Beaming Beeman

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED!

2011-08-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

(note: Here's a link to TNT's official website for FALLING SKIES):

Okay fans – Here are your many questions answered:

Whew -- that was a lot more work than I expected.

All the FALLING SKIES questions are up front.

For SMALLVILLE fans – I grouped those questions at the end – but I flagged it in big red letters - so scroll down if that’s all you’re interested in.

‪Mike Padua said...

Greg, thanks for putting so much time into sharing your knowledge with us fans!  

Who chooses/hires your still photographers?

ANSWER: Not sure what the essence behind your question is – but I’ll assume you’re interested in becoming a photographer.

On FALLING SKIES, TNT’s photo department, which is a division of the publicity department, hires all of the on-set stills photographers. With other companies it can be different, but usually it’s the publicity department. Sometimes on feature films stars or producers can request specific photographers – but not in our case. Sometimes, depending on the importance of the shoot, TNT will hire a local photographer. Sometimes they fly people in from L.A. or New York.

I asked Doug Hyun, TNT’s on-set photographer I’m working with on PERCEPTION, the TNT show I’m currently working on, for his advice on how to get into this business.

He said, you have to get a book together. Try to get on an indie movie, or take stills of your friends in a band, or any other type of thing like this. Then you have to beat the ground, going from studio to studio – getting small work at first and then building yourself up.

Not sure if that’s the question you wanted answered… But there it is!

‪Brielle

Thank you for doing this! I’ve been wondering (and I don't know if you'll know the answer to this)...How old is Ben supposed to be? Hal is supposed to be sixteen...So I'm trying to line up their ages, and it's just not adding up.

ANSWER: Ben is supposed to be 14 or 15 and Hal 17… I think.

‪Alan Turing‬ said...

I have couple of simple questions:    4) Was Weaver in the rear with the gear? Because he's done stupid things: created a fixed location that he cannot defend against air attack…

ANSWER: I think you’re referring to the school. Well, two things (1) As stated in the pilot episode (and I admit it goes by quickly in the first Dale Dye scene) the resistance has determined that the Aliens aren’t targeting smaller groups of humans. Porter has determined that 100 soldiers and 300 civilians will be a small enough number to be safe from air attack. It's not that the alien's can't find them it's that they have other priorities. (2) In the same scene – and again it goes by fast – it’s stated that the original alien attack was a larger force that hit hard and wiped out most of humanity – then the “Mother Ships” left and a “garrison” was left behind. (3) The key assumption that I make is that the remaining aliens main focus is not on wiping out all of humanity – it is to use the Earth for whatever their real purpose is… The building of the mysterious towers is their main agenda now… Killing humans is a lesser goal and now in their smaller numbers it’s probably more difficult to do than when they were assembled in major cities. So, to a degree, the humans are safe as long as they stay in small numbers and stay quiet.

attack a structure in broad day light with an column of troops that he cannot defend from air attack… ANSWER: The column did advance during the day – which is arguably a mistake - but the actual attack as organized by Porter was scheduled at night, which is stated in dialogue.

put his personnel out in a cow pasture so they cannot find cover from the aliens' aircraft… ANSWER: The meadow location was vulnerable – and Weaver expressed that he wasn’t happy with that. That’s why he was sending out scouts looking for a new less-exposed location – which ended up being the school. They only stayed in the meadow one night.

drive down a road at night with his lights on with Tom at the wheel-- hasn't heard of black out driving… ANSWER: You’re right this was possibly a mistake – but a more cinematic one.

why is he so willing so sacrifices his best troops in a pyrrhic victory at best at the end of season 1?  ANSWER: He was willing to sacrifice himself, perhaps, but he clearly gives everyone else a choice and, in fact, ordered Hal back. I think Weaver truly hoped and believed they had a chance to take down the base. It may have been a foolish belief – but everyone who went it made the choice with him. No one was forced.

 5) Why are the Aliens so stupid that they cannot or will not kill the resistance fighters?  ANSWER: This was answered above – but my opinion is that the aliens main focus now is not, primarily, on human killing – their numbers have been reduced enough to be manageable. It’s on building the towers and whatever that entails and implies.

 6) Why aren't the resistance fighters killing all military assets available to the aliens including kids?   ANSWER: Admittedly in this post-invasion it’s an all-bets-are-off world. I’m sure some groups would resort to killing kids to save themselves. The group led by Terry Clayton in “Sanctuary Part 1 and 2” was willing to do that… But the story we are telling, and the one that I am personally interested in, is one where not only humanity survives but human dignity and morality survives as well. In fact, I think this is the essence of Tom Mason’s struggle. For him surviving isn’t enough. He wants to keep his family and his group's sense of ethics and morality intact as well.  

8) Why is Pope the Professor of the Gang and Tom Gilligan??? I mean really Pope looks like a meth running drug dealing biker gang member-- not exactly the sort of guy that knows much about metallurgy or sophisticated bomb construction-- so why then is he the go to guy for these things? ANSWER: I can’t comment on the Gilligan/Professor aspect of your question… But Pope is a meth running drug dealing biker gang member, so it’s good he looks like one.

As to why Pope has so many skills – I see your point– It may be that he ended up with one skill too many. But just because he’s a criminal doesn’t mean he isn’t smart. He demonstrates considerable intelligence in his dialogue – one person could have learned all that stuff. But, to be fair to your point - Originally Uncle Scott was going to be the character that discovered how to build mech bullets. But actor Bruce Grey was not available when the mech bullet episode came up, and we were unable for various storyline reasons to shift that story to an earlier or to a later episode. As I always say, a TV series is both an evolving entity and a fast moving target. There was no other character we could give that storyline to – so the best solution became to give that story to Pope... and so that's what we did!

9) How can the mech metal be both super hard and have a super low melting point? Most really hard materials have a very high melting point? So I want to know how the guys in the 2nd Mass are melting forming and creating bullets out of materials that were so advanced that US military's high tech weapons failed.   ANSWER: Super good point which I have no answer for.

10) How is it that the Aliens can destroy every possible source of resistance on the planet in the first attack and yet the resistance will win in the end?  ANSWER: First of all - we can assume but we don’t know how this story will end… The other aspect of the question, I answered earlier. A bigger invading force first attacked earth then retreated leaving a garrison of tower-builders. I believe some of this is also covered in the on-line/Dark Horse comic.

11) Do you really want us the viewers to believe that Military forces of every country in the world were just sitting in their racks waiting to get nuked by the enemy? Are they like well behaved VC and stand still for door gunners of the Choopers?
  ANSWER: Nope – They fought back and fought hard. They were just overwhelmed by superior weapons and superior forces. That part happened before our story began.
Also, remember the children's voices in the opening scene of the pilot described that the aliens used a massive eloctro-magnetic pulse that wiped out all electricity. This gave the aliens a huge advantage as almost all vehicles, planes and communications were disabled... With the world's military forces hobbled and with superior weapons the alien forces easily overwhelmed us.  

12) Do you really want us the viewers to believe that Aliens have some magic Radiation weapon that kills only mammals??? Because in the Writers' Q&A some wonderkid put forth this answer-- and that after the bombs were drop they blew up exactly 100 miles and only 100 miles! I'm none of this radiation entered the higher atmosphere??? So I'm wondering how if the same writer said this radiation was dangerous to the aliens how then it didn't contaminate the entire planet since they were dropping these things like hot cakes! I mean really want to believe that radioactive fallout is not covering all the regions of the Earth after using enough of these weapons to destroy 90 percent of humanity?

ANSWER: I am unfamiliar with what you are referring to – and it’s not my understanding that that is the case. Where did you read this? I didn’t read it. 

14) In the pilot New York is mentioned with world capitols-- Who doesn't know what a capitol is??? I mean New York hasn't been the capitol of the US since what the 1790's ??? So I want to know how that slip up was allowed?     

ANSWER: True New York is not technically a state or National “Capitol” – but it is a capitol of commerce and banking and one of the most important cities in the world. I think this is what was being referred to.

17) Why do the writers think that Machine guns are not Classified as destructive devises? They are.. you will not find too many full auto Ak-47's in gunshops in the US. Unless they cater to CLass III weapons holders.

ANSWER: Again, I’m not sure specifically to what you are referring? Did we state that in an episode?

  18) Why is it that Mechs can be blown up by two weak hand grenades but some how DU rounds from say a 20mm M61Vulcan cannon were ineffective in destroying them? They would have about the same energy on contact...    

ANSWER: Yah, you’re probably right…

Thanks for your questions and for your, obviously, attentive viewing!

‪NZRobFL

1. You guys did a lot of scenes focusing on Bens increased abilities since being harnessed, including the increase tension with civiliens. At the end we also see the aliens very interested in Ben and Tom. Was this done to simply show what we found out, which is Ben is possibly going to mutate or was their a deeper purpose to things that may be revealed about Ben in season 2? (loaded question i know) 

ANSWER: It gets to spoilery for me to answer, but I can say that the answer to your question will be revealed.

 2. We noticed we never see any of the kids actually taken (other then Karen) and we dont see the harnesses attached to them. Was that done on purpose so as not to reveal too much? Might we explore this and get a view from within the alien ships/camps? 

ANSWER: We didn’t show this, principally because our series is designed so that we are always in our character’s point-of-view. We don’t go to scenes where our characters aren’t. But if one of our character’s went into one of the alien camp’s/ships then we might see something like this in the future.

 3. Some scenes were cut from the Rescue scene in Silent Kill when Hal goes to get the kids. Will you be using those next season or dropping them? (referring to the bloody floor scene) 

ANSWER: Can’t spoil – but “probably.”

 4. Now that you have the go ahead for season 2, does that mean a slightly larger budget to allow for a more expansive view of the aliens, they’re ships and more locations? The CGI work we did see was awesome, would like to see more of the alien side. (perhaps even a little infiltration by Ben into the alien ship ;)

ANSWER: I try not to be specific about budgets – but we will endeavor to do our best and better to give the fans what they deserve!

‪Damian

1) Are the "Skidders" who have been shown throughout the movie what Ben and the other children may end up as? Or will they take on a different physical form with two legs and all.

