I think the E! documentary will air about a month after they do the
filming...so figure about 6-8 weeks. Then again on commercial stations
shortly before the B5 airing.
You don't have to buy Comic Con tickets in advance, they can easily be
purchased the day you arrive, for all or part of the con.
Height: roughly 6'4", maybe a smidge over.
On music...as I've mentioned here before (really, Stephen, all you'd have
to do is download the previous 3000 messages, and you'd know all this
stuff...), the LAST thing I want is one more self-indulgent, bloated, pseudo-
classical pompous John Williams ripoff. I enjoy all forms of music (except
country/western, a man's got to have SOME standards)...soft rock hard rock,
SOME heavy metal (but not a lot), classical, Japanese, Eastern European,
(some) New Age, folk rock, Gilbert and Sullivan...I'm very eclectic in my
tastes. So I'm really open to just about anything.
I *do* know that I want something that's really kickass, driving, with a
strong percussive backbeat. I loved the Stewart Copeland theme for "The
Equalizer," and Brad Fiedel's score for T2, and those would certainly be
appropriate for our show as well in terms of the type of music. I wouldn't be
averse to making it slightly rock-oriented, PROVIDED that we could avoid
dating ourselves in the process. (Or go for something driving yet
traditional, like the "Glory" or "Red October" soundtracks.) I just think
it's time for science fiction television to admit that there's been some good
music composed after the 18th century.
(If we could afford it, I would LOVE to have, playing in the background
in the casino, something alien...and then segue into a Beatles song or some
Buddy Holly or some Motown...that stuff will be with us forever, and will go
with us into space.)
(Sudden thought...I wonder if Ennya is available to do soundtracks?)
Busy day today. We're on the Friday before the Monday morning on which
we begin rolling film, and there's a LOT yet to be done. Did the final hair,
makeup and prosthetics tests on Londo...and I have to say, when I first saw
the complete effect, I was...startled, to say the least. And I really wasn't
sure, even though the actor *loved* it, and everyone else was just going nuts
for the thing. But after a while, the longer I looked at it, the more I began
to like it. It's extreme, but it fits the character.
More camera and lighting tests, the construction crews hurrying to get
everything done in time. Even though it's busy, more than one person
mentioned how surprisingly calm everyone is...it's all going as it should be,
there aren't any major crises, it's just *busy*.
Saw dailies on the makup/wardrobe/prosthetics tests we ran the other day
on Delenn, G'Kar, Lyta and Laurel Takashima. Very nice stuff. G'Kar is just
astonishing. Of all the wardrobe/makeup we're doing, it's the most colorful,
the most elaborately detailed, and probably the one that will start showing up
first in convention masquerades.
By late this evening, I was exhausted, and went up into the B5 central
corridor, climbed up the steps to the second level, and sat there for a while,
watching as they moved the lights up and down and sideways, casting filtered
beams of light through catwalks and grids to form curious shadows on the
floor...amid the sound of hammers banging and saws shearing through wood, and
the constant drum of footsteps on the set below...sitting in the Babylon 5
station, having now seen all of the major aliens and characters in the flesh,
on screen, in full regalia, thinking that all of this _ and all that it
represents for those who are now involved with the Babylon 5 project _ began
with one sentence:
FADE IN:
EXT. BABYLON 5
People on the set keep coming up to me and asking, "Is this exciting for
you?" And I don't know what to say in response. More than anything else
(when I'm not being tired and wishing I was asleep somewhere), I'm quite
simply *stunned*. It all has a vague air of unreality about it. I imagine
that I'll be excited when it's done, when I can actually hold a cassette of
the show in my hand, and see the reaction it gets in front of an audience.
What usually happens during the day is that I go into the production
offices at the studio, sit in my room in the back, and play Godfather: people
come to me and ask questions. I give them answers. And then t hey go
away...and I turn into this statue. Just stunned. Until someone else comes
in with a question. Then I go out onto the soundstage. And sit. Stunned.
Then I go home. Stunned.
Every so often, though, when I can force myself out of the haze, I find
myself thinking, "This is really going to be SOMETHING. I mean, really,
really, SOMETHING."
T-minus 3 and counting.
jms |
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