Podcast:Faith
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Hello, and welcome to the podcast for episode 408 [unintelligible] "Faith". I'm Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and developer of the new Battlestar Galactica [unintelligible]. Sorry about the [unintelligible] audio. [unintelligible, something about the audio level]. I'll never make that mistake again. Anyway. This week's- the Scotch is [unintelligible] twelve, and unfortunately the smoking lamp is out.
"Faith" is actually one of my favorite episodes of the season. I like the show a lot, for many different reasons. [unintelligible] but this is Kevin Fahey's first episode for us. Kevin was our production assistant and then graduated and became a staff writer this season. This is his first time at bat for us and he did a great job. And there were post production [unintelligble] after the first draft and the second draft. Remember, that's par for the course in television.
Let's see. The first thing we talk about is where this episode begins. This episode, as I noted in last week's podcast of the episode prior to this, 407, was actually going to end much later. It was actually the end of the previous episode was actually pretty much the teaser of this episode, with Gaeta getting shot. All this [unintelligible] the teaser in the first off- in the Demetrius bridge. This is all shot to be in the prior episode. And essentially this was the sequence that was gonna get us all the way to the end. That episode was going to end with shots being fired and Gaeta going down, and then this episode was going to open with the aftermath, the crazy aftermath. And a couple of reasons argued to make all the changes that we did. [coughs] Sorry. One of them was just that the prior episode was just way full, and was running wildly over time as so many of our episodes are, and the second episode there were places that I wanted to tighten up at, some of the scenes with Cottle [unintelligible] so there was a natural overflow from one into the other. And also there was something about- as I watched the first episode, this sequence in Demetrius, it felt like we had passed the dramatic climax, that the point of him saying, "I hereby relieve you of command of Demetrius," felt like that was the high point of the scene, and then the rest of this was eroding on that dramatic moment and it just felt like it just kept going, and it didn't feel like it had a natural out, on some level. Like, I think we were gonna cut it here someplace- I'm trying to remember exactly the actual end point is in here somewhere on the chaos, it's like the shooting, and then the second episode was gonna pick up with the madness still going on. And I didn't think that was quite as satisfying as being able to play the tension of what was gonna happen next. So that argued [unintelligible] pushing over into this episode.
Oh, there's this whole business with Gaeta's leg. It's something we talked about in the writers' room, and it's like, well someone's gonna get shot, let's have 'em really get shot, and I believe in the early drafts of this, the first couple drafts were done in Helo still isn't aboard Demetrius- it was a much later break of the storyline. Initially the mutiny was sparked by Gaeta. Gaeta was the XO and Gaeta was facing down Kara, and I think what happened in the standoff in the draft was that Kara and Athena were actually pointing guns at one another, and I think part of what we were playing in those early drafts was the interesting idea that the crew of the Demetrius, the [unintelligible] crew of the Demetrius was backing the Cylon against Kara. That they had actually bonded with Athena over the course of time to the point where they would follow her even into a mutiny. That ultimately they trusted her, the known Cylon, and that's more than they trusted whoever and whatever Kara Thrace was at this point. And it was indicative of just how far Kara had gone, and also indicative of how far Athena had gone in [unintelligible]. Once we moved Helo over, it became a different storyline. The storyline was a little bit more [unintelligible]- it was little bit more influenced by The Caine Mutiny in the sequence of events that played out over there, the difference- there are noticeable differences [unintelligible] scenario you want- but I like the idea that the XO is the last one to turn against the captain, that all the other officers were united in doing all that they had to do, but the XO was the last in [unintelligible].
When we shot Gaeta's leg, question came up right away, "Well, how bad is he shot? How bad is the wound?" And I felt like, you know what? If we're gonna do this, if someone's gonna get shot over this, let's have some real consequences. Let's have s- let's have a problem that's gonna last a while, that's not gonna just get over real quickly. I think that one of the things that I dislike about television is that when people get gunshot wounds on tv typically it's a flesh- it's just a flesh wound. It's a bit of blood on the shirt, and it's usually on the same [unintelligible]. The character puts their arm in a sling and life goes on. One of the things I'm proud of in the series is that we generally- speaking, we haven't been pure about this, but generally speaking if somebody gets shot or hurt, it hurts, and the consequences of their wounds stay with the character for an extended period of time and we've tried to play [unintelligible], play how it would impede them, we've tried to play the pain most of all of how bad these- getting shot with a gun actually hurts and affects you. That's the end of the tease.
