8 posts tagged “interview”

A few months ago I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Robert Picardo and it has taken more than 5 months to pull it all together as Mr. Picardo’s schedule and mine have been very full. Mr. Picardo eventually decided that it would be easier for him to actually record the answers to questions that I send him so he could do it between appearances or stage calls or whatever and that turned out to work perfectly. It would a pleasure to speak to Mr. Picardo live and hopefully something can be arranged in the future.

I would like to thank Robert Picardo’s assistant / webmaster Pat for being so patient and helpful helping me pull of this interview and getting my initial request to Mr. Picardo. “The Doctor” on Star Trek Voyager has always been a character that was dear to me as he was always putting his foot in it. He reminds me of myself in that way!

I would like to thank Mr. Picardo for graciously answering all of my questions and actually working through them, it was a true treat to have worked on this project with him.

I hope everyone enjoys the interview. I know it has been a long time in the coming. As a taster treat my interview with Michael Westmore went very well and I am still in the process of transcribing that one! Look for more big actors coming soon, and branching beyond Star Trek. Think CSI… think.. Boston Legal

You have had quite an impressive career as an actor and as well as releasing musical albums and working with the Planetary Society. What remains the most fulfilling thing in your life?

I would have to say being a father and a husband..they remain the most fulfilling things. Next to that I would point to very challenging work on stage. Those have been the times that I remember feeling most gratified as an artist as they are the most technical demanding.

Do you prefer to act on stage or on a TV soundstage?

I love working in all media. I love working in theater, movies and television. I also like to appear on stage at personal experiences and just try to make people laugh and tell them stories as myself. I just think that the most demanding situation for an actor is to play a leading role on a stage especially if the role is very challenging. For example last fall I played the leading character in an Arthur miller play called “broken Glass” – It was a late career Miller play and not his greatest but it was a very demanding role and extremely dramatic. It is a great feeling as an actor to feel like you are riding a great wave of emotion and technique that helps to carry you through a performance.

-Having said that it is also very challenging to have to shoot 12 pages of a television script with reams of dialogue especially if you are playing a computer programme that speaks in paragraphs rather than individual sentences. There are all sorts of challenges an actor faces and they each have their particular demands. I began acting working on stage and that is still more gratifying when I have the opportunity to do it.

What is your take on the “Roddenberry Vision” of the future?

I am proud to have been part of the Star Trek saga and I think it presents a very positive view of the future where man kind and other alien races work in harmony. It is also a time where technology serves man rather than serves to destroy it. I think it gives us hope that we seem to need more desperately now than ever. In the wake of 9-11 in a world where terrorism threatens everyone’s daily life and also threatens the personal liberties of Westerners because it is such a difficult thing to protect all of us from. I think that we need more than ever to focus on the kind of hope and positive vision that Star Trek represents.

Have you had any thoughts about the upcoming Star Trek feature that supposedly will involve a “reboot” back to The Original Series?

I am happy that the franchise will be re-vitalised in 2008 which will be directed by JJ Abrams who did a marvelous job on Mission Impossible III and I think he’s a great talent and a really good choice to reboot the franchise. I do understand that it is supposed to be Kirk and Spock as younger men just completing their Starfleet training and I think it is a very good notion to do with the franchise. It certainly worked with Batman Begins and even though they will be using a completely different cast of actors if it revitalises the franchise all of the Star Trek family will benefit from it.

Did you have the foreknowledge that the character would grow or did you think the EMH would never leave the sickbay set?

I had no idea that the doctor would become such an integral character. In fact when I took the role I told all of my friends that I just got a good job on the new Star Trek show and it will probably run seven years and would put my daughters through college…but I had the worst character on the show. When you accept a role that is described as “colourless, humouless, a computer programme of a doctor” you don’t necessarily have great expectations for how the character will develop. What I didn’t realize, because I wasn’t familiar with Star Trek at the time was that the artificial intelligence characters kind of replaced Spock as the outsider character who is not human but aspires to be human. In the same sense that Data became a breakout character on Star Trek TNG I think the Doctor captured the audience’s imagination and the writers responded by giving me (The Doctor) wonderful things to do.

I remember when they first proposed liberating me from sickbay with the mobile emitter, I thought it wasn’t a good idea. I thought the character’s popularity was linked to his limitations and the challenge it was to try and exceed them. I thought that if he had the mobile emitter he would become just like the other characters and I have said it before and will again [Executive Producer / Writer] Brannon Braga was right and I was wrong.

We share a favourite episode of Voyager, “Nothing Human.” It is an excellent drama piece that involves the EMH working with another holographic doctor whose work just happens to be grounded in medical impropriety. I also understand that the guest star David Clennon is a longtime, personal friend of yours. Can you describe what it was like doing such a heavy, responsible character piece?

He is a longtime friend of mine, in fact he just called me two hours ago and I owe him a call back!

Nothing Human in my estimation is Star Trek at its best. It enables the viewer to examine an important moral question without the contemporary trappings of the question. You can really examine the core issue that was in this case: Is an advancement in medicine tainted by the manner in which it was accomplished?

Do you have a responsibility not to use those discoveries in respect to those who might have suffered or died as a result?

