Got off the phone with Jonathan Lancaster. He is in charge of Set Dec for Battlestar. He’s working on answering some interview questions I sent him a few days ago. Should be a good read.

He also mentioned I should get a hold of Doug McLean (Art Director) and Chris Claridge (Construction Coordinator). Will be contacting them in just a little bit. Stay tuned…

BTW, the final episode filming will wrap next week.

I just finished an interview with horror film special makeup effects designer Bill Terezakis. He has done all of the special effects makeup for Battlestar Galactica from day one. All of the blood, scars, gunshot wounds, bald heads you name it and he’s done it. Some of you will know his work from a a lot of slasher movies like Freddy vs Jason and Blade: Trinity while others will have seen his work on X-Files and The Last Mimzy. This guy has done a tremendous amount of TV and movie work over the years.

Have a read, Bill Terezakis Interview on my main Future-Past.com site.

You know the one thing I really hate doing is typing. I’m a progeny of poor typing skills because I was so much better at pulling the wool over my typing teachers eyes than practicing. Anyway, I finally have my long awaited interview with Ken Hawryliw transcribed from audio file. You would never think that an hour and ten minute telephone interview would take you over three months to type. Seriously, I’m not that bad of a typist I just had a lot of other things that were getting in the way of typing.

So, now the fun is to begin. Now that I have Ken’s whole interview transcribed I still need to proof read and edit the frak out of it. The one thing about the spoken language is that it is very different from the written word when it comes to sentence structure. Most verbal thoughts are free flowing. Trying to form complete sentences from free form verbal communication is a daunting task. The most difficult thing is keeping the written interview true to tone and intent of the verbal counterpart without butchering the speakers colloquial nuances.

I’m estimating Ken’s interview will be five full pages of formatted html code before photos are even added. There isn’t anything wrong with that as the read is fascinating the whole way through. I’m just a bit whiny, it’s more coding and photoshop work for me. Like I can really complain. I have a killer interview with one of my idols!

With the return of Battlestar Galactica Season 4 and the studio up in Vancouver putting film in the can (or maybe I should say data on the tape) I have been busy working out the look and feel of the site. I removed the entire “wardrobe” section. There is soooo much info already out there I felt no need to regurgitate it back through my Future-Past.com. Anyway, this frees me up to pursue interviews and post prop info up. Speaking of interviews. I finally have some time, and fresh batteries, to finish transcribing some of the many interviews I conducted during the writers strike. Those out there who are into the props of the show will FRAKKING shat themselves with the candid responses.

I know I keep harping about how I finally have a solid look for the site… yadda yadda yadda… It even annoys me. I can’t help it I’m a continual tinkerer and mild perfectionist with OCD tendencies. Hah!

I’m generally not one to attend Sci-fi conventions of any sort. I think the last time I attended one was when I was 13 years old. So yeah, they really weren’t my cup of tea. Anyway, this past weekend I had absolutely nothing to do except taxes. So in my infinite wisdom I figured that going to a Sci-fi/Fantasy convention was WAY more fun that doing my taxes. And you know what? It actually was WAY more fun. I got to see plenty of fantasy chics running around with their boobs hanging out. [Ok, quick note to cute cutlery vendors with big boobs. If you are going to sell sharp weapons and insist on wearing a black leather top that shows off the twins and the peaks probably might want to consider making sure that your customers are not holding said weapons as they may inadvertently injure themselves while you bend over the table. "Land Hooo, yar"] I also had fun with my friends to boot.

Here is our motley gang. I’m on the left. Slider, Athena and Cougar (those are our call signs – hee hee). We were the only ones who had anything to do with BSG that day. Well, except for the Mark Hamell look alike (that’s a whole ‘nother story). I borrowed the “Clamshell” blaster and sundry costume bits as I’m not a costumer. Sometimes it’s good to pretend you are someone you are not for a few hours.

