The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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  1. PRODUCTION TEAM CREDITS
  2. DOUGLAS NETTER
  3. Executive Producer
  4. JOHN COPELAND
  5. Producer
  6. Babylon 5's executive producer Douglas Netter (also J. Michael
  7. Straczynski's partner in Babylonian Productions) and producer John
  8. Copeland serve as the CEO and Chairman and the Executive Vice President
  9. of Netter Digital Entertainment, Inc., respectively.
  10. Indisputably, they have become one of the most innovative and enduring
  11. teams in television production during the 17 years of their professional
  12. association.
  13. Together, they have pushed the edge of the envelope in terms of
  14. utilizing new technologies and production processes on behalf of the
  15. medium. Among their remarkable contributions have been...shooting an
  16. entire (three-year) series on film and completing it using an electronic
  17. post-production process ("Five Mile Creek," 1981-83 for Disney)...the
  18. first-ever compilation of 3-D computer-generated characters in scenes
  19. with live actors in a television series ("Captain Power and the Soldiers
  20. of the Future," 1987 for Mattel)...and the landmark use of digital
  21. technologies and computer management systems for a documentary ("The
  22. Wild West," a primetime 10-hour syndicated series, 1992 for PTEN and
  23. Warner Bros.).
  24. They were also responsible for the concept of the Virtual Studio, which
  25. was perfected for "Babylon 5," but conceived by them years earlier. And
  26. they played an instrumental role in bringing the revolutionary technique
  27. of producing state-of-the-art special visual effects through the use of
  28. low-cost computer-generated imagery (CGI) to television.
  29. As well, Netter is currently serving as the executive producer and
  30. Copeland as the supervising producer of ABC's acclaimed new children's
  31. science fiction series, "Hypernauts," which was created by Babylon 5's
  32. Emmy Award-winning special visual effects designer Ron Thornton (also an
  33. executive producer).
  34. Back in 1979, few would have predicted that the Netter-Copeland
  35. collaboration would last. Separated in age by almost three decades, one
  36. had a wealth of top-drawer industry experience while the other's career
  37. was just beginning. In fact, Copeland originally started out as just
  38. another hired hand on various Netter projects but quickly proved his
  39. indispensibility in getting the job done.
  40. Prior to founding Rattlesnake Productions (the predecessor to Netter
  41. Digital Entertainment, Inc.), Doug Netter had spent his life in the
  42. entertainment industry. His last position, before going independent,
  43. was as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at MGM
  44. Studios from 1970 to 1975, during which time he oversaw the production
  45. of over 75 major motion pictures and numerous television shows, and
  46. played an instrumental role in the construction of the MGM Grand Hotel
  47. in Las Vegas.
  48. Meanwhile, Copeland was graduating in the first class of film majors
  49. from Chapman College, followed by a two-year stint in London working as
  50. an assistant director for English producer Euan Lloyd, then a year on
  51. European locations with the film, "Paper Tiger."
  52. In 1978, they were introduced by Lloyd. During the next four years,
  53. they produced an award-winning Western mini-series, "The Sacketts," for
  54. NBC; two additional mini-series -- "Wild Times" and "Roughnecks" -- for
  55. Metromedia Producers Corporation; and a one-hour series pilot, "Buffalo
  56. Soldiers," for NBC.
  57. In 1981, Rattlesnake Productions became one of the first independent
  58. production companies affiliated with the Walt Disney Studios, resulting
  59. in the CBS TV movie pilot, "Louis L'Amour's The Cherokee Trail," and the
  60. three-year series, "Five Mile Creek," as a debut offering for The Disney
  61. Channel.
  62. Their 1987 science fiction series, "Captain Power and the Soldiers of
  63. the Future," for Mattel and the Landmark Entertainment Group, introduced
  64. them to J. Michael Stracyznksi (who served as their story editor) and
  65. Ron Thornton (a special effects supervisor in charge of the miniatures).
  66. While attempting to mount Babylon 5, they produced the 2-hour TV movie,
  67. "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future: The Legend Begins," for
  68. international broadcast, and two highly-inventive films for Lockheed
  69. (profiling the superiority of the F-22 advanced tactical fighter craft).
  70. Certainly one of the hallmarks of the company's many successes was their
  71. critically-acclaimed ten-hour documentary series, "The Wild West,"
  72. chronicling the settlement of the American West in the 30 years after
  73. the Civil War. Syndicated in 1992 by Warner Bros. and the Prime Time
  74. Entertainment Network, "The Wild West" did for primetime television what
  75. "The Civil War" had done for PBS: garnering record ratings and a deluge
  76. of TV book covers and rave reviews. The series' pioneering use of
  77. digital technologies also resulted in the unprecedented simultaneous
  78. release of a CD-ROM, home video, book, and sound track album. It was
  79. also the first time that a computerized software management system had
  80. been designed for use in a documentary, resulting in computerized
  81. tracking of the series' 14,000-plus period photographs, paintings, and
  82. critical documents.
