Saturday, September 19, 2015
Weekends aren’t free anymore, they are all work weekends, and today was no different. After a 9:30am work out with Sophia, I was off to the studio, where Diana was already working away fulfilling packages. It is actually a pleasure to work on the weekends as it is quiet and beautiful up in Valencia where we are and there is no one there and so we get a lot of work done.
Maggie Levin, Emily Blake and Lauren Schacher
Unfortunately I couldn’t work all afternoon as I had to get to a 1:00 podcast. But it was well worth it. Chicks Who Script is a podcast hosted by 3 young ladies in the entertainment business who interview people about screen writing. I saw Emily Blake and her awesome short Tenspotting at the Dragon Con Film Festival and she asked me to be on this podcast. I have to say it was a blast. Emily lives about 15 minutes from me, so I met them at her house. We had a blast chatting about film making and I will post the link when Emily sends it to me.
Maggie Levin, Lauren Schacher, Emily Blake and me!
After the podcast, Diana and I went to Axanar Production Designer John Iacovelli’s house for a meeting on sets. We went over the recent reorganization of the art department and how we were going to handle some sets. John is awesome because he is so easy to work with. He understands budgetary limitations and works with what we have. The big decision was to go with a Federation War Room that is based on the Ralph McQuarrie Battlestar Galactica concept drawing of the Galactica bridge.
Battlestar Galactica Concept Art by Ralph McQuarrie
This will be a most impressive set. And we are pretty excited!
A selfie outside the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood
After this, Diana and I went to the movies to see “Sicario”. Well, it was OK, but not great. Excellent performances by Josh Brolin and Benecio Del Toro though.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Today was a day off. Diana and I had brunch with a good friend of mine at this amazing Italian Restaurant in Newport Beach, down in Orange County where I used to live. We then did a bit of shopping at Nordstrom (our favorite store) and then it was off to Bill Hunt’s house (my co-writer) for a bit before we went to the ABC concert with Rob Burnett and his lady.
If you aren’t a fan of 80’s music you may not know who that is, but if you are a fan, then you know ABC was a tremendously cool band that had a hit album in 1982 called “The Lexicon of Love”. Hits like “Poison Arrow” and “The Look of Love” made ABC a sensation for a while.
Martin Frye of ABC
I have to say that we all thought it was an amazing concert. And Martin Frye, the lead singer, sounds as good today as he did 30 years ago.
Finally, while I never posted this on my birthday, it is worth posting now. Norman Lau is not only a huge Axanar fan, but he was so impressed with Axanar he became an Associate Producer. He is also a dear friend and for my birthday he got me something cool!
Axanar Associate Producer hooked me up with Deep Space Nine for my birthday!
Well, that is it for now.
LLAP
Alec
The battle bridge concept looks fantastic but I’m concerned about the expense not so much of the set but the graphics that are necessary to make the bridge view screen worthwhile a lot of people will have great expectations for the battle intelligence being presented and this will require additional effort on your part.
The Federation War Room Concept should be pretty awesome! To Edwards comment I wonder if there is a location you can re-purpose, maybe an existing Emergency Response Command Center? Maybe some Green over their existing monitors so crazy graphic dudes like Tobias and the guy from Horizon (Sorry I always forget your name, I’m awful with names!) can kick them up a few centuries? Either way I’ve resigned to what will be will be. 🙂
Yeah, we have a lot of smart people who do this for a living, so we got this covered.
I prefer this war room:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFkazjodpeQ
The Federation War Room is incredible!
Best ABC song ever (IMHO): “When Smokey Sings.” I used to play it in rotation when I DJ’ed on the radio back in college, and anyone wandering into WVBR between 10p and 2a might find Jon dancing in Air One when that song came on! Awesome band…great taste, Alec.
The War Room looks COOL!
“Two by two, Hands of Blue. Two by two, hands of blue!”
IMHO ABC.s best songs were “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and “Be Near Me”.