|
|
-
- PRODUCTION TEAM CREDITS
-
-
- DOUGLAS NETTER
- Executive Producer
-
-
- JOHN COPELAND
- Producer
-
-
- Babylon 5's executive producer Douglas Netter (also J. Michael
- Straczynski's partner in Babylonian Productions) and producer John
- Copeland serve as the CEO and Chairman and the Executive Vice President
- of Netter Digital Entertainment, Inc., respectively.
-
-
- Indisputably, they have become one of the most innovative and enduring
- teams in television production during the 17 years of their professional
- association.
-
-
- Together, they have pushed the edge of the envelope in terms of
- utilizing new technologies and production processes on behalf of the
- medium. Among their remarkable contributions have been...shooting an
- entire (three-year) series on film and completing it using an electronic
- post-production process ("Five Mile Creek," 1981-83 for Disney)...the
- first-ever compilation of 3-D computer-generated characters in scenes
- with live actors in a television series ("Captain Power and the Soldiers
- of the Future," 1987 for Mattel)...and the landmark use of digital
- technologies and computer management systems for a documentary ("The
- Wild West," a primetime 10-hour syndicated series, 1992 for PTEN and
- Warner Bros.).
-
-
- They were also responsible for the concept of the Virtual Studio, which
- was perfected for "Babylon 5," but conceived by them years earlier. And
- they played an instrumental role in bringing the revolutionary technique
- of producing state-of-the-art special visual effects through the use of
- low-cost computer-generated imagery (CGI) to television.
-
-
- As well, Netter is currently serving as the executive producer and
- Copeland as the supervising producer of ABC's acclaimed new children's
- science fiction series, "Hypernauts," which was created by Babylon 5's
- Emmy Award-winning special visual effects designer Ron Thornton (also an
- executive producer).
-
-
- Back in 1979, few would have predicted that the Netter-Copeland
- collaboration would last. Separated in age by almost three decades, one
- had a wealth of top-drawer industry experience while the other's career
- was just beginning. In fact, Copeland originally started out as just
- another hired hand on various Netter projects but quickly proved his
- indispensibility in getting the job done.
-
-
- Prior to founding Rattlesnake Productions (the predecessor to Netter
- Digital Entertainment, Inc.), Doug Netter had spent his life in the
- entertainment industry. His last position, before going independent,
- was as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at MGM
- Studios from 1970 to 1975, during which time he oversaw the production
- of over 75 major motion pictures and numerous television shows, and
- played an instrumental role in the construction of the MGM Grand Hotel
- in Las Vegas.
-
-
- Meanwhile, Copeland was graduating in the first class of film majors
- from Chapman College, followed by a two-year stint in London working as
- an assistant director for English producer Euan Lloyd, then a year on
- European locations with the film, "Paper Tiger."
-
-
- In 1978, they were introduced by Lloyd. During the next four years,
- they produced an award-winning Western mini-series, "The Sacketts," for
- NBC; two additional mini-series -- "Wild Times" and "Roughnecks" -- for
- Metromedia Producers Corporation; and a one-hour series pilot, "Buffalo
- Soldiers," for NBC.
-
-
- In 1981, Rattlesnake Productions became one of the first independent
- production companies affiliated with the Walt Disney Studios, resulting
- in the CBS TV movie pilot, "Louis L'Amour's The Cherokee Trail," and the
- three-year series, "Five Mile Creek," as a debut offering for The Disney
- Channel.
-
-
- Their 1987 science fiction series, "Captain Power and the Soldiers of
- the Future," for Mattel and the Landmark Entertainment Group, introduced
- them to J. Michael Stracyznksi (who served as their story editor) and
- Ron Thornton (a special effects supervisor in charge of the miniatures).
-
-
- While attempting to mount Babylon 5, they produced the 2-hour TV movie,
- "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future: The Legend Begins," for
- international broadcast, and two highly-inventive films for Lockheed
- (profiling the superiority of the F-22 advanced tactical fighter craft).
-
-
- Certainly one of the hallmarks of the company's many successes was their
- critically-acclaimed ten-hour documentary series, "The Wild West,"
- chronicling the settlement of the American West in the 30 years after
- the Civil War. Syndicated in 1992 by Warner Bros. and the Prime Time
- Entertainment Network, "The Wild West" did for primetime television what
- "The Civil War" had done for PBS: garnering record ratings and a deluge
- of TV book covers and rave reviews. The series' pioneering use of
- digital technologies also resulted in the unprecedented simultaneous
- release of a CD-ROM, home video, book, and sound track album. It was
- also the first time that a computerized software management system had
- been designed for use in a documentary, resulting in computerized
- tracking of the series' 14,000-plus period photographs, paintings, and
- critical documents.
