| Re: "Star Trek: New Voyages" Is Changing Direction--and Its Name |
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Group: alt.startrek · Group Profile
Author: Steven L.Steven L. Date: Feb 21, 2008 16:23
Jaxtraw wrote:
> Part of it may be perhaps that this isn't a professional production with
> professional goals and schedule. If you look at making a real series, the
> aim is, after a pre-production period, to start a season, bang it out as
> quickly as possible and within budget as possible, then get ready for the
> next one; it's a rapid sausage factory. The aim is to get high ratings and
> keep selling the show. For the individuals involved, the aim is to earn
> their wages by performing a competent job.
>
> None of that applies to a fan production. What are or were Cawley's aims?
> Well, he wanted to play Captain Kirk in a Star Trek show. He's done that, as
> much as possible. They apparently hoped early on that the series may
> actually get picked up professionally by Paramount; that was never going to
> happen and certainly isn't now. And he set out to make "the 4th (and even
> possibly 5th) season". But they aren't shooting seasons, they're shooting
> one at a time; compared to real TV painfully slowly. It's faster than
> movies, but they're not getting movies at the end of it. Instead it's 6
> months or a year for one TV "episode". That's a gruelling schedule and at
> this rate by the end they'll be getting more "old men in space" jibes than
> the real crew were.
Perhaps Cawley is learning that he's not really cut out to be a TV
producer, and he needs to find a professional to help produce NV so he
can concentrate on improving his acting skills.
For TOS, Roddenberry had to find ways to cut costs *and* get things done
on schedule. (Even though there's usually a tradeoff; to accelerate a
schedule, it can cost you more.) Forty years later, Abrams had to do the
same thing with "Lost"--find ways to get a complex show under control.
TV production is as much an issue of sound business management--keeping
a tight ship and organizing a tight but flexible shooting schedule--as
it is of creative artistry. Maybe Cawley forgot the need for the grungy
management/organization side of the business when he started his NV
hobby. In which case he may need to bring in a professional manager to
manage the business side of the house. Like when Sculley was brought in
from Pepsi-Cola to take over Apple.
Of course, if he does that, he and the other "actors" on NV should be
prepared to put in longer acting schedules. It may mean giving up their
day jobs. (No joke; most of them do have day jobs.)
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