JMS SPEAKS 3

[Wizz]

<font face="Verdana"><font color="red">I was wondering, how closely did you and Chris Franke work together? I remember hearing that George Lucas originally intended to use only existing classical music for Star Wars, and had planned out the soundtrack, but then John Williams came in, listened to what Lucas had in mind, and composed his own score.
How much direction did you give Mr. Franke? Was all along the lines of, "Break our hearts here, make us tense here, and write a decent love theme here, but do it however you see fit," or did you give him more specific instruction? Did you, like Lucas, have preexisting music in mind that you
wanted parts to resemble?</font>

Chris and I sit down to spot the movie (meaning I call out the spots, minutes/seconds/frames) where I want the music to come in and go out. I give general directions, more in terms of the emotion of the scene or my intent than in musical terms because I don't speak that particular language with any facility. On rare occasions I'll say I want a particular instrument, or a particular sound. Usually it's left to Chris, who knows what I want better than I do sometimes.

jms
<hr><font color="blue">
I posted your comments on a "B5" board, and they drew the following response: "I can't help but get the impression that JMS would rather see 'Crusade' die than live. I had hoped this 'third project' would BE Crusade, but after this post, it does not sound like it. If JMS is not interested in pursuing 'Crusade', should we the fans be? I find myself wondering."

This is an odd phenomenon, but not an uncommon one. It seems that every reply where you discuss the *possibility* of "Crusades" return at some point, but stop short of saying, "We start shooting tomorrow", is greeted as the final death-knell of the show. People seem so eager to "read between the lines" of your posts that they don't read the lines themselves. It seems to me that you have had any number of opportunities to declare "Crusade" dead once and for all, or to say that you have no further interest in pursuing that particular story and have moved onto other things. Instead you have *always* seemed to leave this particular door open, while in no way minimizing the challenges involved in bringing the show back in some form, someday.
</font><font color="red">
I mean, this last post began with the words, "It would be possible" and the guy from the other board immediately took this as a "sign" that you really want the show dead. Is he endowed with superior insight, or am I safe in assuming that when you say "it would be possible" you mean, "it would be possible"?
</font>
It is a sign that whoever posted that is a dork.
Things take the time they take. The show just barely finished ariing on SFC. Look at the time frame between when B5 started airing on SFC, and when we got the go-ahead to do Rangers. TV doesn't work in idealized terms..."Gee it did great so let's go out and make a deal RIGHTNOW!" It is a slow, wearing, grinding process. TV is a cautious business.
I have not been told, definitively, "no" by SFC, nor have I been told "yes;" I know what's in their budget to do at this moment, and I know they want to test the B5 waters in general with Rangers. I cannot imagine that, if the show does well, they wouldn't want to revisit Crusade.

But to say that I want the show to die is right up there in the top two percentile of the top ten percent of dumb things I've heard this year. I would love to be able to finish the story, and finish it properly. Until that happens, it will always be an unresolved issue with me.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: brief report from jms
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Well, all of last week I was in Vancouver for the first week of shooting on the two-hour TV movie BABYLON 5: LEGEND OF THE RANGERS. (I'm back now for a while.) It's been a terrific experience to date. The dailies look great. Mike Vejar is on board to direct, and is keeping the look and feel consistent with what we've done before, but at the same time (in collaboration with our new Director of Photography Henry Chan) is taking the look even a step further. The sets (courtesy of production designer Steve Gaeghan and his band of artistic types) look more detailed, more textured, more realistic than much of what we've done before on B5. (This is in no way to diminish what we did in B5 on sets, it's just a different approach.)

Andreas Katsulas showed up mid-week as G'Kar, and despite having been away from that makeup for three years, was instantly back in character starting with the first shot and straight on through.

The cast have proven themselves excellent. It's natural to take some time to find your character, and find the lines...but from the moment they landed on set, they had their lines letter perfect, and the chemistry is there between them. SFC has seen the dailies and they're absolutely enchanted with what's on film.

I wish I had colorful stories to tell, but we're talking here about a bunch of dedicated professionals who appreciate the legacy of B5 and are doing everything they can to make this next installment the best possible. (About the only negative thing to happen all week was my losing my California state ID midweek, which I'll have to go in to replace this week at my local DMV.) It's a very elaborate production, with everything from pyros to wire works and other stuff, in addition to the usual glut of CGI we tend to do, but so far it's all going quite well.