ANSWER: Can’t spoil – but we hope to answer this next season

 2) The alien ships were supposed to be able to anticipate rockets, or so Pope says. But Tom was able to shoot one down with an RPG? 

ANSWER: My interpretation is that, because the ship was returning to the tower it was not in an “attack/defense” mode and it’s shields were down.

3) The central tower had taken a beating from all sorts of heavy artillery that previous humans had shot. Would explosives at the base still work? Like were they more powerful?

ANSWER: I’m not sure that the towers ever “took a beating” – they weren’t built until after the first wave of invasion and after the aliens controlled the major cities – and I don’t think Porter or Weaver or anyone knew whether the attack would work or not – but because they knew the towers were just built from Earth scrap-metal they thought they had a chance.

‪Gibagiboia

I´m from Brazil, we’d love to see some Brazilian fellow fighting invaders. We’re almost 200 millions. 

ANSWER: I’ll tell the writers and we’ll look for an opportunity to cast a Brazilian!

‪Anonymous‬

When will Falling Skies be returning?

ANSWER: Next summer – 2012 - probably a similar date to this year, i.e. June – but I don’t know yet for sure.

‪Lizziekaerocks77

I was wondering is in future episodes has there been any talk of showing what the Mason family lives were like before the aliens first came before they attacked? Like in a flashback mode or something? Because i would sure like to know more about Rebecca and what their home was like with her around. Or how Hal met Karen and his school life and so on. When i saw the episode where Weaver had his little flashback it inspired me and i thought it'd be cool to see something more like that.

ANSWER: Probably not. One of the elements that is important to Mr. Spielberg is that we don’t go to flashbacks or see how the invasion went down. He strongly wants a show that takes place in real time/real POV (i.e. Character “Point of View”) from the time the story begins. The past is implied but not shown.

Similarly, and I discussed this a bit in my blog – there are no “tricks” in this show. We don’t do flashbacks or dream sequences or slow motion or any real editing tricks - from a filmmaker’s standpoint it is a very raw show with no gimmicks to fall back on – which makes it very hard.

Having said that – you can never predict the future.

‪shoshee10

I was just wondering if you would be doing any flashback episodes to show how the group came together in the first place?  Thanks for considering my question!

ANSWER: see above

‪marymesingle

Couple of questions that are hopefully easy to answer.  

1. Are we going to see flashbacks of the actual invasion? 

ANSWER: see above

2. You have shown the skidders with a sense of caring for the kids that are harnessed as in the rescued of Ben. Will there be more of that? That episode changed my view of them.

ANSWER: More will be revealed in Season 2

‪Mare/TommyGirl

I think this is so cool of you to do this. Thank you. Like a previous fan, I'm curious to see if we'll get a flashback episode?  

ANSWER: see above

 Also, are we to assume that all Skidders are other conquered races by this main alien race?   

ANSWER: It seems that way!

‪KitScatt

Just two questions from an actor and a HUGE fan: 1. What do you look for when you are making your final casting decisions? 2. How can I audition? ;-)

ANSWER: Acting is a great craft and art and I wish you the best in pursuing it!

Personally, when actors come in to audition - I look for someone who has carefully analyzed the scene and made a bold, sometimes unexpected, choice. Look for the aspect of the character/scene that is legitimate, but not on the surface.

Beyond that you also have to “look” right for the part – which is out of your control.

As to how do you audition for our show? --– We’ll be casting from both Vancouver and Los Angeles this year. You would need to have an agent who gets the casting breakdowns (published by our casting directors) and have them put you up for appropriate parts…

Beyond that, and you didn't ask me this, but...

My general advice to aspiring actors is this: Being a professional actor is a tough gig and not for the faint of heart. The advice I always give anyone who is contemplating this career: If acting is the ONLY thing you can see yourself doing... If you can’t see yourself doing ANYTHING else. If it is 100% your passion and NOTHING else could be… Then do it! But if you can see yourself doing anything else – then do that instead.

Basically an actor has to prepare and prepare and be ready at all times and endure tons of rejection and wait for that magical moment when you get the part.

Good luck!

‪Anonymous‬

First, what I don’t get is why, as a historian, Weaver is not recording what has happened. I cannot imagine he wouldn’t understand the immense importance of documenting the most significant event in human history.

ANSWER: I think you mean “Tom” as the historian. But I agree this is a very interesting, potentially poetic idea that has just never come up in the writer’s room so far… So, guess what – I’ll bring it up.

I like the idea of discovering the use of radio frequency energy as a weapon. However, you guys need to get an amateur radio (ham radio) guy as an advisor (talk to the ARRL). Personally, I think the use of ham radio would be a cool story element. Ham radio guys are geniuses at making things out of what might look like junk.

ANSWER: Good idea

Why are the survivors not looking to secure diesel vehicles? After 6 months, that gasoline is going to begin to gel and deteriorate

ANSWER: Never thought of it. Good idea.

‪Anonymous

Can you explain why Tom made the choice to surrender at the end of episode 9?  It didn't make much sense

ANSWER: All I can say is, we plan to successfully explain this to you in Season 2. And I hope we do!

‪Anonymous‬ said...

Is the harness organic or mechanical, or a little of both?  

ANSWER: I think a little of both – Dr. Harris explains it as best as we humans can understand in the third hour.

My personal opinion is that they do have a limited sentient sense - they are alive and they want to live.

Where are all the animals? Many animals live in rural areas, so where are the cats, dogs, horses, cows, goats, ..etc?  

ANSWER: They’re around. But practically speaking – animals and animal wranglers are an expense that we couldn’t always afford. We had a dog featured in a couple of episodes. also, there were some goats and chickens at the Sanctuary (hours 5 and 6) – But they didn’t get on camera much.

How did the survivors survive those first few months? Did they hunker down in their homes or did they flee?  (and) If Tom taught at Cambridge, how did his family survive the initial bombing?  

ANSWER: The comic book published on-line by TNT and Dark Horse comics explain this best.

What was the news reporting and what was people doing in those days after the ships arrived but before the attack? I live in a large metro area and if an alien ship parked itself above my city I would run for the hills, literally.

ANSWER: Some people probably did just that. Production Designer Rob Gray worked hard on the question of how did the media report it. In the opening scenes of the pilot it’s said that the ships appeared and just hovered over major cities for a while. We assumed that they were silent and that people everywhere were speculating whether the intentions where hostile or not. There are newspaper clippings, which can be seen in the b.g. of the school that show this – if you look carefully.

What percentage of people were killed in the initial bombing vs skitter attacks in the months after?  

ANSWER: Bob Rodat always says 90%

‪Kev

You killed off Colonel Porter. Big mistake. The leaders like Colonel Porter are the key to the world-wide resistance.

ANSWER: Weaver assumed he was dead – but we never saw a body… Did we?

Tyler Reno

how did you go about casting the roles?  i think Will Patton is an amazing actor… Did it take much to consider him?  

ANSWER: Because of their extensive resumes and because their work is well known, Noah, Will and Moon were all offered the parts without auditioning. The rest of the cast came in and read for the parts.

Is there going to be any big names in the next season?..maybe special appearances? 

ANSWER: There are no specific plans at this time – but we don’t even have scripts yet so – you never know

‪Anonymous‬ said...

Maybe next season you can do a contest to give people a chance to be on Falling Skies for one or two episodes, or to be extras. It could be on fallingskies.com.

ANSWER: TNT did this last year (see one of my first FALLING SKIES posts – “A FAN’S ADVENTURE”)

Merri

Mr. Beeman, love the blog, and appreciate the details into producing such powerful TV shows. My question is hopefully pretty simple, how and what did the sound folks use to make the Mech hum?

ANSWER: Rick Steele, our sound designer, answers this questions. He says, there are many elements that make up the mech sound – a human voice, a boat horn, the sound of the machine in tire stores (the one that wrap tires around a rim) creates the key servo sound, people beating on car hoods, and many other elements as well, all go into the mec sound. They are mixed together on the sound stage with various amounts of reverb and overlaps to create what you hear on your TV sets! (Hopefully with surround soundJ)

‪Jason Bassett‬

Did the cast take any weapons training, or have previous experience?

ANSWER: Yes, and motorcycle training. They did about 8 hours each during the pilot and about the same when the series began – probably not enough – but we were jamming it in between shooting days.

‪Jon Cordes

Why do we have to wait a whole year between seasons? There isn't anything good on TV on Monday nights.

ANSWER: I know… I know…

‪Sue‬

Hubby and I just love this show!! But why do we have to wait so long for Season 2?

ANSWER: Sorry – that’s TNT’s standard schedule

Anonymous‬

First I love the show. Can't wait for next season. I just wish we didn't have to wait so long. Can you give us any hints to what next season will bring?

ANSWER: No – that would be spoiling – and even though you think you want me too – you don’t really :)

‪Anonymous‬

why is it that the aliens can not find the survivors. a few hundred people should surely be easy to spot.

‪ANSWER: addressed this above – basically the aliens have killed enough humans that they can get to work on more important projects – they need kids and hunt them – but humans are a nuisance they kill as they can, but not priority #1

‪Eileen

Thanks for doing this, Greg!  Any chance that the Skitters will become allies to the resistance at some point? Particularly since it seems that they were also enslaved using harnesses?

ANSWER: Interesting idea – I’ll kick it around.

‪Joe Duckworth

Great show Greg!  I think explaining where they are finding all of the fuel for the kerosene lamps and misc stuff they are using might help next season. Seems like they are using supplies (other than gasoline and bullets) like they have an unlimited supply.  

ANSWER: Bob Rodat explains that with 90% of humanity dead – there is actually a lot of food and fuel available. Of course the fresh stuff all spoiled, but canned and freeze dried food is abundant. It has to be foraged for but it’s not impossible.

Fresh clean water is probably a bigger problem – depending on where you are.

My young son loves the show too. His first question to me was about food. "Why aren't they deer hunting?"

ANSWER: I think they are. Maybe we’ll see something like that next year.

‪Peep

I have asked this on other pages, Why did the show start so far after the invasion? why not start it from the start of the invasion?

ANSWER: This is something Mr. Spielberg and Bob Rodat specifically wanted. Both felt that we’d seen many versions of the invasion in many movies… this, they felt, was something different.

