PRESS RELEASE: "Pioneering a New Frontier"

[b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu]

Forwarded message to B5JMS list.
Originally From: danwood at pobox.com (Dan Wood)

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[

    Moderator's Note: This was forwarded from the folks in the B5
    publicity department, who have come up with a wonderful set
    of press releases that showcase the phenomonon of B5.
    Hallelujah!

    Permission has been granted to redistribute these documents.
    After all, they are press releases; that's their purpose.
    So forward this to other appropriate online systems.

    These should be available archived at ftp.hyperion.com soon.

    Oh yeah -- none of these PRs contain any spoilers.

]

                    PIONEERING A NEW FRONTIER
                    IN TELEVISION PRODUCTION:


                    The Making of "Babylon 5"


     In 1986, a 32-year-old by the name of J. Michael Straczynski had a
unique vision:  a saga for television that would take five years to tell,
and would feature state of the art effects as well as a huge cast of
characters who would change and grow as empires rose and fell around them.


     His prospects of getting it mounted were daunting, for a myriad of
reasons...


     A 5-year epic with a beginning, middle, and end in which each episode
would be like a chapter in a book, and each season another volume in a
continuing story?  It had never been done on American television, except as
a short-term mini-series.  Only the British had ever attempted it, with "The
Prisoner" (which lasted a mere 18 episodes) and to a lesser extent with
"Blake's 7" and "The Who."


     Stunning visual effects combined with live action as realistic as
anything seen in motion pictures -- but produced on a limited television
budget?  No one had ever tried it, much less without traditional motion
control cameras, intricate models, and a mega-budget to underwrite the
thousands of hours necessary to create sequences that lasted only a few
minutes on the screen.


     Another science fiction series?  The statistics were ruthless: only a
handful of sci-fi series had lasted three seasons or more during the last
four decades; 98% of all sci-fi series have been canceled before the third
season; of the one or two new sci-fi shows typically launched each year, few
survive beyond a few months.  Even the original "Star Trek," which debuted
in 1966, finally succumbed to a lack of ratings by 1969, after enduring a
barrage of critical attack as a poor imitation of "Lost In Space."


     Amazingly, Straczynski finally succeeded -- although it would take an
epic effort before his show called Babylon 5 would finally reach the small
screen as a two- hour TV movie in February 1993, and a year later before his
5-year saga began unfolding in the form of a weekly series.


                      How the Odyssey Began


     Rarely has a television series been conceived with as much dedication
to forging new frontiers within the medium.


     "The fact is that I grew up a fan of science fiction -- particularly of
the sagas: Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, the Dune books, the Lensman books,
Childhood's End and Stranger in a Strange Land," says Straczynski.


     "So I wanted to do for television what I grew up reading in those great
sagas. And the reality is that no one in American television had ever tried
to do a real honest-to-God saga for television -- with a beginning, middle,
and end over a period of, say, five years:  where the first year is equal to
the introduction you get in a novel; the second year is the rising action;
the third year is the complication, and so on, with foreshadows and back
references and character changes.


     "Although the British had done it with 'The Prisoner,' and to a lesser
extent with 'Blake's 7' and 'Dr. Who,' no one in this country had ever
applied a strict, literary novel technique to television."


     But Straczynski had other concerns as well, resulting from the several
years he had already spent working in television as a staff writer and story
editor on a number of animated and live action series.


     "My perception was that as much as one-third of any TV series budget is
wasted on poor planning and short script deadlines.  Typically, a script is
delivered only days before it's going to be shot, and often just 24 hours in
advance.  There's even been cases where pages are landing on the set as the
cameras are rolling.  As a result, the crew is working all night making sets
and costumes, and getting paid time and a half.  Add to that the cost of
complex special effects, prosthetics, elaborate sets and alien costumes, and
science fiction shows quickly become the worst offenders.


     "So I thought, there's got to be a better, smarter way of doing this --
of changing the fundamental way television is produced, and how would I do
that?" Straczynski says.