I think it is a very dramatic piece and I have shown clips from it at a medical ethics panel at the Yale School of Medicine a little over a year ago. I believe it was the 40^th anniversary of NASA in a panel discussion that I showed two clips from Star Trek Voyager. I showed clips from “Message in a Bottle” – the Andy Dick episode and clips from the episode in question, “Nothing Human” for drama.

There are some wonderful questions that are raised in my arguments with the Krel Moset (Clennon) such as the hyposcay of medical experiments on lower animals yet we are shocked by someone experimenting on people (in this case Bajorans.)

Another related episode, “Critical Care”, this race of people assigns medical treatment according to the perceived worth to their society of the ailing individual.

What did you consider the worst “The Doctor” episode of Voyager?

My personal least favourite was called “Warhead” in which a sentient bomb commandeers the Doctor’s holographic programme. The Doctor becomes a walking bomb. I remember this episode least fondly because I had to do a lot of yelling and screaming and looking nasty which gets quite tiresome after a while. Originally the bomb was supposed to be a gueststar and I think the producers decided to just turn it into the Doctor because they saved a gueststar’s salary. That is my personal theory, I could be wrong, but knowing Paramount I am probably not.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Andre Bormanis who mentioned you while discussing his involvement in the Planetary Society. How long have you been involved with the society and what do you do with them?

The first time I was asked to participate in a fundraiser for the Planetary Society was a reading of a selection from Ray Bradbury to honour him. I believe it was in 1998, there were a number of readers and it was a wonderful evening. Two of the three founding members called me and asked me to become a member of the advisory board of the Planetary society. From their point of view, they liked that I had access to a science fiction audience and was recognisable to that audience and that I could help bring their message, their mission statement of encouraging the exploration of space and the various governments to strengthen their mandates in both manned and robotic exploration of space.

So I have been involved with the advisory board for about 8 years now. I have been involved in promoting “Red Rover Goes to Mars” which was designed to stimulate young people and their interest in space exploration. I encourage anyone reading this interview to type in” www.planetarysociety.org and see what is happening in space!

When you are not learning lines for your next show, acting or singing how do you spend your time?

I love to spend time with my children. I have two teenage daughters one 15 and half and one eighteen. I love to do stuff with them. My wife, Linda is also great company. I love to cook, I have been cooking my whole life so cooking is a hobby. I also enjoy working out, smoking cigars, reading and hanging out with friends.

What was it like to work with Andy Dick? How did you two get any work done around the laughter?

It was a hoot to work with Andy Dick! I remember the first thing he said to me was “So you name…Bob Picardo it’s kind of funny..do you get teased by Star Trek fans because it is so close to Captain Picard?” And I said, wait a minute your name is Andy Dick and you’re making fun of my name? He laughed at that and from that point on we had a lot of laughs together. I think it was one of the two funniest Voyager episodes I had a significant involvement in, the other being Tinkor Tenor [Doctor Spy]. Also it is the episode I remember having the most lines I suggested make it to screen. I proposed six jokes to Brannon Braga during the shooting – my favourite one being an exchange between the Doctor and the EMH Mark II (Andy Dick) where the Doctor says: “Stop breathing down my neck!” and the EMH Mark II replies, “my breathing is merely a simulation” and the Doctor retorts, “so is my neck, stop it anyway!” I thought this was pretty funny “hologram to hologram” type humor.

What is the difference between the science fiction productions of Stargate Vs. Star Trek? I have always thought the production standards of Star Trek were so high. What is your take as an actor / director?

The thing I have noticed the most about working on Stargate is their set seems to be a little more relaxed than ours. Their producers come down to the set more often and they are not off in an ivory tower the way the producers on Voyager were. We didn’t see them as often as they were on the other side of the lot from the soundstage. I think there is a kind of a mellower, more relaxed feeling working on Stargate. This is not to say I didn’t have a wonderful time working on Star Trek but I just wouldn’t call it a mellow experience!

I love my guest appearances on Stargate and I think they have taken a character that started out as a bad guy, Richard Woolsey and have humanised him somewhat. He is still a stick in the mud and annoys people but at least he means well. He is truly committed to civilian oversight of secret military operations. He believes in that and is committed to it. Now that they have given him as a director of the IOC, they have given me a lot of latitude for appearances in the show.

There was one day when we were shooting the episode “The Scurge” – my character is yelling at Carter, and in the middle of reaming her out the line was: “I’m going to report you to Stargate Command!” and of course I said “I’m going to report you to Star Trek Command” Then all 120 people on the soundstage burst into laughter as I turned beat red. I suppose that was an error that had to be made at least once, and it struck me as odd that I didn’t say Starfleet Command I said Star Trek which was obviously a phrase we weren’t supposed to be uttered on screen. Well that was a mistake and it was a funny one and I hope I don’t make it again!

As far as what the difference between the shows: I don’t feel like I can generalise in that respect. The shows have different styles. I think there is much more tounge-in-cheek in a regular Stargate episode than there was in an average Voyager episode. I think they handle the humor quite well but they do go out on a limb in that direction more than we did in Trek.

What is the key to good television directing?

Gee! If I knew that I probably would have directed more! I only directed two Voyager episodes and had a terrific time doing it, particularly the second one I did. It was “One Small Step” which was a tribute to the early years of Space Exploration. It dove tailed well with my passionate involvement with the Planetary Socety. We had a great guest star, Phil Morris who was a wonderful actor he did a great job.

