ATTN: JMS - A few questions...

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN: JMS - A few questions...
+  1: Oct 17, 1995: benn1 at uwindsor.ca (John Benn)
*  2: Oct 21, 1995: straczynski at genie.geis.com

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From: benn1 at uwindsor.ca (John Benn)
Lines: 63

   There are no story ideas in this post.  I just want to know if
we'll see any of the following in the B5 run.  They're mostly
production oriented questions since I firmly believe that if you
had the budget of a ST show you would be leaving us speechless
every episode...

1. Decent sized land armies?  I always loved "DUNE" even though
  it wasn't all that faithful to the book simply because of how
  great the Fremen looked when they were riding to victory.  I
  realized that budget considerations might make this impossible
  but I've seen you guys do the impossible before.  Such as,
  having 20-30 aliens in the background of just about every big
  Zocalo scene etc...

2. Will we ever see the Shadows or the Vorlons deliberating like
  we do the Narn, EA personel, Centauri and Grey Council?  This
  is the best thing about B5: You get to see the other side make
  choices.  No arbitrary attacks by the Klingons etc...like on
  DS9.  I know that you've said that the Shadows aren't "evil"
  and the Vorlons aren't "good".  Are you ever going to demystify
  them so that we can relate to their decision-making process?

3. Is Ron ever going to be able to perfect a method for taking
  the gloss off of the CGI?  I love the effects so far and really
  like the way CGI lends itself well to the organic tech and to
  excellent realistic space choreography, but is there ever going
  to be a time when B5 doesn't have that glossy-panelled look?
  The explosions in the final four were SO MUCH better than the
  ones in "Midnight on the Firing Line" that I'm still somewhat
  surprised that you haven't been able to get a "dirtier" look
  for the CGI models.  Also, as a matter of opinion I think that
  the lens-flare effect is nice but overused.  On another CGI
  note: why is it that sometimes the compositing is near perfect
  (ie. the monorail on the garden set, not the axis monorail)
  and at other time it's obvious, like Kosh's ship with Sheridan
  and Ivanova standing in front of it?

   I suppose that this could be summed up in one question:
  Where do you see problems with the CGI and where do you think
  we'll see improvements first?

4. Will we ever get to see a 3-dimensional starmap (like a
  sphere say) like in the Foundation series?  I always thought
  that this would look great on a TV show... It would offer
  us the chance as viewers to get a better feel for the borders
  in 3-space.

5. Are we likely to see a lot of new tech on the series that has
  yet to be shown?  Can you give us any hints as to the nature
  of that technology?

6. How much has Ron's rendering power increased since the pilot
  movie?  Do you anticipate any further increase?

7. Is there anything that you WANT to do on the series from a
  production point of view but CAN'T.

  
 Thanks for listening.  Any response would be greatly appreciated.

-- 
*** Insanity is part of the times.  You must learn to embrace  ***
*** the madness and let it fire you.--Londo Mollari, Babylon-5 ***

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From: straczynski at genie.geis.com
Lines: 4

    Land armies, deliberating Shadows, probably not, for various reasons;
gloss off CGI, 3D starmaps, new tech and better rendering, yes.
 
                                                                     jms