‪cjm58

I noticed that in one of the episodes that the skitters also had the back alien thingy on them were they captured from another world and is that why they are so affectionate towards the human kids who have them?

ANSWER: Maybe – Maybe it’s something else. We’ll endeavor to explain next season.

‪Ponderiss

I enjoyed the character of Mike Thompson. Loved the caring devoted father Martin Roach portrayed. Please consider bring him back...somehow...it is Sci-fi, after all.

ANSWER: I agree Martin did a great job. But this isn’t that kind of sci-fi show, so his return is unlikely… I do think he got one of the best and most noble deaths of the season though!

‪LottieLight

1. How would you advise getting into directing, it seems like such a distant dream that people struggle to make reality?  

ANSWER: I’m a big believer in “If you can dream it you can achieve it!”

But at a certain point, though, it does involve risk. There’s a story I take from Napoleon Hill’s classic book – “Think And Grow Rich” which says this:

“A long while ago a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which would insure his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers on boats, sailed to his enemies country, unloaded his soldiers and equipment and then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men before the first battle he said, ‘You see the boats going up in smoke. That means we cannot leave these shores unless we win- We win-Or we perish!’

They won.

Every person who wins in any endeavor must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat.”

To do anything that seems impossible sometimes means you have to take the risk to move to a foreign city, give up your day job, face humiliation and rejection both professionally and from family and friends, etc. etc and, mostly, to – not take “no” for an answer. My advice about getting into directing is similar to my advice about getting into acting -- only do it if you KNOW that that is what you have to do and are destined to do...

In my own case naïveté and lack of imagination greatly helped me. Basically I could not imagine doing anything else, I was too young and naïve to know the dream was “impossible,” And then (probably mostly) I never quit even though there were many times when quitting would have been the more logical thing to do.

2. Would you consider hiring writers from the UK to write for Falling Skies.. like me?   

ANSWER: Sure, theoretically

3. How would a writer get into writing for something like Falling Skies?  

ANSWER: You have to be a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, and – practically speaking, you need to live in Los Angeles where the work is done.

But to get into the business you need to write a few “spec” samples. Probably an original feature film script and one or two “spec’ examples of existing shows. Use these to entice an agent and then the agent will help you get your toe in the door. Sounds like a lot – but people do it every day.

4. Will you carry on with the Mason family closeness that we see though the first season?  

ANSWER: Yes

5. Will you call the new aliens 'Shon's' because I think that's a cool name?

ANSWER: Uh… Maybe?

‪Kalii DeLaRosa

1) One thing that's got me really curious is Pope/Maggie's story. They seem to have some history between them; will we be seeing some more back story of those two in the next season?  

ANSWER: Yes their history is intense and I hope we do explore it more. Their business is definitely not “finished.”

2) Now that Tom has made the drastic decision at the end of episode 9, does that mean that Hal is going to be stepping into his father's shoes again? He did a good job during the Sanctuary episodes and I'd like to see that protective side of Hal more.

ANSWER: We’ll see… Good idea though.

 3) I think Tom is the stable foundation for the 2nd mass, are we going to see it fall apart in the 2nd season?   

ANSWER: My answer is the same as above.

‪jive jedi‬ said...

would it be within the realm of possibilities that the skidders could join the resistance? I mean after all, they are harness also. also did the skidders always look like skidders or did the harness change them?

ANSWER: You are the second to suggest this. I can’t tell too much about season two – but I will say many more questions will be answered about the skitters

‪Karen604

1.Where have all of the people that were in the camp with Weaver and Tom in the initial episodes gone?

ANSWER: The tunnels they left through lead to many places underneath the city. Where they escaped to and where they regrouped will be answered in Season 2.

 2) How were the stunts with Rick done in the last episodes? Hanging from the ceiling and jumping over the bus ect.

ANSWER: The ceiling stunt was done with Rick (Daniyah) in a harness under his wardrobe and Uncle Scott on a blue screen and we fast-descended Daniyah.

The bus jump was done with a parkour stunt-double and Daniyah filling in the frontal shots – basically good editing!

 3)Was the 'ship' that was over Boston the same one that had the fireball in it at the end or was it the smaller vehicle that was fired on returning to the mother ship? We never saw the ship over Boston leave, Did We? 

ANSWER: It was a smaller ship returning to the mother ship

‪Greg

Say "Hi" to Capt. Dye. I was stationed in Okinawa when he was with AFN. My wife and I love seeing him on screen.

ANSWER: Consider it done!

‪Dmsmithh

what is the single most difficult obstacle in the making of Falling Skies?

ANSWER: The budget is very tight and schedule is very short for what we accomplish.

‪Dan F‬

will we see how they defeated the military ?

ANSWER: I don’t think we’ll “see” it – but we may learn more.

‪Anonymous‬ said...

Hi, I was just wondering why for the last 3 episodes you apparently replaced your writers with chimps and gibbons. Just wondering...

ANSWER: Unkind… Most unkind.

‪Kittyfox1963

Hello Beeman!! First of all both my husband and I LOVE Falling Skies! I regret to say that we've never watched your other shows however you've done a really great job with this one. Would have really liked to see a little more of "how" the situation came to be - perhaps in flashbacks at some point in time. The series was just so short (length of time on the Network) I'm hooked and need more!!!! Thanks for a very interesting series. Noah and Moon are a great couple....

ANSWER: Thanks! I’ve addressed this issue above. Thanks for watching and feel free to check out SMALLVILLE seasons 1-5 or HEROES season 1-3 for the rest of my recent work!

‪Micaela Balìce

Thank you Mr.Beeman for this opportunity. I'm from Italy and I've really loved Falling Skies. I'm wondering if it could be interesting to set against (or at the side) the military presence and action, a form of civil resistance, like a nonviolent resistance.

ANSWER: Definitely a worthy and intriguing idea. I do think that despite all that has happened there would still be people who, for spiritual or personal reasons would be pacifists. It would be interesting to explore that.

Please give one kiss to Tom (Noah) from me ;)

ANSWER: Okay – how about a hug and a firm handshake?

‪willow2142

Loving Falling Skies but was wondering if there was ever going to be a time when you went back and showed how the aliens showed up and how 2nd Mass developed?

ANSWER: The comic does this best… Find it here: http://www.tnt.tv/series/fallingskies/webcomic/

Or here:

http://www.darkhorse.com/Features/eComics/1191/Falling-Skies

‪Anonymous‬ said...

I only want to know "How am I supposed to wait until NEXT SUMMER for the show to come back on??!!??" This does not seem fare!!

ANSWER: I know… It will be hard

‪Maureen‬ said...

So - what's the deal with Lourdes? Or was "In David's Royal City" a coincidence?

ANSWER: No coincidence. I believe writer Melinda Hsu Taylor oversaw this and had the vision for it

‪adimike55

1)So far, the civilians have been pretty much background material, except for the one loudmouth in a couple of episodes (he didn't trust sending the kids away). Can we expect a bit more from them? 

ANSWER: Maybe – but we have a lot of series regular characters to service

 2) i know Noah Wyle mentioned that he picked the book TALE OF TWO CITIES because it was lighter, but know he is a history professor, I thought of something that relates back to THE TIME MACHINE (1960). In the end, Filly notices that HG Wells has taken three books back to the future with him and he asks "Which three books would you take?". While he never identifies them, it is obvious he took three books that would impact on the future. TALE OF TWO CITIES could be the same.  Were you influenced much by classic sci-fi films from the past?  

ANSWER: Good point

3)The scene at the start of Ep. 9, with the 2ndMass watching some old films was so peaceful and touching. It reminded me of some of the scenes in the series MASH when they would watch films from home.   Do you have a favorite "small" scene that does not depend on effects or action?  

ANSWER: I thought the scene where Margret taught Anne to shoot and she said “Don’t leave home without it.” And they laughed, was very nice. The laugh was the actor’s spontaneous impulse and it felt real to me and it bonded the characters.

3) Will there be a release of the score? It is really effective, yet doesn't overpower the show? 

ANSWER: Don’t know – but I agree I love Noah Sorota’s score

 4)Will the show be rerun during the winter to help introduce it to more of the potential audience?  

ANSWER: I think so – TNT seems to re-run it a lot.

5)You've got a great group of young actors who are very outgoing and fun. Have you thought about letting Maxim, Connor, and Daniyah does video diary log of the second season?  Thanks again for reading these.

ANSWER: Very good idea – I’ll suggest it to TNT

‪luke

How hard would it be to add another race showing up to battle along side the humans? Kind of like they have been observing the whole deal and choose to come down and lend us a hand. They could turn out be some old rival of the skitters.  Although I am sure that it would cost a boat load to CG the new race into the story line, so I guess I am just a wishful thinker.

ANSWER: Good idea – though we haven’t discussed that one yet.

‪Anonymous‬

Hey I was wondering when you said "a year is a long time" if you ment that it will be a year before you have anymore episodes out. I hope not because a fantastic show called Jericho did something like that and when they tried bringing it back it had been so long that it wasn't quite as interesting. I hope new episodes come out soon!

ANSWER: Well, we’ll hope for the best. But that’s TNTs schedule for all their shows.

‪Mikayla

I've never been one for Sci-Fi, but I'll watch anything with Noah Wyle so I thought I'd give Falling Skies a shot... It's truly an incredible show!!! 

 1. When doing a scene with the Skitters and such, do you use some sort of stand in so the actors have something real to work with?  

ANSWER: Not really – the director and the visual effects supervisor just describe to them where the skitters will be and what they will be doing. Usually we also have storyboards they can see and that helps them visualize it. If I’m directing I jump around and wave my arms where the skitter will be, to try and inspire the actors.

 2. As jealous as it makes me, will you please continue the romantic storyline with Tom and Anne?   

ANSWER: Okay

3. How old is Lourdes supposed to be? I know she was a first year med student, but she looks too young!  

ANSWER: Lourdes' age and background changed a bit (off-screen) between the pilot and the series -- one of the phenomenons of the evolving nature of series TV. In the pilot, I believe Bob Rodat's idea was that she was a wealthy 17 year old from Mexico, going to private school in the U.S. - but not Med School... As the series evolved the idea that she was Pre-Med evolved so that she could be more likely to help Anne in the clinic. But that would make her 20 or so. Seychelle, I believe is 19 in real life.