I think the key is preparation, to stay on schedule because if you fall behind it will hurt you at the end. I think preparation, pace and of course having a good relationship with your actors.

What kind of character do you most enjoy playing?

I love variety. I like playing the character with the best sense of humor in a drama show. Rather than do an out and out comedy, I enjoy doing a show that is a drama but having a character that has a good sense of humor, and has the potential for humor. I think that describes my characters from both China Beach and Star Trek Voyager.

The Doctor in Voyager could be in a script that was very dramatic and the audience would believe and follow his journey but he could also be the heart of a very comic episode. There was a great deal of potential in his illusions about himself as a character. His arrogance and his puffed up nature as a character. When the chips were down he could drop a lot of his self-image problems and really deliver the goods.

If I had to choose a character as an actor it is playing a character that the audience at first doesn’t like yet they grow to like as the show progresses. Even characters like “Coach Cutler” on the “Wonder Years” even though he is much stupider than most of the characters I have played, he’s very obnoxious but so obviously insecure the audience starts to like him in spite of his first impression.

The episode of Star Trek that you share story credit with John Bruno, “Life Line” was a tremendous technical achievement with the motion control. What made you collaborate on an episode for Star Trek? Do you have other literary aspirations?

I am very proud of that story idea. It really was taking one of my favourite plays “I never sang for my father” and adapting it to the computer programme and the engineer who designed him. In other words, why not do a father / son drama where the father is the designer of a piece of technology and the technological offspring has somehow disappointed his creator by not being what he thought he was creating. There are the same issues of dissapointment from each side, why aren’t you proud of me for what I have accomplished? What can’t you accept me as I am? The father’s point of view: Why aren’t you what I designed you to be? What aren’t you what you what I hoped you would be? – after working so hard, why didn’t you turn out the way I hoped you would.

I think those issued worked very well in the Star Trek setting. There was quite a bit of motion control for a TV show of that era. It made it very difficult to shoot. I was constantly acting with an actor that I have always admired and always wanted to work with……me.

It did get a little boring to do both sides of the scene as you are only imagining the performance on the other side. You are making eye-contact with nothing and it is very very technical. But I am proud of how it turned out.

Did you consider getting involved with Tim Russ’s (Tuvok) “Star Trek of Gods and Men?” As we speak they are trying to acquire rights to make it an official CBS Star Trek production!

I love Tim Russ and I think he is enormously talented. I was not asked to take part in that particular project although I have worked with him on others and I hope to work with him in the future. I have not seen it but I have heard it looks good. I hope they manage to get as wider audience as possible. As I said earlier any Star Trek helps all Star Trek! That’s my honest opinion.

Do you consider yourself politically active? For instance do you publicly back any particular party?

I am a from the cradle liberal democrat. I find this to be a very exciting time as we have a lot of potential candidates for the next election. I have not, at this point, become active in this campaign. I am really looking forward to recapturing the white house and trying to fix as many of the disastrous problems that have been created over the last 8 years.

What’s next for Robert Picardo?

I am working on a movie for the cartoon network called “Ben Ten and the Hand of Armageddon.” Ben Ten is a popular animated series which I have appeared in voice only but this is a live action version. Lee Majors is starring in the production and I am playing Ben’s Middle School principal who starts out as a jerk and turns out to be a really nice guy. There is a perfect example of a character you don’t like and then learn to like.

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If you have any questions about this interview or its contents please email questions@sebrt.com - Mr. Picardo has plans to read this interview so any comments you make on the interview may be read by Mr. Picardo himself, although this is not guaranteed. No part of this interview may be reproduced without my permission and it is copyright Sebastian Prooth 2007.

As I promised you, the new crew, here’s your chance to continue the voyages the late Star Trek mastermind, Michael Piller began. This is your chance to read one of the pivotal chapters in the unpublished, unsettled and unreleased Michael Piller book chronicling the writing of Star Trek Insurrection. Assimilate it while you can! While you are here, don’t forget to check out my Star Trek compendium with loads of interviews, commentaries and more!

AS PER PARAMOUNT’S REQUEST ON THE 13^TH JUNE 2007, I HAVE REMOVED MICHAEL PILLER’S UNPUBLISHED BOOK FROM WWW.SEBRT.COM  - SEB’S RAW TAKES

I had the pleasure of speaking to Andre Bormanis. Andre was not only a Science Consultant, Writer and Producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise, he is also an extremely accomplished and interesting guy in other ways!

A few weeks ago I managed to catch up with Andre as he is working on a few different writing projects and combing Hollywood for his next major gig!

Andre! It’s a pleasure to have you for an interview at SebRT.com – I don’t say this to everyone, but ever since I first saw you interviewed, I have wanted to talk to you.

We know what the job title was, but what exactly did you do on Star Trek?

I started as the science consultant on the final season of ST:TNG. I wrote about a half a dozen episodes of Voyager. I was brought on as a full time writer on Enterprise in 2001, and became a co-producer on that show during its fourth season.

I understand you worked as a writer on Brannon Braga’s Threshold. What would have happened if the show had not been cancelled after 13 episodes?