Act 1
And back. This scene actually was going to be originally- Laura was going to- with Tory and they were picking out a wig to wear. There were various wigs that were on little mannequins or styrofoam heads [unintelligible] were sitting in the corner of a room and she was trying to decide which wig she was gonna wear, and then [unintelligible] she says, "Fuck it. I'm gonna go with the scarf." I think Mary- I believe it was Mary's idea. I could be wrong. I believe it was Mary's idea that it's just more shocking to see her in the bald cap. Mary and I had long conversations before the season began about how far we were gonna with the cancer this year, what we were going to show, how far we wanted to do, and Mary is very fearless in that regard. She just wanted to go for it. She didn't want to hold back. She wanted me to play it, to go all the way. And right up to point of shaving her bald. Of course, she didn't actually shave her head [unintelligible] for the show. We wouldn't ask her to do that, really. I didn't think [unintelligible] anyway. This is actually a bald cap. Now, when I first saw it on camera, it didn't look as good as it does now, because the trick of the bald cap, of course, is that you have to plaster down the hair and then fit the cap over the top of the head. And Mary has a lot of hair. So as good as the makeup people- hair and makeup people are, and as long as she spent in the makeup chair, I think she spent like three or four hours in a makeup chair to get that bald cap on, it still bulged. In fact, the problem was, when you saw it on camera in that shot, she looked a bit like the Talosians from Star Trek. And those of you who are not dyed in the wool Star Trek original series fans, I encourage you to go out there and expand your vocabulary. [unintelligible] but do some research and find out who the Talosians were. 'Cause she looked a bit Talosian in a bald cap, initially. So what we had digital effects come in and visual effects reshaped the curvature of her head so that it became a little bit more to a natural shape and contour so that it didn't pop and you wouldn't be like, "Oh my God, what's that?" when you first saw it. So just another way that digital effects is helping it all to [unintelligible].
I like that little beat right there with Helo and this is Sharon before she goes. I think it's- I would say that Nankin on the day- on the Demetrius, we were talk- he asked, "Doesn't-" he felt like it was missing a little something between Sharon and Helo and we talked about it and I think- I can't remember if it was his idea or mine, but they have a little- just a little quiet moment for the two- husband wife. I really- like the way we play Helo and Sharon in that scene there. That they are a committed, loving, married couple and they're not driven apart, they're not cheating, they're not an angst-ridden marriage. It's an interesting thing, and that's a rarity in television.
For those of you who keep track of such things, this is the first time, I believe, we've seen a jump looking out the window during the jump itself. This [unintelligible] sequence is really great. Going through the debris field. Moving the Raptor through the wreckage of a battle. In the initial drafts I think that the- what's coming up is that of course they're gonna be attacked by- not attacked, they're gonna be hit by some ordnance popping off, but in the initial drafts I believe there was a Raider that actually attacked them, and it was leftover from the battle, and it was one of Cavil's Raiders, but I think I felt that it was unnecessary and suddenly these like action, action, and I didn't think we needed to do something [unintelligible]. And I also thought it was a little confusing. Like you didn't quite- it's like, "Huh? Who's Raider is that? Wait? Who's side are the Raiders on?" It just confused things in the moment that [unintelligible] extra confusion.
I really like this little beat with Helo and Gaeta where Gaeta is looking for- to Helo for- The standard hero moment here is, "Tell me I won't lose my leg. Promise me I won't lost my leg." And hero would say, "I promise you I'll do whatever I can." And Helo doesn't give him that. Helo just looks him right in the eye and says, "No, I'm gonna stay here until the last second. [Unintelligible]." Gaeta kinda knows what that answer probably means. And it's a tough answer. It's an honest answer. I like the truth about it. I like the fact that [unintelligible].
There's some nice little [unintelligible] notes here in this scene, in the Raptor, watching Anders as Leoben starts talking about hearing things that nobody else can hear. And [unintelligible] musical references [unintelligible]. Anyway this scene is as much about Anders as it is about anybody else. I love the stuff that the ordnance going off. This is something we worked over again over in visual effects and they- guys always came through. And I like the notion that ordnance is just popping off from this wreckage. And that that random piece of ordnance was what slammed into the Raptor and take 'em down. It's just- There's something about it that's just kind of interesting, 'cause it feels like one of those random battlefield events that do occur and that people are taken unaware of and that even after the battle is over there's still dangerous things [unintelligible] and shit happens. And that flying these aircraft and participating in these kinds of events carry with it an underlying danger at every turn, that I think it's interesting to play, especially when it just pops up and hits you out of nowhere.