4. Can there please be a contest for a trip to see the show being filmed? I've always wanted to go behind the scenes at a TV show!  Thanks so much!

ANSWER: I’ll suggest it to TNT – They did it last year at ComicCon – so maybe

‪Kim Kouski

I don't have a question, but I will tell you I realllllyyyy like Falling Skies, so much that I'm using the show in my Writer's group. I see cool writing tech spread throughout the show that I have to share them with my group. But I hate that I have to wait until next summer to see what happens to Tom!!!

ANSWER: Thanks!!!!

‪pipendrell said...

will season 2 have more episodes? 

ANSWER: So far no. TNT has only ordered 10. There’s a possibility that they could add 2. But they show is quite expensive for them – so probably not.

‪Andhre Caeli

This series is of the kind one would like to know more did where in the space aliens come from? How are they physically? How many planets have been conquered? etc.

ANSWER: I’m not sure. I think Bob Rodat has ideas about this – but he only reveals a bit at a time to us.

One of my hopes as a viewer is to see a more real guerrilla war, learning military tactics, unity, solidarity and love (is that churches will exist, as would the Reilgion ?)...Wow! Number of issues to explore in a situation like this! Thank you.

ANSWER: We will address many of those issues in Season 2

‪Anonymous‬

i have 3 questions   1.why did the guy try to shoot ben instead of rick it kind of confused me?  

ANSWER: I think he lumped all “Coatracks” into one group – and from his point of view he didn’t know who had done what. He was kind of a lunkhead too. (The character, not the actor)

2.(if you know the answer) why did they choose to end the season like they did?  

ANSWER: Yes. But I can’t say.

3.are you excited for season 3? it sounds like its gonna be amazing.  

ANSWER: If we get past season 2 – I’ll be super excited for season 3!!!

‪Matt W‬ said...

Do you plan on actually filming in MA at all? There are plenty of great SAG and AFTRA actors, myself included, that would love to have the opportunity to be a part of the show.

ANSWER: I know – and Bob Rodat is from Massachusetts. But probably not. It’s too expensive to go there for us.

‪Renan‬ said...

Hello, Let me directly ask ;D  1- Do you pretend on show character's lifes before the invasion, in flashbacks? (I think it would be very interesting, speccialy by showing pope's skills, for example).  

ANSWER: The writers do create character backgrounds from before, for sure.

2-There is a chance of watching survivors around the world fighting against the aliens even in short scenes?  

ANSWER: Maybe – but it’s not in our immediate plans as far as I know.

3-Would be such nice to see more tricks from the humans to disarm aliens and fight against them in a equal level, wouldnt it?   

ANSWER: Yes. It would.

4-Will the show have more fight scenes or short scenes with a lot of amazing acting and visual/special effects ? For Example (Tom's fight against the skitter) and (the end of the episode 10 when the ship lay down and happens the dialog with the Tall Alien, Karen, Weaver) Or i could even suggest like someone acting like big ass, punching some mechs or skiters in slowmotion and stuff ? haha, would be awsome, completing the show.

ANSWER: I’ll try do some of that. Sounds cool, I agree. Probably not in slow motion though.

‪Phildog

Ooh, this is awesome. So your taking suggestions too eh? Allright, awesome. However, first, one thing. I, Philip Petrunak, hereby resign all creative rights towards suggestions and ideas non-exclusively in perpetuity to any and all parties wishing to claim them.  Okay, now that that is over with, here are my ideas:  

1. Crossbows that shoot Mech metal bolts. Silent, but deadly. Sounds just like something Pope wold love, no?  

ANSWER: Cool – I like it!

2. Skidder Armor. I'm surprised no one has actually done this yet. They have really thick scales, so why has no one used their armor for their own armor? BTW, there is a catch. If you wear the armor right next to your own skin for two long, it fuses to your arm, and you gain skidder's strength.  

ANSWER: The original skitters in the pilot had armor – but we ended up not liking the way they looked.

I think you’re suggesting using skitter skin as armor. Kind of gross – but could work.

3. Gay characters. No, seriously. It's great that your show is so racially and religiously inclusive. However, your show doesn't appear to have any characters that fall outside of the norms of sexuality, nor gender roles (aside from the odd female soldier). It's not like the concept of occasional has chased viewers away, just look at Jack Harkness from Torchwood.  

ANSWER: You are definitely right about that. I’ll mention it to the writers.

‪Unknown

Thanks for bringing this to us. It is a great show and has already shown a lot of potential for being even a greater show.  

Question: Will they be showing contact with more resistance fighters maybe from other regions of the country/world?   

ANSWER: Can’t reveal too much about this idea – but we have thought of it.

‪Anonymous

Why does Hal have so many love interests? I get it that he's a sixteen year old male but he has a harem? It's like the end of the world.

ANSWER: Well, Drew Roy is a good looking, strong, brave, smart and charming young man. So, my personal opinion, and given the state of the FALLING SKIES world –he’d be a pretty desirable catch, based on natural instinct alone. But he really wasn’t with any girls besides Karen. He was with Karen at the beginning – and that relationship had evolved before the pilot. He clearly pined away for her after she was taken. Lourdes was interested in him, but he didn’t reciprocate. Yes, there was one moment where Margret took his hand at Mike’s funeral – but I took that as her comforting him - nothing, as yet, romantic has developed between them.

‪Anonymous

Do you know already which directors your are going to work with next season? Are most of them Season 1 directors or are there going to be some "fresh" faces as well? Any chance of more of your "old" Heroes-Directos, like Adame Kane, Jeannot Szwarc or Roxann Dawson returning? Could you maybe talk a little bit about the selection process for directors in general? 

ANSWER: We are building the Season 2 director slate as we speak. There were only 5 directors in season 1, because we were block-shooting two episodes at a time. In season 2 we will not be block shooting and so there will be more directors. Yes, some of my old friends from HEROES and SMALLVILLE will be added to the rotation. Some directors from Season 1 will also be back, but a couple of them won’t be available because they are pursuing different projects.

In general, when selecting directors - myself, the Dreamworks executives ant the TNT executives put forth names of people we’ve worked with and like. If I’m really interested in someone – I call them personally and ask/beg them to hold a slot open for us. I am fortunate to have a good reputation of protecting and supporting directors and usually find that most want to work with me. The various agencies around town also call me and the Dreamworks team pitching suggestions of people we may not be familiar with.

If I’m not familiar with a director I will watch at least two samples of their work, and I will make numerous calls to other producers I know, for references. If the work is good and the references are good, they’ll get on our short list. All directors have to be cleared by Steven Spielberg as well. When we get down to a list of 10 or 12 I’ll either speak to him directly or write up a few sentences to him of why I’m advocating for them.

There is also a scramble to match directors to our available dates. Once we lock in our schedule our dates are set – we have to find directors that we not only like but who will work within our schedule. This is usually a mad scramble between us and every other TV show out there – as usually every show wants the same directors – Jeannot for instance did not have any availability for Season 2, because he always books up immediately and by the time we had our schedule (which was relatively late).

‪Chris

One thing I'd like to see improved is gun handling. Everyone does a great job of keeping fingers off triggers, but muzzle discipline needs work. I'm a certified firearms instructor and I cringe when I see the business end a gun waved past someone. Watch combat footage of guys in the field. I'm sure your armorers would be happy to help.

ANSWER: I don’t disagree and we’ll work on this. Dale Dye gets real annoyed when we don’t get this right and our armorers tried to be very attentive. The cast all got weapons training – but if we slip up it’s not because we weren’t trying – it’s usually because we’re working so fast and the actors are concentrating on hitting marks and memorizing dialogue. Since it’s not second nature to them they may slip up… I tell you what I’ll concentrate harder on this next season!

Anonymous from Australia

how did the non CGI skitters move around? Was someone inside a costume or were they remote controlled? Thanks for your blogs, I'm always so fascinated about what happens BTS to make my favourite shows!

ANSWER: Look at some of my earlier blogs for videoes from Todd Masters that explain exactly how the skitter was built and puppetted.

Basically, the skitter was a full-scale animatronic puppet. It took five people to operate it. One puppeteer was inside the suit and he controlled the body and the upper arms, as well as the direction the head faced. Two others had radio remote controls, which worked the various servos that operated the mouth, eyes and eyebrows and controlled the skitter’s face. Two others lay hunched on the ground or hidden behind objects on set to work the legs with rods. The puppeteer inside the skitter wore a green screen body suit so that if we ever saw his legs we could remove them digitally.

We were shooting in the summer and the guy inside the suit was buried beneath six inches of foam rubber. He was heating up quickly. Between takes, we had to stuff an air conditioner hose down the skitter's face. He could only go ten or fifteen minutes between takes – then he had to get a break. When they peeled him out of the suit between takes, sweat just poured onto the ground. He was a pretty skinny guy in the first place and I think he lost weight as we went.

Because of all this, whenever the live skitter worked - it was painfully slow working on set.

AND NOW SOME “SMALLVILLE”QUESTIONS:

‪Anonymous‬

Here's a Smallville question:  Which ship, if any, did you prefer, Clois, Clana, or Chlark?

ANSWER: You know, I don’t really think that way. As a filmmaker my job is to present the story in the best way I can as strongly as I can for the audience. It’s important to keep my own emotional feelings about the characters (and the actors by the way) out of the way so that I can work cleanly.

I have a question for you -- I know what a “ship” is by context – but where did that phrase come from?

If I think about this question more deeply I would say this: Clark’s relationship’s evolved as the series evolved… In the beginning the SMALLVILLE story was all about “Clana.” Clark and Lana were the central and most important story. As the show evolved, as Chloe became more important and as we learned how talented Alison Mack was – “Chlark” began to evolve… But, beginning with season 4 and certainly as the series aged “Clois” was the order of the day – and “Clois” is the future.

