March 07, 2008
The Last Man and The Last Blog (for a while)
So... end of the broadcast season. Whew! There goes another one. Another great one. I have to say, Season 4 was definitely my favoritest Atlantis season so far, but season 5 is showing promise. And hey, with our improved ratings, I can't help thinking about a possible season 6! Granted, some believe our ratings got a boost because the WGC strike resulted in less original dramatic programming in our timeslot, but Robert Cooper and I believe that eyeballs are eyeballs -- who can say whether these viewers that joined us because their regular programming was suspended won't just stay with us into Season 5.
During my blog hiatus, I pledge to accumulate tons of fun and interesting anecdotes so when we come back, there will be a veritable deluge of exciting behind the scenes stories for you. All about the office staff and what color paper is my favorite. How Tanja rearranged the office furniture up front, and who the recent inductees are into IATSI 891 (the film union). It'll be great!
Meanwhile, the scripts are flying fast and furious. Brad Wright turned in his first draft of a fun if atypical McKay driven story. And Joe Mallozzi turned in what may be my favorite "scary" Stargate of all time, "Whispers". Joe is a big horror fan and has used his knowledge of the genre to create a suspenseful and exciting creature feature which I'm certain everyone will enjoy.
But tonight, you'll see "The Last Man", written by Paul Mullie. I just sat down with Paul and Joe and chatted about the show. Paul explained the idea for the show "just came to him." Ahhh, that guy really knows how to make these behind the scenes blogs interesting. So I pressed: "Just came to you? How does that work?" And the dam broke. It turns out it all started with an image. He envisioned Sheppard returning to Atlantis through the gate and finding the city completely empty and the planet in the midst of an ice age. Pretty cool visual. Those key visuals are often the door in to a great story. Brad Wright is famous for building episodes off of images in this way. It's not at all uncommon -- film and tv is, after all, a visual medium.
So, after realizing that Brad was using the snow-covered landscape of Antartica for his movie Continuum, they decided to change the setting to a desert, as if the planet was going through a massive dry spell. Now, I don't want to spoil the story - after all, Joe is about to read this and give me what for if there are any spoilers, but I will tell you it's a time travel story that involves a very old McKay.
Joe said that during pre-production he looked up from his desk and there was some old guy standing at the door. His first thought - "Oh, rats. Somebody's annoying father or some fan made it into the building and now I'm going to have to talk to this guy for an hour instead of working on my script". But it was just Hewlett! The make up is that good.
Lastly, look out for some extraordinary visual effects sequences in this one and a masterful score by Joel Goldsmith. Paul explained that he had a number of conversations with Joel because there were three sound elements competing in many of the sequences: voice over, explosions, and music. For the biggest such event (the Carter battle sequence), they decided together to keep the explosions in the background (much quieter), and let the music ring out. It really makes the sequence powerful and dramatic. I have to say this story actually made me a little emotional, and I'm no softy.
So enjoy! See you all in the Summer.
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at 05:45 PM
February 29, 2008
Loose lips sink ships
So I made friends with Morjana. She emailed me and let me off the hook for my terrible spoiler, which I appreciated. This blogging thing can really take on a life of its own. I'm going to be extra vigilant from now on. Actually, Joe Mallozzi said I once again have to let him vet this blog before it's posted, so I don't really have a choice in the matter. And he's right. After all, loose lips sink ships.
So I hope you all enjoyed The Kindred Pt. 1. That reminds of a funny story about this two-parter. Ivon Bartok did a behind the scenes piece about Season 4, basically a general overview, and showed it to the producers a couple of weeks ago. It's a great piece, but the funniest part for us was Alan McCullough's interview, during which he unwittingly suggested that The Kindred Pt. 1 was basically all set up for The Kindred Pt. 2 -- which, of course, Alan wrote. It was pretty funny, because Alan is the nicest guy in the room, so he didn't mean to say anything that might be construed that way, but that's how it came out, and he got roasted over it. All in good fun though.
So did you all see the return of the beloved Dr. Carson Beckett? Joe Mallozzi noted that, these days, you can't say Dr. Beckett without using the adjective "beloved". I think he might be right! Another of Ivon's behind the scenes featurettes covers the "Save Carson Beckett" campaign and the protest which occurred outside the Bridge Studios gates last year. Good stuff.
Meanwhile, we're in full swing here, once again. Jason Momoa came by my office yesterday to get a couple of computer tips. I think this guy is the nicest, most down to Earth actor I know. I don't think fame or success has changed him one iota. And that is awesome to see. Paul McGillion also made an appearance this week - he's a friend and I'm personally excited he's back for an arc this season. And David Nykl stopped in and gave the producers chocolates. There have also been some new characters cast in the last couple of weeks, but I'm not going to spill the beans on that stuff. I know which side my bread gets buttered on. And, another general note - I have to say I'm really enjoying the Season 5 scripts I've read so far.