  83. While simultaneously producing "Babylon 5" between 1992 to the present,
  84. Netter and Copeland were also responsible for the television movie,
  85. "Siringo," a western which was syndicated by Rysher Entertainment and
  86. United Television in 1995 and subsequently released in the U.S. and
  87. internationally on home video. On November 20, 1995, Netter Digital
  88. Entertainment, Inc., became a publicly-held corporation with the
  89. successful closing of its initial public offering.
  90. HARLAN ELLISON
  91. Creative Consultant
  92. As J. Michael Straczynski writes in Foundation of Harlan Ellison and his
  93. unique role as creative consultant to Babylon 5: "Harlan's input is
  94. whatever Harlan chooses....Like the other masters of sf named before,
  95. the work of Harlan Ellison was a tremendous inspiration to me, and
  96. having him with me on the show is a constant compass pointing ever
  97. toward quality and challenging ideas." (Please see Foundation, page 13,
  98. which included in this packet.)
  99. Ellison has been called "one of the great living American short story
  100. writers" by The Washington Post; and the Los Angeles Times has written,
  101. "It's long past time for Harlan Ellison to be awarded the title: 20th
  102. century Lewis Carroll."
  103. In a career spanning four decades, Ellison has won more awards for the
  104. 62 books he has written or edited, the more than 1700 stories, essays,
  105. articles and newspaper columns, the two dozen teleplays and a dozen
  106. motion pictures he has created, than any other living fantasist.
  107. Among them are 8-1/2 Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards, two Edgar Allan
  108. Poe Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, two Georges Melies
  109. Fantasy Film Awards, and the distinquished Silver Pen Award for
  110. Journalism by P.E.N. (the international writers' union). He was also
  111. presented with the first Living Legend Award by the International Horror
  112. Critics at their 1995 World Horror Convention. And he is the only
  113. author in Hollywood ever to win the Writers' Guild of America Award for
  114. Most Outstanding Teleplay four times, most recently for "Paladin of the
  115. Lost Hour" in 1987.
  116. His latest books include The Essential Ellison (1987; a 35-year
  117. retrospective of his work), Angry Candy (1988; recipient of the 1989
  118. World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story Collection, and listed in the
  119. Encyclopedia for Americana Annual as one of the major works of American
  120. literature for 1988), Harlan Ellison's Watching (1988; a compilation of
  121. 20 years of film criticism), The Harlan Ellison Hornbook (1990), Harlan
  122. Ellison's Movie (1990), Dreams With Sharp Teeth (1991; Book-of-the-Month
  123. Club), Mefisto in Onyx (1993), Mind Fields with Polish artist Jacek
  124. Yerka (1994), I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay (1994; based on Isaac
  125. Asimov's story-cycle), and "The City on the Edge of Forever" screenplay
  126. (1995).
  127. He also provided the voice of the insane god-computer AM on the
  128. recently-released, bestselling CD-Rom computer game, "I HAVE NO MOUTH,
  129. AND I MUST SCREAM." In January 1995, his ongoing, monthly comic book
  130. from Dark Horse, called Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, debuted.
  131. CHRISTOPHER FRANKE
  132. Music Composer and Performer
  133. One of the pioneers of electronic music and former member of Tangerine
  134. Dream, Christopher Franke not only composes the music for each episode
  135. of Babylon 5, but performs it in "real time" with his Berlin Symphonic
  136. Film Orchestra, though each is located halfway around the globe from
  137. each other.
  138. A truly innovative and prolific musical artist, Franke's recording
  139. efforts in just the last five years include four solo albums -- "Pacific
  140. Coast Highway" (1991), "The London Concert" (1992), "Klemania" (1993),
  141. and "Enchanting Nature" (1995) -- and four soundtrack albums --
  142. "Universal Soldier" (1992), "New Music for Films, Vol. 1" (1992),
  143. "Raven" (1994), and "Babylon 5" (1995). A second "Babylon 5" album is
  144. scheduled for release later this year.
  145. Despite the demands of producing new music for each Babylon 5 episode --
  146. which is highly unusual for a syndicated series -- Franke has
  147. simultaneously turned out his numerous albums, as well as scoring
  148. numerous other feature films and television shows. Among them are the
  149. new ABC Saturday morning children's science fiction series, "Hypernauts"
  150. (reuniting him with Doug Netter, John Copeland, and Ron Thornton).
