[B5JMS] JMS: The time has come...

[b5jms at mail.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu]

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From: Jan <janmschroeder at aol.com>
Date: 12 Dec 2006 15:54:44 -0800
Lines: 31

..the Vorlon said, to speak of many things.

Of feature films, 

and TV shows, 

of comic books and things.

Of why your keyboard's boiling hot and whether Narns have wings. (with apologies
to Lewis Carroll)

Or in other words, how about the traditional year-end update on all things
Straczynski?  What can you tell us (and what can you hint) about the above and
any other short stories, radio dramas, plays, video games, songs, dances,
pilots, anthologies, DVDs, novels, scripts, animation, columns, interviews,
conventions etc., etc. that you might be involved in?

Oh, and how's post-production going on TLT?

Muchly thank you,

Jan


-- 
If we are to be who we are, and what we are; if we are to accomplish great
things, then we must learn the heart's most essential rule:
          "Never Surrender Dreams."
                          J. Michael Straczynski                                



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: 12 Dec 2006 22:35:28 -0800
Lines: 81


Jan wrote:
> ..the Vorlon said, to speak of many things.
>
> Of feature films,
>
> and TV shows,
>
> of comic books and things.
>
> Of why your keyboard's boiling hot and whether Narns have wings. (with apologies
> to Lewis Carroll)
>
> Or in other words, how about the traditional year-end update on all things
> Straczynski?  What can you tell us (and what can you hint) about the above and
> any other short stories, radio dramas, plays, video games, songs, dances,
> pilots, anthologies, DVDs, novels, scripts, animation, columns, interviews,
> conventions etc., etc. that you might be involved in?

The screenplay for the film I'm writing for Universal will be turned in
mid-January.  Akiva Goldsman is among the producers on this project, a
big budget historical movie based on the life of King David.

This week the outline for the film I'm writing for Paramount will be
turned in to the studio.  I'm still waiting for the PR department to
announce the project so I can't yet identify it.  I can say though that
it's for Brad Pitt's Plan B productions.

Coming down on the other side of finishing these scripts, I now have to
decide which of four projects currently in front of me I'll take to
write starting in January.  They range the gamut from another
historical movie, to an adaptation, a remake of a *very* famous SF
film, and a movie based on a British series for a major actor.  (And
no, it's not a British series that most genre people would know about,
a la Blake's 7 or the like.)

I had lunch with the President of Imagine Entertainment today, who let
me know that it is their intention to get Changeling in front of the
cameras by no later than late summer '07.  A major star has committed,
but I can't release that name yet.

I checked back to see when The Adventures of Apocalypse Al would be
airing on CBC, and it turns out they were waiting for any last minute
notes from me on the finished product before locking and scheduling.
My oops.

>
> Oh, and how's post-production going on TLT?
>

I turned in the director's/producer's cut last Friday, the studio
viewed it yesterday, loved what they saw, and now we've locked the cut.
 Friday I have a music spotting session with Chris Franke, and up
north, Atmosphere is churning out CGI as fast as they can.  (We're not
going for the shakey-cam look that BSG has made something of its house
style in order to not poach, out of courtesy.  Our production offices
at the Vancouver Film Studios were right next door to the BSG offices,
incidentally.  And just two stages down they were shooting the Fanastic
Four sequel.)

Fairly soon, probably starting late January, the director's blogs will
start showing up on the net.  I can't tell you how much I hate being in
front of the camera.

The script for my pilot, Borrowed Lives, went to the network last week,
and we should hear a yes or no fairly soon on whether we go into
production.

Because it's hard to get another show going when you'd be in second
position contractually, we're waiting to see if Borrowed Lives gets
picked up before going out to the networks with Rising Stars, which I'm
developing with Sam Raimi's company.

I'm three issues into Thor, four issues into the secret project I'm
writing for Marvel, Spider-Ham comes out shortly (couldn't love it
more), Bullet Points 2 comes out this week, and in general I'm keeping
busy.

jms



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From: "Shabaz" <shabaz.x at gmail.com>
Date: 12 Dec 2006 23:35:30 -0800
Lines: 115

jmsatb5 at aol.com wrote:

