For those who might be interested, I thought I'd pass along a
quick view
of the process of producing a show like B5, step by step (though
briefly).

Day Minus 21: The script is finalized and distributed to all
cast and
crew.

Day Minus 14: The episode goes into serious pre-production,
with meetings
on visual effects, wardrobe, CGI and so on. Props are designed and
construction begun on both props and wardrobe and any sets that are
specific
to that episode.

Day Minus 10: Tone meeting with director and producers to make
sure all
parties see the story the same way. Casting, begun on day 14, is
finalized
about this time.

Day Minus 6: Major production meeting with all departments, at
which each
scene is gone through in detail, examining and reinforcing what
props,
costumes, extras and lighting requirements are needed per scene.

Day One: Filming Starts.

Day Seven: Filming finishes. Editing has been going on since
day 2, as
dailies arrive at the studio, with editors making rough assemblies
of the
scenes as they come in.

Day Eight/Nine: the director works with the editor to make the
first,
Director's Cut of the episode, relying to some degree on the
preliminary
Editor's Cut.

Day 10/11: Producers begin making their cut. (Mainly me and
John
Copeland.) Sit with editor and view each scene, picking out
various takes and
angles, integrating CGI. Sometimes the cut varies a lot from the
Director's
Cut and is a whole new version...or it is very close to the
Director's Cut.
Producer's Cut finished around day 12/13.

Day 15: Producer's Cut is sent to primary editing bay for
on-line
editing, at which the frames of actual film are slugged and readied
for the
real thing (as opposed to editing computer images on the Avid).

Day 20: Episode is color-timed to make sure color values are
correct.

Day 25: Spotting session...producers, sound designer,
composer, dialogue
editors meet and review the on-line edit or CTM (color timed
master) to
determine where sound and music should be placed, the kind of sound
or music
required, and number of frames/seconds duration. Second spotting
session with
visual EFX supervisor to determine rotoscoping or other non-CGI EFX
placement.

Day 39: Final mix-down of all elements: music, sound, looping,
visual
effects and other elements. For this we sit in the mixing bay from
9 a.m. to
7 p.m. nonstop, bringing in lunch, to determine balance of sound to
music,
music to dialogue, which elements to use or lose, and so on.

Day 46: Finished episode delivered to PTEN and in-house.

Total time required: 57 days. And during this period, we are
simultaneously editing at least 4-5 other shows, and have shot
roughly
another 6 episodes, which are also in various stages of editing.

I've glossed over a few things, but that should give you some
idea of the
process and the highlights thereof.

jms