>I have no recollection of the B5 actors
>chronically being forced to wait on the set for JMS to come rushing in
>with the latest few pages of his scripts. He works (admittedly very
>long hours) to keep this from happening. He works closely with the
>studios to know what his deadlines are and he makes those deadlines.
I have this kind of antiquated notion that if someone gives you x-million bucks
to make a show, it behooves you to act *responsibly*. So really it's just a
matter of being responsible in how you run a show.
As a result, in every season of every show I've run, we always came in under
budget, anywhere from $100K to $500K. When I said I'd do that on Jeremiah,
they kind of laughed at me, 'cause it was a big show, big names, big production
values...we came in about $300K under in year 1, and about $200K under in year
2.
On B5, Crusade and Jeremiah, we never had a forced call on an actor, never had
actors waiting around for pages to arrive on stage. We stay 5-6 scripts ahead
at all times, so directors can prep efficiently. And in 5 years of B5 plus
Crusade, we had maybe 20 days of any serious overtime. On Jeremiah I think we
had a total of 18 over two seasons.
Just a matter of being responsible with other people's money.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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