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439 lines
12 KiB
439 lines
12 KiB
JMS Usenet messages for July 1996.
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Date: 2 Jul 1996 01:18:41 -0400
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Subject: Re: Attn: JMS - Director's cut of re-runs
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Can't be done; also, there is no previous cut, only avid-generated
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computer files with the images, not film...and they wouldn't be director's
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cuts, but producers' cuts.
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jms
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Date: 5 Jul 1996 05:02:38 -0400
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Subject: Re: If you had one question to ask JMS
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"How has the response of fans to B5 been different from what you had
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expected? What fan response has most surprised you?"
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Probably the extent to which fans have formed strong communities around
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the show, and gotten together. That's probably the main thing.
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jms
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Date: 3 Jul 1996 01:02:38 -0400
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Subject: Re: attn:JMS please deny
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No, I had no idea that scientologists used an alien group called Markab,
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and frankly would've changed it if I had known.
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jms
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Date: 1 Jul 1996 23:58:05 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS: Position on Captain Power?
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I was the story editor on Captain Power. The show was created by Gary
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Goddard, not by me. I was brought in to basically run the story part of
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it once he had sold it. In that capacity, I was more or less left alone,
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and could do what I wanted (though the first episode has a lot of Gary's
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fingerprints all over it). Some of what we did there was pretty good; in
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other cases, I wouldn't mind if the negatives fell off a pier somewhere
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and were never seen again by humankind.
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jms
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Date: 7 Jul 1996 01:05:38 -0400
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Subject: Re: B5 slips under Time Magazine radar
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"I find it interesting that the article talks about SF's "comeback" where
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I really didn't see it diminish (at least in the last decade or so)"
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Here's what happens, having been part of a whole lot of these articles
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over the years:several new SF shows come along. You get called for
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interviews about this sudden explosion of SF. Six months go by. The
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shows disappear. And now you get calls for interviews about why SF
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doesn't seem to work on TV.
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jms
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Date: 9 Jul 1996 00:44:30 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Road Trip/Babylon 5 Parties
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I'm glad to hear it's been a great experience...and take care of yourself
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out there on the road.
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jms
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Date: 9 Jul 1996 00:44:37 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: New Merchandise - legal or not?
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"BUBBLE BATH??!!"
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The stuff is being sold under the overall heading "BUBBLE BUDDIES."
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How could I *not* approve something like that?
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I brought one back with me from SDCC (no, I hadn't gotten one yet), and
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our co producer George Johnsen did fifteen minutes on that one.
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jms
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Date: 10 Jul 1996 22:03:18 -0400
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Subject: Re: General Note from jms
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In October you'll get the final 5 from this season, then 4 or 5 more from
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year 4, so that's 9-10 in a row.
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jms
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Date: 8 Jul 1996 20:57:41 -0400
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Subject: Re: Con Report: JMS at San Diego Comic Con, July 6, 1996
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Well...suddenly I don't have anything to say at conventions, since all my
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best gags have been listed...sigh....oh, well.
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jms
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Date: 18 Jul 1996 01:35:05 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Happy Birthday, Joe! - 1996
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...humbug....
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jms
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Date: 19 Jul 1996 04:03:51 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Directing B5?
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"Specifically: in an ep like "Severed Dreams" where cgi effects take up
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literally almost 1/4 of the script, how much input does the director have
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on "camera" angles, close ups of 'Fury pilots, and the way in which the
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SFX is intercut with live action? Or is that entirely your job?"
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Generally, a lot of that material is either storyboarded, or supervised by
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our on set EFX supervisor, who determines the angles to be used. This is
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especially important in an episode like Severed Dreams when you have to
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make sure that the pilots are oriented the right way on camera (i.e.,
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going from left to right, and facing left to right) if that's the
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direction their ships are going in; otherwise you'd have to flop the film
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to make it match. In larger set pieces, using virtual sets and composite
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shots, the director has more influence.
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"Also: when dealing with an ep with a lot of flashbacks or reused footage
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(WWE, especially part 2), how much freedom does the director have? Does
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he/she have to match the style of the previously show footage (in terms of
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angles, close ups, pacing, etc), or is there more room for the director's
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own style?"
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In the case of WWE, you had to match lighting and composition pretty
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closely. That's about the only time it's really become an issue.
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"(one more question: if someone other than you had written "Babylon
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Squared", would they have to be paid royalties for the reuse of parts of
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that episodes script and footage in "War Without End"?)"
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Anyone who writes a scene which is reused gets residuals. Doesn't matter
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if it's me or anybody else, as a Writers Guild member, it's guaranteed and
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required. Also the actors, the director, and others get re-use fees of
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varying amounts depending on how long the sequence is.
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jms
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Date: 19 Jul 1996 04:07:38 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: The University of JMS NOW Babylonian Ranch
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"More concretely, however -- any chance of Babylonian Productions doing a
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series of workshops (directing, acting, SFX, costuming -- I know *you*
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couldn't do writing, because of the story idea thing) at a convention? Or
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*as* a convention?"
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This is only something we've discussed in relation to a convention. If we
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were to put on a B5 convention, via the fan club, one of the things we'd
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do would be to make it an informative experience. Each of our
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departements -- makeup, costume, EFX, others -- would give presentations
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to folks interested in those areas (you could probably pick 2 or 3), so
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you'd have something a bit more than the usual, "Okay, I'm on stage, what
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do you want to talk about?" Again, the goal is to help folks understand
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how this TeeVee critter works.
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jms
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Date: 19 Jul 1996 04:24:15 -0400
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Subject: Re: Can't WB Home Video at least release the PILOT on video?