Truthfully, I enjoyed every one of these relationships for different reasons… To pick one would be like picking a favorite among my children…

And by the way – you didn’t mention “Clex?” Which leads us to:

‪Anonymous‬

First Greg, thank you so much for taking the time to answer the fans. A Smallville question. If I'm not mistaken, you came on board in S2. One of my favorite thing was the relationship between Clark and Lex. I've read that the homoerotic subtext between the 2 was purposefully put in there by the showrunners from the beginning. Is this true or was it all a fan creation?

ANSWER: First off, I came on board to direct episode 3 of Season 1 and never left. I was there for every episode from episode 3 through episode 101.

As for the other question – SMALLVILLE, at least in the early years, definitely had an erotic undercurrent. First of all, Tom Welling had an amazing Adonis-like body – so just taking his shirt of was erotic (for all sexes.) To be fair we stripped down a lot of young women as well. The sexuality reflected, for me at least, the overall passionate teenage-emotional approach to the show… Meaning the show was produced (again in the early years) from the emotional point of view of a teenager – our core audience at the time. It was erotic, but at the same time chaste. Everyone was a virgin. There were STRONG feelings of love and romance – but no overt sex was ever seen on screen, or even implied. There were many other themes at play in the series as well... Mythic, spiritual, religious and sociological. In fact, it was (in my opinion) these various strong forces – some of which were quite in conflict with each other - that allowed the viewers to see into the series numerous elements which resonated within their own lives and this in turn lead to it’s popularity and it’s longevity.

I always thought this was very smartly calculated by Miles and Al.

‪‪Anonymous‬

Mr. Beeman,  Thank you for taking questions. I always love reading your insights and commentary. My question focuses on SMALLVILLE: What is your most vivid memory of working with each of the actors (Tom, Michael, Erica, Kristin, Allison, Cassidy, Justin, Annette, John Schneider, John Glover, etc.)?

ANSWER: Eek – this question would take WAY too many pages to answer… Take it from me I have VERY fond memories of all of them on the very excellent experience I had on SMALLVILLE.

‪Anonymous‬

Hello Mr. Beeman, Any chance at having Allison Mack (Smallville) guest starring on Falling Skies? What are the brother's ages? Thanks.

ANSWER: There are no plans – but it’s a great idea! If a part comes up that seems right I would definitely push for Allison. I love her!!!

‪Anonymous‬

What did you think of the way Lana Lang's story on Smallville ended with her becoming a superhero? Did you think it took away from Clark's story?

ANSWER: That was after my time and I never saw those episodes. The truth is I followed SMALLVILE for a year after I left (Season 6) Then I didn’t watch. Not because I didn’t still love it – I just got busy.

‪Anonymous‬ from Australia

Hi Greg, thank you so much for offering to answer questions! We have not finished Falling Skies yet in Australia, we are up to Ep 8 ATM, so I can't wait to see how it ends! I'm a die hard Smallville fan (LOVED the pic of you in the S7 puffy jacket!) so I was wondering how different was it for you as a director to direct FS vs Smallville? FS seems grittier and had more outdoor scenes.

ANSWER: Good question. It is a very different experience. Partly for reasons I mentioned earlier. SMALLVILLE was very stylized and specific, both in how we shot it, how we lit it and the color/production design. I used to tell the Directors of Photography – “It’s like a jar of jellybeans.”

The performance style was also heightened. The emotions were (at least in the beginning) very teen-age… And by that I mean, they were very strongly felt – strong angst, strong love, strong anger, etc. The direction was very comic-booky with very dramatic low angles and high angles and big, big close-ups to feature the gorgeous cast.

Also, in editing SMALLVILLE was full of tricks, flash-frames, slow motion, flashbacks everything and anything was fair game stylistically, as long as it was cool!

FALLING SKIES, in contrast, is very real-time and almost documentary. We shoot every shot (almost) hand-held and try to minimize the amount of shots and coverage. We also try not to have matching sizes and traditional, methodical cutting patterns (master to medium to closeup, etc.) In fact one of Mr. Spielberg’s caveats to me was “No TV closeups.” The style, in general is meant to feel more immediate and less designed.

Also, the emotions are more adult and restrained. It’s less about strong feelings being shown and more about strong feelings being kept inside.

The one similarity, which I try to bring to every show – is blocking to camera and camera movement. I always love when the actors move and restage themselves in a scene and when the camera moves to capture them. SMALLVILLE however was more fluid, stedicams and crane shots – FALING SKIES is handheld and messy and documentary style.

I also love long takes and did them on SMALLVILLE (in the first five years when I was there) and I do them and encourage the other directors to do them on this show.

There is one scene I directed in FALLING SKIES that is more similar to SMALLVILLE than the others… It is the scene in hour 3 where Hal wakes up and sees Karen being dragged away and then the skitter and mech shoot the kids.

AND ONE LONELY “HEROES” QUESTION:

‪arzhang said...

so is"heroes" coming back or not?i'm done waiting:|

ANSWER: No. Sorry. Stop waiting.

ASK (BEEMAN) AND YE SHALL RECEIVE (AN ANSWER)

2011-08-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

(note: Here's a link to TNT's official website for FALLING SKIES):

Okay FALLING SKIES fans. Since this whole season just blasted by in eight short weeks... I thought it would be fun to do something else to keep the blog going a bit longer. (As we all agree next year is a long way off!)

So... I thought I could answer fan's questions about the show. I did this once before on HEROES and it went well.

A few caveats.... I don't have to answer every question, if they are off-point, or ranting, or asking me to spoil too much, or rude... Then I'm not considering them.

But if you have a serious question about FALLING SKIES, be it behind the scenes stuff, or reasonable stuff about the cast, or ideas you'd like throw out - I'd like to answer them or comment on them for you!

My favorite stuff is to answer questions about how we did stuff or why certain scenes were produced, written or directed in certain ways.

I'm also more than happy to answer general questions about directing, producing, acting and writing.

So... If you have a question about FALLING SKIES, or about any other show I've ever worked on (i.e. SMALLVILLE, HEROES or anything else) - lob them into the "COMMENTS" section below... When there's enough questions posted I'll respond in my next blog. Maybe in a week or two.

Until then....

Post your questions!!!!!

"MUTINY/EIGHT HOURS"

2011-08-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

(note: Here's a link to TNT's official website for FALLING SKIES):

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE - THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN!YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

The episodes that aired last Sunday were originally shot as individual episodes and TNT put them together to create the two-hour finale. Each was a significant undertaking in it’s own right.

Holly Dale
directed the first hour. Holly is a super-talented lady who worked for me before, directing a season 3 episodes of HEROES. She had come to my attention via the producers of the show COLD CASE – who love her and used her as often as they could. Her HEROES ep. worked out great and I’d been looking forward to working with her again ever since. She is a real pro and a “shooter” which means she shoots cool shots which are designed to be cut together. Her background, I believe, is as an editor and also (I believe) in documentaries. Holly fit right in with our group, and I’m hoping to have her back for next season!

Hour 9 of this series “MUTINY” was designed to be, what is known in the TV industry as, a “bottle” show. The name “Bottle show” implies a show that could be shot in a bottle. Bottle shows are very common – but tricky. Basically they are a designed “under budget” episode which producers use to make up the difference for all the over budget episodes that have gone before. This sounds restrictive – but frequently bottle shows end up great – because they become an “all hands on deck” situation where the writers and actors really step up because, consciously or unconsciously, everyone realizes there are no other tricks to fall back on. Years ago I directed many episodes of the CBS show “JAG” – some were very big – but I’ll always remember that one of the best ones I ever did was an under-budget bottle show called “JAGGLE BELLS” – it was just a well-written script with really emotional connections between the characters.

In this case our bottle was designed to shoot only at our school location, which was our most controllable and least expensive location. There were also no skitters, no mechs and no big stunts or action.

This episode had been planned for awhile and the writers kept describing it as a “Caine Mutiny” type story, where Tom challenged Weaver’s sanity and leadership.

Noah, Will, Mark Verhedien and I had has a number of meetings on set and a dinner or two discussing this one. In the end it paid off.   The script came in very strong, and Holly and the actors worked the scenes very hard – every day of shooting. It was certainly the most intense on-set rehearsals we ever did. The key scene of the episode and the one that was most discussed before shooting and on set – was the scene where Weaver enters the infirmary and Tom and gang get the drop on him, playing through to the time Jimmy comes out and begs Weaver to be rational. This was a very tricky scene dramatically, as each character had to move through a lot of nuance to credibly get to the stage where Tom and Weaver are re-united addressing the troops.

The ending montage where Weaver and the troops pull out was very important to Holly. It was the little bit of action she had to do and she had designed her schedule to shoot that scene in beautiful backlight. But – as these things do – numerous things went wrong, a camera broke, the air conditioning broke, an actor went home sick – etc. etc. And as she got out in the field behind the school – the sun had fallen and it was near dusk. It still was technically possible to film – but it was going to look like poop. It was in this moment, I remember – I had to make the gut wrenching decision to “pull the plug.” This is super hard because it meant the bottle was going to get bigger, as we’d now have to come back another day to get that scene. But I also knew that it was what was best creatively for the show. It was the ending of the episode after all – the penultimate moment.

Holly was very happy. The studio less so. But Holly promised me she’d make up the time on another day. And she did. We got an additional camera and filmed some small pickup scenes quickly – the light was perfect – Holly got her drive outs. Additional expenses were minimized – and (whew) I got off the hook.

It’s stressful making TV sometimes.

And now on to the episode I directed – The final hour – in fact the final “EIGHT HOURS”

The opening scene was very fun because Rick crawling on the ceiling was fun to produce. My career is funny to me these days because when something like this comes up I go “Oh yeah, I’ve done this before. Suresh crawled like a bug up a wall and ended up on the ceiling on HEROES and Clark was slammed and dragged onto the ceiling on SMALLVILLE. So I’ve done this before… But nevertheless this one ended up a little different. What we did is shoot over Uncle Scott’s shoulder into a green screen reacting to Rick…. What I thought we’d do is build the set upside down (which is what we did with Suresh) and have Rick jump up at camera. But our stunt coordinator and the young actor Daniyah Ysrayl– both wanted to build the set right side up and put him in a harness and have him descend rapidly at camera of a winch system. This is a much harder way to do it for the actor – but Daniyah was really into it. He practiced crawling around all day as we shot other material and when we came to shoot it he did it in just a few takes. It’s very tricky to pull this off because just being dropped and decelerated is enough for an actor to think about. When you add in “And act like a skitter screaming and scowling as you go…” It gets harder. I think the moment turned out well.