     That's when he began thinking about what it would take "to design a
show along more logical lines for science fiction, since the major source of
expense is creating new worlds every week.  I thought about the sorts of
shows I like in tone...'Hill Street Blues,' 'St. Elsewhere,' even "M*A*S*H,'
and in each case, there was a stationary locale and your stories come to
you.  In other words, where people in trouble come to you."


     From there, he recalled what he had read about post-World War II
Germany, "where American, French and British forces (and, I think, some
Russian) patroled equally to make sure that no one side got the upper hand,"
as well as "the early free- ports of the 19th century, which were noted for
some pretty rough characters, for adventure, for intrigue and smuggling.


     "Put those various elements together...and you've got Babylon 5," he
explains of his decision to anchor his story on a futuristic United
Nations-like space station in which some quarter-million humans and aliens
of diverse cultures and competing ambitions attempt to negotiate their
differences in neutral territory from episode to episode.


     Finally, there was the ultimate challenge that any series bearing his
name would have to meet -- simply because Straczynski is by nature both a
literary disciple and a bottom-line pragmatist at heart.


     "I'd seen so many science fiction shows by then that backed into a
budget, and thus went forever over budget, that I wanted to challenge myself
to develop a show that met several important criteria," he says.


     "1) It would have to be good science fiction.  2) It would have to be
good television, and rarely are science-fiction shows both good sci-fi and
good TV; they're generally one or the other.  3) It would have to take an
adult approach to science fiction, and attempt to do for television sci-fi
what 'Hill Street Blues' did for cop shows. 4) It would have to be
affordable and done on a reasonable budget.  5) It would have to look unlike
anything ever seen before on TV, and present not just individual stories,
but present those stories against a much broader canvas."


     It was a big agenda, but the idea finally struck.  "One day, literally,
I was noodling around with this, and the entire story line just came in a
flash.  I saw the whole five year story in just one incredible revelation,"
he says of that moment in 1986.  "Then I spent the next two years trying to
write down what I saw in that one moment of perfect clarity."


                      Getting Babylon 5 Made


     After writing the series bible (that includes the 5-year story arc
which only Straczynski is privy to) and a two-hour screenplay, he presented
the idea to Douglas Netter and John Copeland.  The former head of the MGM
studios, Netter had been the executive producer and Copeland the producer of
"Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future," the syndicated science
fiction series for which Straczynski served as story editor (as well as
writer on 11 episodes) in 1986-87.


     "Joe came to John and I right after we finished 'Captain Power' and
said, 'I've got an idea for a science fiction show that can be contained,
that we can do for a price, that has the potential to be greater than
science fiction shows have been,'" Netter says.  "But it took us six years
from that point to get the pilot made."


     The problem was, Netter recalls, that "the networks had had science
fiction pitched to them before, along with the caveat, 'We can do this for a
reasonable price.' Of course, that was one of the great lies in Hollywood.
And even though John and I had an excellent reputation for bringing shows in
under budget and on time, as soon as they heard about big effects, red flags
would go up in their minds.  They were afraid that any attempt to do a
science fiction show on a tight budget might result in inferior production
values."


     And like everyone else, Warner Bros. didn't see how a high-quality show
could be done on a cut-rate budget.  "They said, 'Well, if you are going to
do it for that, this stuff will look terrible.'  And we said, 'No, it
won't," Netter remembers.  To prove their point, Straczynski, Netter, and
Copeland had Ron Thornton -- who had worked with them on "Captain Power" and
subsequently pioneered the use of CGI effects on an Amiga computer --
produce a startling 50-second sequence featuring a computer-generated space
ship being tracked from far in the distance to its arrival at the space
station's docking bay, all in one shot.


     When they showed it to a group of Warner Bros. Executives and TV
station heads who were part of PTEN, the reaction was everything they had
hoped for: "When it was over, they said, 'We've got to see that again!'"
Netter recalls.  "And then when we said, 'We did it on a desktop computer,'
they were just like flabbergasted."


