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September 23, 2005

Fight! fight! fight!

Well, it’s a strange time of year around here. The last of the shows are being prepped as we speak, and the end of the production season is nigh… There’s the tendency to let up, but you mustn’t give in…. don’t give in! And everybody is waiting to hear if the shows get picked up for another exciting year. So write your Senators (or MLA’s, as the case may be) and tell them how much you love Stargate! Not your Senators. I was kidding. Watch the show! Get those ratings UP UP UP. Or you can watch more Surreal Life instead. It’s really up to you.

By the way, this will be my last blog entry until the New Year when the second half of the season airs. Well… I may sign on just to keep you in the loop. Tell you what the writers are doing, whether anybody has lost their temper or anything.

It’s been fun getting to spout off about everything, even if I did take it too far on occasion (just like I said I would in my first blog!) I love the feedback from the gateworld crowd. You guys are tough! But I like ya. I like the cut of your jib. I like the way you take everything and really think about it, mull it over, and then post comments. It’s often very helpful and also gratifying to know that people love the show so much. Plus now when I google myself I’m the third most famous Alex Levine (behind a tattoo artist from Minneapolis and a Professor of Chemical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara – he’s number one).

I just watched a rough cut of a behind the scenes documentary Ivon Bartok made for the Stargate DVD’s all about the stunts. It includes interviews with James Bamford, Martin Wood, and a few of the Atlantis actors. The piece breaks down how the fight sequences and stunts are put together from the ground up. These guys work HARD at their craft, and the results speak for themselves. I’m not lying when I tell you that this is an awesome featurette. And the reason I bring it up is because they talk about the amazing fight that happened between Ronon and Ford in Runner. And of course tonight you’ll see those two guys in action once again…

Since I already gave you some behind the scenes stuff about Atlantis last week, I’ll leave you with some interesting Wraith facts. 1. Andee Frizzell has played all of the Wraith queens. 2. James Lafazanos has played a lot of the Wraith males (not the ones with the masks). That’s how good our prosthetic make up people are – they can make those actors look completely different. 3. Not all Wraith are green. Some are orangy green. I know, that part freaked me out too. And lastly 5. The Wraith have fashion sense. Yes, it’s true. You’ll see.

Also a quick correction: in my blog last week I incorrectly stated that Aurora was Carl Binder’s first Atlantis script. Later on, Carl came into my office and shut the door. Now, despite the rumours, normally Carl is a pretty even-keeled fellow. But he stared at me, which always makes me uncomfortable. And then he said, in a very monotone (threatening?) way, “I read your blog. There’s a mistake.” And it got pretty tense. A friend of mine told me a long time ago that if you’re ever involved in an altercation to look at a guy’s hands. If they’re curled up into fists, that generally means he’s going to punch you, so you should punch him first. So I looked at Carl’s hands, and they were sort of half-way fists. So I made fists too. And he was looking at my hands. And I was like, “let’s do this, then! Bring it!”. But instead he just explained that Aurora was the first script he wrote as a staff writer, that he had done a couple scripts last year as a freelancer. And I was like, “oh. Sorry, man”. And we left it like that.

See you in the New Year.

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at September 23, 2005 11:39 PM