lurkers-guide/ftp/GEnie/jms96-09

JMS on Genie
September 1996


SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 626       Tue Sep 03, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:14 EDT
 
     Thanks, all.  We're very pleased and proud to have been recognized for
the Hugo.  It's a terrific validation of our work, and this is something 
that the fans made happen, and it's as much theirs as mine.   It just
reinforces that people can get together and accomplish something whenever 
they choose to do so

     Re: copyright infringement...no, you don't have to prove damages
to win.  Statutory fines exist, at $100,000 per infringement the minimum 
under the law.  Additional penalties come from damages; the $100,000 is 
the minimum per.  And one can argue that each distributed game would be an
infringement...the math ain't favorable.

                                                                jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 644       Wed Sep 04, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 02:04 EDT
 
     Re: commercials...we don't make 'em, and have zero input into the
construction of them.  We're not allowed to get near it, that's strictly 
a Warnr Bros. thing.  

                                                                 jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 2
Message 424       Tue Sep 03, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:16 EDT
 
     It's usually common for larger ships to drop their fighters just
as they enter a jump point into normal space, so they can get an edge on 
the target rather than launching post-jump.


jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 647       Wed Sep 04, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 23:44 EDT
 
     Small corrections...the Hugo space ship is silver; 7 Hugos have
been given previously to SF shows, 3 to the original TZ, 4 to ST (old and
new). And yes, apparently the "Is There A God?" debate has become the 
con's #1 seller on tape, with Buzz Aldrin's speech second (I don't know 
whether to be pleased or chagrined), but we definitely didn't go to 
dinner afterward...we ended up at the same restaurant, but different 
tables on opposite sides of the restaurant.

     (Aside: I had to wolf down my food to get ready for the Hugo
ceremony, and just as I was finishing, a fan had the waiter bring over a 
tray of food, christened spoo.  I couldn't eat it, had to run, so I gave 
it to the fellow I'd been debating, explaining that it was "an act of 
atheist charity.")

     Aside to Mike Cooney...was there a message uptopic where you went
over ways to more economically/reasonably portray, like, thousands of
ships on-screen?  Not that I have any reason for asking this question....

                                                                   jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 31
Message 328       Fri Sep 06, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 04:19 EDT
 
     There's a term, for let's say England, when you're between rulers, 
one has passed along and the other is perhaps too young to rule, or they
haven't yet decided on someone...a term for the person who's in charge in 
the interim, and I can't for the life of me think of that term.  Anybody 
know what it is?

                                                                  jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 19,  Topic 1
Message 16        Sun Sep 08, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:15 EDT
 
     Stims take a while to work out of your system, to get totally 
flushed out (as will be noted shortly), but when they're gone, it's 
unpleasant.  

     My own take on "And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which
airs tomorrow in the UK...I like it.  The Brother Theo stuff is a tad
stilted in a couple of places, but it's only a couple of minutes, and the 
rest works real well.  It's a very subversive episode in its way, and a 
part of it still creeps me out.

                                                                   jms
 ------------
SFRT I RoundTable
Category 44,  Topic 5
Message 336       Sun Sep 08, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:17 EDT
 
      My guess is that for Necro, I'll be able to bring some clips from 4th
season shows, the late 3rd season bloopers, some other stuff.

                                                                jms

     (PS, Vampyr, good to meet you there...to put a face with the sharp
analyses of stories.  And thanks to all re: the Hugo.)
 ------------

SFRT II RoundTable
Category 19,  Topic 1
Message 22        Sun Sep 08, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 21:57 EDT
 
     Well, sometimes you go along making an episode, and when it's all
assembled -- which is really the only time you ever know if it's turned 
out the way you want -- it's kinda late to change much.  You're filming 
the next episode, you can't go back and refilm it or rewrite it.  So 
there's really very little you can do at that point.  

                                                              jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 738       Wed Sep 11, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:04 EDT
 
     There's always a danger in making the show about the New Alien of
the Week, which we tend to try to avoid.  As for Hypernauts, yes, they
showed a lot more virtual environments...but the resolution of those 
shots were nowhere near the level of resolution needed for a show like 
B5.  They  looked more plastic-y, more obviously CGI.  The only way they 
could render that much material was to go for low-res stuff, and do other 
tricks.  It also helped that they shot that show on *videotape*, which is 
far cheaper than film.  If you did the Hypernauts EFX tricks on B5, 
they'd look very chintzy, for the most part.  

     That said, we *are* going outside the station more and more in
the last batch of year 3 episodes, and even moreso in the initial 
episodes of year 4.  We go to Narn, more time is spent on Centauri Prime, 
Minbar, Mars, Earth, and elsewhere.

                                                                 jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 453       Thu Sep 12, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:43 EDT
 
     Foundation also did the majority or all of the battle stuff in
last week's Voyager.

     Re: NDE...Doug was very happy with that name, which they arrived
at after long, long discussions...and just after they locked it down, I 
pointed out that NDE is also a term for Near Death Experience, which has 
since become how some of us refer to  it.  (Or a Near Doug Experience,  
which is kinda the same thing, only without the light show.)

                                                                  jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 473       Fri Sep 13, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 04:59 EDT
 
     Today John Copeland and I did our producer's cut on the first
episode of year 4, "The Hour of the Wolf."  Granted my opinion is 
subjective and biased...but of all the first-episodes we've had each 
season, this one is the best.  I was searching for the right word after 
looking at the director's cut, and finally came to it...maturity.  It has 
a depth we've only skated through before, all meat, no filler.  This one 
and the next batch are also all over the map, literally...B5, Narn, 
Centauri Prime, elsewhere...so it's a real challenge.  But it looks great.  