     As a result, they finally got their production deal, and Babylon 5
debuted as a two-hour pilot movie during the week of February 22, 1993, to
an impressive 10.3 GAA national rating.  Just the month before, Paramount
(one of the many studios they had pitched years before) also launched "Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine," another story anchored on a stationary space
station.  Of the much-noted coincidence, Netter says, "We were in
development long before 'Deep Space Nine.'"


     Particularly impressive is the fact that Babylon 5 is produced "with
syndication dollars," Copeland stresses.  "This show is not done at a
deficit.  It pays for itself strictly out of the advertising dollars
generated every year.  And I don't know anybody else out there who's doing
this exciting of stuff with the same economic realities we're dealing with.
We're spending half of what an episode of 'Star Trek' costs, and one-third
of an episode of 'Space: Above and Beyond.'"


     "We're doing what no one else is doing in town," adds Straczynski,
"which is taking full advantage of the latest technology.  We have almost a
completely-digitalized studio, which no one else has at this point.


     "In addition, we plan things out way ahead of time.  Before we roll one
frame of film, we know what stories we're going to be doing that year, what
sets we're going to have to construct, what effects we're going to need, and
we always have a minimum of three scripts in hand.  So this gives all the
different parties concerned enough time to sit down and design things and
build things properly, without having to rush.  As a result, we're not
paying 24 hours of overtime to get things done in time. It comes down
basically to planning, which no one else does in this town."


            Babylon 5's Revolutionary Special Effects


     In 1964, "Star Trek" presented what were then fantastic new images of
planets and space vessels unlike anything seen before.  In 1977, "Star Wars"
used what was then state-of-the-art technology to create amazing space
battle scenes -- involving motion control cameras, intricate models, and
untold months of shooting time to complete sequences that would last mere
minutes.  In 1994, Babylon 5 pioneered the newest breakthrough in special
visual effects as the first science fiction show to produce astonishing
outer space scenes without models or cameras.


     Certainly, computer technology for producing effects is no longer the
novelty that it once was.  Hardly a motion picture is made today in which at
least one scene isn't enhanced electronically.  The difference between
Babylon 5 and other effects-laden TV shows and movies is that "we were the
first to do everything with desktop computers," says Copeland of the show's
Emmy Award-winning special visual effects.


     "We don't use expensive Silicon Graphics machines.  We don't use
high-end software.  Initially all the 3-D computer animation was done on
Amigas using the Video Toaster.  Today, however, all the 3-D computer
animation is done on PC clones and DEC Alpha platforms running on a readily
available piece of software called LightWave 3-D.  LightWave was originally
part of the Video Toaster, but has been ported out as a software program
available for many different computer platforms.


     "The matte paintings are done in a combination of Photo Shop and
Electric Image.  We do all our compositing in Macintoshes.  We edit on
Avids.  We even assemble the show in a computer; we don't do it in a regular
video online bay anymore," Copeland continues.  "And everything we use is
available down at your friendly local computer store.  We just push it a
little harder."


     Besides Thornton's breakthrough experiments with an Amiga in
combination with New Tek's Video Toaster in the early 1990s, Copeland had
already been working with computer-generated effects for "Captain Power" in
1986.  "A year before they started shooting 'Roger Rabbit,' two of the
creatures in our series were completely done with 3-D computer animation and
composited into live action scenes with the actors.  Nobody had done that
and we did it for 22 episodes.  Of course, we're talking mere minutes
compared to what we do now on Babylon 5, because we were using a whole
different type of computer then."


     Not only is the production able to produce effects faster -- typically
in just two weeks -- through the use of computers, but the end product,
Copeland believes, is more realistic than traditional models.  "We can
actually go from a 150 kilometers away right up to something and look at the
bulkheads on it.  You can't do that with a model, because there isn't a
stage big enough that would allow you to make such a shot in a single move."


     It's also notable that Babylon 5 features more visual effects footage
per episode than any other series -- both past and present -- with a
cumulative 90 minutes during the first season, 120 minutes in the second,
"and a little bit better than that this year," according to Copeland.