Threshold was a lot of fun. It was a terrific show…we had a great cast! It was a wonderful experience working on that, an opportunity to write a show set in the present day, which was a nice change of pace from Star Trek. I thought it was a terrific idea, based on this “contingency plan” that [lead character Molly Caffrey] created. She had to put together a group of mis-fit scientists. Clearly not squeaky clean! The character dynamics were just terrific. Unfortunately we only got to do 13 episodes. I would love to do a show like that again.

The plan that Molly created anticipated three phases if the aliens who contacted us were hostile. If the aliens established a base of operations on Earth we’d go to phase 2: Foothold. That was kind of what we imagined season 2 of the show would be about. If they actually ended up capturing most of the Earth we’d move to phase 3: Stranglehold. The human remnants would be fighting a guerrilla action against the aliens to take back the planet. That was just sort of a very rough outline of how the series might have developed. When you’re writing a TV show you can only get so far ahead of yourself! You don’t want to put yourself in a straight jacket and make the show dictated rather than written. You can buy the DVD box set, I encourage you all to do that J!

Describe a day in the life of a writer / producer on Star Trek.

Mostly my responsibilities involved developing stories, writing stories, and writing and re-writing scripts. At any given time there were 7 or 8 people on staff. For the first two seasons of Enterprise we did 26 episodes each season and we had to have a new script ready roughly every 10 days or so. We started writing about 5 weeks before the season began production. We had several stories figured out, initially; we tried to be 5 scripts ahead. As the season went on we tended to fall behind. The hard part is not writing the script, it’s coming up with the stories.

I understand that you have been working on a screenplay. What is it? And what is it about?

It’s a science fiction comedy. A two-hour, feature length movie. I wrote it with Clay Graham, who was the Executive Producer of The Drew Cary Show. We grew up together in Arizona. We wrote it last summer. It’s a present-day science fiction comedy about a group of people who meet in high school…they see a UFO… it haunts them. All of their plans for college and what they want to do with their lives fall apart. We move to 20 years later and the guys have become friends and are still kind of obsessed with this UFO. Then they see it again on CNN. The airforce says it’s a classified military experiment. Our guys know this is crap. So they decide to break into Area 51; they recruit a Vietnam veteran to get them in. Tonally it’s along the lines of Men in Black - that sort of humor.

I am holding your book “Star Trek Science Logs” – Interesting book. How did you come to write it?

It came out about ten years ago! I used to do a lot of magazine writing, popular science style. The science behind the science fiction was my job on Trek. I thought it would be fun to look at some of the science on the show and look at the basis in reality for some of the technology.

You had writing credit on an interesting episode of Star Trek Voyager, “Waking Moments.” What made you choose to write about dreaming? Do you dream lucidly yourself?

I used to have lucid dreams…I have not had them for a number of years now. I was thinking about a possible story for Chakotay. Given that he has a Native American heritage I thought this would be a good area for him. I pitched it to Jeri Taylor and then I sat down in the writers room and we broke the story. Ken Biller helped a lot on the script.

Did (Do) you find yourself gravitating to a particular character to write for?

On Star Trek: Voyager I really liked Seven of Nine, and Tuvok and Chakotay. On Enterprise, Phlox, Trip, Archer and T’Pol were fun to write for. As I evolved as a writer I started to devise stories as journeys and conflicts among the characters, rather than starting with a science fiction premise…

I understand you’re trying to get signed onto a new show at the moment. What shows would you like to work on? In what role?

My goal is to be a writer / producer again, as I was on Threshold. There are a lot of pilots being shot right now. There are several that look interesting. It is hard to say at this juncture what shows are going to get picked up. It’s a little early to start picking winners at this point. Bryan Fuller who worked on Voyager wrote a new pilot that looks really good. If that goes to series I would really like to work on it.

Tell me about The Planetary Society. I understand you work with Star Trek Voyager’s Robert Picardo there…

The Planetary Society was founded over twenty-five years ago by Carl Sagan to promote public interest in space science and exploration. Bob Picardo is on the Board. I’ve worked with them over the years as an informal consultant, and a writer for their magazine. We do a lot of public education, conferences, special events to celebrate milestones in space exploration – it’s a great group, well worth supporting. Check out their website at www.planetary.org.

What excites you about physics and astronomy?

So many things! The discovery of extra-solar planets – one was just found that could be “Class-M” as we used to say on Star Trek: Earth-like. There’s a new particle accelerator that’s being built in Europe that will hopefully answer some basic questions about the origin of matter. These are exciting times in science.

I understand that you are an accomplished pianist…what is your style?

Mid-nineteenth through early twentieth century classical, but I’ve been learning modern jazz lately too. I love Chopin, Satie, Ravel, Gershwin, and Burt Bacharach.

Can you recommend any books to people who want to do what you do?

In terms of writing for film and television, “Story” by Robert McKee is pretty good. You can also buy lots of published screenplays these days. Read all the classics: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Chinatown, and anything else you can get your hands on. Pay close attention to how they’re written, particularly in terms of structure and dialog.

Do you have any advice or helpful tips for young people wanting to produce/write [for TV or film]?

Keep writing. The only way to get good at it is to do it day after day, year after year. Most of what anyone writes is junk. The people who eventually succeed are the ones who keep working, keep improving their craft.

