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July 21, 2006
Summer hiatus…
So we’re on our summer hiatus, the month in which production stops so we can all enjoy our summer… Vancouver gets pretty rainy in the winter, so it makes sense that we take a nice, extended, month long vacation right in the middle of the summer when the weather is gorgeous. But strangely, when I don’t work, the paychecks stop! Weird! So I’m actually looking forward to getting back to it.
As a result, I don’t really have a lot of writer’s room gossip for you… The writers have all gone their separate ways, some in Ontario, one in Hawaii, one in Cali, and others just chillin’ like me in Vangrouvy. But no matter where they are, you can count on one thing: they’re all writing. In fact, I’ve got to get back to the office the Sunday before so I can prep those scripts. Because when we get back, it’s right back to full speed.
This week you’ll see Morpheus and Misbegotten…
I personally think Morpheus is one of the best looking SG-1 episodes ever. The backstory is this: at the start of the year, there were some changes with the Art Department/Production Design team, and modifications were made to our village set which… well… let’s just say not everybody was a fan. But we have some absolutely superb painters and set dressers. They did a paint overhaul, and added a lot of vegetation set decoration. And then Peter Woeste – well all I can say is he is one hell of a photographer. He added just the right amount of atmosphere (read: smoke), and did his photographic magic, and made the village set look amazing for this episode. I think you’ll agree when you see it.
Also get a load of the VFX lizard. Very cool. I was talking to the producers about the VFX for the show. The show has an in-house VFX department, of course, but sometimes we have so much going on they have to outsource certain effects, and with varying degrees of success. Rob Cooper was mentioning how you can usually tell if the VFX are going to be great at the initial modeling stage – when the VFX artists come in with their rough models of the character or ship and its related action. It’s either “Yeah!” or “Uh oh.” But all the shops put a lot of effort into it. And Image Engine did a superb job on this lizard!
Misbegotten is a spin-off story that carries over from No Man’s Land. It deals with some hefty moral issues and I like the fact that the writers attack these moral issues, knowing they make great drama. I think other shows might shy away from this kind of stuff, but not here!
And here’s something to keep your eye on: I talked to Martin Wood, and he mentioned that they had to reuse extras in some of the Wraith scenes on the planet. So see if you can spot continuity errors… for example the same Wraith in a shot AND the reverse shot. We also got another great performance from Connor Trinnear in this one.
Until next time!
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at July 21, 2006 07:23 AM