There was a lot of discussion back and forth about Kara's vision, and how we were gonna realize that. Obviously we had to- we actually had to paint the vision- her painting of the vision on her bulkhead in Demetrius before we actually did this visual effects sequence, so there was actually a lot of conversations with Gary Hutzel and Richard Hudolin and the director about the painting, and how the painting was gonna work, and what the colors were, previzzing out some of the shots. There was a lot of coordination to make that thing happen. And when we watched the cut, I think it was there was a flash, we played around with it in the cut of Kara looking out and flashing back to her painting, and then there was also a version where she was flashback to the image [unintelligible] and flash down. And it's more effective not as a flashback, but as a dissolve. It would dissolve in and dissolve out.
Act 2
Interesting little thing on this water. See? Like there's this slight image of water there as Kara comes to consciousness. One of the things that Michael Nankin did in his cut, in his director's cut for this episode, is on the Laura story, Laura had images and flashes of the ferry, the ferry that eventually takes her across, in her dream, across the river and she sees [unintelligible] on the shore. Well, Michael had us playing those a little bit more- not quite objectively, they were still subjective, flashes of Laura-
[unintelligible] I have to mention. That whole gate coming down and all that stuff in the baseship was all added- that's all just a big CG effect, that it's just a green screen right there.
But anyway, Michael had all these flashes and cuts of the ferry streamed all the way through the ship, and I took most of them out, which I'll discuss later, but there was a remnant of that idea- one of the only remnants is that thick little come into wake them as Kara, with just the out of focus water, which was actually shot from the same material that was later Laura's ferry ride.
This kind of scene with Sh- no, Athena talking to the Sharons is one of those things that drives production insane because it takes forever and it's complicated because you have- it's doing this take a lot of different times, a lot of different passes, as they call it, it a lot of blue dots on the walls, it's getting Shar- getting Grace to stand on different marks, different times, it's listening to the playback. It's timing your dialogue accordingly. It's a lot of lighting things up. It just takes forever. It's just one of those things that drives production nuts, is when you do all the multiple Cylons- multiple Cylon scenes. Even though we've gotten- we don't usually leave much control when you wanna do that kind of stuff. That saves a tremendous amount of time. It's still- you can do [unintelligible] the old school way [unintelligible] with the dailies, just different passes on the same plate and it still takes a long time.
The Laura story- actually, in its initial conception was much more political. It was much more about- had a lot more Baltar in it. Actually, in this version Baltar's not even in the show, except you hear him over the wireless, but it was much more about what he was saying in his broadcasts and how he's affecting law, and actually Zarek and Lee were big in this show in the early drafts. Zarek was maneuvering to have Laura declared unfit to be president 'cause she was clearly getting too sick and he was trying to manipulate Lee into doing so, and- having to do with what Baltar was also saying on the tapes and he was starting to be convinced that there was actually some kind of backroom dealing going on between Zarek and Baltar, and Lee trying to figure out his duties to the Fleet. Laura really is sick. What does he owe to the people and what does owe personally [unintelligible] Zarek. And he's very, very [unintelligible]. But the stronger piece of it, I thought, emotionally was the story between Laura and the cancer patient that- it was a little bit more in the early versions, it was a little bit more of a sense of Laura getting drawn directly into what Baltar was saying. They discussed what Baltar was saying a little bit more overtly. And I think I- through the rewrites and as we massaged the story and I kept coming back to the idea it was much more emotional than that. That it was much more about Laura's personal relationship with a woman who is nearing the end and Laura facing her mortality and looking in the eye a little bit more strongly, in a very literal sense, that she could put herself into that woman's shoes much more readily than almost anyone else that you've experienced.