                    Babylon 5's Virtual Studio


     As well, Babylon 5 has pioneered a concept called The Virtual Studio,
in which key members of the production team are located around the globe and
linked up via the Internet or other means.


     The show's world-class original music score is created for each episode
by LA-based composer Christopher Franke (formerly of Tangerine Dream), who
conducts his Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra, located halfway around the
world in Germany, in real time despite the 15-hour time difference.  Making
it possible are four fiber optic cables that connect the two studios, as
well as video cameras and large-screen television screens on both ends.


     Producers Strazynski and Copeland are able to monitor the progress of
new special effects in development simply by dialing up Ron Thornton's
Foundation Imaging studio over a modem.  "We can check key frames and
animation sequences -- or if they're designing a new ship that they want us
to look at, we can pull up a frame of that and make comments about it before
they go through the time intensive, expensive process of rendering a shot,"
Copeland recounts.  As a result, Thornton and his crew rarely have to visit
the set.


     Emmy Award-winning matte artist Eric Chauvin resides and works in
Washington state, yet is able to render all of Babylon 5's necessary matte
paintings long-distance with only an occasional trip South.  "We send him
the film frames on 8mm digital tape.  He then imports them into his
Macintosh, does his painting using a program called Photoshop, and Fed Ex's
the frames back to us on digital tape," Copeland says.  Hopefully, the day
will soon come when it is not necessary to courier raw materials between
locations.  In the meantime, Copeland explains, the Internet "is really a
cowpath as far as transmission of real data" and only useful for conveying
sketches and information.


     Also through the miracle of modems, Straczynski is able to commission
freelance scripts -- 17 to date (all during the show's first two seasons),
with more to come next year -- from the best science fiction writers in the
world, regardless of their location.  Historically, television writers
either had to live in Los Angeles, or days would be lost waiting for scripts
to arrive by express mail.


                       The Babylon 5 Model


     Altogether, the production's innovative approach to achieving feature
film-quality production values on a fat-free budget has been dubbed The
Babylon 5 Model within the industry.


     Curious producers and studio executives are frequently given tours of
the entire operation, including the production's state-of-the-art facility
in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.  A former manufacturing plant for
swimming pool and hot tub pumps, the 70,000 square foot building was
purchased by Babylonian Productions and converted into three sound stages
and production offices in just nine weeks -- and ready for shooting on day
one of week ten.


      "What I've tried to do over the years is to verse myself in the
technological tools that will provide us a better opportunity to
successfully do our job for less money and save us as much time as we
possibly can," explains Copeland -- who also serves as the Executive Vice
President of Netter Digital Entertainment, Inc., and the supervising
producer of their new science fiction children's series, "Hypernauts," which
they are producing in association with creator Ron Thornton's Foundation
Imaging, Inc., and Greengrass Productions, Inc., for ABC's Saturday morning
line-up.


     "To that end, we have an ADR booth here at the stage.  So if we have to
replace dialogue, if we have to loop any lines, we can get actors in between
scenes. We don't have to schedule them on their day off and send them to a
different place to record this stuff.  We can also identify bad dialogue on
the part of a guest actor and loop it before they get off the clock and we
have to bring them back and pay them."


     But technology aside, Copeland believes that they couldn't do what they
do every week without the ingenuity and resourcefulness of their production
team.


     "We try to give people enough creative freedom to be able to take
things in their own directions and refine them.  Because if we're telling
everybody exactly what to do, we've hire the wrong people for the job.  Or
we shouldn't be here, because we're inhibiting the creative process.


     "Also, we try to make everybody feel like they have a vested interest
in the show.  We solicit contributions from everybody.  Just because you're
a grip doesn't mean you don't have a good idea about something.  So we try
to share the creative process with everyone involved.  And it's been
returned to us ten-fold.  We've held onto probably 85% of our crew over
three years, which is very unusual."


                              * * *

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