I had the unique opportunity this past weekend to attend the Screenwriting Expo here in Los Angeles.  There were two LOST panels on Saturday afternoon.

The first panel featured producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the geniuses that orchestrate the incredible show.  The second panel featured writers and co-producers Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz as they detailed the writing process behind one of my personal favorites, the penultimate episode of Season 3, the Charlie-centric, Greatest Hits.

I won a Season 3 DVD set (apparently, I was the only one in a convention-room full of people that knew the name of Desmond Hume’s favorite scotch…) had one of my own burning questions answered by Damon and Carlton (more on this in later posts) and had the awesome opportunity to personally thank Carlton (we crossed paths in the restroom) for appearing at the convention, for answering my question so thoroughly and for his inspiring work on the show.

I was also able to give Damon and Carlton each a signed print of my painting John Locke And The Smoke Monster (shown above) as a way of personally thanking them both for the way they have inspired me as an artist.  You can read more about the painting by clicking here.

In this post, I will divulge a few things that Damon and Carlton or Eddie and Adam teased the crowd with concerning LOST: Seasons 5 and 6.  (Some fans may consider these items SPOILERS.)

In future posts, I will share some of the interesting facts that I learned about the making of the show and I will do my best to convey the amazing jedi-wisdom that all of these talented guys shared about the craft of writing.

On a scale of 1-10, (10 being the worst spoiler possible) I, personally, would rank the worst spoiler in the following list as a ‘4’.  They are pretty general.  The ‘worst’ one is something the really astute fans might have been able to surmise before it was explicitly stated.

Here goes:  The most un-spoilery Season 5 news is that as of this past Saturday (November 15th, 2008), the writing team only has twenty-four more episodes of LOST to break before they are done with the writing the entire show.  That means that they must be breaking episode 11 of Season 5 in the writer’s room this week.

Carlton explained that ‘The Socks’ (the minor and background characters, only a few of whom are actually significant to the main story) will suffer a big tragedy this coming season.

The show-within-the-show, Expose will return to LOST and it is possible that we will see Star Wars star Billy Dee Williams reprise his role as Mr. LaShade.

Before the end of the show we will probably see, but will not meet Gerald and Karen DeGroot.

They shared was that Patrick Fischler of MadMen (also an incredible show) has joined the cast for Season 5.  This guy looks like a Widmore crony if you ask me.

During a discussion about who is the leader of The Others, Damon said something to this effect, “Friendly was never supposed to be the leader of the others.”  “Is Jacob the leader of the others or is Jacob more of a spiritual figure that the others answer to?”

When asked who the ‘bad guys’ in the show really are, considering the new perspective found via the revelation of The Others’ plight and the introduction of the seemingly more-evil Charles Widmore, Damon replied, “There are no heroes and villains on our show, only different points of view.”

In regard to the ‘sci-fi’ element of the show, Damon and Carlton explained that they like to think of LOST as an ‘adventure show’ and not as a ‘sci-fi’ show.  Damon referenced Raiders Of The Lost Ark and explained that most people would not consider that movie a sci-fi film even though people get their faces melted off and ghosts fly around and kill an army of Nazi soldiers.  His point was that the supernatural elements in Raiders don’t really show themselves until the last ten minutes of the film.  Damon said that they are trying to make LOST like Raiders Of The Lost Ark in that the supernatural element will increase as they approach the series finale.

He went on to explain that the same thing happens in The Stand by Stephen King.  Like Raiders, the emotional tone of The Stand is dark and scary throughout, but the supernatural is very slowly introduced through small dispensations like psychic dreams.  It is not until the end that those elements culminate to something undeniably supernatural.  The Stand has always been one of the most prominent literary inspirations for LOST since the very beginning.  Damon explained that Season 5 will have a noticeable increase of science fiction in comparison to the other seasons but “By the time we get to Season 6 its just going to be crazy.”

Some fans have worried that the big questions of the series will not be answered before the show is over.  Damon assured us, ‘We have every intention of explaining what the origins of that monster are.”  But he also explained that not every big question will be answered.  However, he likened the unanswered questions of LOST to the unanswered question of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles Of Narnia.  For example, in the story of Narnia the fates of the various characters are pretty clear but questions like ‘Why does walking through the wardrobe transport people to Narnia?’ remain unanswered.

Damon explained that it is his suspicion that the fans are less concerned with how the mysteries of The Island will be resolved than they are about how the story of the LOST characters will end.  He explained that those questions will indeed be answered.  “Where is Locke on the axis of faith when the when the show ends?  Where is Jack on the axis of faith when the show ends?  That’s what people care about.”

That’s it for the teases.  You can read more about my experiences at the Screenwriting Expo LOST Panels with Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz in part two.

:: click here to listen to an interview with Chris about this experience ::