By PAUL HODGINS / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
April 7, 2011

A few years ago, Phylicia Rashad posed a question to scenic designer John Iacovelli that he’d never been asked before. The veteran actress was directing a play for a change, and she came at the project from a refreshing angle, Iacovelli recalls

Rashad was mounting August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean,” a play that features a wise old woman. “She looked at the model I’d done and said, ‘Well, you know, it’s not very feminine, is it?’” Iacovelli chuckled at the memory. “I’d never really thought of my work as being masculine or feminine up to that point.”

The question inspired him to look at certain work differently, said the veteran TV, movie and theatrical scenic designer (he’s best known as the visual wizard responsible for the look of the sci-fi series “Babylon 5″), who has come up with a simple yet ingenious and thematically appropriate set for Lauren Gunderon’s “Silent Sky.” It makes its world premiere this weekend on South Coast Repertory’s Segerstrom Stage.

“Just the other night (Anne Justine D’Zmura, the play’s director) and I were talking about the set, and she remarked on how feminine it is,” Iacovelli said as he stood over a small set model. “I didn’t consciously intend this, but it looks like a kind of womb in a way.”

Iacovelli has come up with a set that’s a series of concentric rings, circular shapes and curving openings swathed mostly in a soothing hue of deep blue.

The approach works on many levels.

Like Gunderson’s “Emilie,” seen in 2009 at SCR, “Silent Sky” is a story based on the life of a brilliant yet unsung female scientist.

Henrietta Leavitt (Monette Magrath) is a Massachusetts pastor’s daughter who leaves her family to take a tedious job at Harvard University. She works under Edward Charles Pickering, director of the Harvard Observatory from 1877 to 1919. Henrietta and other women perform a task considered too menial for men: mapping the night sky by studying detailed photographic plates of heavenly bodies captured by Harvard’s large telescope. Pickering’s women were paid less than clerical wages: between 25 and 50 cents an hour.

“These are the women that this play is about,” Iacovelli said, holding up a black-and-white photo of Pickering and his “harem,” as he called his female assistants. “You can see the seriousness, the severity of them. They were very buttoned-down women. But they were extremely good at their jobs. This photo was one of our leaping-off images.”

APPLYING THEATER TRICKS TO ‘BABYLON 5′

Rejecting early concepts that called for multiple turntables, a large telescope and other features, Iacovelli’s final design is much more elemental.

“We talked about stuff like a big telescope. But there’s a wonderful description in the script that the observatory just sort of folds away very easily. We thought, ‘Well, let’s get away from a strictly 19th-century concept of the space and make it more of an open dance space.’ Anne comes form a dance background, so that worked well for her.”

But Iacovelli didn’t completely abandon his attraction to Victorian things and his gift for fantastical touches. He describes the wheeled light tables that the women do their work on as “a touch of steam punk.”

“I remember seeing old light tables that looked like this,” Iacovelli said as we toured his under-construction set in SCR’s scenic shop. “I wanted them to have a certain serious look. They bent over these for hours on end, looking at pinpoints of light that were no bigger than specks of dust.”

The tables appear simultaneously scientific and Victorian, like a prop from an episode of “Wild, Wild West.”

From the audience, the set looks mysterious and metaphysical. It’s the perfect canvas for the play’s greatest effect: a spray of stars in a night-time sky that appears on an upstage scrim.

“It’s a tricky color to illuminate,” said lighting designer York Kennedy of the set’s midnight blue fabrics and surfaces as Iacovelli nodded. “It can eat up a lot of light. But when everything is right, it’s gorgeous.”

Iacovelli is one of the few working scenic designers who spends roughly equal time in theater, television and film (he teaches at UC Davis as well). He says he draws knowledge from one world to help him solve problems in the others.

“What I love about the theater is I’m not a slave to realism like I am in TV and film. On screen, the camera does not forgive anything. If it looks even slightly fake, you’re done. That’s why theater is so refreshing.

“I can remember working on a show here years ago, and we spent hours figuring out how to place a single chair in the perfect position. And that day on “Babylon 5″ I think I had done six sets – dressed them and shot them and was finished with them.

“What I realize now is that in theater, this deep investigation into moment-by-moment things allows me in film and TV to make decisions quickly and confidently. I know instantly what’s needed and I know exactly what to do.”

Source: Designer draws on ‘Babylon 5′ experience for ‘Silent Sky’ (Orange County Register)
Contact the writer: 714-796-7979 or phodgins at ocregister.com

I was a prop designer for the first season of Babylon 5, and although I went on to become an art director, television correspondent, and writer, I still count my B5 experience as one of the most creative unleashings of my professional life. Nothing frees up the imagination more than evocative words combined with the opportunity to realize them in multiple dimensions, and J. Michael Straczinski, the series originator, knew how to write evocative words. Words on the page are the seeds for the imagination of every designer for film and television, and Babylon 5 was filled with words that lit up the outer reaches of my mind. In designing for the present or the past, pictures come into focus nearly immediately from the words in the script, pictures that arise from knowledge and experience. The broader and deeper your knowledge and experience are, the more fleshed out your designs will be. In a world yet to come, however, everything and anything is possible. Your designs may have one foot in the world of what you know, but the other is clearly on another planet.