-
-
- While simultaneously producing "Babylon 5" between 1992 to the present,
- Netter and Copeland were also responsible for the television movie,
- "Siringo," a western which was syndicated by Rysher Entertainment and
- United Television in 1995 and subsequently released in the U.S. and
- internationally on home video. On November 20, 1995, Netter Digital
- Entertainment, Inc., became a publicly-held corporation with the
- successful closing of its initial public offering.
-
-
- HARLAN ELLISON
- Creative Consultant
-
-
- As J. Michael Straczynski writes in Foundation of Harlan Ellison and his
- unique role as creative consultant to Babylon 5: "Harlan's input is
- whatever Harlan chooses....Like the other masters of sf named before,
- the work of Harlan Ellison was a tremendous inspiration to me, and
- having him with me on the show is a constant compass pointing ever
- toward quality and challenging ideas." (Please see Foundation, page 13,
- which included in this packet.)
-
-
- Ellison has been called "one of the great living American short story
- writers" by The Washington Post; and the Los Angeles Times has written,
- "It's long past time for Harlan Ellison to be awarded the title: 20th
- century Lewis Carroll."
-
-
- In a career spanning four decades, Ellison has won more awards for the
- 62 books he has written or edited, the more than 1700 stories, essays,
- articles and newspaper columns, the two dozen teleplays and a dozen
- motion pictures he has created, than any other living fantasist.
-
-
- Among them are 8-1/2 Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards, two Edgar Allan
- Poe Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, two Georges Melies
- Fantasy Film Awards, and the distinquished Silver Pen Award for
- Journalism by P.E.N. (the international writers' union). He was also
- presented with the first Living Legend Award by the International Horror
- Critics at their 1995 World Horror Convention. And he is the only
- author in Hollywood ever to win the Writers' Guild of America Award for
- Most Outstanding Teleplay four times, most recently for "Paladin of the
- Lost Hour" in 1987.
-
-
- His latest books include The Essential Ellison (1987; a 35-year
- retrospective of his work), Angry Candy (1988; recipient of the 1989
- World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story Collection, and listed in the
- Encyclopedia for Americana Annual as one of the major works of American
- literature for 1988), Harlan Ellison's Watching (1988; a compilation of
- 20 years of film criticism), The Harlan Ellison Hornbook (1990), Harlan
- Ellison's Movie (1990), Dreams With Sharp Teeth (1991; Book-of-the-Month
- Club), Mefisto in Onyx (1993), Mind Fields with Polish artist Jacek
- Yerka (1994), I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay (1994; based on Isaac
- Asimov's story-cycle), and "The City on the Edge of Forever" screenplay
- (1995).
-
-
- He also provided the voice of the insane god-computer AM on the
- recently-released, bestselling CD-Rom computer game, "I HAVE NO MOUTH,
- AND I MUST SCREAM." In January 1995, his ongoing, monthly comic book
- from Dark Horse, called Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, debuted.
-
-
- CHRISTOPHER FRANKE
- Music Composer and Performer
-
-
- One of the pioneers of electronic music and former member of Tangerine
- Dream, Christopher Franke not only composes the music for each episode
- of Babylon 5, but performs it in "real time" with his Berlin Symphonic
- Film Orchestra, though each is located halfway around the globe from
- each other.
-
-
- A truly innovative and prolific musical artist, Franke's recording
- efforts in just the last five years include four solo albums -- "Pacific
- Coast Highway" (1991), "The London Concert" (1992), "Klemania" (1993),
- and "Enchanting Nature" (1995) -- and four soundtrack albums --
- "Universal Soldier" (1992), "New Music for Films, Vol. 1" (1992),
- "Raven" (1994), and "Babylon 5" (1995). A second "Babylon 5" album is
- scheduled for release later this year.
-
-
- Despite the demands of producing new music for each Babylon 5 episode --
- which is highly unusual for a syndicated series -- Franke has
- simultaneously turned out his numerous albums, as well as scoring
- numerous other feature films and television shows. Among them are the
- new ABC Saturday morning children's science fiction series, "Hypernauts"
- (reuniting him with Doug Netter, John Copeland, and Ron Thornton).