Back here on the Raptor- on the baseship. There's Barolay. It was interesting to bring- Barolay's been on- with us for a while. This whole little sequence here, this little scenario where Barolay is recognized by one of the Sixes and that leads to Six killing Barolay and then Anders almost killing the Six, and then ultimately Natalie killing the Six for him. This is- was kind of inspired by Lawrence of Arabia, which is probably my all time favorite film of all time, and it comes up quite a bit in writers' rooms, I've noticed. With some of the moral choices made by Lawrence, we discussed especially military discussions in this series and Deep Space Nine and Star Trek and we've been discussed quite a bit. And the moment of- that you always kept coming back to- that everyone always wants to riff on one way or the other is that moment of when the two tribes are getting- the two tribes of Bedouin are getting ready to go attack the Turks and the night before there's a squabble and one man from one tribe kills another from the other tribe and the whole alliance almost falls apart, and ultimately the only way out of the situation is for Lawrence to shoot the man, because he's on neither side, and then he shoots the man, in cold blood, and it turns out to be the man who of course had saved his life, and Lawrence killed him. And what it said about him, what it said about the character, the lasting [uniteligible] of it, how it affected us. I mean, it's a fant- it's just a brilliant moment in a brilliant movie. And this scene is- this sequence is very much influenced by it, but it's not a direct parallel, because the movie of Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence himself is the outsider, and he can kill the man without any dishonor or acrimony falling on him, that's why it works. In this scenario, it's not quite the same because Natalie kills her, and she actually takes it on herself. She takes it on herself to kill one of her own, as a demonstration of how much the alliance matters. I particularly like this, not only for the Lawrence homage, but also for the way it ties us back to the events of New Caprica and how personal those were to everyone involved, and how the events of New Caprica we've never quite been able to escape. It's not just a couple of episodes in a series, it's like a really pivotal- events for all these people on both sides. And I like the fact that its the Cylon who can't get over it. It's the Cylon who's wracked with and tormented by her memories of drowning to death in a vat of sewage. It's just a horrible image that drives her [unintelligible]. But it's- what I love about it is that it's another one of those "Who's side are you on?" moments and "Who are you rooting for?" and "What am I supposed to feel?" And it's one of those things that- it's Battlestar at its best. When it takes a complex moral situation and makes it more complex, 'cause it challenges you and then asks you to figure out how feel in this moment, and where do you wanna go? Do you want Anders to kill this woman? She killed his friend. He's perfectly justified in killing her- from a certain viewpoint. And now it's gonna be an execution. And what will it do to the alliance? What was important to me as we went through the scene is that I real- it was really important to me that we hear her story. That we understand where she's coming from, that we give her her due. That she did what she did for a reason. That it's not insane. That she's not crazy. That she had a horrific experience too, and- the interesting thing, of course, is that you find yourself empathizing with her- or sympathizing with her. You find yourself trying to understand what her experience every bit as much, if not more, than you understand Barolay's experience. And I think that's fascinating. I think it's interesting. It's one of the things I really like about the show is that you're able to go into these places.
Again, this is another Tricia Helfer tour de force. No question these are two different characters. You kinda even forget, well, I forget as I'm watching it that she's playing both characters. I accept them as different- it's gotten to the point now where I just accept all the Sixes as truly different people. And I notice in the cutting room in editing, I recut the scene a bit to emphasize the Six and emphasize the Six's story as well as Ander's pain and going to the ground. Not taking anything from Michael Nankin and his cut. [unintelligible] is just shaping, me going in and filing around the edges to bring out certain ideas. I think that- ironic was- when Michael directed this it wasn't staged to be a visual effects shot, the way she was- I don't even think it was scripted for Natalie to kiss her. It's something they just did on the stage. They just found this moment where she kissed her. But she did it- the only coverage that we had was an over the shoulder of the Six and you saw Natalie's face- on the camera from that angle- that you're seeing here [unintelligible]. She just leaned down and kissed her. And I loved it. It was so emotional. It was so sad, and profound, and weird. I really wanted to play it, but you had to see it. I felt like you had to see it, so I made them go back and reshoot this- reshoot it. Not the whole thing, but it's more- it's actually a pick up shot. They did a pick up shot of Natalie kissing Six. So that close angle where Natalie's kissing- Patricia's kissing herself is actually a pick up we did much later.
I love these reactions. It's just like what the f- what the f-?
We've gotta talk about- earlier- I really liked to do that Anders is tempted to put his hand into the data font, and find out what he could learn and what would happen to him if he put his hand in there [unintelligible] in that moment of temptation that plays out while the rest of the scene is playing out.
Nana Visitor, of course, as probably everybody listening to this knows is Major Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, who I have great affection for. This bit of casting came up from David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, actually. They pitched this to me. They sent me an email, I recall. I think I was in Vancouver, and I got this email saying, "What do you think about Nana for Emily. We think she'd be terrific." And we went, "Oh my God. That's brilliant! I act- [unintelligible] do it! I'd love to have her." And then [unintelligible]- she's interested. And boom! Suddenly it happened. It was like, "Oh my God. That's so cool." I had not seen Nana since Deep Space wrapped. In fact, I don't think I had seen her since the wrap party itself, which I remember with great clarity. One of the few wrap- not the party itself- [chuckles] [unintelligible] with great clarity 'cause I was drunk, of course. I mean, I don't think I saw Nana since the last day on the set, when we were shooting in Vick's- in the holodeck, and we were extras and there was Nana, and it was very emotional. And I think that was the last time I saw. So she came into- the production offices in Vancouver and I met her and we looked at each other and sat down and, "God. Wow." And she said, "Well, I don't know a lot about the show, but I'm really excited to do it. Am I gonna have to- am I an alien?" I'll come back after the break.