                                                                  jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 482       Sat Sep 14, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:16 EDT
 
     Mike...on the one hand you keep asking for big battle set pieces, 
then you say you don't want a war story...you'll forgive me if I note that
you're sending out mixed signals.

     You may also want to wait to see what we *do* rather than
worrying now about what we *might* do.

                                                                 jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 509       Sun Sep 15, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:44 EDT
 
     Also, what tends to happen is that a message of mine gets 
paraphrased or misremembered, and someone says, "Well, back in 1993, jms 
said..." and if they get it wrong, and I don't catch it, it becomes part 
of what's assumed is actually happening.  It's like playing telegraph 
with 25,000 of your best friends....

     Small correction: my first on-line service was actually Compuserve, 
back around 1984-1985.  I was one of the first to hit that service, I 
think, and certainly the first TV writer I knew over there.

     Re: the crew...nothing else has changed.  We've still got John 
Flinn  III as our DP, Ann Bruice-Aling as costumer, John Iacovelli as 
Great Maker of All Things Art, Chris Franke on music, optic 
nerve...they're all still here, all still doing great stuff.  Directors 
for the fourth season include Mike Vejar, Jesus Trevino, David Eagle, and 
some new folks we're trying out, Kevin Dobson (not the actor), John 
Macpherson, and we may even let Stephen Furst do an episode, since he has 
a long background as a director for smaller films and theater.


jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 513       Sun Sep 15, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:22 EDT
 
     Actually, "Alas, Babylon" is a terrific book by Pat Frank, which
came out in the late 60s, which I recommend to anyone.  Great reading.  
Since first reading it as a kid, I must've reread it a dozen or more 
times over the years until the darned thing fell apart.  (Paperback.)  
While at  Worldcon, I picked up a first-edition hardcover of the book, 
and started reading it again while I was there...and fell right back into 
it again.

                                                                   jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 2
Message 527       Sun Sep 15, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:47 EDT
 
     The thing about "Believers" is that, really, nobody's right, and
in their own way, from their point of view, everybody's right.


jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 2
Message 536       Sun Sep 15, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 16:48 EDT
 
     Kwicker: exactly.  Interestingly, one fan I ran into at Worldcon
made the point that rather than moralizing or giving messages, B5's 
strength is in providing "meaning without judging."  Kinda interesting....


jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 600       Sat Sep 21, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 18:52 EDT
 
     You ever get one of those pieces of news that leaves you at once
vaguely amused and horribly chagrined?  Turns out in the October issue of 
BUZZ Magazine -- the high-style, fancy, New Yorker-in-aspiration LA
magazine for rich folk -- they have the 100 Coolest People in LA.  How do 
I know this, even though I don't subscribe?  I got called by a friend.

     Yep...for the first time I am now officially cool.  

     Still processing this one.

                                                                 jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 2
Message 588       Fri Sep 20, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:50 EDT
 
      More episode titles: #5, "The Long Night," #6, "Into the Fire,"
#7 "Epiphanies," #8 "The Illusion of Truth."

                                                            jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 619       Sat Sep 21, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 23:50 EDT
 
     Mike: you give me an extra million dollars an episode, and you
can' have those scenes.  We make this show for under $900,000 an 
episode.  We're dancing as fast as we can.  What they spent on ID4 is 
more than we've spent on all three years of B5.


jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 620       Sat Sep 21, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 23:55 EDT
 
     And just so you understand...it's not just a question of building
sets.  Yes, you start with that expense.  Now add extras to populate the
scenes.  If you're going to have people being killed or even bumped 
around, you need stunt people, and that's very expensive if you start 
having more than 2-3 of them in a scene.  Now there's the CGI.  Now 
there's the cost of the pyrotechnics.  And the staging.  Crashes or big 
action (live, not CGI) scenes can take an entire day to set up.  Yeah, 
you can get a 15 second BIG SCENE, but it'll cost you hideously, and 
it'll add an extra day to production, and you'll have to throw out other 
stuff.

     We save our big hits for where they will make the most impact,
but again, this is TV, not a major feature film.  The ST shows get about 
$1.2-1.4 million or more per episode, depending on circumstances.  S:A&B 
cost $2 million an episode on average.  Our budget is limited to under 
$900,000.  We do the best we can with what we've got.

                                                                  jms
 ------------
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 650       Mon Sep 23, 1996
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:47 EDT
 
     Mike: okay, I've been quiet, even though others have noted it,
but you're straying again and again into story suggestions, how the next 
season should be done, what the environment should be like, even titles; 
stop it.  I can't be blunter than that.

     Well, actually, I *can*...but the situation is born out of
enthusiasm, and more or less forgiveable.

     As for GROPOS, that one episode was so far over budget that I had
to write 2 smaller ones to make up for it, and the many people you saw
were really just one small group that took forever to digitally composite
into looking like a much bigger group.

     Mike, your suggestions on production are all well and good for a
big budget movie.  That's where your mindset is at.  But this is a TV
show.  We have TV limitations.  We have a budget below any other SF show 
around. We do the best we can.  Please stop gigging us for things that we 
can't do, and no other TV show can do.  

                                                                   jms
 ------------