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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 February 8, 2008 01:36 AM
