The Guide To B5 on TNT

 Posted on 12/30/1997 by J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com> to CIS


{original post had no questions}

It's both. Even in the first two years of the show, we kept to
12 hour days by virtue of making sure we were always 3-4 scripts ahead
of where we were shooting, which is what makes all the difference in
the world (on most shows you're lucky if you're one ahead, and
sometimes pages are landing on the stage while you're shooting). You
get your writers working early, and make your notes clear, to minimize
mistakes.

Also, bear in mind that with the exception of maybe a half-dozen
scripts, most of them by Larry, all but one of the freelance S1-2
scripts were based on premises I assigned to the writers...which in
turn were based on my notes, which I give to John each season as a kind
of crib sheet for the overall production of that season's shows,
allowing our people to have months of cognitive lead time (where
possible) on sets, costumes, that sort of thing.

jms