I've been taking digital pictures of the production which will soon be available on the SFC website...and there are some beauts there. I'll let you know when they're up.

In the interim...know that the show is going extremely well, and I think that people are going to like the cast a lot. They're good, well-trained, dedicated people.

I think it's going to go over very well indeed.

jms

[MerleZ]

OK, I'm a bit late catching up here, but here's my character profile (ugh!):

# 1 David Corwin
# 2 Vir Cotto
# 3 Warren Keffer
# 4 Alfred Bester
# 5 Lord Refa
# 6 Delenn
# 7 Londo Mollari
# 8 Talia Winters
# 9 Zack Allan
# 10 Jeffrey David Sinclair
# 11 Elizabeth Lochley
# 12 John Sheridan
# 13 Marcus Cole
# 14 Lennier
# 15 Emperor Cartagia
# 16 Lyta Alexander
# 17 Michael Alfredo Garibaldi
# 18 Byron
# 19 Susan Ivanova
# 20 Kosh Naranek
# 21 Dr. Stephen Franklin
# 22 Morden
# 23 G'Kar
# 24 Na'Toth
# 25 Zathras


I find having Lord Refa so high puzzling, as I answered the "end justifying the means" question emphatically no, but who knows how the thing was set up.....

[Wizz]

<font face="verdana"><font color="red">The owners of CRUSADE pulled the plug on the production and will not allow broadcasters that have previously aired the series, the right to broadcast it a second time. However, the Sci-Fi Channel in the U.S. is able to air it because it is their first broadcast of the series.
Is this really true? Or is there some corporate bafflegab going on? Why would Crusade not be rerunnable, whereas Babylon 5 is? Isn't it Warner Brothers that owns the rights to both series?</font>

Yeah, so to be honest, that sounds a bit fishy to me.


jms</font>

[Wizz]

<font face="Verdana"><font color="red">Mind telling us a little more about the cast? Who's playing who...</font>

Just off the top of my head and in no real order... Dylan Neal is playing David Martel, our lead character, a Ranger who's come through some especially rough times; Alex Zahara is Dulann, a Minbari, his second; Myriam Sirois is Sarah Cantrell of Mars Dome One, weapons specialist; Enid Raye Adams is Firell, Minbari, a healer; Warren Takeuchi as Kitaro Sasaki of Earth, communication and translations; Dean Marshall as Malcolm Bridges, covert intelligence and infiltration; David Storch as Tafeek, Minbari, a political and first contact guy; and a Narn, Na'Feel (played by Jennie Hogan) and a Drazi, Tirk (played by Gus Lynch), both recent recruits/ members of the Rangers.

jms

<hr>
&quot;I've been taking digital pictures of the production.&quot;
<font color="red">
Just curious. Whatcha using?
</font>

Sony MVC 1000 recording directly onto a mini-CDrom.

jms
<hr>
<font color="red">Obviously there's been some improvement in the quality of graphics over the last few years, but how committed are you to seeing that the new Studio maintains a level of consistency with what's been seen in previous B5?</font>

The effects will be consistent, but overall will be an improvement on what's gone before.

jms</font>

[Wizz]

Re: Attn JMS - B5 DVD dropped from schedules

I am totally sans clue on this, this is the first I've heard of it.

jms

[Wizz]

<font face="verdana"><font color="red">Since there were some, ahem, challenges in the network direction with Crusade (and since I play with process challenges for a living I'm always intrigued by both the good and the bad processes), I was wondering what the process was this time with SCI-FI? How does it differ from previous network experiences?</font>

It isn't so much different as it is pretty much the same, in the sense that the whole TNT situation was an aberration; I had NEVER had that much interference, that level of interference, on ANY other show before. There have been headaches, sure, but that's part of the job and never to this extent.

So SFC's involvement has been pretty much on a par with what has gone before. They had a handful of notes on the outline, ditto on the script, and that was it. And in both cases they were primarily small notes, line notes or character bits.

You *expect* to get some notes along the way, because the network/studio is the buyer. I'm okay with that and always have been. The TNT situation was simply insane.

