Commentary for Counterstrike
Aug. 26th, 2007 06:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenayaCounterstrike by Joe Mallozzi and Andy Mikita
JM says this is the second ep of the Vala eps he wrote over the holidays. When he outlined the story with the A, B, C and D storylines, he made the rest of the writers nervous—complex. He thought the Ori ships look like toilet seats. He got the box set of Firefly and lent it to many of the other production staff and now there are many fans of the show at Bridge. Carter’s hat drives JM nuts; he hates hats. All of them had hats but they only kept Carter’s hat.
JM finds the D/V relationship interesting. It’s at the stage of the voyage of discovery on this scene. When he first wrote this, he thought Vala would be upset that Adria was thought to be killed but Rob argued she would be relieved. JM wanted to make that connection between Vala’s loss of Adria with Daniel’s loss of Sha’re.
Praise for Tony Amendola. JM finds the Jaffa politics taxing to write and watch. All the aliens seem to have a High Council.
The Ori ship is three hallways that connect and it seems larger than it is. Praise for CB and MS. AM says the rehearsal of this scene took hardly any time at all because they found the rhythm of it immediately. They get along well. JM: “Also, I find just Daniel as a character but also Shanks as an actor very likable, very disarming, very sincere comes through in Daniel.” AM likes the team split into two because it’s easier to film. He likes scenes with two or less people. They mention everybody was together in The Quest Part 1 and how hard it was to find something for everyone to do. It’s a challenge for the actors to know ‘what am I doing?’ Chris and Ben get along very well and have a lot of fun.
This ep was short and so the Landry and Walter scene was added on. Stuff on Gary Jones, he’s a comedian and has a blog on Gateworld. JM talks about ComicCon and Jones MCing it and asking what turned out to be awkward questions about the writing staff.
JM admits they killed off too many Jaffa. They get good actors as Jaffa but kill them off. A pet peeve is the subcutaneous transmitters as it makes it too easy to rescue them (both here and in SGA.)
Mentions PDL like to have lots of braziers on the Goa’uld ships, but they fit better with the Ori. The Jaffa shoulder armor was redesigned this year to prevent ‘turtling’ where it rides up.
Young Adria and Adria here has reds eyes but when they filmed in the filthy air set of the cave, it really irritated the actress’ eyes so they took out the contacts and had Mitchell mention her eyes had changed.
They don’t know if real C4 is labeled as such, but they decided to clearly label it for the audience’s benefit.
Originally, JM pitched a story for S10 where Adria kidnaps Daniel and tortures him to get at his Ascended memories that he can’t remember. “Because of the deal Michael Shanks had” we ended up coming up with this idea of him becoming Priorized. It was the battle to get him back, to double cross him, and eventually turn him. It was originally 6 eps, and was cut to 4, then to a couple, then down to The Shroud. Those two had an interesting dynamic as well, Adria and Daniel. She got along with him right away and with everyone; she’s a great gal.
When casting Sheppard they thought about Ben Browder but also Nathan Fillion who is from Manitoba.
Major Marks…is he a pilot or a weapons officer? Seems to vary and there was a disagreement with AM about which chair was for navigation and which is for weapons. The actor is happy Marks turned into a reoccurring role.
The camera never stopped moving in Farscape. The handheld camera in Firefly, that technique worked well in Battlestar. All the shows have different styles.
They say it is better for visitors to come to the set when they aren’t shooting so you can linger over the sets and take photos, where when they are shooting, there are 75 people in a small area and people can get hurt, like when Michael took a rope to his eye in a freak accident.
Previously there were writers who spent a lot of time down on the set talking to the actors so when JM and PM arrived, they were encouraged to stay in their offices and write and they averaged 7 scripts a season. By S7, JM finally started to come to the set but he didn’t know anyone and thought it was too late to say, “Hi, I’m JM and I’ve worked here for 4 years. Who are you?” Martin Gero always made a point to go to the set and met everybody.
During the Quest, the forest planet, worst day of AM’s life and JM and Cooper came down. He said, “Great to see you guys. The door is that way.” JM really like The Quest though save for the front shot of the dragon. The legs are too spindly. AM was shocked when he saw the dragon, too.
They use the same ancient device whenever they need an ancient device—they call it the whackamole.
JM really enjoyed writing for S10 because the scripts were so different. This one was very action driven, the Quest fantasy oriented, Memento Mori humorous earth based., Morpheous dreamy, Family Ties fun ep with a terrific guest star, Fred Willard. The final scene he wrote he thought it would never make the final cut but they were cancelled by that time and people weren’t paying attention so it made it.
The exploding weapon/mountain was an in house effect. Very cost effective and looked good. They have very capable artists.
AM has been with the show from day one, working as a first AD with Mario in the pilot episode. He was only going to do the one as he had other commitments, but he had a great time and saw the potential. In the early days on SG1, he was stuck immediately by the incredible dynamic between the cast which was there instantly even in the early rehearsals and costume fittings. When he first met Christopher, AM thought he was ??? Ru Paul. AM will be a regular director on SGA.
