January 24, 2007

So here we are again. I know what you're thinking -- "he only updated his blog yesterday, and now he's back already?! This wasn't supposed to happen for at least five weeks!!!" But what can I say? I like to be unpredictable, so here I am. I believe this is the first time I'm blogging two days in a row. And I must say I'm very proud of this achievement.

Today's pictures give you a look at my regular trip to work, as well as my kitchen (giving you some more insight into things). The lack of reactions to the previous blog only leads me to believe that many of you haven't even seen it yet. But that in no way prevents me from blogging yet again; you don't know what you're missing -- not just talking about pictures.

Let's start with a report of what we did yesterday. After I had posted yesterday's blog, I went on to work on "Together We Stand." I was realizing that the script was getting way too long, so I had to cut some scenes from the teaser, which is now down to seven pages. It used to be eleven pages long. I haven't finished the first draft yet, but will be doing that today. I know there've been a lot of talks about this episode, and I think once it airs it'll become more clear why that's the case. It's just a very powerful and dramatic story, which at its core is about exploring how war can change a character. Meaning we get to see how some characters learn to deal with war. We have three great guest characters in this episode, but we also get a look at how some of our regular characters deal with the situations they face in the episode, and how that might have an impact on their behaviours. Some great Callen moments. I'm loving the Lenori bonds with this-other-particular-character beats. And here's a surprise for ya: this will also be a very big episode for Zach Hoffmann.

When it was getting close to one o'clock, I decided that it would be a good time to eat something. So I rose from my chair to move over to the refrigerator (in the back on the left hand side of the third picture), grabbed a TV dinner, placed it in the microwave (on the right hand side of the same picture), turned on the microwave, and waited patiently until the TV dinner was done. I then moved over to the nearby table (from where the picture in question was taken), and as I was eating my lunch (with a Diet Pepsi), I listened to the latest GateWorld interview with Amada Tapping.

Eventually I decided it was time to get back to work, so I did. Worked some more on "Together We Stand," while contemplating whether or not to drive to a nearby store to finally purchase Season Nine of SG-1. Tried to do that last Saturday actually, but shockingly they were sold out.

Eventually, I made the decision. After having written several scenes featuring various interesting little character interactions, I once more rose from my chair, quickly got ready, and proceeded to my car. And despite the bad weather (raining), I drove to the store only to realize that they still hadn't gotten Season Nine in again. But I was determined not to return home empty-handed; I knew I hadn't gone through all that bad weather in vain -- that was something I was not willing to accept.

So I proceeded to a nearby shopping mall, commonly referred to as the Galleria (also happens to be where my "other job" is located). Once I arrived there, I immediately headed to another store, and was pleased to find a shining little Season Nine DVD boxset. I reacted accordingly, and quickly grabbed it. Part of me knew I had to proceed to the register and check out quickly before the temptations would overwhelm me; however, it was too late already. As usually when in a store which is filled with an endless amount of DVDs and CDs, I couldn't help but have a look around, and suddenly my eyes fell on some Seinfeld DVD sets. Or to be precise, it caught my attention that they were selling them for merely $24.99. After a few brief moments of contemplating my next steps, I decided to act instead of thinking about it too much longer. And I picked up Volume One, which contains Seasons One and Two of Seinfeld.

I checked out, and made my way back to the parking garage to conclude what I considered a successful mission. And then the voyage home began. As so often I hadn't taken into consideration that it was around five fifteen -- the time where traffic on the roads is so heavy that it makes you wonder if all people living in the area decided purposely to get together for a nice and cozy little standing around idle on the freeway, and every so often actually moving along at a snail's pace. But anyway, I accepted this, knowing deep down that having purchased these DVD sets was worth the effort. As I was in danger of becoming frustrated by the heavy traffic, I reminded myself of how much fun it would be to not only enjoy some great moments of TV on DVD, my mind also was on the fantastic special features that really make buying a DVD worth it -- at least for me.

When I finally arrived back home, I was back at the computer. Did some more work, but nothing too heavy. My dad stopped by to borrow the tape that contains the latest episode of 24. When handing it to him, I was careful not to reveal any of the latest surprises and twists that had occurred on that wonderful show. I then spent the early evening doing some revising of the scenes I had written that day, I listened in when the president gave his state of the union address, and I talked to Mike on MSN.

As it was about eleven o'clock, I called it a night, and proceeded to enjoy some of the DVDs that I had purchased earlier in the day. I watched parts of a Seinfeld audio commentary, but decided to watch the actual episodes first. I then took some SG-1 DVDs, and listened to the insightful audio commentaries for "Avalon, Parts One and Two," and watched two additional special features. A profile on Brad Wright, and an installment of the SG-1 director's series: "Crusade" with Robert C. Cooper. All features were insightful as well as entertaining.

