J. Michael Straczynski making "Sense8" promises

[Darren Dirt]

October 12, 2014

I have been online, talking about the work, the various TV series, and the behind-the-scenes stuff, since November 20, 1991. (Technically, I was online far earlier than that, logging onto usenet groups with a 28.8 modem, but that?s when I officially started talking about Babylon 5.)

From that point to right now, 23 years later, I have always been very judicious in the things I say about the work I do. I don?t make claims that later turn out to be false, and when I evaluate the coming work I?m always painfully honest, detailing both where it succeeds, and where it falls short.

For 23 years I?ve kept every promise I ever made online. Which is why I don?t make many of them. I want to be *sure* before I open my yap.


When we did Babylon 5, we were the first series to create a five-year-arc, and I said at the time that other shows would follow up on this model. This has come true with a vengeance in shows like Battlestar Galactica and Lost and many others.

We were the first TV series to use CGI extensively for spaceships, alien worlds, virtual sets and CGI creatures. We said it was the coming wave. Lots of folks made fun of that and said that models were the way to go. Now it?s the dominant technology.

We were among the very first TV series to shoot 16x9 format, which has now become the standard.

We were one of the first series to produce an aggressive 5.1 audio mix for TV at a time when most shows were barely handling stereo, and said it would become the standard. It has.

We did everything we said we were going to do. Every promise we made, we kept.


And now that we?re about a month from the end of shooting on season one of Sense8, with vast amounts of the footage now in hand, I?m sufficiently confident with what we?re doing to make another promise.
Sense8 is going to debut on Netflix in 2015. And it is going to change the way you see television, in terms of production values, storytelling, scope, scale, and action. All of it.

We are going to tell a story on a planetary scale. No cheats. In ways no one else has ever done before.

We are going to treat subjects that most TV series, and pretty much all SF series have avoided.

We are going to present visuals and action in ways that you have simply never, ever seen before. Anywhere.


In 2015 we are going to blow the doors off the television business.

Count on it.

So... there's that.


PS: the Wachowskis are involved too -- so either destined to fail or destined to succeed (depending on which IMDB'er you ask). ...this is a NETFLIX 10-episode-first-season already-done-deal, and presuming it's decent character-driven storytelling right out of the gate it should get a 2nd season quickly; it's very clear they are going for a way-beyond-just-Americans audience: http://www.sense8linked.com/Cast

[Tom]

What is it?

[Mr. Analog]

Some of JMS's claims are dubious, not doubting the man, but I feel like some of the achievements may have happened earlier. TV serials have existed since "I Love Lucy" & Disney's "Zorro", was there really a 5 year plan for B5? I can't say, it always felt like it was on the edge of cancellation. CGI was frequently mixed with practical effects on TNG from the get-go, and that was certainly before it. Also I'm pretty sure that X-Files was one of the first to go 16x9? It also had a long running arc, though again, how much of that was planned I can't say.

I hope its a good show, the concept itself sounds a bit cliched to me (The Corsican Brothers but with 8 people) but who knows for sure what angle they'll go for other than "different people face different challenges"

[Thorin]

except of course the part where he says was using a 28.8 modem before 1991, when they first came out in 1994...

[Darren Dirt]

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/watch-sense8-trailer.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKpKAlbJ7BQ


Mostly positive response in the comments @ Youtube. And I have no reason to disagree. Has a "Matrix meets The One, meets Touch meets Heroes" type of vibe -- all in a good way (say what you will about each of those 2 films and 2 TV series).

[Mr. Analog]

Y'know I forgot all about this

[Darren Dirt]

October 12, 2014

...I don?t make claims that later turn out to be false, and when I evaluate the coming work I?m always painfully honest, detailing both where it succeeds, and where it falls short.

...

When we did Babylon 5, we...  were the first TV series to use CGI extensively for spaceships, alien worlds, virtual sets and CGI creatures. We said it was the coming wave. Lots of folks made fun of that and said that models were the way to go. Now it?s the dominant technology. We were among the very first TV series to shoot 16x9 format, which has now become the standard.

...We did everything we said we were going to do. Every promise we made, we kept.

...Sense8 is going to debut on Netflix in 2015. And it is going to change the way you see television, in terms of production values, storytelling, scope, scale, and action. All of it.

We are going to tell a story on a planetary scale. No cheats. In ways no one else has ever done before.

We are going to treat subjects that most TV series, and pretty much all SF series have avoided.

We are going to present visuals and action in ways that you have simply never, ever seen before. Anywhere.


In 2015 we are going to blow the doors off the television business.

Count on it.

So... there's that.


PS: the Wachowskis are involved too...

So I actually watched the series a couple months back (and later also the "making of" featurette* added to Netflix) and thought I would update this.

I admit that in a *way* the "promises" of JMS quoted above were pretty much delivered... but not exactly in the mind-blowing ("blow the doors off"??) positive ground-breaking way that a lot of us were expecting.

Spoiler-ish to say this, but the resulting footage that at times was freakin' cool amazing confusing alloftheaobve, came about via mostly "practical effects" trather than what we would expect aka some mix of real and CG/editing trickery. It was almost entirely "framing" the shot so the actors can duck out of and into the shot. Sure, the SCALE of the story was quite impressive, but I would say that more ambitituous than rule-breaking / trend-setting. It worked and was necessary for this series but it's not exactly gonna get a bunch of other shows following suit. Because expensive.

And the subject matter... not to delve too deeply but you can't argue it was unorthodox to say the least. But not necessarily as significant as JMS seemed to be implying... And on that note, and to clarify my post above, the Wachowskis were not just "involved", it's pretty clear that the "non-Andy" sibling had a serious bias to push. Which is of course the right of any artist to do.

Overall I'm glad I watched it, but I'm especially glad I did not watch it with anyone else in the room. Awkward...


*But the featurette helped a lot after viewing, it tied the "room" together like a nice rug.