OTHER TECH

Just to set the stage: You guys are working on Season 3 as we speak, right? CARLTON: Yes. We started shooting back on August 7. We're working on new episodes right now, in fact.

So you're writing the zombie episode, then? [all chuckle - Damon and Carlton have a running joke on their Lost podcasts about writing an "all-zombie" episode if the show is ever in danger of becoming too long in the tooth.] DAMON: That one's already written and in a safety-deposit box in case anything happens to us.

And that's for Season 7, right? CARLTON: Yeah.

DAMON: Exactly. They would have to accelerate the airing of that episode should a horrible fate befall either of us.

Ah. I feel so much better, now that I know. So let's dive on into the DVD set for Season 2. I love the bonus materials like the on-location stuff, flashback outtakes, and "Secrets of The Hatch." When you work on the actual season itself, are you actively thinking that you have to shoot extra material? DAMON: Obviously, the show - the mother ship - is our main focus at all times. But when Carlton and I, along with [executive producer] Bryan Burk, were in Hawaii last year for the Season 1 DVD release party, we sat down with all the guys at Buena Vista and the DVD producers and started filling them in on everything we were up to in Season 2. At that point, we were probably writing "Orientation" [Episode 3 of Season 2], and we gave them some ideas we had for the Season 2 DVD, so that they could immediately start thinking about what they would need us to be doing for them.

Everything we shoot is for the show. It's all intended to air, but every so often in the editing room, Carlton and I find ourselves saying, "You know what? That'd make a great scene for the DVD, because we have to knock some time out of the show" or "While that's a great scene, it doesn't quite fit in the episode the way we originally intended in the script." And then of some scenes, we'll say, "You know what? That scene doesn't work at all, so it shouldn't be on the show or the DVD, period."