Act 3
[unintelligible] "I love the script. I love the part. [unintelligible] show that well." Bless her heart. But she just trusted me and Brad and David and to do it, and she- one of the first things she asked was, "Do I have to play an alien? Do I have to put on makeup?" I said, "No, no, no. It's nothing like that." It's very, very feminine. And she and Mary bonded almost immediately and Nana went down to the set that very day and met with Mary and Michael Nankin and they all started talking and it was just like they were off to the races and [unintelligible].
Here in this hybrid scene. I was here for shooting a good chunk of this. This, I think, was the day that I met Nana, was when we were shooting this hybrid stuff. This was- yeah. We were shooting the hybrid stuff when Nana showed up. What's really great about this stuff is it's amazing, you have two beautiful actresses who are willing to make themself- to really take themselves down in makeup and make themselves look bad. Mary's going bald and wearing a scarf like a cancer victim. Nana's going all-out and looking- having her teeth look bad and- I mean, it's really rare to find actresses who are willing to go there because this is a superficial business and a superficial town, and I can't tell you how many actors or actresses that I've run into over the years that don't wanna look bad, who are afraid of looking bad on camera. Actresses in particular sometimes are sensitive about the level of visual- I'm always really impressed and proud of the fact that people- actresses like Nana and Mary who are willing to really push themselves and make themselves look bad, to play the emotion, to play the truth of how people in those situations would look and feel.
And see, a lot of this was we were gonna- I believe in Michael Nankin's cut we had a lot of flashes in either this section or in later sections where Laura kinda see- the impression was that have these [unintelligible]. See, there's Laura right there. Kept this in. I kept in this moment of Emily saying that she remembered. Here it plays as Emily's memory, but the trick was, it was important to me and important to the writers that it not feel like Mar- Laura's having a literal vision of these things, in the moment. That she doesn't see it in the way that we've done other visions in the show. It's a fine line. But we do flashbacks, we do visions, and the line between memory and visions is very fine sometimes, just in terms of film making and the film making language. And it was important to me that it not be a vision and it not be something that she was literally seeing. We didn't want to validate what Emily was seeing so much as we wanted to raise the question of, "What is she saying? What does Laura Make of it and what does she take away from it?" So I cut all that back and you'll see towards the end it plays now just as- when we actually do the ferry sequence it's just a dream to Laura.
All this stuff with the hybrid. Oh, I'm blanking on the hybrid actresses' name. I'm so sorry. I apologize. If I was a better producer I would stop the tape and look up her name, but I won't. That's just lovely. [Unintelligible]. You have to really appreciate what she does, though. She lies in that tub for hours, and her legs are like a big sock. A big sock that holds both of her legs so you don't see them as separate legs underneath the water. And when she's in the tub there's a tremendous incentive to keep her in the tub, 'cause once she comes out everything has to be cleaned up, tub generally has to be flushed out, and refilled with water and reheated, and it takes a long time. As a consequence, once she's in the tub, she's in that tub. And she never complains. She was completely professional. She knew her lines cold. And these are not easy lines to memorize, I gotta tell you. These are like, a lot of like, psychotic ramblings that we fill with a lot meaning and a lot of hints and references to different things, but my God, to have to memorize page by page of that kind of dialogue? And to do it perf- she does it perfectly almost every single time. I didn't see her really blow a take. When she did it, she would just sit there and go into that zone and look up and go. Really something and I share a tremendous amount of respect for her as a performer.
You'll see that- Michael Nankin likes to use that projector- the video digital projector on the side that creating those images on everyone's faces. The sort of subliminal reds and patterns that are going on. We've had them on for a while. I think Michael Rymer- I believe Michael Rymer pioneered the use of them in that room. But we started using them more and more in different references and effects and I think Nankin uses them especially well.