JM says this is the second ep of the Vala eps he wrote over the holidays. When he outlined the story with the A, B, C and D storylines, he made the rest of the writers nervous—complex. He thought the Ori ships look like toilet seats. He got the box set of Firefly and lent it to many of the other production staff and now there are many fans of the show at Bridge. Carter’s hat drives JM nuts; he hates hats. All of them had hats but they only kept Carter’s hat.
JM finds the D/V relationship interesting. It’s at the stage of the voyage of discovery on this scene. When he first wrote this, he thought Vala would be upset that Adria was thought to be killed but Rob argued she would be relieved. JM wanted to make that connection between Vala’s loss of Adria with Daniel’s loss of Sha’re.
Praise for Tony Amendola. JM finds the Jaffa politics taxing to write and watch. All the aliens seem to have a High Council.
The Ori ship is three hallways that connect and it seems larger than it is. Praise for CB and MS. AM says the rehearsal of this scene took hardly any time at all because they found the rhythm of it immediately. They get along well. JM: “Also, I find just Daniel as a character but also Shanks as an actor very likable, very disarming, very sincere comes through in Daniel.” AM likes the team split into two because it’s easier to film. He likes scenes with two or less people. They mention everybody was together in The Quest Part 1 and how hard it was to find something for everyone to do. It’s a challenge for the actors to know ‘what am I doing?’ Chris and Ben get along very well and have a lot of fun.
This ep was short and so the Landry and Walter scene was added on. Stuff on Gary Jones, he’s a comedian and has a blog on Gateworld. JM talks about ComicCon and Jones MCing it and asking what turned out to be awkward questions about the writing staff.
JM admits they killed off too many Jaffa. They get good actors as Jaffa but kill them off. A pet peeve is the subcutaneous transmitters as it makes it too easy to rescue them (both here and in SGA.)
Mentions PDL like to have lots of braziers on the Goa’uld ships, but they fit better with the Ori. The Jaffa shoulder armor was redesigned this year to prevent ‘turtling’ where it rides up.
Young Adria and Adria here has reds eyes but when they filmed in the filthy air set of the cave, it really irritated the actress’ eyes so they took out the contacts and had Mitchell mention her eyes had changed.
They don’t know if real C4 is labeled as such, but they decided to clearly label it for the audience’s benefit.
Originally, JM pitched a story for S10 where Adria kidnaps Daniel and tortures him to get at his Ascended memories that he can’t remember. “Because of the deal Michael Shanks had” we ended up coming up with this idea of him becoming Priorized. It was the battle to get him back, to double cross him, and eventually turn him. It was originally 6 eps, and was cut to 4, then to a couple, then down to The Shroud. Those two had an interesting dynamic as well, Adria and Daniel. She got along with him right away and with everyone; she’s a great gal.
When casting Sheppard they thought about Ben Browder but also Nathan Fillion who is from Manitoba.
Major Marks…is he a pilot or a weapons officer? Seems to vary and there was a disagreement with AM about which chair was for navigation and which is for weapons. The actor is happy Marks turned into a reoccurring role.
The camera never stopped moving in Farscape. The handheld camera in Firefly, that technique worked well in Battlestar. All the shows have different styles.
They say it is better for visitors to come to the set when they aren’t shooting so you can linger over the sets and take photos, where when they are shooting, there are 75 people in a small area and people can get hurt, like when Michael took a rope to his eye in a freak accident.
Previously there were writers who spent a lot of time down on the set talking to the actors so when JM and PM arrived, they were encouraged to stay in their offices and write and they averaged 7 scripts a season. By S7, JM finally started to come to the set but he didn’t know anyone and thought it was too late to say, “Hi, I’m JM and I’ve worked here for 4 years. Who are you?” Martin Gero always made a point to go to the set and met everybody.
During the Quest, the forest planet, worst day of AM’s life and JM and Cooper came down. He said, “Great to see you guys. The door is that way.” JM really like The Quest though save for the front shot of the dragon. The legs are too spindly. AM was shocked when he saw the dragon, too.
They use the same ancient device whenever they need an ancient device—they call it the whackamole.
JM really enjoyed writing for S10 because the scripts were so different. This one was very action driven, the Quest fantasy oriented, Memento Mori humorous earth based., Morpheous dreamy, Family Ties fun ep with a terrific guest star, Fred Willard. The final scene he wrote he thought it would never make the final cut but they were cancelled by that time and people weren’t paying attention so it made it.
The exploding weapon/mountain was an in house effect. Very cost effective and looked good. They have very capable artists.
AM has been with the show from day one, working as a first AD with Mario in the pilot episode. He was only going to do the one as he had other commitments, but he had a great time and saw the potential. In the early days on SG1, he was stuck immediately by the incredible dynamic between the cast which was there instantly even in the early rehearsals and costume fittings. When he first met Christopher, AM thought he was ??? Ru Paul. AM will be a regular director on SGA.