I spoke with Alan about The Kindred, Pt. 2, just now. First, he gave me all the platitudes: fun episode, lots of emotional scenes, McGillion was great. Then he got down to brass tacks. He said the location we used - Terminal City - in his opinion, gave us the creepiest Michael lair yet. I personally think it's a toss-up between Terminal City and Riverview Mental Hospital (used in Vengeance). He also reminded me that this was Rachel Luttrell's last full episode before she had the baby, so she was very pregnant for this shoot, which is always a challenge. And he let me in on a couple of other great behind the scenes tidbits. Look for the two boys in the scene with the Athosians - those are Joe Flanigan's kids. And also, the Wraith style ultrasound images were adapted from real ultrasound images from one of the Stargate babies. Unfortunately, I don't know which - there were so many babies born last year we've lost track!
Enjoy the episode tonight.
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at 05:18 PM
February 22, 2008
Haunted by Morjana... and the Googlions
So, first of all, a big apology to those of you who read my blog last week and were treated to the most gratuitous of spoilers. Really terrible on my part, and I owe you all a big apology. I mean, for someone to go around whining about all the spoilers on the internet and then let loose with a whopper like ... "and then the midway station gets destroyed"... It's the height of hypocrisy, I know. So again, apologies. For some reason, when I was speaking with Carl about it, nether of us clued into the fact that it was a huge spoiler I was letting out. Carl, however, had a good reason - he thought the show had already been aired, as it was accidentally made available on itunes early. I have no such excuse, except an apparent lack of brain cells. So in the immortal words of Arnie Fufkin (Spinal Taps' manager), go ahead and kick my ass. I want you to.
If it's any consolation, I woke up last Friday at 4:00 a.m. in a cold sweat and realized that I'd blown it. But by the time I was able to edit this blog to remove the reference, that diligent Morjana had copied snippets of my blog onto Gateworld, including the offending paragraph. Curse you Morjana! No, no, I take that back. I appreciate your support and the fact that you alert the other gateworld subscribers to my postings. Besides, it's really Carl's fault anyway.
Meanwhile, the producers got to see Continuum with its score this week at the sound mix studio, and by all accounts this movie rocks. I'm looking forward to checking it out next week when a small amount of sound mix DVD's are released internally in the office. Should be another great addition to the Stargate SG-1 story line. Let's all hope for more movies in the future. And, of course, production started this week, beginning with Search and Rescue, the first episode of season 5. Much of our shooting this week was on the Norco stage, but now they're shooting on our Daedalus set. Trust me, this is going to be a very cool season 5 premier (read: expensive with lots of VFX).
Okay, so... tonight's episode: The Kindred Pt. 1, working titled "Rise of the Googlions". Hilarious. That was just a silly working title Carl Binder came up with, but everybody liked saying it so much that, yup, you guessed it - it actually ended up on some of the production paperwork, specifically art department sketches. And then it was used frequently in conversation as well. "What's up with Googlions?" "When are we shooting Googlions?". So, as a result, we've become a little more careful with our working titles.
And, of course, I now have to be extra careful with my spoilers. But what I can tell you about The Kindred Pt. 1 is that Connor Trinnear's Michael plays a central role in this two parter. So all you half-wraith fans, get your popcorn ready. And also this is sort of a "Teyla" story as well. Okay, I better shut up now before I get in more trouble. Look for Joe Mallozzi to discuss this episode at length in his blog tomorrow at www.josephmallozzi.wordpress.com.
Enjoy!
Posted by Alex Levine at 05:47 PM
February 15, 2008
Carl's Back!
Well, the WGA strike is over and that means Executive Producer Carl "The Truth" Binder is back in da house! And not a moment too soon, because, in addition to Carl being a great guy and making such wonderfully colorful comments in the room, I really needed someone to talk to about tomorrow's episode "Midway" and Carl is the obvious choice because he wrote it. But before I tell you about Midway, I'll relate a couple of wonderful anecdotes Carl told me about his time on the picket lines in LA.
Yes it's true, as a WGA member, Carl was one of the sign waving picketers down in LA during the writer's strike. But those writers were not without support. In addition to horn-honking drivers and famous actors, there were also buoyed by Don Knotts' daughter, who frequented the picket lines with her very own hand-puppet, doing her best to keep everybody's spirits up. Hilarious. Carl also told about the time they were picketing outside the Disney lot, and Calista Flockhart drove up to the gate. Several of the writers walked out onto the crosswalk in front of her car, effectively blocking her from getting into the lot. One even yelled something like "Don't go to work, Calista!" But then, as Carl explained, she gave those writers the look that wives give husbands, and they sheepishly parted. So there you go, a little taste of what it was like out on the front lines.