One last question, I am asking everyone this at the moment: What are your thoughts about Star Trek XI and would you be interested in working on it?

I hope it’s a great success. I’m really looking forward to seeing it. I wouldn’t be particularly interested in working on it though. I spent thirteen years in the Star Trek universe. I’m interested in doing other things now.

What’s next for Andre Bormanis?

I wish I knew! But not knowing what’s next is part of the fun. Like most of our Star Trek characters, I believe that life should be an adventure. It’s not as much fun if you know everything that’s coming…

A very special thanks to you Andre for joining me, best of luck this season!

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If you would like to find out more about Andre Bormanis or read his credits please see his profile on IMDB. If you have any questions please send them to questions@sebrt.com and make any and all comments here with the comment button. Stay turned to SebRT.com for an interview with Robert Picardo, the holographic doctor!

Copyright 2007. Sebastian Prooth. www.SebRT.com

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to Ronald B. Moore, who was the Visual Effects Coordinator on Star Trek The Next Generation and Visual Effects Supervisor on Voyager and Enterprise. Throughout his entire career he has worked on films such as last years Miami Vice to the 1984 hit Ghostbusters! Ron has won 5 Emmys and been nominated for 9. Most recently Ron has lent his talent to the widely acclaimed “Star Trek New Voyages.” I spoke to him for a couple of hours for the interview, during which we talked extensively about motion control photography used in episodes like Endgame and Lifeline of Voyager. Ron is a fan of the show and truly an all around awesome guy to talk to and I was privileged to speak to him amongst his busy schedule.

Ron! Non one could be more welcome at SebRT.com, I had admired your work on Star Trek for years. Thank you for joining me for this short interview.

Are you working on the next Star Trek feature Star Trek XI?

It would be very unlikely. It’s all new people now. I’m glad to see JJ (Abrams) coming in and the names they have coming in. Like Matt Damon as Captain Kirk… They have huge shoes to fill. The charisma, the chemistry, of the original series will be hard to match.

Are you a fan of the show?

Oh yeah. Very much so! I never was able to get into Deep Space (Nine). I didn’t work on DS9. At the end of TNG I left to do Generations and then came back to do Voyager and then moved to Enterprise.

Do you get recognized in public ever?

Not really. I do have many friends and fans that I have met over the years at conventions and on the Trek cruises. It is always fun to run into them around the world. The cruises have taken me to many places and allowed me to meet many people in many countries. I consider this one of the best perks of all that I have received by working on Star Trek.

What effect that your produced stands in your memory?

There’s a show that was TNG, Identity Crisis. I know the director didn’t like it, but I loved it. I liked the concept of the show. We got on and it was a Friday, a complicated day, we were on stage 16 there was black light and dirt and dust. I remember sitting there and waiting for a shot that was really complicated. It was about 12:30AM and we started setting up the shot and it was just totally wrong. I wondered what I was going to do! I started moving things around - everything was crucial for the shadows and I got it set up. LeVar (Burton) came up to me and told me that he saw why we had to make the change.

How has the work you do evolved with the advancement of computers and technology?

It grew every season! Nothing is the same from TNG to where we ended up. When we started we were on 1 inch tape and Enterprise was shooting on digital!

What kind of work have you done for Star Trek New Voyages?

My work on New Voyages has been mostly consulting with the directors and some of the crew putting the latest episode together. I think it is a really great episode. Mark Zicree shot it in HD and the story is really good. I consider George Takei a friend and it is always good to work with him though sadly we didn’t spend much time together during this project. George has been on many of the Trek cruises I have been on. The latest episode of New Voyages in nearing completion. I believe they are having a screening in Florida at the end of March. There will be some work that needs to be done after but you should be able to see it before long.

Do you watch the show when it is on TV and say – ah, now that was a hard one to do!

It is fun to watch episodes I have worked on. Some make you think that you could have done better and others make you proud. I find it hard to watch some of the early episodes as we improved so much over the years. And yes, now and again I will see a shot that was hard and still wonder how we pulled it off in the time we had. Trek was a really great show to work on.

Did you ever work closely with Michael Piller?

I can’t say I worked closely with Michael but did work with him on the Trek shows. I have a lot of respect for what he added to the show and the work he did after. He was a highlight to the years I did work with him on Trek. He is missed.

What are you working on at the moment?

I spend some time last year working on Smallville and Miami Vice and a few other projects working with a company in Santa Monica. At the end of the year and the first of this year I have been involved with Rush Hour 3 doing some visual effects editing and producing. It has kept me busy but I am also involved in looking for another project to get into.

Do you have any exciting future plans?

Nothing at the moment. I have enjoyed doing the Cruise Trek conventions over the years and they have one this year to Australia and I hope to manage to pull that off. I did a The Cult TV convention in England last year and play guitar with the Enterprise Blues Band and we put out our second CD last year. It is a great bunch of guys mostly actors that have played parts in Trek over the years.