> Jan wrote:
> > ..the Vorlon said, to speak of many things.
> >
> > Of feature films,
> >
> > and TV shows,
> >
> > of comic books and things.
> >
> > Of why your keyboard's boiling hot and whether Narns have wings. (with apologies
> > to Lewis Carroll)
> >
> > Or in other words, how about the traditional year-end update on all things
> > Straczynski?  What can you tell us (and what can you hint) about the above and
> > any other short stories, radio dramas, plays, video games, songs, dances,
> > pilots, anthologies, DVDs, novels, scripts, animation, columns, interviews,
> > conventions etc., etc. that you might be involved in?
>
> The screenplay for the film I'm writing for Universal will be turned in
> mid-January.  Akiva Goldsman is among the producers on this project, a
> big budget historical movie based on the life of King David.
>
> This week the outline for the film I'm writing for Paramount will be
> turned in to the studio.  I'm still waiting for the PR department to
> announce the project so I can't yet identify it.  I can say though that
> it's for Brad Pitt's Plan B productions.
>
> Coming down on the other side of finishing these scripts, I now have to
> decide which of four projects currently in front of me I'll take to
> write starting in January.  They range the gamut from another
> historical movie, to an adaptation, a remake of a *very* famous SF
> film, and a movie based on a British series for a major actor.  (And
> no, it's not a British series that most genre people would know about,
> a la Blake's 7 or the like.)
>
> I had lunch with the President of Imagine Entertainment today, who let
> me know that it is their intention to get Changeling in front of the
> cameras by no later than late summer '07.  A major star has committed,
> but I can't release that name yet.
>
> I checked back to see when The Adventures of Apocalypse Al would be
> airing on CBC, and it turns out they were waiting for any last minute
> notes from me on the finished product before locking and scheduling.
> My oops.
>
> >
> > Oh, and how's post-production going on TLT?
> >
>
> I turned in the director's/producer's cut last Friday, the studio
> viewed it yesterday, loved what they saw, and now we've locked the cut.
>  Friday I have a music spotting session with Chris Franke, and up
> north, Atmosphere is churning out CGI as fast as they can.  (We're not
> going for the shakey-cam look that BSG has made something of its house
> style in order to not poach, out of courtesy.  Our production offices
> at the Vancouver Film Studios were right next door to the BSG offices,
> incidentally.  And just two stages down they were shooting the Fanastic
> Four sequel.)
>
> Fairly soon, probably starting late January, the director's blogs will
> start showing up on the net.  I can't tell you how much I hate being in
> front of the camera.
>
> The script for my pilot, Borrowed Lives, went to the network last week,
> and we should hear a yes or no fairly soon on whether we go into
> production.
>
> Because it's hard to get another show going when you'd be in second
> position contractually, we're waiting to see if Borrowed Lives gets
> picked up before going out to the networks with Rising Stars, which I'm
> developing with Sam Raimi's company.
>
> I'm three issues into Thor, four issues into the secret project I'm
> writing for Marvel, Spider-Ham comes out shortly (couldn't love it
> more), Bullet Points 2 comes out this week, and in general I'm keeping
> busy.
>
> jms

Since Atmosphere was mentioned; for those that aren't familiar, they're
a Vancouver based VFX company who, among other things, did a lot of
work on the new BSG, which they took over from the California based
ZOIC studios. Beyond that they also did work on some other well known
genre shows, like the Stargates, and Dead Like Me. You can find their
website at http://www.atmosphere-vfx.com/ and I urge you all to check
out their excellent demo reel there. Since it didn't load for me in the
website, here is a direct link to the 22mb quicktime video:
http://www.atmosphere-vfx.com/video/Demo_Hi.mov .There is some cool
stuff in there, so check it out. The reel also places a pretty heavy
emphasis on their space based shots for BSG, and some of the really
high quality green screen and non green screen compositing work they
did. Which to me makes them seem like a perfect fit for TLT's needs, a
space opera show, with a lot of virtual set work.

On a related note, if JMS is still reading this; since one of your
explicitly stated goals when asked why you took on directing was to get
the tone and design of the CGI right, and updating the look for the
modern world while keeping the feel the same, I was wondering if you'd
be willing elaborate on how much involvement you have with the CGI side
of things as a director/producer? It came up in a discussion with a
fellow fan this week, and it has gotten me curious too. Do you actually
direct the CGI camera, how much use of things like storyboarding and
previz is made, and in general how much stages of approval do these
things go through?

Also, these "director's blogs"; these would be video production
diaries, like they had on kongisking.net during King Kong production?
Those sound fun, and with JMS in them, I'm sure they will steal the
hearts of many internet denizens. <g>

-Shabaz



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: 13 Dec 2006 00:20:28 -0800
Lines: 36


Shabaz wrote:
> On a related note, if JMS is still reading this; since one of your
> explicitly stated goals when asked why you took on directing was to get
> the tone and design of the CGI right, and updating the look for the
> modern world while keeping the feel the same, I was wondering if you'd
> be willing elaborate on how much involvement you have with the CGI side
> of things as a director/producer? It came up in a discussion with a
> fellow fan this week, and it has gotten me curious too. Do you actually
> direct the CGI camera, how much use of things like storyboarding and
> previz is made, and in general how much stages of approval do these
> things go through?
>

First storyboards get done shot-by-shot, with me and the artist, then
those go to the efx house for reference.  Based on these they do
animatics, which we've discussed in advance as to the basic look and
feel I'm going for in the cgi, what kind of animation or action I do or
don't want.  I'll often describe the shot in more detail.  They do the
rough animatics, send them on for approval, and I may or may not have
notes.  Then they do the final render.  I've always been hands-on that
way.

> Also, these "director's blogs"; these would be video production
> diaries, like they had on kongisking.net during King Kong production?
> Those sound fun, and with JMS in them, I'm sure they will steal the
> hearts of many internet denizens. <g>
>

Yeah, my mug in front of the camera a la Jackson.  Like THAT'S gonna
sell copies.  People will be bringing these things back in droves, just
to appease the horrified children....

jms