In one of the earliest Babylon 5 episodes to which I contributed, the script “Born to the Purple” called for the Centauri Adira, to be given “star laces”. Those two words created the outline for the design beginning to form in my mind’s eye. From star, I imagined something bright and shining. From lace, I imagined something lacey, meaning an open network of curvilinear forms, with that strange wavering quality that Queen Anne’s lace (a flower from the present world) has. I wanted Adira’s star laces to have characteristics not unlike the flowers we know, but with a look and a movement all their own. The script also described the flowers as “exotic” as well as “Centauri”.

Once I had an idea in mind of where the words were taking me, I had to go out into the world and see what building materials might be used that could help manifest my inspiration, and bring it into final form. This is the exploration part of the design process. For Babylon 5, this part of the process often involved long serious walks down the aisles of stores looking for unusual inspiration, and the component parts of what would become props. Electronics stores, plumbing stores, hardware stores, floral designer shops, discount stores, and sporting goods stores were studied aisle by aisle with mental notes made in all cases, and certain bits bought from time to time simply to have on hand for future building such as wires, knobs, metal screen and the like.

The star laces began to become clear to me at the Sports Chalet in Burbank, in the fishing supplies section where rubber twin tail fishing lures caught my eye because they had a translucency that seemed other-worldly, and their movement on camera would be strange and bouncy. They also had a bit of embedded glitter. Additionally, they mimicked a form of nature and yet were not of a natural material. I bought lures in a number of colors with which to experiment, then rounded up some florist’s wire, tape, and a variety of strange leaves from Stat’s floral supplies in Pasadena and headed back to the B5 soundstage in North Hollywood next to the Orange Bang building.

I wound up using clear rubber lures for the star laces, and red rubber lures for the “marine bouquet”, also called for in the script. There was always a hierarchy for the props, depending upon their importance to the scene that determined how fleshed out they would be. Barbara Cole, the prop master, had the idea to implant small grain of wheat bulbs inside the lures to take advantage of the inherent quality of the material and walked me through the process of “how to”. They came prepackaged in sets of three from a model store, and were easily wired next to the floral wire and bounded with floral tape, then powered with one small battery per flower nestled at the base. In keeping with the feeling of the future, I decided to wrap the flowers in metal door screen mesh instead of paper to create the ultimate in Science fiction luxury.

“Adira’s star laces” were only one of the approximately thirty props that played on average in each episode of Babylon 5. The prop budget per episode was $3000 with a little give and take potential, which allotted an average of $100 per prop. These items were all to be fleshed out, explored, and formed within a week. One episode’s designs were being crafted at the same time that another episode’s designs were being filmed. Not all objects were made, some were simply found in a prop shop, or found and sexed up slightly. Others required intensive research and design. Still others required the collaborative input of other individuals, the graphic designer, the special effects department etcetera.

The star laces I designed for “Born to the Purple” went on to play in another episode. That’s the ultimate compliment to the designer, to have their designs continue on with a life of their own by having taken the writer’s words into another dimension. It’s also a symbol for the great collaborative potential that all filmmaking brings to life, the possibilities of worlds as yet unseen where images and words work together to claim their untapped potential.

photograph courtesy of Leslie Erganian ©1994, used by special permission

Link: Official Website: Leslie Erganian

It’s here. The entire behind-the-scenes story of Crusade as told by the actors and crew…while the show was actually filming.

From the first frame of film until the last, these cast and crew interviews occurred “as-it-happened” so they are free of any revisionism. Nothing is forgotten. No detail spared.

Even better, the interviews in this book contain 70% never-before-seen material…and the 30% that was seen was published in UK-based magazines back in 1999.

Uncut.
Uncensored.
Nothing held back.

