ATTN: JMS - 200 page document

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: "Carl N. Hoff" <hoff at hfab1.sc.ti.com>
Date: 23 Nov 1999 15:06:00 -0700
Lines: 47

I'm in total agreement with Leslie.  I'm not so much interested in seeing what
could have been, its the whole creative process I'm interested in.  I see the
200-page Arc document as a key link in the process.  With out it I doubt that
the actual arc would have been as tight and as consistent as it was, even if it
was different.  I believe that something like this 200-page document is a
necessary piece of the puzzle if something is ever going to come along of this
quality again.

A couple questions I'd love to see answered in relation to the above.

JMS how often would you refer to this 200 page document yourself?  Did you
refer to it as much through out season 5 as you did the first season?  Did you
have a similar document for Crusades or was Crusades included in the
original document in some form?  Several weeks ago I remember you saying
something about the final fate of a few of the major characters.  Does this
document contain this sort of information?  If so then I do understand the
desire to not release it as some of the information in it you may still plan to
use down the road.  If that is not the case though I also urge you to reconsider.
I think the details of the adaptation of the "Grand Vision" is the success story
behind Babylon 5.  If the story hadn't adapted it wouldn't have survived.  And
I think there may be other "Grand Visions" other there that would greatly benefit
from the kind of insight this document could provide.

Thanks for you time,
Carl Hoff

Leslie Todd Masco wrote:

> In article <383AB77F.AAE53077 at cris.com>, Brian Watson  <kerr at cris.com> wrote:
> >He's answered this question many times.. I think it was something like because
> >'what it [B5] was is what it was'  Showing the original arc is pointless.  It
> >wasn't shot that way, so it will not be that way.
>
> I, for one, would love to see that position reconsidered.
>
> The purpose of this on-line dialogue, JMS has maintained, is to shed
> light on the creative process of making TeeVee.
>
> The topic that interests me most is how a Grand Vision adapts to and
> survives contact with reality.  Alas, those details seem to be off limits.
> --
> Todd Masco, CTO              | CCVS payment processing software for
> Hell's Kitchen Systems, Inc. |  Linux & Unix systems: www.hks.net





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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 23 Nov 1999 18:07:18 -0700
Lines: 78

First, you have to understand that there is no requirement that I release
*everything* that has ever been done for the show, and that I do have some
rights to privacy, and to keep some things for myself.

Second, the original document was such that is was random notes bunched
together by time and character, sometimes cross-referenced, sometimes not. 
It's like an outline to oneself that is never supposed to make sense to someone
else because it was never *written* for someone else.  They are my private
notes, to myself.

Where does anyone here have a problem with the concept of private notes?

Further still...the material contains bunches of quick premises for possible
stories or episodes, some used, some not, and if I let them out then those
not-used stories can never be used, and may end up elsewhere.

Lots of people seem to have this idea that the final result was widely
divergent from the original arc, hence this interest, and that proceeds from a
false premise.  It really didn't change that much.  Anyone looking at the S1
bible right now sees stuff that was laid out for the later seasons, and it was
pretty much all done...right down to telling writers not to get Lyta into a
relationship because she would eventually become starstruck by Byron, and I
didn't want anything else to get in the way of that.

So it really *isn't* that different.  What the original material *is* is
scattergun, written in quick fragments or sudden thoughts dashed down in the
middle of the night or while working on something...it's in no condition to
release to anyone.  I'd have to go through the material, reorganize it in a way
that would be all-chronological or all character, take out the stuff that I
would want to hold onto for future use...and then it wouldn't *be* the original
document anymore.

Whereas the overall approach was there from the git-go, the details were always
a work in progress, refining the ideas further and further during the five
years it took to sell the darned thing.  Imagine five years of random notes as
the story coalesced, and you've got a pretty solid idea of the mess it looks
like.

>JMS how often would you refer to this 200 page document yourself?  Did you
>refer to it as much through out season 5 as you did the first season?  

Yeah, I referred to it constantly.  Early on, to expedite things, since it is
such a clutter, I broke out each season at the very start of S1, putting each
episode on a card in a black binder, which had two-sided sheets that held 10
cards per side.

I did this for all five seasons before we ever shot a frame of film on S1.

That binder sat on the first shelf on the left in my office for five years. 
People would come in and ask where the material was, and I'd explain that the
original material was in the triple-encrypted file...and they never knew that
the distillation of that material was sitting right behind them, close enough
to reach over and pull down off the shelf.

>Did you
>have a similar document for Crusades or was Crusades included in the
>original document in some form

Not as lengthy, no.

>Several weeks ago I remember you saying
>something about the final fate of a few of the major characters.  Does this
>document contain this sort of information?  If so then I do understand the
>desire to not release it

There's a lot of that in it as well, on the theory that even if I never used
it, *I* would have to know what it was, in terms of the history of the B5
universe and where it and the characters were all going.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




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