Ron asked me to add the following statement to the end of the interview:

One final word. It is important to understand how many people it takes to pull of the shots in any TV show or Movie. I have been blessed to work with some of the most talented people in the field of visual effects. On Trek I have worked with Dan Curry, Rob Legato, Gary Hutzel, Paul Hill and so many many more really super people it is something to remember. I hope to work with them all again. I have worked on many TV shows and features and of all of them, Star Trek was a highlight. I owe my being here to real stars like Richard Edlund, Jo Westheimer, Gene Roddenberry and the people associated with them. In this business it is many times the people you work with that make it all happen.

And with that I would like to thank Ron for spending two hours with me. It was truly a pleasure to “meet” you. Talking to you was as inspiring as I thought it would be!

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If you would like to find out more information about Ronald B. Moore check Star Trek.com or click here for his Memory-Alpha Page. Please send any questions to questions@sebrt.com - Thank you and come back in a week or so as I will have an interview with Andre Bormanis!

I had the chance to catch up with another Star Trek / Paramount Pictures alumni, Rick Sternbach. I have admired Rick’s work for years as I have Dan Curry, who I interviewed a few months back. Rick Sternbach is the guy who designed the Klingon Vor’Cha class Attack Cruiser, the Delta Flyer, the Starfleet Phaser and Tricorder, the Dauntless from Voyager’s “Hope and Fear” and about a million other things we have come to know as normal in the Star Trek universe.

Rick it is truly a pleasure to have you for an interview, I had admired your work for as long as I can remember!

What exactly did you do as the Senior Illustrator and Technical Script Consultant for Star Trek TNG, DS9, Voyager?

The illustrator part was pretty straight forward. The Production designer would have specific requirements for the show. Since it’s science fiction, everything has to be designed. It wasn’t at all like doing a western or a police show…where you could rent something. There was something new every week. The script would say “a fabulous alien gadget” and you can’t just go and rent something. For the most part we had to invent everything, it started from the script. We would talk about it, modify for the budget and present the drawings, get estimates. Every 10^th working day we had a new episode. We would establish all the hand props we would see form week to week, tricorders, phasers, hyposprays…etc.

You have been designing things for many years. It seems you favour objects that fly in space. Why is that?

I grew up in a time before there was anything in Earth orbit. As a kid growing up when the first satellites were being put up and rocket powered aircraft were breaking records left and right. It caught a lot of imaginations and mine was one of them. I knew a lot of people with the same interests, we would gravitate together and fly rockets and design rockets for science fictional things. As a career path it certainly has been different from my pals. I haven’t quite got anything in to space for real yet…

How much did you work on Star Trek Generations, First Contact and Insurrection?

I did little bits. I blueprinted the enterprise-e based on sketches provided by John Eaves. I simply made it easier for ILM to build the ten foot model. I did very little for Insurrection. I did little bits on the various on the feature.

Are you working on the next Star Trek feature film, Star Trek XI?

I wish! I have sent my resume in, with a few visual samples but so far it has been a one way conversation. I would welcome a call from them.

Are you a fan of the show(s) yourself? Do you watch it, see a Cardassian ship and say, I did that?

I’ve always considered myself a follower of the franchise, but not a complete fan. I like a lot of what the franchise has to offer in terms of design. I appreciate what the franchise has done over the last 40 or so years just in terms of how it has got into our social consciousness. I tune into the re-runs every so often, I have not seen every episode of Enterprise as it didn’t hold my interest as much as the other series did. I don’t need to say “I did that” because I know I did that!

A question I asked my last interviewee, If I wanted to vaporize my neighbor’s dog, what setting would I set this Phaser to?

Probably jam it all the way up to setting 8..I think that would do. Anything higher is overkill!

What was your favourite design for Star Trek?

These days I think it is a toss up between the Voyager and the Klingon Vor’cha Class Attack Cruiser. The Prometheus was a close third. With the Prometheus the important thing was to get these designs to evolve. It was a little further along than I would have wanted. I’m not sure how much more advanced that ship could have been.

Is drawing about the hand or the brain?

The two are tied together. Whatever tools are being used, whether it be pencil or the computer mouse. There has to be ways to get the ideas down on paper, into the computer, printed out..somehow conveyed. It of course starts with an idea in my head. I get a lot of pleasure out of sitting here with a very wet felt pen and drawing shapes.

Are you recognized in public or can you lead an anonymous existence?

If I go to a con..people might know me from online pictures. No one knows me out and about! I have gone to space symposiums and given talks and in those situations, they all know me. At the grocery store or gas station I am just some Joe from the neighborhood!

How long does it take you to design a Starship or a Phaser?

It depends. For episodic stuff it might take as little as ten minutes. Show a few drawings at a production meeting and they would say, Love it! A ship like Voyager, the producers wanted to make sure it took 5 months! Not constant work mind you, but it takes a lot of time to get right!

Anything exciting on the horizon?

At the moment I am president of Space Model Systems Incorporated (SMS Inc) – We produce products for the space education and hobby market. We produce a lot of aftermarket decals for historical space models. Terrain models and the moons of Jupiter. Places that space probes have seen. There are some days where I will just sit and doodle.

Thank you so much for your time Rick, you are welcome to come back at any time!

It’s been great!