Sample Highlights
* 30 never before seen photos and drawings.
* A complete story description of an unknown episode called “The Walls of Hell.” The would-be writer of this episode, Larry DiTillio, details point-by-point would have happened.
* Who the medieval and modern literary characters were that J. Michael Straczynski had in mind when he created Galen.
* Why the White House had to intervene when Peter Woodward was cast as Galen.
* The one reason JMS rejected virtually all the women that auditioned to play Dureena Nafeel.
* Specifics about how the Excalibur set was designed to facilitate filming and how that affected the look and feel of the show.
* The total number of Apocalypse Boxes in the Babylon 5 universe (hint: it’s a lot more than one.)
* Why the character of Lt. Matheson was not defined as man, women, young, old, or by ethnicity when the show was cast.
* JMS’ thinking when he made Matthew Gideon a gambler, a renegade and secretive character.
* Why TNT demanded certain sets and costumes be changed during the first hiatus.
* Why Captain Gideon was gunned down in the unfilmed season finale.
* Why Dureena’s contact lenses were made less scary between the filming of “A Call to Arms” and the start of Crusade.
* The reason Trace Miller (the shuttle pilot) appeared in only two episodes when it was expected that he would be a series regular.
* Dr. Sarah Chambers’s original name when the show was first conceived.
* Why Edward Woodward, father of Peter Woodward, was cast as Alwyn.
* Peter Woodward’s other behind the scenes vocations and how they related to his acting.
* Details about how the actors really felt about working with directors Mike Vejar and Janet Greek.
* How J. Michael Straczynski prepared the Crusade actors for the type of stardom that comes with being in a popular science fiction series.
* The ways in which many of the cast members found out about the production shut down and Crusade’s cancellation…and their reactions.
* Why the Crusade producers had to fly to Chicago to interview a particular actor before they could offer the role.
* Which Crusade character would have been possessed by the Apocalypse Box if the series had continued.
* Gary Cole’s thoughts on how Captain Gideon measures up to other characters he’s played, like Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch Movies.
* The histories some of the actors made up to help them get to know their characters.
* The specific inspiration for the black uniforms that replaced the gray ones.
* How the cast of Crusade first met and what happened at that meeting.
* What aspect of Crusade made J. Michael Straczynski happiest (and what didn’t).
* Which cast members were familiar with Babylon 5 and which were not.
* What back story JMS give his cast to help them develop their characters.
* How JMS “erased the line” between the actors and their characters.
* How long JMS originally intended to keep viewers in the dark about the true nature of the Apocalypse Box.
* What iconic TV personality’s voice does JMS liken to Daniel Dae Kim’s.
* How production designer John Iacovelli planned to realize alien worlds on indoor sets and how he would have differentiated the look of various planets from one another.
* What specifics the famed Jet Propulsion Lab contributed to the alien-specific aspects of Crusade.
* Why “War Zone” replaced “Racing the Night” as the premiere episode.
* Why Crusade premiered in June when most television shows debut in September or January.
* How the directors and producers on the show describe the differences between Gary Cole and Bruce Boxleitner as a leading men.
* Carrie Dobro’s candid feelings about her less-than-glamorous role as the resident tunnel rat.
* How directing Crusade differed from directing Star Trek, according to two of Crusade’s directors.
* Richard Biggs’s candid thoughts about playing Dr. Franklin on Crusade, without the familiar trappings of Babylon 5.
* How the cast and crew felt about the unusual situation of an entire season of the show being produced before the first episode ever aired.
* The movie that John Copeland likened to the episode “Ruling from the Tomb.”
* Why composer Evan H. Chen never listened to Christopher Franke’s score from Babylon 5.
* How actor Tim Choate landed the role of Polix and how he differentiated it from his Babylon 5 character, Zathras.
* The disappointment of the original Drakh makeup.
* Details of Peter Woodward’s relationship with actress Judi Dench.
* Why Peter Woodward would get beaten-up on film sets when not acting.
* How Gary Cole built his character from a forty-five-page script.
* The starting point design-wise for the Excalibur uniforms.
* Why Eilerson in is civilian clothes instead of a uniform.
* How the Babylon 5 props were redesigned because Crusade was five years further into the future.
* Whose idea it was to put the camera dolly tracks in the ceiling.
* The secret’s out — find out what the actors tended to do with their uniform costume pockets.

PEOPLE INTERVIEWED
J. Michael Straczynski, Creator
Tony Amendola, Natchok Var
Richard Biggs, Doctor Stephen Franklin
David Allen Brooks, Max Eilerson
Evan H. Chen, Composer
Tim Choate, Polix (and Zathras!)
Gary Cole, Captain Matthew Gideon
John Copeland, Producer
Peter David, Writer
Larry DiTillio, Writer
Carrie Dobro, Dureena Nafeel
Tony Dow, Director
Randy Gardell, Costume Designer
Jerry Gergely, Special Makeup Effects Artist
Janet Greek, Director
Dark Hoffman, Property Master
Marjean Holden, Doctor Sarah Chambers
John Iacovelli, Production Designer
Daniel Dae Kim, Lieutenant John Matheson
Curt Lowens, Old One
Tony Maggio, Samuel Drake
Bill Mondy, Nix
Steve R. Moore, Visual Effects Supervisor
Douglas Netter, Executive Producer
Michael Vejar, Director
John Vulich, Makeup Effects Creator
Peter Welkin, Anla-shok Trulann
Peter Woodward, Galen
Tom Wyner, Apriori Flentak

Editor’s notes are included throughout the book. These notes describe what is happening in the Crusade production time line at the point of each interview. This way each question and response has context.

FINAL NOTE
CRUSADE: Behind the Scenes does NOT contain any of the show’s scripts. It is a compilation of interviews and images. The Crusade scripts, including those that were never filmed, will appear in J. Michael Straczynski’s forthcoming 3-volume series, “CRUSADE: What the Hell Happened?”

When it was first announced at Wonder Con nearly two years ago that fan favorite writer J. Michael Straczynski (“Thor,” “Amazing Spider-Man”) was bringing his epic-sense of storytelling to the DC Universe – after ending his six-year exclusive deal with Marvel Comics – many thought he would be automatically working with one of DC’s Big 3: Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. However, the writer’s first assignment ended up being a series of one-shots starring the recently acquired Red Circle superheroes from Archie Comics, and his follow-up was his current, ongoing run on “The Brave and The Bold.”

But during last week’s “DCU in 2010″ marketing campaign, the publisher announced that JMS has been tasked with taking the Man of Steel to new heights in a new ongoing, series of original and re-imagined graphic novels, entitled “Superman: Earth One.”

JMS, a life-long fan of the Last Son of Krypton, will deliver a 128-page story once or twice a year, beginning with the release of the first volume on September 7, 2010, which will be illustrated by rising star, artist Shane Davis (“Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns”).

Full article at CBR

Link: Straczynski Launches “Superman: Earth One”

The long-awaited Asked & Answered Part 5, the fifth and final book of the Asked & Answered series, has arrived. Packed with 1,301 questions, Part 5 has the most questions asked (and answered) of any book in the 5 book series.

