JMS on CompuServe (Jan 29, 1999) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS* (5/5)
bbarrett at johndelenn.com
bbarrett at johndelenn.com
Sat Jan 30 01:08:54 EST 1999
[ Continued from previous section -- BB ]
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #56081-#A Call To Arms
Sb: #56141-#A Call To Arms
Sb: #56341-A Call To Arms
Sb: #56198-#A Call To Arms
Sb: #56247-#A Call To Arms
Sb: #56180-#A Call To Arms
Sb: #56055-ACTA -- Even Chen
Sb: #56344-<ACTA>
Sb: #56064-ACTA Awesome
Sb: #56073-#That was great!
Sb: #56318-#That was great!
Sb: #56164-#Review - Hurrah
Sb: #56456-#Review - Hurrah
Sb: #56208-ACTA, Fantastic
Sb: #56349-#That Music Hubub
Sb: #56916-#Getting hairy...
[ Summary: (See below.) ]
#: 56127 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 13:36:13
Sb: #56081-#A Call To Arms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Actually, Chris Franke is sufficiently impressed with Chen -- who has
never scored a TV show before, this is his first shot and he shows much
potential, we're very happy -- that he's going to release Chen's score to ACtA
and later episodes via his own label.
jms
[ Summary: (See below.) ]
#: 56219 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 23:06:14
Sb: #56141-#A Call To Arms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"Is Franke gone then with the end of B5 and is Chen the Man behind Crusade's
music? Or is Call an interim step music?"
Yes and no. If there are any other B5 TV movies, or features, we'll
almost certainly use Chris. For Crusade, it's Evan.
jms
[ Summary: Is A Call To Arms a Crusade TV Movie then? ]
#: 56377 S10/A Call to Arms
05-Jan-99 21:56:04
Sb: #56341-A Call To Arms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It was produced contractually as a B5 movie under the order TNT gave for
4 such movies.
jms
[ Summary: (See below.) ]
#: 56220 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 23:06:14
Sb: #56198-#A Call To Arms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"Submitted for your consideration: sometimes the music and sound effects
became confused - was that a weapons discharge/hit, or a techno-percussion
note? Were the repeated clashing/crunching sounds at the end of the battle
mood conveying music, or the sound of the Drahk hatches opening to spew out
the bio-weapon? I also thought that the music was occasionally mixed too
loudly."
The first part of that is a common problem in an action show; most of
the really interesting music happens at the bottom, using the lower
frequencies. But the lower frequencies are also where you'll usually find
explosions, clashing, crunching, banging and the like...so sometimes the two
get muddy. You clear out one or the other as much as you can, but sometimes
it overlaps and you get fuzziness in the track.
As for mixing it loudly...yeah, I've generally done that on B5. I like
my music loud.
jms
#: 56180 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 17:50:07
Sb: #56054-#A Call To Arms
Fm: MARTIN ROTH
Joe, while you're here and on the subject... <g>
One think I noticed when I did my comparison of the two versions of "The
Gathering" was that the new Franke score was a lot more extensive than
Copeland's original -- music was added to the background of a number of scenes
that previously didn't have any.
While watching ACTA a second time through, I got the impression that as with
the original pilot there was a lot less music than I had come to expect from a
Franke-scored episode. Was this deliberate, or was it just an outgrowth of
Chen's different style? Or was it just my imagination?
(Thanks as always...)
-- Marty http://idt.net/~mroth1/
PPG Director of Information, Forum Resident Know-It-All
"It's not a retreat. It's an advance in an alternate direction."
#: 56218 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 23:06:14
Sb: #56180-#A Call To Arms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I spot the music on everything, from movies to the episodes. That means
sitting with the composer and saying "music in at 1:07:13 (one minute, seven
seconds, 13 frames), out at 2:23:18." When we did the pilot, I wasn't sure
how much music it did or didn't need, never having done this before, so I went
drier than I should have.
In the case of CtA, I knew we were going to have some wall-to-wall music
later, so I held back a bit earlier on, otherwise you do way too much to fit
in, and you over-burden the composer. River was also spare at the top.
jms
** REMOVE **
[ Summary: A biologist believes that there are three problems with
the virus as described in A Call to Arms:
1. "To evolve, a virus has to be reproducing. So either this
version can infect humans without killing them, or it can infect
something else while it evolves into a human-killing variant."