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If you have any questions for Rick Sternbach please send them to questions@sebrt.com – Please check out Rick Sternbach’s official website at www.RickSternbach.com

A few days ago I managed to catch up with another Star Trek / Paramount Pictures employee, Eric Stillwell. My meeting Eric on the internet was initiated by my recent interest in the life and work of Michael Piller. Piller was the head writer on Star Trek TNG from the 3^rd season, co-created both Deep Space Nine and Voyager and then went on to write the 9^th Star Trek film Star Trek Insurrection. Eric Stillwell was fortunate enough to work with Michael for many years and last night I found myself talking with him over instant message. The conversation graduated to telephone after two hours and for the remainder of my day, approx 5 hours Eric and I spoke about Star Trek while I periodically filled in answers to the questions I had quickly thrown together for an impromptu interview.

My conversation with Eric Stillwell was a very productive one a few major things are going to be taking place because of our discussion. I am keeping the information about what is going to happen close to my vest at the moment but I will say that I have asked Eric to guest write here on SebRT.com in the near future. The following is the interview, which in reality was massive and if I had written everything Eric and I talked about it would be about 25 pages.

SebRT.com Welcomes Eric Stillwell, Star Trek TNG Script Coordinator and the Assistant to the late Michael Piller.

You worked for Star Trek like a lot of SebRT guests. What exactly did you do?

I started off as the production assistant on Star Trek The Next Generation in ‘87 and I did that for two years. Then I was promoted to script coordinator and worked on TNG until ‘93. After I finished with Star Trek the TV show I went to produce Star Trek conventions and in 1996 I returned to Paramount Pictures and worked for Michael Piller. At that time he was Executive Producer on Star Trek Voyager and I spent time as a production associate and his assistant. He stepped down and left the studio in 1999 to work on other projects and I went with him (as vice-president of Operations for Piller Squared) to do that. He created the Dead Zone TV series and I was an associate producer on that and then he and his son created Wildfire and I was an associate producer on that. As the vice president of operations for Piller Squared I was in charge of a lot of aspects of the company.

I read you are a genuine Trekkie yourself, if I wanted vaporize my neighbor’s dog, what setting would I set this phaser to?

[laughs]I don’t have to know all that stuff to be a Trekkie!! But if you do that you have to go have a meeting with Counsellor Troi.

You worked with the late and great, Michael Piller. In the past I have published how I would like to have known him. What was he like?

Michael was a complicated personality. It took me a long time to get to know him genuinely. On the outside sometimes he can seem abrupt and I don’t want to sound like I am saying he was terrible. He hated cocktail parties…it was easier for him to have a discussion with a potted plant. He was actually quite charming in person. It was all in his writings. Michael could write a scene that could be completely innocuous, but underneath it was about the humanity of things. If you watch the Best of Both Worlds, the personal problems of Riker being offered his own command are taken from Michael’s own life experiences of the time. He knew that the humanity was important, and the characters even though he technical stuff in Star Trek is important.

It seems like you and I might have met when I was 7 years old in my home town of South Bend, Indiana at a trek convention. What was your involvement with the conventions?

At that time frame I did some conventions in South Bend. I was the MC of the event and introduce all the guests and handle all the celebrity appearances and handle all that stuff so it very likely.

What are your thoughts about the upcoming “prequel” of Star Trek TOS in the form of Star Trek XI?

I think prequels are a questionable approach to doing Star Trek because I don’t even think it was a viable option for Enterprise regardless of how good the production was. I think JJ Abrams is terrific.

Your work after you left Star Trek has been very successful and you even have your name on a Star Trek novel – Do you have any more plans to work with anything Star Trek related?

I don’t have plans to but you never know what the future holds. Somehow I think my career path is heading towards politics. Star Trek influences my political views on things and it’s all mixed together in weird ways. The whole 34^th rule novel is inspired by George Takei’s life in the internment camp. There’s always possibilities.

Most recently you have been working on Children’s television, how does that compare to working on the biggest television franchise of all time?

For me its like the difference between being a small fish in the big ocean and being a big fish in a small pond. I got to be the head writer and a producer on the Children’s show. I was not just the 47^th person down the production list.

What is the work (out of your entire career) that you have found most rewarding and you are most proud of?

Co-Writing Yesterday’s Enterprise was certainly the highlight of my Hollywood career. I did something creative and it got realized in front of my eyes. Getting to work with Whoopie Goldberg was great as well.

Do you have any pieces of Trek in your possession such as a prop or set piece to remember the show by?

Most of the things I received were “crew gifts” including stuff from your friend Dennis Madalone. I have a picture of me with Gene Roddenberry on the bridge set that Gene autographed that is really special to me.

Star Trek Insurrection’s story was not a typical Star Trek story and many felt it was not loyal to what trek had established. 9 years on, what did you think of the story when you were script coordinating on that picture?

The final project was not what Michael originally intended. Patrick Stewart made a lot of changes to the script that fundamentally changed the script as far as I am concerned. Originally the bad guys in the story were Romulans.

What are you working on at the moment? Got any exciting plans to share with SebRT readers and the internet at large?

I’ve been trying to revise my political blogging career because I’m currently unemployed and looking for work. So looking for something in the political realm. I’m going to Italy on vacation for a Star Trek Convention –not running for President.

Thank you very much for your time Eric and you are most welcome to come back sometime!