Picking up where Part 4 left off, Part 5′s questions and answers are all related to the specifics of each episode and movie, starting with Season 2 (Season 1 was the final section of Part 4) and continuing through “The Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark.”

SEASON 2
* Points of Departure
* Revelations
* The Geometry of Shadows
* A Distant Star
* The Long Dark
* Spider in the Web
* Soul Mates
* A Race Through Dark Places
* The Coming of Shadows
* Gropos
* All Alone in the Night
* Acts of Sacrifice
* Hunter, Prey
* There All the Honor Lies
* And Now for a Word
* In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum
* Knives
* Confessions and Lamentations
* Divided Loyalties
* The Long, Twilight Struggle
* Comes the Inquisitor
* The Fall of Night

SEASON 3
* Matters of Honor
* Convictions
* A Day in the Strife
* Passing Through Gethsemane
* Voices of Authority
* Dust to Dust
* Exogenesis
* Messages from Earth
* Point of No Return
* Severed Dreams
* Ceremonies of Light and Dark
* Sic Transit Vir
* A Late Delivery from Avalon
* Ship of Tears
* Interludes and Examinations
* War Without End Part 1
* War Without End Part 2
* Walkabout
* Grey 17 is Missing
* And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
* Shadow Dancing
* Z’ha’dum

SEASON 4
* The Hour of the Wolf
* Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
* The Summoning
* Falling Toward Apotheosis
* The Long Night
* Into the Fire
* Epiphanies
* The Illusion of Truth
* Atonement
* Racing Mars
* Lines of Communication
* Conflicts of Interest
* Rumors, Bargains and Lies
* Moments of Transition
* No Surrender, No Retreat
* The Exercise of Vital Powers
* The Face of the Enemy
* Intersections in Real Time
* Between the Darkness and the Light
* Endgame
* Rising Star
* The Deconstruction of Falling Stars

SEASON 5
* No Compromises
* The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari
* The Paragon of Animals
* A View from the Gallery
* Learning Curve
* Strange Relations
* Secrets of the Soul
* Day of the Dead
* In the Kingdom of the Blind
* A Tragedy of Telepaths
* Phoenix Rising
* The Ragged Edge
* The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father
* Meditations on the Abyss
* Darkness Ascending
* And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
* Movements of Fire and Shadow
* The Fall of Centauri Prime
* The Wheel of Fire
* Objects in Motion
* Objects at Rest
* Sleeping in Light

MOVIES
* In the Beginning
* Thirdspace
* The River of Souls
* A Call to Arms
* The Legend of the Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight
* The Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark

Here’s a glimpse, a hint, a peek, a preview of the info-nuggets you’ll discover in Part 5′s 1,301 answers:

* J. Michael Straczynski’s least favorite episode and which one took his breath away
* How the story would have proceeded if Sinclair, Takashima, Kyle, Alexander and Sykes had remained in the cast
* How JMS’s childhood is part of the origin of Londo’s recurring dream
* How “Midnight on the Firing Line” and “The Coming of Shadows” are mirror-images of each other
* The significance of the season two episode titles
* How Sinclair’s storyline is like a certain famous trilogy
* How the change in commanding officers benefited the show
* Why Earthforce can’t track Minbari vessels
* Why and how candles are a key symbol in the show
* Which episode has the Abraham Lincoln quote
* How Ivanova’s sex scene was a verbal compression of human dating
* Why it’s so difficult to write Kosh’s dialogue
* The famous writer that Morden really looks like
* Who won the sixth game of the 2259 Worlds’ Series
* How an actor’s broken foot impacted the series
* The basis of the techno-mage symbols
* What JMS meant by a “race that speaks in macros”
* Why Sheridan didn’t ask Delenn for help in fending off the Earthforce attack
* JMS’s favorite quotes from “The Coming of Shadows”
* Why Sheridan didn’t give Major Ryan a field promotion
* Details of the Robert Foxworth debacle
* Why Garibaldi said “nuts”
* The reason JMS drilled down on the Marcus and Lennier characters
* What “Sir Transit Vir” really means and why JMS used it as a title
* When it’s okay for the Minbari to lie
* Why we couldn’t see the surface of Narn after the mass drivers
* How the Earth/Minbari War actually began
* Why the cast and crew shunned JMS at lunchtime for a couple days
* The intent in showing hand-to-hand combat below decks
* The number of crew members necessary to pilot a White Star
* What it was like on the set when Michael O’Hare returned in “War Without End”
* The genesis of the Minbari sleep watching ritual
* What was written on Vir’s Minbari coat of welcoming
* Who financed the Ranger colony and why it was in Drazi space
* The origins for the idea of the Vorlons and Shadows representing order and chaos
* How many years Valen lived
* What Edgars was reading on the couch
* How Season 4 was different from the previous three seasons
* The scene in which Jerry Doyle fell and broke his right arm and right wrist while filming
* JMS’s 14 word response to the question about the 14 words that will make someone fall in love with you
* Why Lyta isn’t mentioned in “Sleeping in Light”
* The final image JMS had in mind before a frame was ever shot on the series
* Exactly what JMS was thinking during his “Sleeping in Light” cameo
* And, at long last, how many Minbari it takes to screw in a lightbulb

Asked and Answered Part 4 is J. Michael Straczynski’s real-time history of the beginnings of Babylon 5: from before the pilot (including the online announcement of the series) and through Season 1.