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The videotape situation has absolutely *zip* to do with the Turner
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situation. We got a reading on this from WB long, long before the Turner
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deal was even a glimmer in Wall Street's eye. Basically, it's an in-house
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problem. Most of the studios have a philosophy of, "If someone's going to
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do something with one of our shows, we should do it through an internal
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branch of the company." But if they themselves don't want to do it, they
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tend to hold onto it even if someone else wants to do it NOW on the theory
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that they themselves MIGHT want to do it in future.
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It's a territorial thing. We have the right to do this, and we won't
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surrender that right, because our division refuses to lose that control,
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whether we actually ever do the project or not.
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This is, remember, a business where people running studios pay vast
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amounts of money for things they know they'll never do. It's always less
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about money than about pride, jurisdiction and control.
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In our case, "proper channels" for B5 would be Warner Home Video. Unlike
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Fox and Paramount, WHB doesn't generally release TV series on video. They
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tend to look more to big-deal movies, documentaries and miniseries. And
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they tend to do the big-ticket items that they know will sell millions of
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copies (like the Batman movie, and some of the animation stuff, which has
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a different agenda). They look at a syndicted show, and shrug.
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Warners International, on the other hand, is by their mandate set up to
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handle the release of whole series on tape, and that aspect wasn't a
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problem in the UK.
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So we've been negotiating with them for almost 2 years now to do the
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videos ourselves. There's been some movement, gradually, but it's been
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the kind of movement associated with glaciers. Eventually we'll get
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there; we just have to keep saying "yes you will" one more time than they
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can say "no we won't."
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jms
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Date: 19 Jul 1996 19:35:06 -0400
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Subject: Re: Unexpected Straczynski writing credits
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EEK!
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jms
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Date: 19 Jul 1996 20:10:37 -0400
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Subject: Fan Club Email Address
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Jim Lockett, head of the Official B5 Fan Club, just got himself an email
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address. So if you haven't yet received one item or another, or have any
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inquiries regarding the fan club...he can be reached now at the following
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address:
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JPLB5@AOL.COM.
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jms
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Date: 22 Jul 1996 05:17:08 -0400
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Subject: Re: Still haven't got my fan club stuff yet, what's up?
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Write to jplb5@aol.com, and they'll get right on it.
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jms
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Date: 22 Jul 1996 06:04:33 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN:JMS Redemption
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Thanks. From where I sit, you can't just play the damnation card in
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drama; you have to also play the redemption aspect. When you look at the
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early Twilight Zones for instance, you see redemption there as much a key
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issue as a Bad Guy getting what's coming to him.
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jms
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Date: 22 Jul 1996 06:04:35 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Blatant Plug time - When is your screenwriting book coming into print?
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Yes, at this point, the Hugo-nominated script for "The Coming of Shadows"
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will be in the new edition of my scriptwriting book.
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jms
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Date: 24 Jul 1996 01:10:16 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Concerns about "Shadow Dancing"?
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"You've mentioned a couple times that the upcoming "Shadow Dancing" will
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be
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quite violent. Should I be concerned about, say, my two-year old watching
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it?
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She's as hooked on the show as I am, and would probably feel quite left
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out..."
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This is a tough one...I've given it a lot of thought since I saw this, and
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my sense is to advise the following:
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If you possibly can, videotape the episode. Get the time code on the
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various pieces. We cut in and out of two stories, an A and a B story.
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One is violent, the other is not. You don't have to see the one, or see
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much of it, to follow the other. For someone as young as 2, I'd suggest
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fast-forwarding past the B story stuff. It's still within what's
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generally permitted on TV, but it is kinda harsh.
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jms
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Date: 28 Jul 1996 02:06:13 -0400
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Subject: Re: JMS: Question, "Hour of the Wolf"
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"Have you ever contemplated doing an episode of B5 that unfolds in real
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time (i.e. one minute of screen time is one minute of plot time, as done
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in the movies "Miracle Mile" and "Nick of Time"), or would that be
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counterproductive to the sorts of stories you're trying to tell?"
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Actually, yeah, I have considered doing that...it can be a very limiting
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structure, and the story has to be just right for it to work. Haven't
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quite worked out all the snags yet.
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"Or is "Hour of the Wolf" a story of that particular variety?"
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Nope.
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jms
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Date: 29 Jul 1996 04:02:28 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Found any of these people?
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I found Sherilyn and Marcus, but not any of the rest. Ah, well, gave it a
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good shot, and had some great help.
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jms
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Date: 29 Jul 1996 15:05:09 -0400
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Subject: Re: Attn JMS: fan club problems
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Karen: we recently found that the post office sent back whole *packages*
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of the fan club material to us, which they held onto for almost two
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months. We used two different post offices for the mail drops; we used
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the same amount of money for the mailing on all the mail drops, what the
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first one told us it should be, and that was fine...the second decided it
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should be more, never told us, and just sent the stuff back after a while.
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There've been similar problems with the mailings, though many people are
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now getting their stuff. Jim's been flooded with messages -- he showed me
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a stack two inches thick -- and he's processing them as fast as he can.
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Better to solve the hassle and get them out again than answer each one of
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the emails.
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This is a new venture, remember, there's some shakedown time. Jim's
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dancing as fast as he can. You'll either get a reply or a packet soon.
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jms
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Date: 30 Jul 1996 17:37:34 -0400
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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Directors for 4th Season
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"Do you have directors lined up for the first few episodes of the fourth
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season yet?"
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Mike Vejar is going to do a bunch, we've got Jesus Trevino, David Eagle,
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and are currently setting up some new directors on the show.
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"Also, do the directors for B5 have contracts that they will direct X
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number of episodes in a season, or are they on a verbal agreement type of
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thing, or is it something else?"
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It's never verbal, that's too easy to abuse on either side. It's all done
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via deal memo, usually one or two at a time, or if we know the director
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well, for several at once.
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jms
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