| JMS on GEnie | |
| June 1996 postings | |
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 374       Sun Jun 02, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 19:30 EDT | |
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|      Yes, B5 is filmed widescreen, the full horizontal range restored | |
| by going back to the original negs.  (After coming back from Wolf 359 I'll | |
| actually get to see a full-widescreen version at WB.) | |
| 
 | |
|      You can get screwed in widescreen sometimes; I had the regular | |
| aspect ratio of Cabaret, searched for the wide, found it...and discovered | |
| that when they ran it in theaters, they just masked off the top and bottom  | |
| of the frame for the widescreen effect, and the regular aspect ratio was  | |
| the one where you could see all of it, not the wide. | |
| 
 | |
|      One reason there's no diffusion in space is that there's no | |
| atmosphere in space to PROVIDE the diffusion; haze and the like is a  | |
| atmosphere effect. | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 386       Mon Jun 03, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 04:49 EDT | |
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|      Though lately, from what I've been hearing from ST-oriented cons, | |
| the toys aren't selling as well from ST anymore.  At the big blow-out ST | |
| convention in Pasadena a few weeks ago, the 30th anniversary one, some | |
| DS9 stuff sold, less Voyager stuff sold...and they had to send back to the | |
| warehouse twice for B5 stuff. | |
| 
 | |
|      Now, as an aside.... | |
| 
 | |
|      Warners has been running the numbers on renewal, and we've been | |
| told that the numbers look right, and will be recommended for renewal.  Now | |
| that's not the same *as* renewal, there are still some execs who need to  | |
| stamp the thing and say domini domini over it (as John Copeland says),  | |
| (in nomine patre, et fili, et spiritus sanctus, ACTION!")...it would take  | |
| a huge and unexpected event to stop it now, and that doesn't seem likely  | |
| at all.  So while I wouldn't say this is an eep, that formally hasn't  | |
| happened yet, and it's WB's perogative to actually make that  | |
| announcement, I'd certainly consider this at least an e. | |
| 
 | |
|      I make a point of saying this only because I'm going to be in the | |
| UK this coming week, and thus offline, and won't be able to post any eeps  | |
| that might be forthcoming. | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 624       Wed Jun 12, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 18:30 EDT | |
|   | |
|      Just got in late last night, still catching up...yes, we've been | |
| renewed.  I dearly wanted to announce it here before I left, as has been | |
| traditional, but it couldn't be done until we had the formal, final pickup | |
| notification from WB, until which time it ain't real, and a) things can  | |
| still go wrong, and b) the last time I said something too early WB rapped  | |
| my knuckles.  It wasn't truly official until late Friday. | |
| 
 | |
|      We begin shooting again August 26th. | |
| 
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| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 2 | |
| Message 413       Thu Jun 13, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:49 EDT | |
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|      Araratus: most messages pass in front of me, but given that I see | |
| about 500 or so per day, sometimes individual questions slip past me. | |
| 
 | |
|      Kwicker: a certain poet once wrote, "Truth is beauty, and beauty | |
| truth; this is all you know and all you need to know."  If there is any | |
| beauty to the work, then it contains truth, and thus cannot be a lie.  A  | |
| story only has value wherein it touches an even greater Truth, perhaps  | |
| even a universal truth.   | |
| 
 | |
|      Fiction, at its best, is truth...it's the real world that's a | |
| lie. | |
| 
 | |
|      Sleep tight. | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 656       Fri Jun 14, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:59 EDT | |
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|      But y'see, the Eep is only used when I know for sure it's renewed | |
| and can't say so.  Now it's renewed and I can say so, and I was away for | |
| the very brief in-between...to misuse the power of the Eep is a serious | |
| infraction. | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 705       Sun Jun 16, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 14:17 EDT | |
|   | |
|      "Ratings for all syndicated dramas have dropped." | |
| 
 | |
|      Incorrect, in at least one case.  B5's ratings this quarter have | |
| been our highest in some time, so we're definitely on an upswing. | |
| 
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| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 26 | |
| Message 391       Wed Jun 19, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 14:58 EDT | |
|   | |
|      WB is coming down hard on all its shows (or so I'm told), on the | |
| theory that a con showing = a theatrical exhibition, and they can be fined | |
| hundreds of bucks by the showbiz guilds.  Now, in the history of hollywood, | |
| this has never, ever happened...but the lawyers got their noses into it...and | |
| at that point, you're doomed. | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 26 | |
| Message 395       Thu Jun 20, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:48 EDT | |
|   | |
|      Nope, they won't allow that.  It ain't the slate, it's the | |
| guilds.   And we can't show scenes with guest stars, either.  And we  | |
| can't take more than 4 minutes out of any given episode.   | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 544       Thu Jun 27, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:53 EDT | |
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|      Well, just finished the first (writer's) draft of "The Hour of | |
| the Wolf," the first episode of year 4, to be directed by David Eagle.   | |
| It was a tough one, like all first-episode scripts...but quite  | |
| interesting, in its way.  Once again the show takes a somewhat different  | |
| tone, I'm using some tools I somewhat developed in the background in year  | |
| 3 and am now trying in foreground, very interesting mood change...a good  | |
| start. | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 258       Fri Jun 28, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 23:49 EDT | |
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|      Here's what the talk shows tell us: "Sorry, but you're a | |
| syndicated show, and nobody knows from syndication, so our viewers  | |
| wouldn't be interested." | |
| 
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| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 261       Sat Jun 29, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:49 EDT | |
|   | |
|      At some point along the way, somebody decided to mail out the B5 | |
| newsletters bulk mail.  This is problematic at best.  So we're going | |
| to start switching over to 1st or 2nd class to ensure delivery.  They're  | |
| going out in batches. | |
| 
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| SFRT II RoundTable | |
| Category 18,  Topic 1 | |
| Message 270       Sat Jun 29, 1996 | |
| STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 18:30 EDT | |
|   | |
|      New episodes (the last of season 3) start in October. | |
| 
 | |
|      So the good part, such as it is, is that we'll play 5 in October, | |
| then 4 or 5 in November, so you're looking at 9-10 in a row, almost half a | |
| season in one go. | |
| 
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