-
-
- Born in Berlin, Franke studied classical music and composition at the
- Berlin Conservatory. At the same time, he was actively involved in rock
- and jazz music with the group Agitation Free. He cites as early
- influences the composers John Cage and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen and the
- painters Dali, Miro and Kandinsky.
-
-
- Franke set up a sound studio in a music school with his teacher, the
- Swiss avant-garde musician and composer, Thomas Kessler -- which became
- a residence for young musicians and groups dedicated to experimental
- music. The improvisation courses they conducted and the introduction
- they provided to new instruments and techniques resulted in a
- highly-regarded project called The Berlin School of Electronic Music.
- It was there that Franke met Edgar Froese and brought Peter Baumann
- (today the head of the record company, Private Music, USA) into the
- group, thus founding Tangerine Dream.
-
-
- Franke was the first musician in Tangerine Dream to make use of the
- synthesizer for developing a new direction in experimental music. He
- also incorporated the sequencer as an entension of traditional
- percussion instruments, which became a ground breaker in live concerts.
-
-
- With Tangerine Dream, Franke released 36 studio, live, and soundtrack
- albums between 1970 and 1988 -- of which seven of the studio albums
- became gold records. The group also toured all over the world.
-
-
- In 1988, Franke left Tangerine Dream to concentrate on his personal life
- and the development of new musical ideas. In 1990, he moved to Los
- Angeles. In 1991, he founded the Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra and
- recorded his first solo album, "Pacific Coast Highway." Within the next
- twelve months, he had composed the music for the feature films, "Eye of
- the Storm" (starring Dennis Hopper) and "McBain" (starring Christopher
- Walken), and the television movie, "She Woke Up" (with Lindsay Wagner).
- And in 1992, he wrote the music for the worldwide blockbuster,
- "Universal Soldier," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, as well as the
- CBS-TV series, "Raven," followed by numerous other film and TV projects.
-
-
- RON THORNTON
- Visual Effects Designer
-
-
- Emmy Award-winning special effects artist Ron Thornton is President and
- Co-Founder of Foundation Imaging, a leading computer animation/special
- effects company based in Valencia, California. He has, for the past
- seventeen years, created numerous trend-setting visual effects for the
- entertainment industry.
-
-
- A native of London, England, Thornton began his entertainment career
- working for BBC Television, where he created props and miniatures for
- shows such as the highly popular "Dr. Who," "Blakes 7" and "Tripods."
- In 1984, Thornton emigrated to the United States, and began working for
- David Stipes Productions. It was under the tutelage of Stipes (now the
- Special Effects Supervisor for Paramount Television's "Star Trek
- Voyager") that Thornton gained valuable experience as an effects
- cameraman on Martha Coolidge's comedy feature film, "Real Genius."
-
-
- Thornton went on to create miniatures for several additional movies,
- including "Commando" with Arnold Schwarzenegger; the Mel Brooks' comedy,
- "Space Balls"; "Critters" with Billy Zane and Dee Wallace Stone; and
- "Robot Jox." Thornton also provided miniatures and did camera work on
- "Amazon Women on the Moon" and "Night of the Creeps."
-
-
- In 1987, Thornton was introduced to the Amiga Computer while supervising
- miniatures in Canada for the syndicated children's television program,
- "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future." While working on
- "Captain Power," he began to experiment with ground-breaking 3-D
- computer graphics which would pre-visualize FX shots.
-
-
- In 1990, Thornton and Foundation Imaging's Director of Operations and
- Co-Founder, Paul Beigle-Bryant, began discussing the possibility of
- creating a digital effects facility utilizing the latest advances in
- desk-top computer technologies. The men were friends who had originally
- met in England in 1983, and had worked on several projects together.
- The duo began hatching plans to create and entire special effects
- business.
-
-
- Thornton sold all of his camera equipment and motion control systems to
- invest in the computer systems which would be needed for such an
- undertaking. It was mid-1991 when Thornton was approached by the
- producers of "Captain Power" to bid on miniatures for a sci-fi project
- they were developing, Babylon 5. At that time, Thornton had been
- working with innovative rock music and multimedia artist Todd Rundgren
- on a short computer-animated film. The work with Rundgren led Thornton
- to suggest using computers for the effects on Babylon 5.
