The WELL: inkwell.vue.120: Pat Cadigan: Dervish is Digital

#73: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Wed 31 Oct 01 17:33

Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:33:00 PST

#72: Miguel Marcos (miguel) Wed 31 Oct 01 17:04

Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:04:00 PST

Man, I'm here late.

Regarding post 53, indeed nettime is a wonderful mailing list but I have had a lot of trouble keeping up with it in the last few months which confirms Pat's comment, another thing not to keep track of. You gotta pick and choose. [Read entire topic]

#71: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Mon 27 Aug 01 16:47

Mon, 27 Aug 2001 16:47:00 PDT

Pat, a belated thanks... I've been traveling the last couple days and couldn't log in. Great to have you back on the WELL! [Read entire topic]

#70: Pat Cadigan (patcadigan) Mon 27 Aug 01 01:22

Mon, 27 Aug 2001 01:22:00 PDT

Jennifer: many thanks. I've been browsing around the rest of The Well and I'd definitely like to continue as a member. And I've enjoyed the interview, of course!

Linda: This explains a great deal. I am now more sympathetic to the manual writers, while my sympathy for their bosses has hit an all-time low.:) [Read entire topic]

#69: Linda Castellani (castle) Sun 26 Aug 01 22:48

Sun, 26 Aug 2001 22:48:00 PDT

You are welcome to stick around as long as you like, Pat.

And I just have to comment on this:

"...I didn't have half the information I'd had for Lost In Space and both the publisher and Universal were unhappy about it, but not as unhappy as I was. It's a hell of a thing when someone tells you to write a book about a movie and then won't give you a lot of the information that has to go into the book--and then wants to know why it isn't in there. And then, when you tell them why, and ask them to give you the information...they *still* won't. Frustration? Don't get me started.:)"

Substitute "a movie" with "the software" and you will know exactly what it's like to be a technical writer! [Read entire topic]

#68: Jennifer Powell (jnfr) Sun 26 Aug 01 22:37

Sun, 26 Aug 2001 22:37:00 PDT

Thanks for that wonderful response, Pat. What an interesting and odd experience. I appreciate your description.

When you get back, if you want to hang around, you can check in here and we can talk to helpdesk about keeping you around :)

In the meantime, have a great trip. [Read entire topic]

#67: Pat Cadigan (patcadigan) Sun 26 Aug 01 16:21

Sun, 26 Aug 2001 16:21:00 PDT

Linda--

Many thanks to you and Jennifer in return, for helping me get it all figured out. I don't know how much longer I get to run around in here; I know I'd like to stay on The Well, so I should look into formalizing my membership.:)

Daniel--it's been too long since you've been here. Marusek's gone back to Alaska, fer krissakes. [Read entire topic]

#66: Hi, I'm Not Dead Yet Again-- (patcadigan) Sun 26 Aug 01 16:17

Sun, 26 Aug 2001 16:17:00 PDT

Getting ready to leave home for a week is tremendously complicated and time-consuming.:) Now, where was I?

Jennifer: The making-of books were two very interesting, and very different, experiences. It's a lot of hard work, but I'd do it again in a minute...provided I could lay down some ground rules.:)

Lost In Space was something I just happened to luck into. Most making-of books are done by someone involved with the production. For some reason, New Line Cinema, who did LIS, didn't have anyone. I happened to be in the right place at the right time--an American of the right age to be acquainted with the TV series, who happened to live near enough to where the movie was being filmed, at Shepperton Studios. I got the assignment very near the end of the production, which meant I had to work hard and fast and learn on the fly.

Luckily for me, the LIS cast and crew couldn't have been more helpful. The publicist provided me with tapes of interviews with the director, the screenwriter, and the adult cast members whom I wasn't able to interview (I got to see William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Matt LeBlanc, Heather Graham, and Gary Oldman at a distance). I did interview "Penny" and "Will"--they were great kids. I also interviewed the robots--which is to say, the head of the four-person robot crew. It turned out that he and I had several mutual friends. I spent several days with the miniature crew after principle filming wrapped, while they explained sfx stuff to me. Thanks to the head of the cgi effects, I was given permission to sit in on the filming of Gary Oldman playing the Spider Smith monster--provided I didn't attempt to interview or talk to him.

That sounds like temperamental movie-star stuff, but it is not. Watching him work, I could understand why. If filming a special effects sequence is incredibly difficult, doing the acting is even harder--you have to react to nothing, say your lines to nothing, but still match the context. If anyone breaks your concentration, you can't do it--but you have to achieve this intense concentration in the middle of a room full of people who are operating computers and cameras and lighting, and you have to do it with your face covered with little white balls for the motion-capture. I watched Gary Oldman do this for several hours with only an occasional break for coffee. He's the consummate professional.

Everyone involved with the production was great, and I was really hoping for success for all of them.

I got the assignment for The Mummy because of what I'd done with LIS, but in this case, I was working directly for Universal rather than the publisher of the book. Parts of The Mummy were filmed at Shepperton, but there had also been a lot of location work in Morroco that I had missed. Universal didn't get me to Shepperton until the absolute last day of principle filming, and then scheduled back-to-back interviews with all the principle crew--costume designer, set designer, props. This was less successful, as most of these people had left the production already, many of them several weeks before, and they were already working on new projects. So I got a lot of "I don't remember" answers in response to a lot of my questions. I asked, but Universal wouldn't give me any extra material, or allow me to return to the set for additional interviews after that one day.

The only actor I interviewed was the Mummy himself, Arnold Vosloo, while he was completing his motion-capture scenes. This was amazingly nice of him, considering he could have spent the time between takes resting rather than talking to me.

It was just dumb luck that I was going to be in San Francisco when they'd be working on the cgi effects for The Mummy, but it was like pulling teeth getting permission to visit. But I did manage to get to Skywalker Studios for a day and got a look at the visual effects as they were being created. Management was extremely nervous, however--they were working on The Phantom Menace at the same time and they were worried about security. It made it even harder to get the job done.

When it came time to put The Mummy book together, I didn't have half the information I'd had for Lost In Space and both the publisher and Universal were unhappy about it, but not as unhappy as I was. It's a hell of a thing when someone tells you to write a book about a movie and then won't give you a lot of the information that has to go into the book--and then wants to know why it isn't in there. And then, when you tell them why, and ask them to give you the information...they *still* won't. Frustration? Don't get me started.:)

Still, I'd do it again. It's all fascinating, and I really enjoyed figuring out a structure for each book and how I would approach each area of the productions.

The most intriguing thing, however, was watching things I'd envisioned in my work--not as part of the movies, but as part of how they were made. That was, as the kids still say, cool. Not to mention gratifying. [Read entire topic]

#65: Daniel Marcus (marcus) Sat 25 Aug 01 00:03

Sat, 25 Aug 2001 00:03:00 PDT

Not much fiction recently, Pat, ufortunately. Co-authored a tome called Professional XML that hit the shelves a couple of months ago. Currently CTO of a company called Aptegrity. We have a London office, so I will be out there from time to time ... [Read entire topic]

#64: Linda Castellani (castle) Fri 24 Aug 01 12:45

Fri, 24 Aug 2001 12:45:00 PDT

As would I!

While we are waiting, let me just say how much I have enjoyed this interview, and thank you to Pat for being such a great guest, and to Jennifer for being such a great interviewer. Our two weeks together are officially over, but you are welcome to stay and hang out for as long as you like. [Read entire topic]