  151. Born in Berlin, Franke studied classical music and composition at the
  152. Berlin Conservatory. At the same time, he was actively involved in rock
  153. and jazz music with the group Agitation Free. He cites as early
  154. influences the composers John Cage and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen and the
  155. painters Dali, Miro and Kandinsky.
  156. Franke set up a sound studio in a music school with his teacher, the
  157. Swiss avant-garde musician and composer, Thomas Kessler -- which became
  158. a residence for young musicians and groups dedicated to experimental
  159. music. The improvisation courses they conducted and the introduction
  160. they provided to new instruments and techniques resulted in a
  161. highly-regarded project called The Berlin School of Electronic Music.
  162. It was there that Franke met Edgar Froese and brought Peter Baumann
  163. (today the head of the record company, Private Music, USA) into the
  164. group, thus founding Tangerine Dream.
  165. Franke was the first musician in Tangerine Dream to make use of the
  166. synthesizer for developing a new direction in experimental music. He
  167. also incorporated the sequencer as an entension of traditional
  168. percussion instruments, which became a ground breaker in live concerts.
  169. With Tangerine Dream, Franke released 36 studio, live, and soundtrack
  170. albums between 1970 and 1988 -- of which seven of the studio albums
  171. became gold records. The group also toured all over the world.
  172. In 1988, Franke left Tangerine Dream to concentrate on his personal life
  173. and the development of new musical ideas. In 1990, he moved to Los
  174. Angeles. In 1991, he founded the Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra and
  175. recorded his first solo album, "Pacific Coast Highway." Within the next
  176. twelve months, he had composed the music for the feature films, "Eye of
  177. the Storm" (starring Dennis Hopper) and "McBain" (starring Christopher
  178. Walken), and the television movie, "She Woke Up" (with Lindsay Wagner).
  179. And in 1992, he wrote the music for the worldwide blockbuster,
  180. "Universal Soldier," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, as well as the
  181. CBS-TV series, "Raven," followed by numerous other film and TV projects.
  182. RON THORNTON
  183. Visual Effects Designer
  184. Emmy Award-winning special effects artist Ron Thornton is President and
  185. Co-Founder of Foundation Imaging, a leading computer animation/special
  186. effects company based in Valencia, California. He has, for the past
  187. seventeen years, created numerous trend-setting visual effects for the
  188. entertainment industry.
  189. A native of London, England, Thornton began his entertainment career
  190. working for BBC Television, where he created props and miniatures for
  191. shows such as the highly popular "Dr. Who," "Blakes 7" and "Tripods."
  192. In 1984, Thornton emigrated to the United States, and began working for
  193. David Stipes Productions. It was under the tutelage of Stipes (now the
  194. Special Effects Supervisor for Paramount Television's "Star Trek
  195. Voyager") that Thornton gained valuable experience as an effects
  196. cameraman on Martha Coolidge's comedy feature film, "Real Genius."
  197. Thornton went on to create miniatures for several additional movies,
  198. including "Commando" with Arnold Schwarzenegger; the Mel Brooks' comedy,
  199. "Space Balls"; "Critters" with Billy Zane and Dee Wallace Stone; and
  200. "Robot Jox." Thornton also provided miniatures and did camera work on
  201. "Amazon Women on the Moon" and "Night of the Creeps."
  202. In 1987, Thornton was introduced to the Amiga Computer while supervising
  203. miniatures in Canada for the syndicated children's television program,
  204. "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future." While working on
  205. "Captain Power," he began to experiment with ground-breaking 3-D
  206. computer graphics which would pre-visualize FX shots.
  207. In 1990, Thornton and Foundation Imaging's Director of Operations and
  208. Co-Founder, Paul Beigle-Bryant, began discussing the possibility of
  209. creating a digital effects facility utilizing the latest advances in
  210. desk-top computer technologies. The men were friends who had originally
  211. met in England in 1983, and had worked on several projects together.
  212. The duo began hatching plans to create and entire special effects
  213. business.
  214. Thornton sold all of his camera equipment and motion control systems to
  215. invest in the computer systems which would be needed for such an
  216. undertaking. It was mid-1991 when Thornton was approached by the
  217. producers of "Captain Power" to bid on miniatures for a sci-fi project
  218. they were developing, Babylon 5. At that time, Thornton had been
  219. working with innovative rock music and multimedia artist Todd Rundgren
  220. on a short computer-animated film. The work with Rundgren led Thornton
  221. to suggest using computers for the effects on Babylon 5.