-
-
- Thornton and Beigle-Bryant created a one minute video of proposed visual
- effects for Babylon 5, which would become instrumental in selling the
- show to Warner Bros. television in July 1992. Upon pick-up of the new
- series, Thornton and Beigle-Bryant formed Foundation Imaging to continue
- creating the visuals for Babylon 5. Since that time, Thornton has served
- as Special Effects Designer on Babylon 5, Paramount's "Viper" and CBS'
- "Skeleton Warriors."
-
-
- In 1993, Thornton and Beigle-Bryant won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding
- Achievement in Special Visual Effects" for their work on the pilot of
- Babylon 5. A year later, they won an "International Monitor" Award for
- their pilot episode of the CBS series, "Viper." Two very extraordinary
- accomplishments for a visual effects company using desk-top computers.
-
-
- In 1994, Thornton created the new ABC Saturday morning children's
- series, "Hypernauts," for which he is serving as executive producer with
- Doug Netter. John Copeland is the supervising producer. The innovative
- futuristic story, which debuted in primetime on March 2, 1996, before
- beginning its regular Saturday morning run on March 2, also features
- Thornton's Emmy Award-winning CGI special visual effects.
-
-
- JOHN VULICH, OPTIC NERVE STUDIOS
- Special Make-up Effects
-
-
- The recipient of a 1993 Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual
- Achievement in Make-Up for a Series" (for the episode, "Parliament of
- Dreams"), John Vulich's Optic Nerve Studios has emerged as one of the
- up-and-coming effects houses in the film and television industry.
-
-
- Based in Los Angeles, Optic Nerve houses all the necessary machinery
- required to mill, lathe, weld, mold, and vacu-form all the elements
- needed to create a wide variety of special effects. As one of the first
- effects companies to utilize New Tek's Video Toaster in the design
- process, it is also capable of altering the image of a performer in a
- variety of ways, creating realistic color printouts, which better help
- to illustrate proposed designs.
-
-
- Just since 1990, the studio has 17 feature films, including "Batman
- Returns" and "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." Besides Babylon 5, Optic
- Nerve is presently working on "Hypernauts" (created by Ron Thornton, who
- also serves as the executive producer with Douglas Netter. John
- Copeland is the supervising producer.) And they contributed to the TV
- shows, "MADONNA: Bedtime Stories" and "MICHAEL JACKSON: Scream," among
- others.
-
-
- ANN BRUICE ALING
- Costume Designer
-
-
- The recipient of two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards (in 1991
- for "You Can't Take It With You" and in 1992 for "Philadelphia Story"),
- Ann Bruice Aling holds a MFA in costume design from the California
- Institute of the Arts and a MA in theatre from the University of
- California, Santa Barbara.
-
-
- Beginning her career in regional theatre, on numerous productions for
- South Coast Repertory, she has since designed for the Mark Taper Forum
- and the Los Angeles Theatre Center, as well as the Pasadena Playhouse,
- New Mexico Repertory, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Caesar's Tahoe,
- Grove Shakespeare Festival, and PCPA Theatrefest.
-
-
- She also served as the assistant designer on the hit motion picture,
- "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," and has worked such other television
- projects as the telefilm, "Siringo" (for Doug Netter and John Copeland),
- and the ABC Afterschool Special, "Perfect Date."
-
-
- JOHN IAVOVELLI
- Production Designer
-
-
- As well as Babylon 5, John Iavovelli has served as the production
- designer on on the primetime documentary series, "The Wild West," and
- the TV movie, "Siringo," for producers Doug Netter and John Copeland, as
- well as the PBS series, "Future Quest" (starring Jeff Goldblum), and the
- motion picture, "Ruby in Paradise."
-
-
- As an art director, he has worked on such productions as the motion
- picture, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!," and the TV series, "The Cosby
- Show" and "A Different World."
-
-
- Iacovelli also continues to serve as the Head of Design at the
- University of California - Riverside and to work in theater. His
- extensive stage credits include "Twilight of the Golds" on Broadway and
- for The Kennedy Center and The Pasadena Playhouse, as well as over a
- hundred productions for such leading regional companies as The South
- Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum, The Berkshire Theatre Festival,
- The Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Dallas Theater Center, San Diego's
- Old Globe, and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Iacovelli has an MFA
- degree in Design and Art Direction from NYU.
-
-
- * * *
|