2. "Natural evolution is essentially random; to get to a specific
point in a specific amount of time, the virus's evolution would
have to be guided. Guided by whom? And how?"
3. "It won't hit everybody the same way. One variant might hit a
few within two years, another variant will take out some more
within three years, still another will hit a bit later, and so
on, until the high probability is that by five years down the
road, there will be enough lethal forms around that everyone will
be vulnerable to at least one of them. This is hinted at in the
tag, but the logical extension of it isn't. The extension
is that even if they do find a cure within five years, an awful
lot of people are still going to die -- those that were affected
more rapidly. The only alternative is the 'ticking time bomb'
approach that's so heavily abused by *bad* SF like Star Trek:
everybody's A-OK right up to the zero minute, then they all keel
over in perfect unison." ]
#: 56391 S10/A Call to Arms
06-Jan-99 00:02:01
Sb: #56344-<ACTA>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
We have covered all three of the virus concerns in the way we built this
particular virus, thanks to help from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which
consulted with us on its design. Trust me, it's solid, and totally
thought-through.
jms
#: 56064 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 00:21:08
Sb: #ACTA Awesome
Fm: NICK AND TONI MULLER
Just wanted to say I just watched ACTA and it was awesome - the best B5 movie
yet and right up there with the best episodes. Eveything came together so
perfectly - plot, effects, new music, acting, etc. I loved the actor chosen
for Galen, as well as the lady thief and Anderson. And our old friends
Boxleitner and Doyle et al were in top form. Great casting. (Did notice you
even had a cute kid this time!)
My husband didn't watch with me (has insomnia and TV too late keeps him up),
but heard me exclaiming from the living room and now can't wait to see the
tape. Gee, maybe I can bribe him with it. A year's worth of his doing the
dishes maybe?
Do take some time for yourself!
Toni Muller
#: 56126 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 13:36:13
Sb: #56064-ACTA Awesome
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I'm glad it went over well...it's a fun movie.
jms
#: 56073 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 06:26:03
Sb: #That was great!
Fm: BRIAN MAKUCH
This was a great movie. The storyline was tight and fast. The old characters
all behaved like we'd expect and the new characters were quite interesting as
well. I think this and "In the Beginning" are my two favorite B5 movies thus
far.
As for Chen's score I really liked the music and if Crusade is anything like I
am imagining it will fit in perfectly with alien landscapes and exporitory
themes. For this action driven movie I don't think Chen's subtlety was as good
a fit as Franke's more dramatic scoring.
The special effects also keep getting better and better. I really liked the
new ship, and the new jump-point sequences were simply amazing. I loved seeing
the new angle as it made me understand a little better how the jump-points (in
theory) interact with normal space. I do agree with those who say that the end
battle was a bit confusing; but it was still fun to watch. The script seemed
to give some perfect opportunities that the FX people could have used give
some definition to the battle. For instance, when Sheridan asks the fleet to
form a flying wedge to get the Excaliber and Freedom to the target, there was
a perfect opportunity to focus on that part of the battle. I would loved to
have seen the Hermes and others form-up and fly into the mass of Drahk ships,
with some being blown apart and falling away, but still clearing the way...
Other non-CGI effects I would have have liked to have seen was some weather on
Daltron 7's. A massive dust storm raging on the surface would have been really
neat [though I don't know what weather would be present on the surface of a
planet that has been destroyed like it was!!]
Those minor criticisms aside (and quite unimportant in the scheme of
things)... what a great show. When it was over, it seemed as if it had lasted
only a half-hour. I ended up watching it again!
-Brian
P.S. What the heck is up with TNT? Did they do any promotion for this movie
aside from the ads during B5 the past week. My brother, who has watched B5
religiously since day one, didn't even know the movie was going to be shown
until Friday. If they are going to show this again in march/may/june (whenever
the heck Crusade is going to start), I can see why they didn't promote it as
heavily as they do for the rest of their original movies [thank
god/allah/buddah/krishna/DNA that the damn Houdini bio-pic has gone away...].
Maybe in this interim, someone at TNT will realize that they aren't yet as big
as they think they are, and that they need to build a network one day of the
week at a time. Maybe then they'll realize that the strongest timeslot they
have is Sunday at 10pm (following their movies) and put Crusade there and then
again Tuesday at 10pm. They can always start the rerun of a movie at 11pm.
