Jack Marshall played Scotty in their 'Come What May' pilot but by now I'm used to the cast changes! A few small misses but most I have enjoyed in their roles. I admit from New Voyages, Phase II and Continues I could put together my 'dream team' fan cast
Yes, there has now been nearly complete turnover. The exceptions (such as they are) are Nurse Chapel--who has been played by only one New Voyages/Phase II actress (Shannon Giles a.k.a. Shannon Quinlan). (We've been able to avoid recasting that role by not having the character scripted in any recent episodes.) The other exception is Jay Storey who has played Lieutenant Kyle in, I think, every episode since our pilot "Come What May." And, yes, Jack Marshall played Scotty in that same pilot episode. In another oddity, look for Dr. John Kelley in a role other than McCoy in that same first episode. (He was cast as a walk-on redshirt in the opening scenes before we had decided to also have him be McCoy as well. Look for him in this "dual role.")
No mention of Chekov? (the latest guy last seen in Kitumba is pretty good, but Andy Bray is still the best Pavel, including STC's)
It was Walter Koenig himself who recommended Andy Bray to NV after seeing him in a stage recreation of Spock's Brain.
What I've always heard is that you don't need to mention the camera in most situations. All you have to do is describe something and the reader will create a mental shot of it. And this is the problem with over describing things. When I read a line describing the speckled linoleum that's what I see in my mind, a shot of nothing but linoleum. Some months ago I was reading the script for In Thy Image and it did include excessive direction, especially for the actors, and it got quite annoying. If I was acting in or directing that script I would have felt like the writer didn't trust me to do my job.
I probably need to address this more specifically in the Fan Film Writers Primer thread (link), but camera direction in a script is something of a holdover from the old studio system when the standard was a "continuity script", which was much more specific about shots and angles and coverage for assembly-line type production (even if the directors and cinematographers ignored them). As the studio system broke down scripts were packaged differently and became more "sales documents" to attract talent to a project and thus became a lot less technical and more readable. A lot of that is covered in this nice segment of Filmmaker IQ:
Oops. And Ron Boyd. So far DeSalle is a character that only Ron Boyd has portrayed. Ron has also been with us since our first episode. So far, like Christine Chapel, we simply alter the script so DeSalle doesn't appear if Ron is unavailable.
One quick revisit to the topic of level of detail in a shooting script: Of course one thing that Peter Lance did not do here as he adapted his novel was to specify the exact angles for each of the shots. Since he doesn’t know the locations, the casting, or what the director might possibly have in mind he leaves that to the director, production designer and cinematographer to create and fill in. Sometimes the writer may have a very specific idea for a shot and will detail the idea in the script like a handheld shot, a low angle, a steadicam shot or a tracking shot but as a general practice, it’s wiser to leave this detailing of shots until later in the filmmaking process. Nothing is more annoying to a director than scripts where the writer has dictated every angle before anyone knows what the locations look like or how the scene will be staged. John Badham On Directing: Notes from the Set of Saturday Night Fever, War Games, and More, 2012
^^^ Not a screenwriter, but this discussion is fascinating. I have to admit I'm sorry to hear that John Kelley won't be in "Mind Sifter". Kim Stinger obviously wasn't going to be back as Uhura, but I was hoping with the re-shooting of this episode that John would become available. Is this a one-episode thing or has John moved on for good?
Doc John has packed up with the wife and kid and relocated indefinitely to New Zealand. I think our new Dr. McCoy will be with us for some time to come.
WOW! Well, if you're trying to get away from it all, New Zealand is a pretty darn good start. I wish him and his family the best, and look forward to getting to know your new Dr. McCoy.
PattyW, you seem to have messed-up quote tags in your post, which you might want to edit the post to fix. It seems like you intend to be responding to Maurice, even though the messed-up quote tags make it hard to tell that for sure.
Patty does raise an interesting point regarding scripts for fan productions: when dealing with a largely non-pro cast and crew, how much can you expect them to grok a set of industry standard production documents? My experience is the more detail that's written into a script, the more people skim it to find what the consider relevant to them, so they end up missing much of the help you tried to write in. I think, perhaps, the answer is just to be exceptionally clear about things that may not be obvious to the untrained. As a for-instance, using parentheticals to clue the actor into what the character is thinking about at that moment, rather than telling them how do deliver the line. The obvious way is to write this... ANNIE (sarcastic) He's a really nice guy. But, you can clue the actor in by indicating what the character means... ANNIE (he's an ass) He's a really nice guy. ...or by what she's thinking... ANNIE (remembers last night's drunken come-on) He's a really nice guy. It's always case by case. As to camera angles, as I've said elsewhere, a writer can indicate a suggested POV or angle without spelling it out. Like... What camera angle does that suggest to you? Probably not a wide shot.
yeah, I mentioned the same thing with the example "we see hands operate the transporter console". In "Kitumba" there was a scene that read something like "two pairs of boots pick their way across the darkened ground. They stop for an instant. A Klingon warrior falls to the ground next to them." It resulted in the director doing the complete scene in a wide angle and the entire glorious scenery around the characters were seen in full detail. (of course, no matter how you word a script, a director can always CHOOSE to ignore what the writer sees. In fact, it's one of the things that "take the script to the next level" - and why I believe it's usually a bad idea for a writer to direct their own work. It doesn't allow the piece to grow with another's take on it. In the end, I guess my reaction was to throw my hands up and say "wth -it's just a script for a fanfilm", and the more stuff I put in the less time I spent doing acting exercises with people or picking out paint colors.