Episode 7 introduced us to new characters in the series – for reference we call the “The Overlords” (although they’re never referred to as that in the show.) These characters rule over the skitters and the mechs. We realize now that the skitters were once harnessed creatures themselves, from where, and what exactly the implications of that we do not know. Perhaps the skitters were captured and dominated by the overlords – perhaps not. Those questions will be answered in the future.
Nevertheless – the design and execution of these CGI creatures was one of the more difficult things we did. We did initial designs while in production. The overlord characters needed to be regal and dominant but also warriors. There was a design we all signed off on and looked good on paper – but when put into motion by Zoic, our VFX Company, they never looked right. They were too frail and too regal but not warrior-like enough. We also couldn’t get their walk or gestures right. We did, literally, a couple of dozen drafts and thought we were getting there. But, when Steven Spielberg saw the work-in-progress, he didn’t think it was good enough. He brought in Neville Page – a conceptual artist he had worked with in the past (most recently on SUPER-8).

Neville’s designs were really great. He got a fierceness that had been missing before.

We also accepted that we were going to have to do motion-capture to get this done right. This wasn’t in the budget so we had to eat it financially – but it was a much better way to do this.

I’d never done motion capture before and it is really cool. By the time we did it production in Toronto was long finished – so we went to a stage in Hollywood. It was very interesting. The motion-capture stage is basically and empty stage lined with dozens and dozens of “cameras” which, as far as I can tell, are motion detectors. There is a performer wearing a suit covered with sensors and as he moves the cameras pick up his movements and resolve them in 3-D space. The overlord character is programmed into the computer, so as the actor moves the character can be seen on a screen in front of you, replicating the actor’s movements. It was actually very easy to direct the actor, because I was watching in real time.   Anyway – I was very happy with the look of the CGI and the VFX lighting and everything that came together in the final moments of the episode. It was truly a long arduous journey, that we only completed a week or two before air – even though we’d filmed the scene 9 months earlier – but, to me, it was worth it.

Anyway – that’s the season!

It’s crazy to me – I got hired in April of 2010 and went to work full time in June of 2010. We shot from July through November of 2010. Editing, sound mixing, color correction and so on, wasn’t full-time for me but nevertheless took many hours until March of 2011. This final motion capture/overlord project required us coming back in June of 2010. The show aired June 19 and then… eight short weeks later it’s all over. Wow!

But it seems to have been a success.

Here’s an excerpt of an email all the producers received from TNT today:

Falling Skies Invades the World as a Massive Global Hit

Cable's Biggest New Series of the Year Captures 5.6 Million Viewers for U.S. Season Finale,
Making it the Most-Watched Episode Since the Series Premiere

Falling Skies Earns Big Audiences and Record-Setting Performances in Markets that Include
The United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Australia and Latin America

TNT’s Falling Skies – the #1 new basic cable series in the United States – ended its first season Sunday night with 5,623,000 viewers, plus an outstanding 2,531,000 adults 18-49 and 2,835,000 adults 25-54. These Live + Same Day deliveries mark the show’s best performance since the June 19 premiere. After scoring cable’s top new series launch of the year, Falling Skies ranks as basic cable’s #1 new show of 2011 among viewers and tops all scripted basic cable series this summer with adults 18-49 and 25-54. TNT has already renewed Falling Skies for a 10-episode second season, slated for 2012.

Falling Skies – which stars Noah Wyle and comes to TNT from DreamWorks Television, TNT Productions and executive producer Steven Spielberg – also premiered in markets worldwide this summer, marking the first time a TNT series was launched around the globe. The series will ultimately appear in more than 115 international markets on a variety of networks. Falling Skies has been a hit in the United Kingdom, Australia and Latin America, among many other places. Falling Skies set records in numerous markets, including Spain, Germany and Austria, where the premiere ranked as the best series launch ever for TNT networks in those countries.

So… hey… That’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.

And now I am starting to hire crew and set up production offices and stages for Season 2. Outlines are coming in – and they promise to be full of surprises.

Thank you all for reading and watching and following along.

I’m sure there will be the odd blog update or two between now and next season… But, until then…

PICTURES!!!!!!!

D.P. CHRIS FALOONA AND DIRECTOR OF "MUTINY" HOLLY DALE

WILL PATTON - A LONELY LEADER

MARK VERHEIDEN, COMIC-CON CONTEST WINNER JEFFERSON WOO AND MYSELF

DANIYAH AND NOAH

SARAH CARTER AND DREW ROY

SKITTERS IN THE MIST (BOY WE GOT LUCKY THIS DAY THE WEATHER WAS PERFECTLY GLOOMY AND MISTY AND BEAUTIFUL FOR THIS CREEPY SCENE)

WILL AND THE GANG AFTER (LITERALLY) SEVENTEEN HOURS OF SHOOTING ON OUR SECOND-TO-LAST DAY

TWO OF OUR FINEST BACKGROUND PLAYERS - DON'T MESS WITH THEM!!!

BRLLIANT PRODUCTION DESIGNER ROB GRAY

ME IN THE RUBBLE

COLLIN CUNNINGHAM FROM A SCENE THAT WAS OMITTED

HOW YOU MAKE DESTRUCTION ON A BUDGET!

NOAH AND COLLIN

MS. MOON

LAST DAY OF FILMING IS KIND OF LIKE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL - LAUGHS TEARS AND HUGS!

SARAH AND I

PAPARAZZI COME OUT ON THE LAST DAY (WELL, CREW WITH CAMERAS)

MOON, SEYCHELLE AND DANIYAH (THREE MORE ALL-AMERICAN NAMES YOU COULD NOT FIND!)

I INSTRUCT DANIYAH IN THE WAYS OF THE SKITTER

THE GANG!

ME AND THE LADIES!!!! (NOTICE THE "SMALLVILLE" JACKET!)

AND THEN - NOAH SHAVED THE BEARD HE'D HAD GROWN ALL THOSE MONTHS AGO

ANOTHER LONELY LEADER

LINKS:

Neville Page

Holly Dale

FALLING SKIES - HOUR 8 - "WHAT LIES BENEATH"

2011-08-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

(note: Here's a link to TNT's official website for FALLING SKIES):

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE - THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN!YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

Well, better late than never – here’s the post for last week’s “What Lies Beneath.”

Sorry it took so long to get up but I have been JAAAAAMMMED and crazy. I was directing the first episode (after pilot) of ABC’s new series "Once Upon a Time", which is a very big, very elaborate very beautifully designed series. I was shooting until about 4am on Saturday morning. Then I flew home to Los Angeles. I had a writing project due to producers on Monday morning – so I had to blast through that over the weekend. Then, Monday morning 8am I started prep of my next short-term assignment – a new, very well written TV series called PERCEPTION. Meanwhile – I’ve also been in Vancouver beginning to hire a new crew and setting directors for season 2 of FALLING SKIES. Plus – my family hadn’t seen me in a few weeks, so I had to make time for them – as, after all, they ARE the most important thing in my life and the only reason I do all this other silliness is to support and care for their well-being!

All of which is a long-winded excuse for why it took me a couple of extra days to get the blog up -- I couldn’t find the two or three hours needed to write it until today!!!! But I am sorry – Besides my family – the fans who watch the show are, to me, the next most important thing. Without you guys the shows I work on would have no reason to exist!

Last weeks episode was directed by Anthony Hemingway – Anthony had worked with me on season 3 of HEROES, and had done a great job. He is a smart, even-tempered guy who is thoughtful and thorough. He began as an assistant director and first moved up on HBO’s THE WIRE, and has gone on to direct shows like TRUE BLOOD and TREME (Where is the in house Supervising Producer-Director.) He seemed to me a natural fit for FALLING SKIES.

This episode brings in Blair Brown – who many of you know from FRINGE. Blair and I had worked together on one of the favorite SMALLVILLE episode’s I directed “LINEAGE” in Season 2. Blaire is very good friends with John Glover (aka Lionel Luthor). They both do a lot of theatre in NYC and are friends for many years. Sooo - when the role of Sonya in this episode came up I called John for her phone number. I called her and imposed upon her to take this part and she was kind enough to accept. I think she does very nice work as a very disturbed character.

This episode really feature Will Patton – and I haven’t talked enough about him in these pages. Will’s character – Weaver, believe it or not, was originally going to die at the end of the pilot. But, once cast, Will made the character so compelling that TNT and Mr. Spielberg wanted to keep him going – and eventually he became Noah Wyle’s main foil and antagonist in the series. One of the things I love about television is the living, breathing quality it has. When an actor works in a way that wasn’t originally planned – the stories and the series can adapt to make them fit.

Will is, to put it mildly, a very intense man. I don’t know if he would describe himself as a method actor, but he certainly throws himself into his role. I used to joke to him that it might not be safe to stay in character on and off set for the whole 6 months it took to shoot the show! But, as far as I can tell, he did.

I kid, of course. Will is a man who cares deeply about his performance and about the nuances of the story. He has a heart of gold and I came to love him. He was very interested, very early on with knowing where his character was going and what his history was. Early on, I didn’t know, and neither (other than broad strokes) did the writers. Eventually, Graham Yost and Mark Verheiden came up with the idea that Weaver had lost his daughter and his family, but they didn’t know the details.

Mark had been heavily involved with all the scripts up to now, but this is the first one he wrote in full. Mark, in my experience, is very good with creating the emotion around very personally tormenting situations. And, in this script, he really dug into Weaver’s torment around the loss of his family before the invasion, and the fatal mistake he made in trying to remove his daughter’s harness.

Will jumped at the opportunity to play these scenes. He made it clear early on that he didn’t just want to be stuck behind a desk, barking orders – and we’d gotten him out from that role a few times – like when he came into the field and shot a few skitter-traitor-bad guys last week.