Part 4 is loaded with details that never made it to the screen as well as the origins of what did eventually air.

As you move through the following topics, you’ll relive what it was like to be part of Babylon 5’s launch:

* Announcing Babylon 5
* Creating Babylon 5
* Babylon 5 Backstory
* Pre-production
* Filming the Pilot
* Approaching Airdate
* Fan Reactions After Airing
* Behind the Scenes Immediately Before & After Airing
* Deleted Scenes from the Pilot
* Changes from Pilot to Series

This section also includes JMS’s first archived post about the show (and it’s so early in the process that he even hyphenate’s the show’s nickname as B-5). Here’s just a small sampling of the details he discusses in this section:

* The designing of prosthetics to prevent actors from being typecast;

* The moment JMS changed “Jackarr” to “G’Kar” and why the switch was made;

* The reasoning behind the design of PPGs;

* The process of hiring a composer (including his interactions with pilot composer Stewart Copeland of The Police);

* The development of Babylon 5’s production design (including the design of the Garden, the video displays throughout the station, CGI for the Vorlon ship, early uniforms) along with concepts that were scrapped like the “Being Mover”;

* An early description of the chrysalis device Delenn would eventually construct across Season 1;

* The announcement of each cast member along with the insider scoop on the auditions;

* What happened when the cast read the script aloud for the first time;

* Clues JMS told viewers to watch for in the pilot that would pay off down the line;

* The unused opening narration for the pilot;

* The reasons for the long delay between the pilot and the series;

* Walter Koenig’s reaction to seeing the pilot;

* Negative feedback from industry insiders after a private screening;

* The link between the pilot’s airing and Oprah;

* The actor in the end credits of the original pilot edit who was not in the show and why;

* The scenes cut from the original edit of the pilot;

* A step-by-step account of how JMS re-configured the pilot for the TNT Special Edition;

* The whys behind the cast changes from pilot to series;

* Why JMS chose to shoot Season 1 in secret for a month before announcing that filming had begun.

Following the pilot section, Asked and Answered Part 4 moves into fan questions about the particulars of Season 1 with entire sections dedicated to the following episodes:

* Midnight on the Firing Line
* Soul Hunter
* Born to the Purple
* Infection
* The Parliament of Dreams
* Mind War
* The War Prayer
* And the Sky, Full of Stars
* Deathwalker
* Believers
* Survivors
* By Any Means Necessary
* Signs and Portents
* TKO
* Grail
* Eyes
* Legacies
* A Voice in the Wilderness Part 1
* A Voice in the Wilderness Part 2
* Babylon Squared
* The Quality of Mercy
* Chrysalis

And if all that wasn’t enough, Asked and Answered Part 4 begins with detailed insights about J. Michael Straczynski’s career as a writer – a compelling look behind the scenes at the life of Babylon 5′s creator.

This section’s topics include: how to become a professional writer, tips on good writing, what life is like for the average TV scribe, why he doesn’t put his name on freelance scripts he re-wrote, how much of himself goes into his characters (and which ones), what issues are worth writing about, the irony of copyright law as established by the Berne Convention, the essential ingredient for all drama, what he would do if he could no longer write scripts, his exercise in song writing for “Walkabout”, G’kar’s impact on a terminally ill patient, what a showrunner thinks when he’s watching other people’s shows and what compels him to write.

Given the depth of content inventoried here, it’s no surprise that Part 4 contains 1,073 missives packed into 414 pages – the biggest book so far of the Asked & Answered series.

JMS Scripts, Books and More

You can watch the lecture and audience Q&A online, or view / download the clips in 3 parts:

Part 1: The Lecture
Part 2: Conversation between JMS and Henry Jenkins
Part 3: Audience Q&A

Clips are also available at MIT’s TechTV

Bruce Boxleitner
Peter Jurasik
Claudia Christian
Stephen Furst
Tracy Scoggins
Julie Caitlin Brown

There are 3 panels scheduled on B5, and of course, they will be spending time in the autographs room.

Link: Dragon*Con
Link: Dragon*Con TV

Rants, religion, money, sex and Star Trek…just a few of the topics covered in the most volatile release of the entire Asked & Answered series.

Part 3 (pages 779-1,183) includes more than 1,100 missives grouped into the following – often heated – topics:

RANTS
This is JMS unplugged. He shares his thoughts – unfiltered and often exasperated – on a breadth of topics including: the sound in space issue, comparisons of Babylon 5 to Shakespeare, Lord of the Rings, Dune and every other saga of any import, atheism, language and culture, the idea that a five-year arc prohibits the organic development of a story, the perils of being the topic of an online forum, religion in Babylon 5, predictability of stories, why he almost quit the online community forever, why the tone of his online posts changed over the years, and how he really feels about people expressing an opinion that conflicts with his.

RELIGION
This section covers a wide range of religion related questions including: What are the religions of each alien species? What are the spiritual convictions of the principal human characters? Why is religion in the 23rd century a valid premise? How did Earth’s religions deal with the existence of aliens? Why do B5’s alien races have more than one religion? Why did JMS showcase religion when most TV shows avoid it? What happened when the topic of Babylon 5 was raised at a multi-faith meeting of interdenominational leaders? What are JMS’s thoughts on the pagan group that makes its new members watch B5 in its entirety?