Now tomorrow you will see Midway, which is a pure action episode. I'm going to be watching it on HD myself. Carl said this was a very difficult script to write. In fact, he wrote several outlines and then had to set it aside because it was determined that the episode was likely going to be too expensive to produce. So he actually wrote Quarantine, and then came back to this one. But then, once the costs of the previous episodes started to come in, the producers realized they would be able to afford the episode. The major cost, of course, was building the midway station, which had been discussed in many episodes but never seen. And that meant a set build, as well as significant set extensions through the use of visual effects.
Andy Mikita directed this one, and apparently it was a logistical nightmare, not just because of the aforementioned build, but also because, in addition to the midway station, they also had to create a midway gateroom. And this part is cool: the midway gateroom is an entirely virtual set. Everything in the set, with the exception of the gate itself, is a visual effect. Pretty cool. So when you're watching it, keep in mind that the physical gate is the same for the SGC gateroom and the midway gateroom.
You SG-1 fans will surely enjoy seeing Chris Judge reprise the role of Teal'c in this one. Carl's favourite part of the episode is when Teal'c and Ronon are passing time at the midway station by watching the Three Stooges. Hilarious. Two macho aliens watching slapstick comedy in black and white. Carl's first choice was a Daffy Duck cartoon, but apparently we couldn't afford the use license. But he's a huge fan of the Three Stooges, so it works out great. Jason Momoa and Chris Judge have great chemistry on screen. I recall that, shortly before filming, Chris was asked who would win in a fight between the two characters and he said something funny, like "with these messed up knees, I don't think it'd be much of a contest".
Enjoy!
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at 12:08 AM
February 08, 2008
The Slow Build and Trio
Meetings, meetings and more meetings. Yup. We're officially prepping episode #501, which means: MEETINGS. Concept meetings, prosthetics meetings, art department meetings, costumes meetings, props meetings, stunts/spfx meetings, VFX/playback meetings, hair and makeup meetings, extras meetings, and production meetings! Not to mention, tech surveys, fittings, camera tests, contact fittings, and the cast medicals! Whoa. This is a lot of work, right here. The slow build to the first day of shooting has begun.
So tomorrow night you'll see Trio on Scifi, yet another great Season 4 episode. Now, unfortunately for me, Martin Gero, who wrote and produced this episode, is out of town for a few days. So I was in a bit of a panic as to who to talk to about this one, because Martin Wood is also unavailable these days. But then, as luck would have it, I stumbled in to the writer's room and Ivon Bartok was airing a new special feature for the producers entitled: "The Making of Trio". Eureka!
So, I got to see an amazing, in depth, behind the scenes documentary which I strongly urge you to see when the DVD's come out for Season 4. And in that special feature: yup, you guessed it, Martin Gero and Martin Wood flap their jaws all about this terrific episode. So I'm going to steal some of Ivon's thunder and tell you some of the coolest stuff they talked about. But trust me, the behind the scenes footage, the cast interviews, and Martin Gero's stand up make this a special feature you really need to see.
In any case, Martin explained that Trio was intended to be another smaller, bottle type episode - three people in a room. Those three people, Sam Carter, Jennifer Keller, and Rodney McKay. The idea of course, was to save money. But the story became so logistically complicated, and so dependent on some amazing stunts and "gags" that saving money was not really an option. It became a very expensive show. And the good news - the money shows on the screen.
You may not know this, but there was a "gimbled" set built for the SG-1 movie Continuum, and the SGA producers told them not to tear it down because they wanted to use it. That was, in fact, the inspiration for this episode. But in shooting Continuum, the producers realized the set didn't gimble enough - only about 8 degrees. So they raised the set so it could slant to 20 degrees. There's your first big expense. Martin explained that the trick to shooting a gimbled set is to level the camera to floor. Otherwise the effect doesn't work at all. And engineers were called in to make sure it was all safe.
Martin Wood explained that this was the most difficult episode he directed all year, because it relied on not less than eight different gags. His job, as he explained it, is to push the real action as far as possible, right up to the point that it becomes dangerous for the actors. Then the stunt men and women are called in. And according to James Bamford, our intrepid stunt coordinator, the stunts in this one are awesome.
One final note: the cast had a great time shooting this one, even though it was rigorous and the days were long. Amanda, David, and Jewel literally danced and laughed during takes. I think there was even some dinner theatre in there. So enjoy it, because they enjoyed making it.
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at 01:36 AM