When it came time to play the scene where Weaver, with too much to drink, tells his tragic story – both he and Noah really came to play. We did a number of takes – Will didn’t know how drunk or how un-drunk to play the scene. Even though we shot those scenes late into the night on a cold Friday, Anthony and the producers had budgeted time to let Will play and experiment. We did many takes with varying degrees of drunkenness, anger and remorse – and some with a cold unfocused thousand-yard-stare. Noah responded with subtle differences to each of these changes. It was quite exciting to watch these actors play – and I will say, that in the editing room – this scene provided SO many choices and options that it took a very long time and many experimentations to arrive at the version you saw the other night. I think we played with this scene more and longer than any other scene in the series.

Again, I would like to tip my hat to Mr. Wyle’s craft. He is, perhaps, the best on-screen “listener” I’ve ever worked with. As much as we edited and played with Will’s various performances, we played with Noah’s reactions. Timing where and when to cut to Noah reacting to the story made HUGE emotional differences in the scene. I almost wish I could teach a class some day using the raw footage from this scene because it would show the many, many ways that a scene can change in broad and subtle ways by choosing performance and reaction moments and choosing when to play a scene on which actor.

Of course, this episode also re-introduces Karen who was abducted in our third hour. Jessy Schram is a great fun young woman who is VERY well loved by the rest of the cast. Everyone was so happy to see her back and the timing worked out that she got to go to the wrap party and have a lot of fun with us!!!! Without spoiling too much - now that she's been re-introduced, her role in the series is not done!?!

We also introduce a new set of characters we call “The Overlords” – many out there have speculated that the skitters were not really the ones in charge – and this episode sets this idea into focus and into motion. I will go into more detail about this next week…

My plan, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise, is to have next weeks blog out at the usual time – Until then!!!!!

DIRECTOR ANTHONY HEMINGWAY

ANTHONY AND NOAH

SKITTER - IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER

EEEW!

ANTHONY STAGES THE SKITTER AUTOPSY

A VIEW FROM BEHIND THE SCENES

WILL PATTON - COOL AS CAN BE!

OUR DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS FALOONA

"A" CAMERA OPERATOR MICHAEL SOOS (A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE SHOW'S LOOK), MR. WYLE AND "A" CAMERA FIRST ASSISTANT (FOCUS PULLER) RYAN GILLARD

JESSY'S BACK IN TOWN

MS. SHRAM - THE SKITTER'S MOST BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE

THE HARNESS - SHE GLOWS!!!!

DREW, WILL AND NOAH BETWEEN TAKES

NOAH AND MOON

WILL NOAH AND OUR SCRIPT SUPERVISOR MAGGIE CRAIG REVIEW A TAKE AT THE MONITORS

FROM AN EARLIER EP... SKITTERKILL!!!

LINKS:

Anthony Hemingway

True Blood

The Wire

Treme

Blair Brown

SMALLVILLE – Lineage

Will Patton

John Glover

Mark Verheiden

Jessy Schram

FALLING SKIES - "SANCTUARY: PART 2"

2011-07-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

(note: Here's a link to TNT's official website for FALLING SKIES):

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE - THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN!YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

The story of the story:

Pardon the lack of objectivity, but last night’s episode is one of my personal favorites so far.

As I’ve said before – most of the stories were pitched to myself and the other producers early on. But, because this story had less aliens, explosions and action than many of the earlier ones, I, truthfully, was less focused on it early on.

I know that everyone out there has different opinions about what works or doesn’t work for them about this series. I love blowing up skitters and directing action – But, in the end, for me, the human story, that asks, “Could I maintain my morality under all conditions?” is what most intrigues me. This episode’s story – even though there are no aliens in it at all – asks that with great specificity. When Mike is asked to betray everyone he knows and everything he’s stood for, in order to keep his son and himself safe – the stakes of this world are clearly drawn.

Mike's final stand, played stoically by Toronto actor Martin Roach, shows the choice that he makes. He will sacrifiice himself rather than betray humanity.

When we first got the script for this one, I was very impressed. It just felt to me like a great, kind of old-fashioned, tale. The dramatic through-line is clear, the tension is clear, the bad guys have made evil choices, but these choices are grounded in a situational reality. And the stakes are very, very high. I also think it was a very bold choice to create a story that centered on the kids and, specifically, Hal and Ben. Many times what happens within a story ends up being paralleled with what’s happening behind the scenes. In this case Drew Roy and Connor Jessup had to step up and drive the “A” story – in the same way that their characters have to figure out how to save themselves and keep the group alive without their father’s help.

I also loved the way Pope escapes and then returns into the story. His character is obviously more complex, with a thread of integrity that hasn’t been previously seen.

It was also, for me, a bold choice to have Noah's character, Tom, be essentially, peripheral for most of the episode. It was interesting to me, as a film maker that even though he is in (what we call) the "B" story for most of the episode... His entrance into the show in (what we call) the 4th act still creates a very strong presence in the episode. Tom (and Noah) is still strongly felt as the hero when he comesand saves the day.

Finding the locations:

There were two key locations to find for this one. The first was “The sanctuary” where Terry Clayton and his 7^th Massachusetts survivors have found refuge. The other was the upscale neighborhood where our kids take over a house to rest, and where the showdown takes place.

The first was tough to find creatively and the latter was tough to find technically.

Our needs were specific for “sanctuary.” It needed to be a large building or series of buildings where we could believe a few dozen people were living. It had to feel isolated in the countryside with woods adjacent. It had to have a flat grassy area for our soccer game. And it had to feel beautiful and serene.

It also had to be within 50 miles of downtown Toronto, as to go further than that would make production endure excessive travel costs, as negotiated by the local trade unions that work in the film business.

These are a lot of specs to fit together. We saw three or four places – one was an old spa/retreat which had beautiful grounds, but which was too modern with rooms that were too small. The second was, to me perfect, it was a big sprawling farmhouse out in the country with a large open-floor-plan main house and a big barn, with horses and animals surrounded by gorgeous mountains. The problem with this place was that it was outside of the just-mentioned 50-mile- “zone.” I ran numbers on the costs with our line producer but they were prohibitive.

The place we chose was a compromise. It had the most geographic requirements, but to me it looked too much like a sportsman’s lodge with its log walls and so on. Our production designer, Rob Gray assured me that he could re-dress it to look less like a hunter’s cabin and more homey. I’d grown to trust him greatly by now, and was sure he could do it. It also didn’t have the barn where Pope was being housed and where Mike discovers the folded children’s clothes. So we found a second location that had the barn we needed. Splitting this one space into two locations created scheduling challenges, because on top of everything else, all of the children in the episode can only work limited number of hours. Children under 16 can only work 9 hours a day and can only work until midnight on non-school nights – but at the time we were shooting in Toronto it didn’t get dark until 9pm. 9 hours of night a night was not enough.

All of these technical/scheduling challenges were a bit of a Rubik’s cube for us – we had to find photo doubles for the kids and we set a few kids who were over 18 and looked younger. Mark Verheiden and the other writer’s had to make some compromises too, such as writing more scenes for day and writing the kids out of some scenes. (For instance, in the first draft ALL of the action at the neighborhood house was set at night.)

Many times in this business, I’ve learned I have to compromise and often the compromises work out for the better. The huntsman’s lodge, I think, has a very good feeling in the end. And staging the neighborhood action as day, created a great scenario in which the children had walked all night – which, I think, helped the story. (I also loved the way Sergio staged that moment in a big wide shot with the sleepy kids walking through the desolate street covered by leaves and trash.)

The neighborhood was a challenge to find, only because we had to completely own it. Also, creatively, we wanted to set the action scenes in a high-end neighborhood. It felt ironic for the kids to occupy these big formerly expensive mansions in this post-alien-invasion world.

Rob Gray had the idea that the main house Hal and gang take over, was having of a child’s birthday party, when, for whatever reason, everyone fled. The cake, now moldy, the party favors, and everything else is still there – six months later. I love that detail. We didn’t really see it on camera – but there was even a deflated jumpy-pit out the window.

Direction:

I know that direction in series TV is sometimes hard to discern. With the same cast and crew and writers every week it feels like the directors should be pretty interchangeable. But, take it from me, their influence is very important and varied. True, it may be subtle, but I always feel that the director’s personality ends up on the film.

As I mentioned in the last blog, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan was Steven Spielberg’s long-time assistant director. We hired him to block-shoot last week and this week’s episode. (Which means we scheduled and shot scenes from both at the same time – which is unusual.)

I’m not sure if Sergio was trying to step it up for his old boss. He had also just finished a year-long project directing "The Pillars of the Earth". But, in either case, his vision was strong and he was very in-command both on and off the set. Overall, I think his work is exceptional in this episode. Truly it is mistake free. The camera is in the right place at the right time throughout, to maximize the storytelling and the emotion.

A couple of examples from my (directorial) point of view:

First of all – if you’ve been reading this blog – you know that I love “oner’s” and consider them an important part of the show’s style. (A one’r is a scene done in one long unbroken take with no “coverage” or additional shots.) This idea originally came from Mr. Spielberg who referenced the movie CHILDREN OF MEN as a touchstone for this series. Besides the comparable dystopia, Children of Men is notable for it’s long, long takes. Anyway in this episode, Sergio did two that are really nice.

The first is a scene in the Sanctuary’s kitchen between a numbers of characters, as vegetables are washed and food is prepped. It has a beautiful flow to it and moves seamlessly from character to character. The shot’s design, for me, creates a feeling of camaraderie and comfort, of casual busy-ness and of hominess. I don’t think, at first viewing, one would even notice that there are no edits.

The second one’r takes place in the house that our kids have occupied, about halfway through the episode. It follows Hal as he walks around the house, taking in the dust and the birthday cake. What I like about this very-well-designed shot is, in contrast to the earlier one which established a feeling of “group” – this shot is very much from Hal’s POV. Everyone else in the house is occupied with other activities, playing “battleship” and so on. Hal is watching, thinking and planning. We sense his growing leadership, and the design of the shot enhances this. Even when he’s in conversation with Lourdes, we are still feeling the environment as he sees it.

OK that’s enough for now – we have one more installment in the Todd Masters narrated “How to build a skitter” and then photos from behind the scenes.

