>I heard that Mira Furlan has been commenting about the shorter filming time
>of
>season 5 (6 days instead of 7 days per episode) and that she feels she does
>not
>have time to properly rehearse.

I find that an odd statement, since the time to rehearse is still the same. I
directed "Sleeping in Light" in 6 days, and we never had a problem with
rehearsal time. Besides, most actors rehearse while other scenes are
shooting, running their lines. So again, I don't know what she's referring to
here.

Re: shooting time...yes, we went from 7 days to 6 days, which is an increase of
only about 1 page per day. (Our shooting scripts are only about 42 pages, so
you're going from about 6 pages per day to 7 pages.) There were several
reasons for this, one financial, but more important, TNT wants to run all the
S5 episodes STRAIGHT THROUGH WITHOUT BREAKS. 22 episodes in 22 weeks.

Now, the first few aren't a problem, because you're looking at January and we
started filming in August. Six months. And it takes 52-65 days for
post-production work for each episode. (Note: I'm not including 501, which we
had to rush through to air in 422's place.) But there's a heck of a lot LESS
time between when we finish 522, and when we air it. So we have to make sure
we can get all the episodes done in time.

Frankly, I don't see that it's made that much difference. If I could direct in
6 days, anybody can. And the prep time for the director is the same, so that
hasn't changed at all.


jms