Probably they'll go the other way and decide that the Christmas Story approach
works, and show everything for 24hrs at at a time. And since I'm bitching
about TNT, I just have to say that ER is not the best show ever. It is very
well written, very well acted and I do watch it on Thursdays. But in the end,
it is quite simply...forgettable.
#: 56287 S10/A Call to Arms
05-Jan-99 14:11:06
Sb: #56073-#That was great!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I am in total darkness when it comes to understanding TNT's philosophy
of promotion. They did little for this, I guess because it was the last of B5
in someone's view, promoted the hell out of the Houdini flick, which cost
about 3 times more than we did...and we ended up getting exactly the same
ratings. With a little real promotion, we could've done even better.
jms
#: 56318 S10/A Call to Arms
05-Jan-99 16:24:08
Sb: #56287-#That was great!
Fm: CARL CANTARELLA
Joe,
If you don't mind my asking --and I'm glad to hear that the movie performed
well-- but just what were the numbers?
I'm still a little confused as to just what Basic Cable considers to
be "Good" numbers. Something tells me just about anything over a 2 qualifies,
but that's just a guess on my part.
Thanks.
#: 56378 S10/A Call to Arms
05-Jan-99 21:56:04
Sb: #56318-#That was great!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It did 2.8, which was a higher number than they were expecting (they'd
sold the ads at 2.7, which means they made money off it), and equal to the
Houdini movie.
jms
#: 56208 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 22:00:01
Sb: #ACTA, Fantastic
Fm: MICHAEL R. MARKS
In reading through all these "critics" responses I can understand why you
pulled back from the forum. Nit-pick, Nit-pick, Nit-pick. GEEZ people, 5 years
ago there was a great void known as TV. J. Michael Straczynski comes along and
gives us B5. It was, is and will be better than most anything else in the
genre that will be on TV for probably quite awhile. If you want to Nit-pick
something, watch Voyeur. It is my weekly comedy pick (flame away, I'll ignore
them).
Joe, sit back. Have a drink of your choice and know (this sounds inane, but)
"You 'da man".
PS. Crusade starts in J.... March, right?
#: 56221 S10/A Call to Arms
04-Jan-99 23:06:14
Sb: #56208-ACTA, Fantastic
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I haven't heard firmly on that yet.
jms
[ Summary: "So Joe, what's your take on the reaction to the music?" ]
#: 56379 S10/A Call to Arms
05-Jan-99 21:56:05
Sb: #56349-#That Music Hubub
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I like the music. I like the edginess of it. I wouldn't do that
particular style on a regular basis, because I think it would wear thin after
a while, but for this movie it was right. He's doing more thematic stuff for
the series, but keeping the approach of using a variety of styles, including
Chinese scales and stuff, which makes the episodes sound nifty and exotic.
So yeah, I like it...but I also like the kind of edgy, growly stuff Ry
Cooder did for LAST MAN STANDING, so go figure.
jms
#: 56916 S20/Beyond The Rim
09-Jan-99 11:21:01
Sb: #56771-#Getting hairy...
Fm: REBECCA COSTELLO
>>Same thing - major life change. My hair was long at Wolf - and not long
after I got back, I started shortening.<<
Hmmm...the last *really* significant shortening I did was from waist-length to
shoulder-length, right before I went into sixth grade, which was a pretty big
change. But that must have been subconscious, as I didn't want to cut it that
short, but had to (I was very bad at taking care of it and it had gotten so
tangled there was really nothing for it but to cut it to a manageable length.)
>>CHANGES includes dying or perming, not just cutting, too! <g><<
The thought of my hair permed gives me the willies--it's curly and
uncontrollable enough already! <G> So dyeing and cutting are my only resorts
in dealing with change. I'll probably cut most of it and dye the rest blue
after I graduate!
Rebecca
#: 57001 S20/Beyond The Rim
09-Jan-99 23:08:00
Sb: #56916-#Getting hairy...
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
BTW, regarding Wolf, which you mention...I've now heard that a number of
our cast members got stiffed for all or part of their fees for the Vorcon
convention...Michael O'Hare, Peter Jurasik, Pat, Mira, others.
jms
[END]
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