HOW TO BUILD A SKITTER: PART 4

DIRECTOR SERGIO GAZZEN DISCUSSES SCENE WITH D.P. CHRIS FALOONA

Click here for:
Henry Czerny 's impressive resume

MR. WYLE

SNEAKING UP ON MS. BLOODGOOD

MARTIN ROACH, AS MIKE, GAVE IT HIS ALL FOR THE 2nd MASS. ONE LAST TIME THIS WEEK (YOU SHALL BE MISSED!)

COLLIN CUNNINGHAM AS POPE
(little known fact: writer Graham Yost named "Pope" after, famously-intelligent, friend-to-the-writer, former NBC President, now producer Katherine Pope)

SARAH, MOON BLOODGOOD & MELISSA KRAMER (another interesting note: we hired a real pregnant lady to stand in for Melissa for a few "across-the-belly" shots)

ME AND MY SKITTER

MOON AND OUR POPULAR ON-SET MEDIC LINDSEY SOMERS (she took care of boo-boos)

THIS IS RAJ. SHE WAS ONE OF OUR ASSISTANT DIRECTORS. SHE SAVED OUR A** EVERY DAY. IF YOU'RE SHOOTING A SHOW IN TORONTO - TRY TO HIRE HER!!!!

SERGIO WATCHES A TAKE ON SET

DANIYAH AND SEYCHELLE (THEY COULD HAVE A CONTEST FOR WHOSE NAME IS HARDER TO SPELL)

A SKITTER'S GOTTA EAT!

(Dare I say it? -- "Tastes like chicken!")

links:

Sergio Mimica-Gezzan

Henry Czerny

"The Pillars of the Earth"

Children of Men

HOUR 6 - "SANCTUARY: PART ONE"

2011-07-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

(note: Here's a link to TNT's official website for FALLING SKIES):

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE - THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN!YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

FALLING SKIES – WEEK 5 – “SANCTUARY: PART 1"

Hey - for all you going to the San Diego Comic-Con, FALLING SKIES will be there with a panel. Sadly, I won't be there as I'm working on a project out of town right now.

The following is a rundown of TNT’s Falling Skies activities at Comic-Con:

Falling Skies Panel: Friday, July 22, 3:15-4:15 p.m. in Room 6BCF – Series stars Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Colin Cunningham and Sarah Sanguin Carter will join executive producers Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank and co-executive producer and writer Mark Verheiden for a Q&A panel session to be moderated by TV Guide Magazine editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum. The panel discussion will include never-before-seen clips from upcoming episodes.

Falling Skies Autograph Session: Friday, July 22, 5-6 p.m. at the Dark Horse Comics booth – All six Falling Skies cast members and co-executive pro ducer and writer Mark Verheiden will be on-hand to sign autographs following the panel session.

The story so far

Tonight’s episode is interesting because it was always conceived my Graham Yost, Mark Verheiden and the writers as a two-part story. The first aired last night. The second comes next week. Sergio Gazzen, the director directed both parts.
It was one of the first episodes that the writer’s conceived of – and I heard the basic story at my very first meeting with the writers. But the story got pushed back in the series, because a lot of other things had to be established first.

It examines a very interesting idea – what would you do if – in a situation like the one the second Mass. faces where your children were in constant danger – someone came along and said that they could keep your children safe if you just turned them over to them.
This is, obviously, something hard to conceive of doing. And when Noah Wyle, who is a father, got the script – he wanted to really address this issue and worked with the writers to build up that story, and the discussion until it felt to him that he, as a father, was at the point where he felt he could give his kids up.

Of course, the idea was that the skitter attack, which almost kills Jimmy was the selling point (by the way, did you like the moment where the skitter picked up the globe of the earth and crushed it? I did. It was in the very first outline for the script and it just seemed… cool.)

Of course, the story Terry Clayton of the 7th Mass tells doesn’t unveil as he says. The ending on the page is chilling to me. On a "How could anyone do that level?" Well - more will be revealed next week.

Two things I loved in the script, that just seemed smart to me – (1) is how we reprise Eli the kid from the beginning of the episode. And (2) How Pope re-appears at the end in a very unexpected way. I think most of us thought he was gone from the story when he rode off that motorcycle a few weeks ago - it's fun to have him back.

I discussed at length with the director that the audience had to recognize Eli. I made sure we open with a big close-up of him – and we decided to put him in a strong red coat to catch the eye (we don’t use red a lot in the series and I thought it would make him stand out.
The second to last scene were the creepy skitter girl, Meagan, takes Eli away was eerie on the page and I think Sergio, the director, did an excellent job of presenting it.

One of the keys was casting Megan. This was a new concept for us that the skitters can communicate through harnessed kids. Rick had done it a little, but now this was with authority and command. Needless to say, we auditioned a lot of young girls for this part and worked hard, experimenting with what speech inflections and cadence and tone of voice worked. The skitters seem pretty unemotional, and after some trial and error it seemed that Megan should be played casually, not-robotic, but still basically with and even cadence and a calm tone of voice. It seemed appropriate for a little annoyance and authority to come out when Clayton second-guesses her.

But beyond all the mechanics we had to have a girl who naturally had an ethereal, other-worldly quality to her. That came when Niamh Wilson walked in. She’s a young lady, I think thirteen-years-old, from Toronto who has a little acting experience. But for me, starting with her cool Gaelic name – she just embodied this part.
Anyway – if you liked tonight’s episode stay tuned because I think next week’s conclusion is one of our very best.

Tonight’s director:

For last night’s “SANCTUARY: PART 1” and next week’s “SANCTUARY: PART 2” we brought in Sergio Mimica-Gezzan as director.

Sergio had directed two episodes of HEROES for me (although one, only half-completed during the writer’s strike, never aired.) Besides being a great director, there is an especially interesting aspect to him, as regards FALLING SKIES – because for many years he was Steven Spielberg’s first assistant director.

If you don’t know what a first A.D. does, they are the director’s right hand man (or woman)- they take the written script and break it down, organize it, schedule and plan how to shoot it and in general help actualize the director’s vision.

He was the assistant director on eight Spielberg movies beginning with Schindler's List, including Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park and many others.

Here is his resume:

Sergio Mimica-Gezzan

Steven Spielberg gave Sergio his first break as a director on the TV series TAKEN. But between then and now, he had never worked for his old boss.

Now, when working with him before, during HEROES, if found that Sergio is a very intense and focused guy – and he stays extremely on point on his script. I, on the other hand, am a goofy and always cracking joke. For me, Sergio always represented a special challenge – because not only could I never get him to laugh… I could never get him to do anything besides think about and talk about whatever episode he was prepping or shooting.
But finally, on this series, I got him to open up a bit about his experiences on all of those movies and I gained a little insight into Mr. Spielberg’s thought process and approach to film making.
According to Sergio, when Steven Spielberg was about to do “Schindler’s List,” he made the decision to hire an all-European crew. He interviewed Sergio (I think in Croatia or Czechoslovakia) and hired him because he had done a European movie involving Nazi concentration camps in World War II. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski was hired in this same process, and both went on to be long-time collaborators with Mr. Spielberg after that.

This gave Sergio a unique opportunity. He worked side-by-side with Mr. Spielberg for many years and got to learn from him first hand.
One of the key instructions Mr. Spielberg gave me upon being hired was “No TV close-ups.”

This was a bit new to me because, first of all, I like big close-ups (If you know my previous shows SMALLVILLE and HEROES – both were known for their big low-angle close-ups, which filled the frame from just above the actor’s eyebrows to just below the frame.) In fact, before this show my mantra, which I impressed upon other directors, was “See the faces. See the spaces.” I always preferred a mix of big cinematic wide-shots with big fill-the-frame close-ups. (Both those series were also notable for being shot almost exclusively in very low-angles!) My other mantra has always been “Move the camera!” Now as a producer/director I’ve had to accept that some directors can follow my instructions better than others – its just part of the game… But I digress.

I was excited to try a new approach on this series and have tries to implement both long takes, and looser shots and less traditional, more documentary-style coverage. But with Sergio I tried to get a sense of why Mr. Spielberg feels this way.
He said that, Mr. Spielberg believes that believes that the audiences need to become partners in the filmmaking process. That he wants them to have to choose and decide where they want to be look and what they want to look at.

This, of course, goes against all television convention. Most shows out there use the occasional wide r medium shot and then a relentless series of close-ups to control and direct the script and make you look only wherever the creators choose. Frankly, to direct this way is quite dull.

I’ll tell you, though, it is very tough to do it the other way. When you’re doing long takes and shots with multiple people in the frame at the same time – it means everything has to be working in the shot all at the same time. Every actor has to ‘on” as do all of the technicians behind the scenes.

Ben and Rick:

We had an interesting problem with both Daniyah Ysrayl and Connor Jessup who, respectively, play, the strange de-harnessed, Rick and Tom’s middle son.

Normally, when it comes time to cast an actor we producer/directors bring them in and they read the scenes from the script we’re about to make. But both of these actors appeared in very early episodes, but only in a harnessed, zombie-like state. Because the writer’s had outlined the season for us early on, we knew that, eventually, they would both be playing important roles with lots of dialogue and acting required.

So, knowing this, I asked the writer’s in L.A. to mock up a scene – one that would have varied emotion in it. The writer’s wrote a very interesting scene between Anne and Ben, where he displayed conflicting emotions about being back and missing his skitter family. It’s interesting in retrospect because this exact scene never ended up in any script, but certain “Rick” lines and certain “Ben” lines did end up scattered throughout the season in various places.Any way – by this episode, both of them are doing a lot more and, I think both are doing well. Both are really nice kids, by the way – with very nice parents.

And Now - Part 3 of "How to Make A Skitter" (narrated by skitter-maker Todd Masters)

SERGIO GEZZAN and COLLIN CUNNINGHAM

NIAMH WILSON PLAYED THE SPOOKY SKITTER GIRL AT THE END OF THE EPISODE

SEYCHELLE GABRIELLE AND CINEMATOGRAPHER CHRIS FALOONA

DREW ROY

TRES AMIGOS

THE SKITTER-LAD DANIYAH YSRAEL

WOUNDS ARE APPLIED TO MR. WYLE

THE NAME'S POPE - JOHN POPE

GOOD PALS MOON AND SEYCHELLE

THE ACTION IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!