ATTN JMS: The University of JMS NOW Babylonian Ranch

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: The University of JMS NOW Babylonian Ranch
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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+  1: Jul 13, 1996: jegolf at mcs.com (J.M.Egolf)
*  2: Jul 14, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: jegolf at mcs.com (J.M.Egolf)
Lines: 44

In article <4s7ehf$i8d at newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
Jms at B5 <jmsatb5 at aol.com> wrote:
> Any information we convey is anecdotal under the best of
>conditions, and may be of more interest as curiosities than as How Things
>Work, when taken alone; taken together, like blind men sizing up an
>elephant, a picture of the whole slowly emerges.
>
>I have heard that some of my stuff has ended up in term papers on the
>media, and theses, and that's good in its limited way, given the
>disclaimers above.  There's just so much bad mythology and misinformation
>about how things work that the more light that can get spread, the better.

This goes along with not only the question you answered above, but with 
Steve Orso's question about your becoming a producer after B5 is over 
(you declined), and somebody else's question about how scripts get 
trashed/rewritten to death by Hollyweird.

Any chance you, or Babylonian Productions, or Netter Digital, would get
involved in a top-down effort to change The System? Anything from an
annual convention/series of seminars/two-week summer camp that would be an
extention of the scriptwriting book, with similar sessions for would-be
directors, production people, etc., to a production/distribution company
dedicated to helping new film makers, writers, etc., get their stuff out
their without getting eaten alive in the process? 

I'm thinking along the lines of Redford's Sundance, only for "speculative 
fiction", or what Skywalker Range started out to be (IIRC). Something 
that would forever teach The Media that SF is more than "ray guns and 
space ships".

I'm not suggesting that *you* should run it -- just because someone sees 
that something needs to be done, doesn't mean they are the person to run 
it -- but certainly your participation as a teacher would go a long way 
towards getting such a thing off the ground.

Or is something like this already in place, and I just haven't done 
enough homework to find it?
-- 
*******************************
    J.M. ("Jamie") Egolf
   <*> jegolf at mcs.com <*>
"We find meaning where we can." 



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 40

"Any chance you, or Babylonian Productions, or Netter Digital, would get
involved in a top-down effort to change The System?:

You cannot change the Hollywood System.  You can survive it, or subvert
it, but you cannot change it.  

Eventually, the system self-corrects when the individual components of the
System -- writers, producers, actors, directors, the audience, others --
reach a kind of cultural or technological critical mass.  When talking
pictures came along, The System said "This is a passing fad, we shall
ignore it and all who advance this cause."  But when the audience got a
taste of it, and actors learned how to talk into plants (where huge
microphones were hidden) without looking goofy, and directors learned how
to stage for sound, and makeup stopped using heavy pancake, and singers
learned how to act and actors learned how to sing...the System had no
choice but to change.

I don't feel comfortable with the notion of setting up any kind of
Sundance situation, or really being any substantive part of it, to tell
folks How To Do It Without Being Crushed, because again, my background is
purely anecdotal and limited in perspective; the suggestion I give you,
which worked for me, might kill your career.

I'm more along the lines of the saying, "If you see the buddha on the
road, kill him."  Direct experience is the best teacher once you're past a
certain level of professional proficiency.

The only thing I've done in the past, and may do at some point in the
future, is teach newbies in the area of writing and breaking in, mainly
ways to avoid the big bear traps, potholes and snipers at the gate.  I
actually *enjoy* teaching, and it's one of the things I'd like to get back
into eventually, if I can find the right berth.




 jms



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