I’ve got a few interviews waiting to go online soon. Of note the “Holy Grail” of all props related interviews has been completed and is in the process of being transcribed.

Being partnered with Galactica.tv has turned out to be a great inspiration and help. Marcel finally got Ken Hawryliw (Prop Master for BSG) to agree to and conduct an interview a few days ago. We had been working months get Ken on the horn. After a lot of back and forth asking permission from the Execs. (Thank You Lana, Harvey and Ron). Marcel conducted the phone interview with Ken. It lasted over an hour. One of Marcel’s recorders even ran out of juice halfway through. Yikes! It was a very long and super insightful interview.

Needless to say, It is an honor to have this interview to post for my readers. I am working on getting the whole thing typed up and putting together photos. It may be next month before it goes on to the site. I’m pretty busy at the moment moving.

Oh, I don’t want to forget to mention John Mallory from 3D Custom Foam. I had a very insightful interview with him as well just a few days prior to Ken’s interview. John and his company may not have had a huge contribution to the BSG production but what they did make for the show is still rightfully important. They also helped to fix an existing set. You’ll have to read about that when the interview comes out.

Lot’s of work for me in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

Had a bit of a hectic weekend with the website. My host changed something in the way it handles PHP scripting on their servers and I was getting bugging errors all over the site. Ugh! very annoying. Anyway got the bugs fixed. On the bright side it forced me to clean up some of my code. It’s way more tidy now.

Been working on more interviews. Considering it’s the holidays probably won’t see much along those line until the next year.

Made little tweak to the title formatting. Placed all of the page titles on a black banner. Surprisingly this really makes the page pop better.

I’m finally getting around to adding all of the “OLD” content I’ve just been sitting on for months now. I got new DVD player software for my PC and it is super easy to get screen grabs now. I’ve been fighting with my last software and was just too discouraged to make screen caps of the props I needed. The software is by AVS media. Not only is it free, the software is compact and allows for frame-by-frame advancement. Gone are the days of “almost” getting the perfect screen grab.

More to come after the new year!

The Writers Guild of America strike is going into week two. I’m doing my part by spreading the word to other fan communities and posting a link to www.fans4writers.com on the homepage.

This is such a worthy cause. It’s our time to show support for the men and women who work behind-the-scenes of our favorite TV shows.

To get more info on Fans 4 Writers please visit their website and show your support.

Wow, what a whirl wind couple of weeks I’ve had. Finally got my interviews with “Kat” Myers and Troy Rudolph posted to the website. You can read their exclusive interviews here. Two very cool guys. Very down to earth and the nicest people you could have the pleasure of meeting. I am truly honored to get to know them.

Oh I forgot, to mention where I meet Troy. We happen to post on a forum together. He’s been providing some info on what the costumes are like and the such. He’s an avid costumer in his spare time so he is into the details of how the wardrobe department created the uniforms and such. Well, long story short. I just asked if he’d like to be interviewed, simple enough, and it goes from there.

So I’ve finally got the home page dialed in. This part of the website has been haunting me from the start. I had such tremendous success with the look of the clipboard on the interior pages I just decided to carry it to the home page. Um… Duh… should have done that from the beginning. Oh well, you live and learn. Not only did I do that but I also fixed the “cut corners” look of the clipboard. After reviewing photos of some actual clipboards from the set, I realized I had cut too much off the corners. I was an easy fix to get it into proportion.

Oh, I’ve got a few more interviews in the works. They are dependent on the interviewees schedules. So, keep an eye out for those in the near future.

So, much more work in the near future. Getting a secret stash of behind-the-scenes photos soon, so I’ll be pretty busy deciphering them and writing content for the site.

Good for him! It’s fantastic to see a former writer standing with his fellow union members. I have even more respect for Mr. Moore! Not sure how this will effect the last 10 episodes of BSG, but hopefully they will get made.

Here is the story on IGN
Battlestar Galactica Producer Talks Strike

This is a great photo of Ron!

I got to get me one of those signs…