"He Walks Among Us"-- lost Spinrad script
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
- Start date
No. But how hard could it be?
Isn't an amateur fan film the perfect playground to test your aspirational directing chops?
That's pretty much our thinking. While we do want to generate a good product, and while we hope that every episode we do is better than the one before it, we also know that as a fan film production, the bar might be set a bit lower than in a full professional production.
The trade-off is that while our director might not have all the practical experience we'd like, he certainly comes with an unequaled understanding of the source material and of the writer's intent. And who knows: maybe he's an undiscovered directing genius.
We're reasonably happy with how things turned out on "Blood and Fire" with first-time director David Gerrold. I'm pretty confident that this will all work out with "He Walked Among Us," too.
Surprisingly, for some people.
So, who's going to play the Milton Berle part?
That is very cool! I look forward to watching the episode. Keep up the great work GSchnitzer. The show is awesome
It's a little difficult to tell 45 years later at exactly what point in the scripting process this story was contemplated as being a vehicle for Milton Berle. In reading the First Draft of Mr. Spinrad's original script, it describes the guest character of Dr. Theodore Bayne:
"Scene 23: ANGLE TOWARD THRONE
"As Bayne enters. Dressed in flowing robes, looking quite
regal, Bayne is a largish, heavy man of great dignity...and
just as obviously a Negro from earth."
So it doesn't look like Spinrad's original script actually was intended for Mr. Berle. it was probably only the Coon rewrite version that introduced that aspect.
I don't know what we'll do for casting. It's still pretty early in the pre-production process, and I haven't heard what the director's thoughts are on casting.
Hm. Well, I don't know if I can do it justice....
A kook (well, McCoy calls him a "nut")--something like C.W. Post--crash lands on a primitive planet and sets himself up as the planet's "god," telling all the inhabitants the "right" kind of society to have. He's also a pawn between two warring factions. The Enterprise is sent to get him and haul him in for violating the Prime Directive. But by this time, he's instantiated so thoroughly that removing him will cause even more damage. So Kirk is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
It's maybe something like "Patterns of Force" but also a bit like the DS9 episode "Prophet Motive." Personally, I thought Kirk's sneaky resolution was similar to "Devil's Due."
There's a subtext of "we're not wise enough to monkey around with other societies" that you would expect for a Prime Directive story--as well as the dichotomy between secularism and religion.
I've always imagined that blended with Louie the Lilac, my only real exposure to Milton Berle.
While I think it's great that Phase: II wants to give those who haven't directed the opportunity to do so, especially Mr. Spinrad and Mr. Gerrold, there's a bit of naivety being expressed.
As Maurice pointed out, directing can be surprisingly hard for some. To jump into it cold is risky, unless you surround yourself with knowledgeable people, a good A.D. for example, that can help you along the way. Or do your homework. Take Jonathan Frakes. He studied for nearly two years before he directed "The Offspring", spending his time outside of the rigors of his 16 hour workday as an actor to shadow directors, attend production meetings, and sit in the editor bay.
Having been part of a small film project, there are tons of things that go into directing than pointing a camera and saying "action" — which I'm sure the folks at Phase:II are aware of in spades. There's framing the shot, the composition of the shot, the delivery of the actors, the set-ups, the lighting, matching eye lines ... etc.
That being said, I look forward to Mr. Spinrad's efforts and am glad that he'll be able to see his story finally come to light, camera, action!
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Well, just to be clear, my "how hard could it be" comment was extremely tongue-in-cheek. I actually do know how hard it can be--and I think our little fan production is the perfect place to give Mr. Spinrad a chance to direct.
I got that it was tongue-in-cheek, but "there's no inflection in ASCII" as we used to say, so I wanted to make sure that was clear to those who might no grok it.
A good crew goes a long way in helping even an experienced director. A really experienced A.D. and D.P. are pretty essential to a novice, since they'll help the Director plan out the shot list and make certain there's adequate coverage, matched looks, varied angles, B-roll, etc.
^^^God, I hope I'm not too far off on my anecdote, but wasn't the ultimate in helping out a director probably Howard Hawks, who, legend has it, pretty much set up every shot for (?) Christian Nyby on the 1951 "The Thing"?
Sir Rhosis
Sir Rhosis
This IS excellent news, friends! I look forward to more about it as November gets closer....Phase II is the best fanmade Trek series out there, and they have served some great scripts and shows in the past. You can't go wrong eith Phase II IMHO.
It depends who you ask, but a number of people who worked on the movie have made this claim, even going as far to claim that Hawks was the actual director. Others involved have said this is a great exaggeration. As for the truth of the matter, without doing quite a bit of further research, who can say?
Some of that is likely related to Hawk's uncredited re-write of the script (Ben Hecht also contributed without credit, apparently). But, maybe. I honestly don't know enough about it. It's an RKO film, so the production films are (probably) at UCLA. I'm not sure if Hawks donated his own personal papers somewhere. Hmm...
^ I have seen the 1982 version of The Thing with Kurt Russell a few times. All this talk of the Howard Hawkes produced original has promted me to place as #1 in my Netflix queue. I noticed the comment's on the web, support the theory that Hughes was very influential in it's directing. Now, what to look for to help me decide?
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