Post by crystalriver on Mar 6, 2010 18:32:43 GMT -5
Perhaps I will show my stupidity here in regards to TV entertainment---obviously this show has been out a few years; but did you know this------------------
THE DEADBOLT: How did you guys hit upon the transparent skin [from the pilot]?
ROBERTO ORCI: One of the conspiracy websites that I love is called Rens.com and it was based on this disease that has not fully been acknowledged, or it’s not clear if it’s real, called Morgellons Disease where fibers grow out of the skin and they seem almost like silicon and they’re somewhat translucent. So it’s based on that.
Full Article Below:
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www.thedeadbolt.com/news/105002/orcifringe_interview.php
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman Say the 'Fringe' Floodgates are Open
By Troy Rogers
After the much anticipated 95-minute premiere of Fox's sci-fi mystery/conspiracy series Fringe, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are looking ahead to the second episode, which airs Tuesday, September 16 at 8pm. With the set-up for the series out of the way, Orci and Kutzman explained to The Deadbolt and other journalists on a recent conference call that the creative floodgates are open now that the Fringe pilot is out of the way. In developing the series, Fox also open the financial floodgates in order to create the "fringe" science that Orci and Kurtzman based on real life events that we often see in daily newspapers. With the second episode of Fringe about to air, here's a look at what went down when wecaught up to the Transformers turned Fringe writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
THE DEADBOLT: How tough was it not to allow the science to overshadow the story?
ROBERTO ORCI: The balance is obviously tricky. But once the science starts detracting from the character tracking, that’s when the science is too much. So the science needs to be there just enough to support your plot, just enough to be able to reveal certain things to and about the characters. But once it starts to become the driving force, we’re in a science heavy place.
THE DEADBOLT: What other types of cool science, or science fiction can we expect?
ALEX KURTZMAN: I’m telling you, look at any major news site, or whatever, and there will be something about them. I mean we read the other day that China was controlling the weather during the Olympics. They were launching capsules into the atmosphere to make sure it was clear skies.
THE DEADBOLT: How did you decide what could be left unsaid and what needed explanation?
ALEX KURTZMAN: Well, I think we have had a million ideas of where we want the stories to go. And the pilot, in so many ways, was about seeding these ideas and letting them start to grow over the course of seasons and introducing our audience to our characters. So for us I think it was about putting just enough to still leave a bunch of questions on the table so that you would want to watch and find answers.
THE DEADBOLT: When you were researching the science at what point did you have to start to take liberties?
ROBERTO ORCI: We can’t go through and approve the entire dissertation of what we’re attempting to do in every episode, but you do take a few storytelling liberties. We’re trying to take as few liberties as possible in terms of what is theoretically possible.
ALEX KURTZMAN: I think we take liberties in the same way - Obviously we want our stories to be entertaining and exciting, but I think we take liberties in the same way that a show like The Practice takes liberties with the way that an actual trial is handled.
THE DEADBOLT: How did you guys hit upon the transparent skin [from the pilot]?
ROBERTO ORCI: One of the conspiracy websites that I love is called Rens.com and it was based on this disease that has not fully been acknowledged, or it’s not clear if it’s real, called Morgellons Disease where fibers grow out of the skin and they seem almost like silicon and they’re somewhat translucent. So it’s based on that.
Other Conference Call Highlights:
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on the challenges of making the second episode and figuring out what the series is going to be:
ROBERTO ORCI: Well, the good news for us is that they are not skimping on resources. And if the pilot itself was two hours, the pattern for our hour long show should allow us to fulfill the production that you saw. We also get a lot of - apart of the production values that you see on the show also come from not shooting in L.A. We very consciously wanted to shoot some place where the production value would be as invisible as nearly the environment. Shooting in New York gives us that as well. It gives it a reality. You tell when you’re shooting a show in L.A. and this show will not go that way.
ALEX KURTZMAN: We really don’t limit ourselves at all when it comes to what we want to do and what we want to see. We will open episodes with kind of the inciting incident event and that’s always a fairly large thing. But mostly it’s just about how do you hook an audience and how do you keep them interested and what keeps us interested in the show. So far we’ve not been told to be limited by anything, so that’s great. I think what’s really fun for us as the series unfolds, is that when we sat down we had a million ideas about where we wanted to go with these characters and the kind of stories we wanted to tell. But of course, until you’re picked up you, never really know. So those ideas stay bubbling in the back of your head and now it feels like the floodgates have opened and we can just keep peeling back the layers of the onion and going for all of the stuff we wanted to do that we couldn’t put in the pilot.
Orci and Kurtzman on whether the low numbers for the premiere are a concern:
ROBERTO ORCI: If it was a movie we would be concerned, but a TV show is a marathon. So next week I think we’ll be more a time to celebrate or be concerned.
ALEX KURTZMAN: Yeah, and I think we got exactly what we wanted out of our key demos. So that was the most important thing. There is that period of time early in September, where people are still finding television again, because everyone is going back to school. And I think for us, we kind of thought, ‘It’s very likely that people will be still coming back to their television sets and there will probably be a two to three week ramp up.’ So we didn’t see it as particularly daunting in any way. I think we just felt like - In a way you always take that into account, but you have to tune it out a little bit and just keep telling the stories you want to tell.
ROBERTO ORCI: And that’s probably why we were trying to be disciplined about having a show where you can come in week two or week three or week four and still catch up. So if you missed the pilot it’s okay.
