Sorry I haven't been able to log on in over a day; things are going well,
and the main problem was that last night I came home to edit together some
Neat Stuff to show at Comic Con, and I'm not very good at it, and it took me
HOURS to pull it together, by which time it was all I could do just to fall
into bed.

But there's gonna be some fun stuff seen at Comic Con....

A few responses to the preceding:

Not a few of the Warners reps are carrying around old or incorrect
information, as evidenced by the guy saying that the show would be on in
November (that got changed a LONG time ago). The other information is also
incorrect. We're aware of the problem, and it's being (shall we say) attended
to. It's really a communications problem, which happens in the early stages
of a project as big as a new network.

What makes the lighting different? Well, the reason I'm not saying what
the *specifics* are is so that some other show won't find out about it and
start using it. Suffice to say for the moment that no other show has used
this, certainly not to this extent. (I'll comment more fully on the lights
in, say, a month. So re-ask the question at that time.)

There's actually a fair amount of rehearsal that goes on, first in full
read-throughs, and on the set. First a walk-through, then a camera rehearsal,
so by the time we roll film, the actor has said the lines in that particular
scene (which could be as short as 30 seconds) five or six times, in addition
to reading through the scene backstage before we bring them out. What's great
about this particular team of actors is that they are all *thorough* pros, and
they show up knowing every line, every word, there's virtually no coaching on
the lines, they just come out and NAIL it.

Re: taping the Comic Con presentation...the answer to that is a big No,
*especially* during the film part of the presentation. If I see a red light
anywhere in the audience, I'm going to stop the clip immediately and that'll
be it.

What's interesting to me is watching the actors as they grow into their
parts. The greatest degree of prosthetics are on Andreas Katsulas, and he's
commented that instead of being a burden, the "mask" of the headpiece has
freed him...and he's *wonderful*. Every time he comes on set, he just
energizes everyone.

And the actor's craft in action is fascinating to behold. There is a
scene (well, two, actually) in which Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) has very
little to say. But you always have to do a close-up for coverage. And
despite the fact that he has nothing much to *say*...he totally and completely
and wonderfully steals the scene. Subtle, small things that register
magnificently on the screen.

I have a strong hunch that Londo and G'Kar are going to be real break-out
characters.

So far, we've shot scenes in the main corridor, the outside of the
casino, the council room, various quarters, the conference center and a few
other places. We're really steaming along nicely.

I'll be down in Comic Con, and thus unavailable here for a few days, but
will log on when I'm next near a keyboard.

jms