Thanks, I enjoyed it! (after 5 hours on the phone)

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If you would like to ask Eric any of your own questions or contact any of the interviewees here at SebRT.coom you can email “questions@sebrt.com”

SebRT.com welcomes ROBERTO BENTIVEGNA a British / Italian film director that first grabbed my attention with his latest film “Rest Stop for the Rare Individual” I wrote about my first impressions of that movie a few days ago, which you can check out here. Roberto and I had a great chat yesterday during which we talked film-maker to film-maker about the good times and bad times producing his latest film. Roberto and I watched his film together and he gave me an exclusive first Director’s Commentary from a director who is sure to be very important in our field in no time at all. After you read the interview you can check Youtube for Roberto’s other work.

Hello Roberto, now we have our sound problems sorted out and I can hear you!

I saw your latest film just the other day and just had to talk to you; does your work have that effect on a lot of people?

With this film more than the others. It has definitely struck a cord with people. The AIDS documentary was quite moving and people really responded to it, and the film before that, The Mirakle, got some very nice responses as well. But the thing is, with short films you really have to do so much self promotion if you want people to see your work. I guess I didn’t realize this in the past. You don’t get reviews in Empire or Variety and therefore I have decided to push “Rest Stop for the Rare Individual” more than I have with other past films.

How did you start out, at what age and why?

I was about 19 and I went to Emerson College in Boston. I got a degree in English and Film. I always wanted to make movies but I never really knew how to do it. I had a Hi-8 camera and I would do very bad documentaries about bumble bees and little Hitchcock spoofs. I didn’t even know about editing so I would cut in camera. Everyone has their own rhythm and some take more time to figure it all out than others. I got into it gradually, but I was always obsessed with it and I knew that I wanted to make films from a very young age- 8, perhaps.

I liked the way you shot “Rest Stop.” Was there a particular look you were going after for that film?

There was definitely a look. My three huge inspirations are Kubrick, Lynch and Scorsese and of course Hitchcock, for educational reasons. I don’t love Hitchcock films but I absolutely admire them and am in awe at his technical proficiency. And I guess I injected some Hitchcockian elements into “Rest Stop” by exposing the “straight man” to some really fucked up stuff happening around him. I wanted an all American, good- looking guy in the picture that looks like he was totally in control. A.J was great for that reason. As far as the locations go, I shot in the pink room at the Chelsea because I got great vibes from it and it worked well with the whole homo-erotic theme in the film. Paul literally falls into the rabbit hole. I like to have a connection with the place I am shooting in. Sometimes you walk into a place and get a really good vibe, you know?

Speaking of looks, what kind of camera did you use to shoot “Rest Stop”?

It was shot in Digital on a Panasonic HVX- an HD Camera. It’s good, it’s really good. It’s got the body of a 1970’s Oldsmobile but the engine of Ferrari. It’s not terribly expensive anymore, I think it around 5000 dollars.

When you walk around as you wonder your world are you constantly seeing shots you could use in some future picture?

I do, of course. It is very hard to switch off. I think you are always constantly worried about something or thinking about your next film. I think what we do is surprisingly underrated. People see the Academy Awards, but they don’t know what the guys in the tuxes actually do. They must have spent days and hours being happy and sad and miserable and elated, but they are all dolled up for that one night, at the awards, because they have created something special together and are sharing it with the world. It’s really surreal to watch. It’s a very conflicting world. You have something so superficial but so deep and so consuming.

What was the production time for your latest film, from start to complete package?

I wrote the screenplay in mid-July in London. It came out of nowhere. I thought it would be cool to do something in the Chelsea hotel. I write very quickly once I know what I am doing and I had the script done in about a week. Once the producers agreed to fund we got everything going. Took three weeks for pre-production, we shot for four days and then we did post and it took me about a month and a half to edit. Unfortunately we lost the scene with Felix in the data transfer and had to go back to the hotel and re-shoot it. So it took about 4 months from start to end.

Even though it is a rather simple looking film with no extreme SFX or VisFx, Rest Stop must have taken money to produce…as a student how did you finance the film?

The final cost of the film was 4000 dollars. I would just like to thank Capital Media Arts, Hanley Braginsky and Jason Keis, who were simply fantastic.

So when is your first feature and can I be your AD?

Sure, if we meet in person that would be great! (Read below for feature news)

Do you recommend any books for aspiring film-makers?

Yes. Absolutely…

On Filmmaking by Alexander Mackenrick

Movie Maker’s Masterclass

On Directing Film by David Mamet

Making Movies by Sydney Lumet

Who are your role models as a director?

Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Luchino Visconti, Brian de Palma… and so many more.

What’s next for Roberto Bentivegna?

I am going to film this very very low budget immigrant film within the next couple of weeks that I am very far behind on at the moment. I should be working on it 24 hours a day if I am ever going to be ready for it when we shoot… but you can never be completely prepared. That’s what makes it so exciting and terrifying at the same time. I am interviewing film-makers on www.ifc.com – this year. So there is a lot going on at the moment. Not to mention that I am hoping to do a feature very soon - I am hoping to film a thriller in Shanghai.

Where can the readers see your work and how can they contact you if they have a story they want you to print to film?

Sure, you can check out my website at www.robertobentivegna.com or email me at rbentivegna@gmail.com

Well thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview Roberto, you certainly are a director to watch!

Thanks Sebastian, its been a pleasure!