Commentary for Company of Thieves
Sep. 3rd, 2007 03:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenayaCommentary for Company of Thieves with William Waring and Alan McCullough.
This story was broken maybe in 2005 (a scene by scene discussion with the writers.) They both are pleased with the special effects of the Odyssey being attacked in the mind field. BW added the mind field idea as a way for the ship to be cornered and allow it to be defeated by only three ships.
It was a tough script for AM to write. Rob did a pass on the script, too. It's challenging because there are so many places and characters. The shot that shows all the crew standing about is a duplication shot. In reality, there are only about 15 extras there but the cut and paste them. AM originally had the ship being taken, then he beefed it up to where an minor player in the Lucian Alliance was trying to move up the ranks, and later Rob added the bit where Mitchell goes under cover. The Lucian Alliance is the Milky Way Mafia and it's so open one can change it around however you like.
About killing Col. Emerson, Rob's instructions were not to make too big an issue. He gets shot, he's done. Don't make it too melodramatic.
The team in undercover costumes: CJ had some unrepeatable comments about his hat and scarf. And while the cast may not always love what they put them in, they do like to get out of their usual uniforms. And as much as CJ would complain, they would say, "you can take it off" but he would say "nope."
Major Marks, Martin Christopher, is such a reliable actor that does a great job, and they use him whenever they can. There's great scene between him and Michael Shanks coming up.
When they are in the space chop shop and Vala runs and jumps into the arms of that guy, that was spontaneous. When the Lucian A. guy gets the drop on Daniel and Vala, there was two more extras there but they didn't look too authentic holding the zats so they had them stand further away from the main guy, thus not including them in the shot.
Coming up with alien names is hard to do. Need them to sound tough.
The director commented that he is enjoying the scenes where the camera was hand held more than the others as it seems more urgent. He's used hand helds judiciously in the past.
The writers' nickname for this ep was Vassen's Bad Day. Rob shot the scene where Mitchell comes on board and struggles to use the ring.
They like how arch the bad guys are in this. He likes how the L.A. is a total rip off of the mob.
There had been a number of eps where Teal'c was getting captured and tortured, so Rob threw Chris a bone and allowed him to beat up his captors in this ep. Chris loves any excuse to get the guns pumped up.
To dress the Odyssey as damaged, they would tack a map tack (sp) to the wall, paint it grey and then glue stuff to it that's all peeling, bent and burnt. Underneath the ship is fine.
During the dinner scene, they mentioned that one of the actors came up from LA but from the sides, he didn't know his character was going to get shot. Apparently, actors don't like that as it means the character will not ever be reoccurring.
Before Atlantis started, the whole space the Atlantis set is in was a Goa'uld space ship. Now it's just like one hallway, but it used to cover a lot more space.
AM originally had Daniel and Vala free the other crew and storm the room where Carter is held. Rob thought that had been done before and had them ring the bad guy into space. There was a lot of discussion on whether the gun firing in space would fire at all, would there be flashes, would he be able to move or be frozen solid. Ultimately, they did what looked cool. Daniel and Vala stuff was filmed separately from the wire work of the bad guy drifting in space. They remember that the actor was flown up from LA, slammed into a glass barrier for a few hours and was back home that night.
The downfall of the L.A. is there greed. The downfall of the Goa'uld was their arrogance. The Ori? Their demand for devotion and an unending amount of power.
It was Ben's idea for Teal'c and Mitchell to almost throw punches at each other.
It was a fun bit of Daniel uncomfortably assuming command of the Odyssey. AM laughed and said he liked Michael's performance there. They both giggled later on at one of MS's expressions.
Rob added the line, "I screwed up" to the alien guy (Tinat?) just before they are killed.
"Damn you, Cam Mitchell" is Rob again. It's an extremely corny line but it's earned here.
end.
After hearing this one, I'm left with the impression Rob is kinda cruel and corny, and he has a man crush on Cam.
This story was broken maybe in 2005 (a scene by scene discussion with the writers.) They both are pleased with the special effects of the Odyssey being attacked in the mind field. BW added the mind field idea as a way for the ship to be cornered and allow it to be defeated by only three ships.
It was a tough script for AM to write. Rob did a pass on the script, too. It's challenging because there are so many places and characters. The shot that shows all the crew standing about is a duplication shot. In reality, there are only about 15 extras there but the cut and paste them. AM originally had the ship being taken, then he beefed it up to where an minor player in the Lucian Alliance was trying to move up the ranks, and later Rob added the bit where Mitchell goes under cover. The Lucian Alliance is the Milky Way Mafia and it's so open one can change it around however you like.
About killing Col. Emerson, Rob's instructions were not to make too big an issue. He gets shot, he's done. Don't make it too melodramatic.
The team in undercover costumes: CJ had some unrepeatable comments about his hat and scarf. And while the cast may not always love what they put them in, they do like to get out of their usual uniforms. And as much as CJ would complain, they would say, "you can take it off" but he would say "nope."
Major Marks, Martin Christopher, is such a reliable actor that does a great job, and they use him whenever they can. There's great scene between him and Michael Shanks coming up.
When they are in the space chop shop and Vala runs and jumps into the arms of that guy, that was spontaneous. When the Lucian A. guy gets the drop on Daniel and Vala, there was two more extras there but they didn't look too authentic holding the zats so they had them stand further away from the main guy, thus not including them in the shot.
Coming up with alien names is hard to do. Need them to sound tough.
The director commented that he is enjoying the scenes where the camera was hand held more than the others as it seems more urgent. He's used hand helds judiciously in the past.
The writers' nickname for this ep was Vassen's Bad Day. Rob shot the scene where Mitchell comes on board and struggles to use the ring.
They like how arch the bad guys are in this. He likes how the L.A. is a total rip off of the mob.
There had been a number of eps where Teal'c was getting captured and tortured, so Rob threw Chris a bone and allowed him to beat up his captors in this ep. Chris loves any excuse to get the guns pumped up.
To dress the Odyssey as damaged, they would tack a map tack (sp) to the wall, paint it grey and then glue stuff to it that's all peeling, bent and burnt. Underneath the ship is fine.
During the dinner scene, they mentioned that one of the actors came up from LA but from the sides, he didn't know his character was going to get shot. Apparently, actors don't like that as it means the character will not ever be reoccurring.
Before Atlantis started, the whole space the Atlantis set is in was a Goa'uld space ship. Now it's just like one hallway, but it used to cover a lot more space.
AM originally had Daniel and Vala free the other crew and storm the room where Carter is held. Rob thought that had been done before and had them ring the bad guy into space. There was a lot of discussion on whether the gun firing in space would fire at all, would there be flashes, would he be able to move or be frozen solid. Ultimately, they did what looked cool. Daniel and Vala stuff was filmed separately from the wire work of the bad guy drifting in space. They remember that the actor was flown up from LA, slammed into a glass barrier for a few hours and was back home that night.
The downfall of the L.A. is there greed. The downfall of the Goa'uld was their arrogance. The Ori? Their demand for devotion and an unending amount of power.
It was Ben's idea for Teal'c and Mitchell to almost throw punches at each other.
It was a fun bit of Daniel uncomfortably assuming command of the Odyssey. AM laughed and said he liked Michael's performance there. They both giggled later on at one of MS's expressions.
Rob added the line, "I screwed up" to the alien guy (Tinat?) just before they are killed.
"Damn you, Cam Mitchell" is Rob again. It's an extremely corny line but it's earned here.
end.
After hearing this one, I'm left with the impression Rob is kinda cruel and corny, and he has a man crush on Cam.