When I realized that it was two a.m., I thought about grabbing a couple of hours of sleep before getting back to work -- and I did. I wish I could remember what I dreamed, but I can't unfortunately. I always like remembering dreams actually, but I find that I only do remember them occasionally. I tend to remember the exceptionally weird ones.

I got up at eight a.m. Proceeded to grab some breakfast. I forgot to buy coffee yesterday, but I'm enjoying some more Red Bull. And before getting to work I decided to blog yet again, and inform those of you who are reading this of my latest adventures. And with that... the circle is complete.

Stay tuned, as I will return shortly with a report on day four of the vacation week!

Until then,
Alex

January 23, 2007

Who's the guy on the pictures, may be the first question that comes to mind. Is he a new actor we've cast to play the part of that new hansom, and charming recurring character we're introducing in the back half of this season? Is he just some random guy, of whom I thought it could be fun if I kicked off my first blog in over a month with a couple of pictures of him? Or are there not really any pictures and it's all just a figment of your imagination? Or... could it really be? Is it possible that? Could it have happened that you've finally learned what one of the guys behind the scenes on Stargate: Horizon actually looks like? AFTER OVER TWO YEARS!!!

I won't give away the answer to that question, but am eagerly awaiting your suggestions. Well then, with that said, shall we move on to business?

I have to say I had realized that it's been a while since my last blog, but I wasn't really aware that it's been THAT long. December 12th. Go figure. But anyway, I've been wanting to get back to blogging for a while now, and here I am - once more. And Happy New Year to all of you!

This week I'm on vacation from my other job. Other as in not the job that is writing and producing Stargate: Horizon, which involves all sorts of things aside from writing actually. You have story meetings, you need to make sure everyone's up to date on what's going on, you work on recruiting concept artists, occasionally you'll give notes on scrips or even work on rewrites. And sometimes I even get quite caught up in actually writing an episode. But I'm sure you're aware of all of this anyway, so I won't go on boring you with the details.

But anyway, where were we? Ah, yes. Vacation. Not that I don't absolutely love this other job of mine. Okay, who am I fooling? I don't love this other job of mine. In fact, I love it so little that part of my vacation will be dedicated to sending out various applications in an effort to try and get a new job in the near future. Most likely something in an office, and most definitely something that will pay better, and contribute to getting good ol' Alex finally to where he needs to be -- to good ol' Los Angeles, or shall we say Hollywood?

Aside from that, the week will be dedicated mainly to what I consider my REAL job, which would be the one where I work on Horizon. And there's lots of things to do, as we're already gearing up towards the end of the season. I realize that you've actually only got to see the first nine episodes so far, but rest assured that we here beyond the Horizon are hard at work on episodes all the way up to episode twenty, for which I'm currently working on the outline. I can't really say much about it, other than that it starts with a surprise and VERY familiar face stepping through the Stargate with some pretty crazy news. Then, as the story builds up, we head off to this planet, where go into this crazy building. And then those bad guys show up, and all sorts of... uh, crazy things will happen. In short: it's crazy. In a good way. Just need to get the outline done, which in my case is often the most difficult part when working on an episode. Once you've got those beats worked out, it's all about translating this elaborate beat sheet/outline into a script.

Mike turned in his first draft of "Mediation" yesterday, and let me just tell you: this will be one of our best two parters yet. And I'm not trying to hype things, I'm just speaking as a fan of the show, because I am definitely a fan as well. We've got some great stuff coming up. I believe we're all pretty excited about how this season will unfold over the course of its second half. I turned in my first draft for "Adrift" the other day. An episode I'm pretty happy with. In particular the Sivea/Christine moments turned out quite powerful. In many ways the episode is similar in style to SG-1's "Tangent," in that a failed test of a certain new technological achievement places the lives of some of our characters in serious jeopardy. So even though someone on the boards suggested that perhaps this episode could be a "Grace group therapy episode," I actually like to think of it as a "Tangent for five" episode.

We haven't talked much about "The Inner Voice," have we? And actually we should probably keep it that way, at least until we get a little closer to the release date. All I can really say, or much rather confirm is that Arina will be in that episode. And it's an episode that will shed a lot of light into Chase's backstory. I think it's a fun episode. No comedy episode, but a couple of entertaining exchanges between Chase and Arina. And it starts off with a situation which could be described as bizarre.

Well, what else is new? Except for the new year, of course. Yup. You've guessed it: a new season of 24 has started airing last week. I can't really say too much without either giving away spoilers or just repeating what I say all the time (that it's a great show!); so I'll just say... uh... it's a GREAT show! For those one or two of you who haven't seen it, seems you have some catching up to do.

With that said, let the day begin! Just finishing breakfast actually. Forgot to buy coffee the other day, but my Red Bull drink is making up for it. You have to keep that energy and concentration going if you're going to be writing like crazy today.

I'll be blogging a little more in the near future. For now I'm off to finish the first draft of "Together We Stand." Oh, and expect the podcast for "Resurfacing" to appear soon. I might squeeze recording that into today's schedule as well.

Alex