REMUNERATION AND MONEY
How much was JMS paid for Babylon 5? How much does money matters to JMS? Could JMS have gotten a better deal for the show? What does JMS spend money on? Why has he never gotten a cent of residuals on the DVD sales?

SEX
What are the hookers are like on Babylon 5? Why does prostitution still exists in the 23rd century? Can different species breed with each other? PLUS JMS’s thoughts on bi, gay and lesbian characters.

SPECIAL EFFECTS
How does CGI impact the script? Why did JMS choose CGI over models? How did B5’s space shots differ from what came before? What happened when California wildfires threatened the visual effects facility? PLUS over 30 questions and answers detailing the show’s pioneering use of computer generated imagery.

SHIPS
How did JMS design the Vorlon ships? Which ships can enter B5′s space? Who can use the station’s facilities? How do Starfuries launch? PLUS details of the unused Northrodyne C31-03 Patriot, details of Starfury design down to their engine parts, and the facts about White Stars and other alien spacecraft.

SOUND DESIGN
What is “walla?” How was B5’s soundtrack different from those of other shows? What was JMS’s fresh approach to the sound of weaponry? Which of the unique sounds on the show were original creations (and which where not)? What are “wild tracks?” PLUS the truth about Kosh’s voice.

SPECIES
Everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask in 256 questions about: Centauri, Drazi, Humans, Minbari, Narn, pak’ma’ra, Shadows, Vorlons and other First Ones. PLUS detailed explanations about their characteristics and their histories (don’t miss JMS’s note comparing and contrasting Narn and Centauri history or his detailed list of the which races were at war or allied at the time of the pilot) as well as the theories behind the design of each race.

STAR TREK
Did the Babylon 5 crew ever socialize with any of the Star Trek crews? How did Babylon 5′s budget compare to that of the various Star Trek series? How did JMS fight allegations that this concept or that idea was originated by Star Trek? Is JMS “the next Gene Roddenberry?” Does it make JMS crazy when every article compares Babylon 5 to Star Trek? Did Paramount use JMS’s concept to create Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? How did Deep Space Nine most impact Babylon 5?

TECHNOLOGY
Four categories highlight the technology of the 23rd century: GENERAL (medicine, space suits, time travel and transporters), COMMUNICATIONS (links, BabCom, ISN and Universe Today), TRANSPORTATION (hyperspace, jumpgates, the core shuttle, and the transport tubes) and WEAPONRY (mass drivers, PPGs, projectiles and stealth tech).

ALL THIS AS WELL AS SECTIONS COVERING: THE TITLE SEQUENCE (JMS offers insights and anecdotes about the show’s varied title sequences, including the concept, the visuals and the narration), THE UNIVERSE OF BABYLON 5 (Featuring detailed histories and background including the Earth/Minbari War, Earth’s first contact with alien life, and the funding of the Babylon Project despite four failures), THE SHOW’S VISUAL AESTHETIC (Including logos, graphics and cinematography), THE WARDROBE (Highlighting costumes, makeup and prosthetics)

and last but not least —

WRITING BABYLON 5
A comprehensive section with thorough discussions of the cast, the characters, the episode titles, the origins of the story, the planning of the series, the process of writing the scripts, story structure, themes, JMS’s personal dedication, the achievement and the reactions gathered along the way.

JMS Scripts, Books and More

This year’s Julius Schwartz Lecture speaker was transmedia creator J. Michael Straczynski, who has most recently entered the motion picture arena, writing the period drama Changeling for Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie, adapting such books as Lensman for Ron Howard, World War Z for Brad Pitt’s company, and They Marched Into Sunlight for Tom Hanks and Paul Greengrass, as well as reviving Forbidden Planet for Warner Bros. and selling two new original movies, The Flickering Light and Proving Ground to Universal and Tom Cruise’s United Artists, respectively. He has also begun work on Last Words, a pilot for a new TV series for the TNT network.

Hopefully, very soon, we’ll have links to where you can purchase the DVD, and we do so hope that the DVD will include the audience Q&A session!

FAN INTERACTION
JMS discusses his experiences at conventions: what the adulation is like, how it feels to be behind-the-scenes, how and why he signs autographs for 3-4 hours at a time, what really happened at the Wolf Convention (and why he won’t apologize), what it feels like to see fans standing in line for hours just to see him, his hilarious message to a Gallifrey One panel when he couldn’t attend, fan fiction — how he feels about it as a writer as well as the legal ramifications, why he discouraged fans from a letter writing campaign to ensure a fifth season, why he believes fans have a right to complain, and how the fans inspire him.

FIVE YEAR ARC
How the arc was structured, what the cast and crew really knew about where the characters and story were headed, specifically what JMS had mapped out and to what level of detail, who had seen the entire series outline (and who hadn’t), which actor knew the most about the entire arc, why he wouldn’t leak a fake 5 year arc, what would happen if anything happened to him during the series run, why he wrote the arc so that the fans could never know for sure what was going to happen next, how he wrote the show so fans would not be lost if they missed an episode, what one question he intended not to answer at the end of the 5 year arc, why he structured the show as a novel, how he balanced the characters over the 5 year run, why Babylon 5 was a 5 year story and why he could never extend it (even if he wanted to), what he meant by “accelerating the arc,” how he compensated for cast changes, how the long wait to sell the show to the networks benefited the arc, specifics about how he adjusted the arc on the chance the show was canceled after the fourth season, how he wrote the arc so that nuances would surface for fans watching the series for a second, third or fourth time.

