From a post on August 8th, 1992. Including news of the Minbari Ambassador casting….
It is now just a tick over T-minus one and counting. We’ll hit that as soon as the second hand clicks past midnight. Spent all day today at the soundstage, checking, trying not to get in the way, watching and giving suggestions when asked. (Funny sight…a newly painted set outside which someone had posted a sign, “Wipe Your Feet Before Entering! (Especially Aliens!)”) They’re doing lighting checks, finishing painting some of the
sets, setting up dolly tracks and doing camera checks for angles and lighting.Not really that much for me to do anymore; it has now reached terminal velocity, having gathered its own momentum over time, and there’s a certain point where you just have to stand back or impede the process. So I spent a little time with the wardrobe guys, making the logical progression of rank
insignia we’ll be using.(For those who know of “Captain Power,” Sven Thorson, who played Tank in that show, came by the stage to say hello and inquire about where the babes were, and to ask where the hell his part is…he’ll play an alien, a fern, whatever…as long as the part calls for a Danish accent.)
On Monday, we (in directorial terminology) “pull the trigger.” I won’t be at the studio Sunday…at that point I know I’m going to be just a little twitchy, and better to take that time to rest, knowing what’s ahead of us…lots of long days and longer nights.
What’s nice is that, where you normally get a still photographer for only a few days out of a shoot, at most half, we’re going to have one on set for every day of the shoot, to chronicle the whole thing for the archives. Warners, as with us, has come to the realization that this is going to be something different, and they want to record it.
The actors are gearing up, reading lines together, getting ready for the first scenes to be filmed (two meetings of the Babylon 5 Advisory Council, at which someone’s fate is decided, and a bunch of stuff in the central corridor set). They’re primed and ready to go.
The kind of lighting we’re using, by the way, has never before been used to this extent on any other television series. It’s going to look quite dramatic.
And then there’s Ambassador Delenn. He, as you know, is the Minbari ambassador assigned to B5. His makeup/prosthetics has taken the longest to work out, but now we’re happy with his look. And the performer who will play Ambassador Delenn is Mira Furlan, whose work is extremely well known in Europe. A native Yuglosavian who has appeared in such highly regarded films as “When Father Was Away On Business” (which received the Palme D’Or at Cannes, as well as an Oscar nomination), “Three For Happiness” (which took the Grand Prix at the Valencia Film Festival), “Dear Video,” “Southbound,” “The
Condemned,” “The Beauty of Sin,” and nearly a dozen others, ALL of them starring roles. There have also been starring roles in major European productions and half a dozen major film awards. BABYLON 5 will be Mira Furlan’s entry into American television.(pausing, waiting as the brain cells work….)
T-minus one and counting.
jms
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