? Are you worried that I cut up my mattress for no reason, or that I had a perfectly good reason that you can't see? Can't see anyone. Even the orderlies wear masks.
Interviewer: Why did you cut up your mattress?
River: I am trying to protect my spine.
Interviewer: Are you worried you might be injured? Your movement trainers have given you excellent...
River: No one will give me a mission.
Interviewer: A mission?
River: I have a reason. I'm reasonable. I have a reason.
(Static)
River: My movement hasn't been dictated yet, but I am not here for nothing. I am a... Sty. And you know I have a spine. There's something wrong with the body politic.
(Static)
River: (SCREAMS) They're sticking in me. It's in the mattress and it's crawling inside me. You cut it out! You cut it out! You cut it out!
(Static)
TITLE CARD: R. Tam Session 416 First Excerpt
Interviewer: You're very quiet today. How did your session with Dr. Mathias go?
River: He gave me a mission.
Interviewer: Really? Did he tell you your mission out loud, or did you just hear it?
River: He plays hide and seek with me.
Interviewer: Dr. Mathias?
River: My brother. He's a doctor. He thinks he can find me, but I'm deep down and I do not make a sound.
Interviewer: River, what mission did Dr. Mathias give you?
River: I can't tell you.
Interviewer: You can tell me anything. You know that.
River: Can't tell. I'll have to write it down.
Written by The One True b!X, maintainer of the session416.com fansite. Version 1.1 (22 December 2005) adds a report from the Flanvention.
Version 1.2 (08 January 2006) adds background in the identification of one element of the title screens as being an Alliance insignia from the movie.
Version 1.3 (09 January 2006) adds some reference links to discussions of alternative reality games.
Version 1.4 (07 July 2006) adds another Flanvention report.
Version 1.5 (23 December 2006) adds a YouTube link to the interview with Chuck the Movie Guy, a transcript from a convention appearance in New Zealand in which Summer discussed the Sessions, and a small update regarding "John Dowses".
Version 1.6 (12 January 2007) briefly discusses the sudden rediscovery of the Sessions in early 2007.
Version 1.7 (14 January 2007) expands on the sudden resurgence of interest.
Version 1.8 (17 February 2007) adds official information regarding the legality of making use of the Sessions.
Version 1.9 (01 March 2007) adds the news that the Sessions are intended for inclusion in a special edition Serenity DVD due the summer of 2007.
Version 2.0 (22 May 2007) adds a short bit about the menus for the Collector's Edition of the DVD.
Version 2.1 (01 August 2007) adds trivia from Comic-Con and the official Collector's Edition press release.
Version 2.2 (09 August 2007) adds official confirmation that the Sessions are meant to be viewed in release (and structurally proper) order, and not re-arranged into chronological order.
Version 2.3 (13 August 2007) adds remarks from the IGN review of the new DVD (and added a "Collector's Edition DVD" heading).
Version 2.4 (20 August 2007) adds more references to the Sessions from reviews of the Collector's Edition DVD.
Version 2.5 (21 August 2007) adds confirmation that the Sessions have been remastered for the Collector's Edition DVD.
Version 2.6 (21 August 2007) adds a full transcript of the Sessions, taken from the subtitle track on the Collector's Edition DVD.
Version 2.7 (23 August 2007) adds another comment from Joss about the Sessions.