  222. Thornton and Beigle-Bryant created a one minute video of proposed visual
  223. effects for Babylon 5, which would become instrumental in selling the
  224. show to Warner Bros. television in July 1992. Upon pick-up of the new
  225. series, Thornton and Beigle-Bryant formed Foundation Imaging to continue
  226. creating the visuals for Babylon 5. Since that time, Thornton has served
  227. as Special Effects Designer on Babylon 5, Paramount's "Viper" and CBS'
  228. "Skeleton Warriors."
  229. In 1993, Thornton and Beigle-Bryant won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding
  230. Achievement in Special Visual Effects" for their work on the pilot of
  231. Babylon 5. A year later, they won an "International Monitor" Award for
  232. their pilot episode of the CBS series, "Viper." Two very extraordinary
  233. accomplishments for a visual effects company using desk-top computers.
  234. In 1994, Thornton created the new ABC Saturday morning children's
  235. series, "Hypernauts," for which he is serving as executive producer with
  236. Doug Netter. John Copeland is the supervising producer. The innovative
  237. futuristic story, which debuted in primetime on March 2, 1996, before
  238. beginning its regular Saturday morning run on March 2, also features
  239. Thornton's Emmy Award-winning CGI special visual effects.
  240. JOHN VULICH, OPTIC NERVE STUDIOS
  241. Special Make-up Effects
  242. The recipient of a 1993 Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual
  243. Achievement in Make-Up for a Series" (for the episode, "Parliament of
  244. Dreams"), John Vulich's Optic Nerve Studios has emerged as one of the
  245. up-and-coming effects houses in the film and television industry.
  246. Based in Los Angeles, Optic Nerve houses all the necessary machinery
  247. required to mill, lathe, weld, mold, and vacu-form all the elements
  248. needed to create a wide variety of special effects. As one of the first
  249. effects companies to utilize New Tek's Video Toaster in the design
  250. process, it is also capable of altering the image of a performer in a
  251. variety of ways, creating realistic color printouts, which better help
  252. to illustrate proposed designs.
  253. Just since 1990, the studio has 17 feature films, including "Batman
  254. Returns" and "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." Besides Babylon 5, Optic
  255. Nerve is presently working on "Hypernauts" (created by Ron Thornton, who
  256. also serves as the executive producer with Douglas Netter. John
  257. Copeland is the supervising producer.) And they contributed to the TV
  258. shows, "MADONNA: Bedtime Stories" and "MICHAEL JACKSON: Scream," among
  259. others.
  260. ANN BRUICE ALING
  261. Costume Designer
  262. The recipient of two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards (in 1991
  263. for "You Can't Take It With You" and in 1992 for "Philadelphia Story"),
  264. Ann Bruice Aling holds a MFA in costume design from the California
  265. Institute of the Arts and a MA in theatre from the University of
  266. California, Santa Barbara.
  267. Beginning her career in regional theatre, on numerous productions for
  268. South Coast Repertory, she has since designed for the Mark Taper Forum
  269. and the Los Angeles Theatre Center, as well as the Pasadena Playhouse,
  270. New Mexico Repertory, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Caesar's Tahoe,
  271. Grove Shakespeare Festival, and PCPA Theatrefest.
  272. She also served as the assistant designer on the hit motion picture,
  273. "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," and has worked such other television
  274. projects as the telefilm, "Siringo" (for Doug Netter and John Copeland),
  275. and the ABC Afterschool Special, "Perfect Date."
  276. JOHN IAVOVELLI
  277. Production Designer
  278. As well as Babylon 5, John Iavovelli has served as the production
  279. designer on on the primetime documentary series, "The Wild West," and
  280. the TV movie, "Siringo," for producers Doug Netter and John Copeland, as
  281. well as the PBS series, "Future Quest" (starring Jeff Goldblum), and the
  282. motion picture, "Ruby in Paradise."
  283. As an art director, he has worked on such productions as the motion
  284. picture, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!," and the TV series, "The Cosby
  285. Show" and "A Different World."
  286. Iacovelli also continues to serve as the Head of Design at the
  287. University of California - Riverside and to work in theater. His
  288. extensive stage credits include "Twilight of the Golds" on Broadway and
  289. for The Kennedy Center and The Pasadena Playhouse, as well as over a
  290. hundred productions for such leading regional companies as The South
  291. Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum, The Berkshire Theatre Festival,
  292. The Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Dallas Theater Center, San Diego's
  293. Old Globe, and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Iacovelli has an MFA
  294. degree in Design and Art Direction from NYU.
  295. * * *