ALEX KURTZMAN: The serialized elements of the show will have to do with the emotional through-lines of the characters, but you certainly don’t have to see the pilot or episode two to know what episode three is about.
THE DEADBOLT: How did you guys hit upon the transparent skin [from the pilot]?
ROBERTO ORCI: One of the conspiracy websites that I love is called Rens.com and it was based on this disease that has not fully been acknowledged, or it’s not clear if it’s real, called Morgellons Disease where fibers grow out of the skin and they seem almost like silicon and they’re somewhat translucent. So it’s based on that.
Full Article Below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.thedeadbolt.com/news/105002/orcifringe_interview.php
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman Say the 'Fringe' Floodgates are Open
By Troy Rogers
After the much anticipated 95-minute premiere of Fox's sci-fi mystery/conspiracy series Fringe, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are looking ahead to the second episode, which airs Tuesday, September 16 at 8pm. With the set-up for the series out of the way, Orci and Kutzman explained to The Deadbolt and other journalists on a recent conference call that the creative floodgates are open now that the Fringe pilot is out of the way. In developing the series, Fox also open the financial floodgates in order to create the "fringe" science that Orci and Kurtzman based on real life events that we often see in daily newspapers. With the second episode of Fringe about to air, here's a look at what went down when wecaught up to the Transformers turned Fringe writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
THE DEADBOLT: How tough was it not to allow the science to overshadow the story?
ROBERTO ORCI: The balance is obviously tricky. But once the science starts detracting from the character tracking, that’s when the science is too much. So the science needs to be there just enough to support your plot, just enough to be able to reveal certain things to and about the characters. But once it starts to become the driving force, we’re in a science heavy place.
THE DEADBOLT: What other types of cool science, or science fiction can we expect?
ALEX KURTZMAN: I’m telling you, look at any major news site, or whatever, and there will be something about them. I mean we read the other day that China was controlling the weather during the Olympics. They were launching capsules into the atmosphere to make sure it was clear skies.
THE DEADBOLT: How did you decide what could be left unsaid and what needed explanation?
ALEX KURTZMAN: Well, I think we have had a million ideas of where we want the stories to go. And the pilot, in so many ways, was about seeding these ideas and letting them start to grow over the course of seasons and introducing our audience to our characters. So for us I think it was about putting just enough to still leave a bunch of questions on the table so that you would want to watch and find answers.
THE DEADBOLT: When you were researching the science at what point did you have to start to take liberties?
ROBERTO ORCI: We can’t go through and approve the entire dissertation of what we’re attempting to do in every episode, but you do take a few storytelling liberties. We’re trying to take as few liberties as possible in terms of what is theoretically possible.
ALEX KURTZMAN: I think we take liberties in the same way - Obviously we want our stories to be entertaining and exciting, but I think we take liberties in the same way that a show like The Practice takes liberties with the way that an actual trial is handled.
THE DEADBOLT: How did you guys hit upon the transparent skin [from the pilot]?
ROBERTO ORCI: One of the conspiracy websites that I love is called Rens.com and it was based on this disease that has not fully been acknowledged, or it’s not clear if it’s real, called Morgellons Disease where fibers grow out of the skin and they seem almost like silicon and they’re somewhat translucent. So it’s based on that.
Other Conference Call Highlights:
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on the challenges of making the second episode and figuring out what the series is going to be:
ROBERTO ORCI: Well, the good news for us is that they are not skimping on resources. And if the pilot itself was two hours, the pattern for our hour long show should allow us to fulfill the production that you saw. We also get a lot of - apart of the production values that you see on the show also come from not shooting in L.A. We very consciously wanted to shoot some place where the production value would be as invisible as nearly the environment. Shooting in New York gives us that as well. It gives it a reality. You tell when you’re shooting a show in L.A. and this show will not go that way.
ALEX KURTZMAN: We really don’t limit ourselves at all when it comes to what we want to do and what we want to see. We will open episodes with kind of the inciting incident event and that’s always a fairly large thing. But mostly it’s just about how do you hook an audience and how do you keep them interested and what keeps us interested in the show. So far we’ve not been told to be limited by anything, so that’s great. I think what’s really fun for us as the series unfolds, is that when we sat down we had a million ideas about where we wanted to go with these characters and the kind of stories we wanted to tell. But of course, until you’re picked up you, never really know. So those ideas stay bubbling in the back of your head and now it feels like the floodgates have opened and we can just keep peeling back the layers of the onion and going for all of the stuff we wanted to do that we couldn’t put in the pilot.
Orci and Kurtzman on whether the low numbers for the premiere are a concern:
ROBERTO ORCI: If it was a movie we would be concerned, but a TV show is a marathon. So next week I think we’ll be more a time to celebrate or be concerned.
ALEX KURTZMAN: Yeah, and I think we got exactly what we wanted out of our key demos. So that was the most important thing. There is that period of time early in September, where people are still finding television again, because everyone is going back to school. And I think for us, we kind of thought, ‘It’s very likely that people will be still coming back to their television sets and there will probably be a two to three week ramp up.’ So we didn’t see it as particularly daunting in any way. I think we just felt like - In a way you always take that into account, but you have to tune it out a little bit and just keep telling the stories you want to tell.
ROBERTO ORCI: And that’s probably why we were trying to be disciplined about having a show where you can come in week two or week three or week four and still catch up. So if you missed the pilot it’s okay.
ALEX KURTZMAN: The serialized elements of the show will have to do with the emotional through-lines of the characters, but you certainly don’t have to see the pilot or episode two to know what episode three is about.