<font color="red">I'm delighted that SCI-FI likes the dailies (and am looking forward to being equally as delighted with the finished product). Who sees them? Is that their Programming Department? Did script go through a similar process?</font>

I know it goes to the heads of programming in NY and LA, possibly to the PR department, beyond that I don't know.

jms
<hr>
<font color="red">JMS, is Jennie Hogan (Na'Feel) okay with the Narn makeup? I know you've had problems with actresses & the Narn makeup in the past.</font>

So far, so good.


jms

</font>

[Wizz]

<font face="verdana"><font color="red">Did you happen to name the character Kitaro Sasaki after the Japanese musician?</font>

It was one of many influences; Kitaro as a name has a long legacy in many places, though the musician Kitaro (and yes I do have some of his albums) is currently the best known. Sasaki came from a Zen master of that name.

jms</font>

[Wizz]

<font face="Verdana"><font color="red">What with Joss Whedon having (starting next fall) 3 connected shows on 3 networks (WB, UPN, BBC), and you having two on 2 different networks (with luck), do you see that sort of thing becoming more common?</font>

Actually, it's been common for decades; producers routinely make shows for different or competing networks.

jms
<hr>
<font color="red">Don't shoot me! A number of Babylon 5 and Crusade episodes take place on Mars! So....
Many of you may remember the "Face on Mars" revealed 25 years ago in NASA Viking 1 images. Many will remember all the hoo hah which followed and has continued into the now.
NASA has new imagery of the Cydonia region of Mars, and in particular, the mesa which has been referred to as "The Face on Mars".
Details at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2....htm?list82243
Of course, the "Real Story" will be revealed in the National Perspirer next week :-)</font>
See, here's my thought, which I voiced at a dinner a couple of years ago with a bunch of NASA/JPL types....

"You guys are always fighting to get money and budgets approved. But if you said, 'We don't know what it is...I mean, it's PROBABLY not a face, but maybe it IS a face, we should go and check it out just in case.' you'd get all the money you'd ever want."

jms</font><font face="arial" size="-4">



[This message has been edited by Wizz (edited June 16, 2001).]

[Wizz]

<Font face="Verdana">Re: SFX
<font color="red">Can we all say "forged autographs"? Yup, the same old shenanigans as well.</font>

<font color="blue"><u>That</u>, I rather think, is a criminal offense.</font></p>

That was one of the major concerns that I had based on the last Wolf con I attended, there seemed to be a fair amount of this going on, and an attitude that seemed almost to encourage such things.

Case in point (one of a bunch)...there illegal, counterfeited items in the dealer's room when we had given specific instructions (and had received elaborate promises) that no such items would be present. I ended up personally going around and confronting many of the counterfeiters because the Wolf people would not do so.

The worst of this was the sheer amount of fake autographed material. At one point, Mira Furlan came to me, profoundly upset, because there were cards that were being sold supposedly with her autograph but which she never signed. So again I had to go down into the dealer's room myself. Stupidly, the guy doing the selling didn't know who I was when I asked about the cards (Mira was standing behind me, unseen by the guy, which is easy to do given our relatives heights).

I asked about the cards, as though I were interested in buying them, and he said that he had personally overseen the autographing, that the autographs were absolutely authentic...then I stepped out of the way, and let Mira come forward. "Are these your autographs?" I asked.

She looked them over and pronounced them total forgeries. Suddenly the guy was saying that he didn't acually oversee the signing, that it was "some fellow in the States" who sold them to him.

I complained vigorously to the con organizers, and initially was told "well, we'll ask him to take them off the table." Take them OFF THE TABLE? They didn't want to offend him. Finally I made it clear that if this wasn't handled right now in the proper way, the way ANY convention would handle it, I was gonna call the cops.

So they finally ejected the dealer from the con, which solved that one problem but left the others selling bogus merchandise unresolved.

Subsequent to this, presumably to make amends to the dealer, they put the word out to other dealers and people that "Joe just went nuts on a dealer for no real reason," that I was being a bully and unreasonable...never mentioning the counterfeiting part of it. In my view, the concern seemed to be far more with maintaining good relations with the dealers who were fleecing the fans, than in protecting the fans from the very real prospect of spending a great deal of their money to obtain something that was a complete fake.

I had to work hard to overcome a lot of the badmouthing that came out of this, but thankfully there were many, many witnesses.

jms

([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine and don't send me story ideas)</font><font face="Arial" size="-4">


[This message has been edited by Wizz (edited May 31, 2001).]