FUN WITH JMS
This compilation of responses groups the best of J. Michael Straczynski’s online repartee, banter, bon mots, comebacks, quips, retorts, sarcasm and witticisms on topics such as holidays, typos, the truth, Sinclair’s “duck”, being a Techno-mage, the longest sentence he’s ever written online, the one word he uses to describe Babylon 5, a wedding toast, the one thing he can never do, the story behind the jet that nearly landed on his head (no joke!), his struggle with the word “epitaph” and what happened when he channeled Zathras.

INFLUENCES – FILM, TV & MUSIC
JMS discusses his favorite movies (and how they influenced Babylon 5), what he considers the best TV show ever produced, what TV shows he watches, his favorite watch’s connection to Rod Serling (and how Rod Serling profoundly influenced him), what music he listened to while writing Babylon 5 and why he considers himself a “musical mutt.”

INFLUENCES – HISTORY & LITERATURE
JMS writes about how ancient Babylon relates (and doesn’t relate) to B5, how much of Babylon 5 and other JMS writings borrow from history, the spark that originally got him interested in language (and how that is a big part of Babylon 5), his favorite SF books, what makes him most nuts about B5 being compared to other works, how Z’ha’dum was not inspired by Dante but by a legendary Greek figure, how classic heroic stories have influenced B5, why he created a show with a timeline, what happened when he rewatched an old episode of He-Man he had written, how Tolkien’s work was instrumental in the creation of B5 but how Lord of the Rings was not, the importance of Norman Corwin and Mark Twain to his own work.

JMS ON JMS
JMS comments on life after B5 including why he stayed in television, what it feels like to be considered an A-list feature writer after a career on the small screen, working with Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood and how the Cannes premiere of Changeling was the most surreal experience of his life. All this plus the most personal side of JMS: his likes, his loathes, how he feels about vacations, shyness, why he doesn’t have kids, favorite colors, food, what’s in his office, aging, the complete Buddy story, his extensive knowledge of Superman and what the super hero means to him, lucid dreams, the one school subject he failed (3 times), college life, what happened when he encountered a tachistoscope, how the Babylon 5 success affected him, what it’s like to be called The Great Maker and the dumbing down of television.

JMS ON POLITICS
In this section J. Michael Straczynski addresses issues that bobbed and weaved throughout Babylon 5′s run including a citizen’s responsibility to their government, why he believes that government should have no interest in religion, how the aftermath of war holds more possibility than war itself and how civility can be employed in political campaigns.

LAST DAYS & LEGACY OF BABYLON 5
JMS recalls how the industry reacted to Babylon 5′s novel-for-television structure, why he never considers himself an SF “superstar”, the aspects of B5 that he is most proud of, what it’s like to be the guy who created B5, how he reacts to others’ interpretations of the show, the lessons he learned producing B5, his feelings on the set the last day of shooting, the truth behind the “cast turmoil” over the ending of the show, his reaction whenever SF shows are compared to Babylon 5 and what has to happen for there to ever be more Babylon 5 on the screen.

MERCHANDISE OF BABYLON 5
JMS discusses merchandising philosophy, the toys that did happen and those that didn’t, why he wouldn’t approve a B5 theme park in Las Vegas, the history and behind-the-scenes of the B5 comic and how it impacts the show’s canon, all about the Babylon 5 novels, the DVDs, the Revell Starfury model, the history of the 14-volume limited edition script series — why he did it and what he hoped to accomplish.

MUSIC OF BABYLON 5
In this section JMS talks about his goals for B5′s music, how his musical tastes influenced B5, why Stewart Copeland scored the pilot but didn’t score the series, how the composer times his score to picture, how he decides which music goes where, how JMS and Christopher Franke worked together, why he changed the theme each season, how Chris worked with an orchestra in another country and why JMS didn’t change the music in the end credits at the start of season 3.

ONLINE EXPERIMENT
J. Michael Straczynski’s interaction with fans in the online world is showcased in this section which focuses on the highs…and the lows of that ongoing conversation. With messages dating back to 1991, JMS addresses why he put himself in an Internet forum, his concerns about fans having too much information, his motivation for his exchanges with fandom, specifically how his online conversation with fans has been helpful to the writing process (and how it has not), the biggest benefit to his online presence, how he “waved” to the GEnie forums in the pilot, how he remained unaffected by what he read online, why fans couldn’t post story ideas, what he really thinks of the online communities, his move to the moderated newsgroup, how he handles criticism, details of one of his worst experiences online and his thoughts at the 10 year mark of his online experiment.

PHYSICS & BABYLON 5
The “sound in space” issue is thoroughly explored along with how JMS tried to incorporate real physics into the show and details of the Starfury launch sequences, the science behind it and the difficulty of showing speed in space.

PLACES & PLANETS
This section features on questions about Centauri Prime’s moon, Earthdome, Epsilon 3, Proxima 2 and the much more popular Proxima 3, jumpgate ownership, why a jumpgate was built at Sigma 957, the rim and what really exists beyond it (the philosophical implications are staggering!).

