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. * * *