PRODUCTION OF BABYLON 5
Harlan Ellison’s involvement kicks off this package of posts along with how much material was edited out of each episode, what JMS cut that he wishes he could put back, how the editing process works and how it impacts what the fans see, the varied shots used by directors to tell the story, how JMS learned not be upset by production glitches, what he would go back and rework if he could, how the B5 production model differs from most other shows, how he and the team handled revisions, step-by-step what happened from script to screen, how JMS got the most value from the budget, why there wasn’t a bathroom scene in the pilot, what he would have done if he had had $1 million more per show, how the crew expressed their “feedback” to JMS and his policy for how opinions about the show were to be expressed and how directors maintained his vision for the show.

JMS Scripts, Books and More

The two-part interview can be found here:

Babylon Podcast: Show #161: JMS Interview, Part 1
Babylon Podcast: Show #162: JMS Interview, Part 2

The second annual Julius Schwartz Lecture brings J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the cult science fiction hit Babylon 5.

The Julius Schwartz Lecture is an annual event held to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the culture, creativity and community of comics and popular entertainment..

The lecture is hosted by the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT and was founded to honor the memory of longtime DC Comics editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz, whose contributions to our culture include co-founding the first science fiction fanzine in 1932, the first science fiction literary agency in 1934, and the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. Schwartz went on to launch a career in comics that would last for well over 42 years, during which time he helped launch the Silver Age of Comics, introduced the idea of parallel universes, and had a hand in the reinvention of such characters as Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom.

The event is typically structured as a short lecture presented by the honored speaker, followed by a question-and-answer discussion between the speaker and the head of the Comparative Media Studies program, media scholar Henry Jenkins III. This will be followed by an open question-and-answer session between the lecturer and the audience. The inaugural speaker for the series was New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman.

It’s true. The creator of Babylon 5 answers 5,296 fan questions covering every aspect of the show in over 100 categories in this new Babylon 5 book series.

J. Michael Straczynski answered these questions as they surfaced over a period of 18 years as part of an online experiment he started in 1991 and continues to this day.

This makes Asked & Answered something that has never been done before with a television show: an oral history IN REAL TIME. No revisionism. Nothing forgotten. No detail spared.

Because this dialogue with fans starts in 1991, it pre-dates the production of the Babylon 5 pilot, so you’ll discover JMS’ complete vision for the series, many aspects of which never made it to the screen.

Even better, these questions and answers include interactions on AOL Bulletin Boards, GEnie Forums, the moderated usenet group, CIS Discussion threads and Chat Transcripts, some of which are not available in archives anywhere.

In addition to Babylon 5, Asked & Answered includes JMS’ responses to personal questions about his life, politics, love, religion, writing and more. These responses are grouped with a related B5 topic showing fans – for the first time – the provenance of the Babylon 5 philosophy and culture. All that plus JMS’ real life stories behind the stories.

To make this the ultimate source, it took 2½ years and a crew of four B5 experts – in addition to J. Michael Straczynski – to compile, categorize and edit.

WHY THIS SERIES IS TECHNICALLY 5 PARTS AND NOT 5 VOLUMES
Because Asked & Answered is essentially one very long document, we’ve divided it into 5 parts. Each part is one book and there are 5 books altogether, each of which will be launched separately. (Part 1 was released on May 13, 2009 and is the only part to be released so far.)

Together these 5 books – the complete Asked & Answered series – will total approximately 2,000 pages. To honor the fact that Asked & Answered is one document, the pages in each volume are number sequentially starting with the next page number from the previous volume. For example, Part 1 ends on page 385 and Part 2 begins on page 386. So that you can identify each part at a glance, the text on each cover is a different color. Note that Part 1 is red, the same color as the first Babylon station, and Part 5 is blue, the same as the fifth Babylon station.

WHY SHOULD I GET THE ASKED & ANSWERED SERIES IF SOME OF THE DATA IS STILL ONLINE?
The goal of this series is simple: offer a document to fans for whom canon is everything and therefore would want a printed record of the most important JMS messages in one place, grouped into categories and presented in the order they were written. In other words, the opposite of the online experience.

DOESN’T THE TWO COLUMN LAYOUT PAD THE CONTENT WITH WHITE SPACE
All of the books in the Asked & Answered series average 115,000 words. For context, the average novel or non-fiction book is 90,000 words or less. Volume 11 of the 14 volume series, which had the longest introduction at 70 pages, totaled 84,000 words.

WHY NO KINDLE OR EBOOK EDITION?
Contractually we can’t do electronic versions for the time being.

HOW IS ASKED & ANSWERED ORGANIZED?
All questions are organized by topic, then by category and then by date. This triple level of organization on 100+ categories aggregates the B5 canon in a way never seen before. We also include a 2 page production timeline at the end of each book to cross-reference to the message dates.

TOPICS COVERED IN PART 1

All this and more than 200 questions just about CRUSADE, with topics covering the crew, characters, casting, music, TNT and more in addition to specific questions about the 13 episodes.

Plus an introduction by J. Michael Straczynski welcoming fans to this ground-breaking book series.

JMS Scripts, Books and More

Though the magazine is long gone, on this, the 10th anniversary of this column’s publication, he wanted to share the origins of Babylon 5 again. While many fans saw them when they were originally published, he realizes that many more have not.

In addition to the notes, there is a brief introduction that formed part of that column.

Read the full story of the birth of Babylon 5…

Link: http://www.cafepress.com/thejoestore/6587738