I love this beat of her yelling. And that's really her yell. She yell- she held that note on the set for quite a while. She had a nice long shout, a long yell. And she just goes. It was really disturbing. When you were sitting- we were sitting in video village, right behind that wall behind Leoben, behind that wall is video village, all the directors, and we're all- the directors. The director and all- anyway we all crammed back there with the monitors. And she just lets lose with this yell and everybody jumps. Every time she did it we all kinda jumped. It was just so startling. Nankin really wanted that shot of the blood- a close up shot of the blood sort of expanding across the top of the water like oil, and I thought he was like- ah whatever. Who cares about the oil? But then I saw it in the cut and I went oh, well that's actually beautiful. That's actually really great. And sometimes- some directors have a vision of something and they [unintelligible]. It's just something they see in their mind's eye. And you either trust them or you don't. And hopefully- I try to always trust them. I'm sure there are times when I've poo-pooed perfectly valid ideas. But by and large I try to get in their head and try to honor their vision. Usually, they come up with something really great. And Michael really saw that shot. He knew how cool that one little moment with the blood going across the water was gonna be. It's a lovely shot now.
This is also very nice. They way we play this. [Unintelligible.]
Now [unintelligible] a big time cut here, actually. We come back- I- the network did not wanna end this act one the Laura-Emily story. The network very much wanted to end this act on the previous story point. That you go out on Sharon getting shot, the hybrid getting unplugged. Then come back for the death at the top of the next act. Once I made my cut, I decided that what was important, really, in the story, was the Laura story, the Emily story, and I just wanted to stick with the emotional context of what was going. And so I managed to hold onto that through the editing process and ultimately I won that argument. It doesn't matter quite as much if you're watching this on DVD as it does on air. I mean there's- I'm always cutting this with two audiences in mind. There's the audience that watches the on-air version in acts, the act break, and the shape of the act actually matters because they're informed by suddenly going to commercial. And there's a rhythm to that and a flow to how you structure for that. But more and more I'm starting to think about the DVD version of the show, because the DVD version of the show, or the video version of the show, or just the full cut of the show, however you wanna to define it, is really the cut that'll live on much, much longer. And that's- so now it doesn't even matter where the act break is. Sometimes you don't even [unintelligible] heavy arguments because you [unintelligible] audience so much.
I love Mary. Mary's performance is heartbreaking. It's so raw. It's the [unintelligible] it's the emotion, it's the truth. This is- I'm sorry. It's just- It just touches me. Mary just touched me so eloquently in this scene. It is a fucking crime that this woman has not been nominated for an Emmy for this work. It's just- The same goes for Eddie's. The same goes for about all, but Jesus Christ, people. This was- Mary just put on a tremendous performance. I mean, that's just a raw, just emotional thing to do. I mean, it's her. That's her. That's her soul in there. That's not just the tap- it's not just the performance. It's showing you something of the woman. Something of the person that she is. Now see, I just feel like this is when- This, to me, is where we go out on the act, 'cause what I'm saying- This to me, has- moves me. It touches me. It affects me, far more deeply that going out on the more traditional action-oriented, "Oh, my God. What's gonna happen in the scary place with the mechanical robots and the crazy hybrid," and all that. I just find- I mean this is the stuff moment of life. This is- I find this much more drama in this aspect of the show than I do in the other aspect of the show. Of this particular episode, in these particular scenes. And as a consequence, when we come back, at the top of the next act, there's gonna be a significant time cut on this last act. Which we get to in a moment. There were a lot of different takes about where- what was the last time Laura saw her. I think there was even a cut where she didn't see her go into that spasm. They just had a conversation and then came back and she was dead. That's the act out. I'll come back.
Act 4
Back.
As you can see here, we've got a significant- or actually [unintelligble]. It's not really a time cut. It's actually stretching and not a cut. We came out at the moment of drama, and we're picking up almost in continuous action from where we were. But obviously we've been away a lot longer than the cut would have you- feel. So, it's playing- I know what's I'm trying to say. It's playing with time in this episode.
I really like that fact that Athena can't really reach out to her. Athena can't really comfort her in this moment, even though she's her sister. Their fingertips never quite touch. And that Anders steps in. I like that it starts to help define Anders and Anders' role within the pantheon of the Final Five and who is he and what does it mean. And this, to me, is a bit of Anders deeper, truer nature coming forward. Who was Anders before? Who is the [unintelligble] Anders, as it were. Who is Anders really when you get down to his Cylon nature. This is part of who anders is. This is the Anders that reaches out and comforts and heals. He is that- in the scheme of things. And I think that's consistent with the Anders that we've established and seen from day one. Of his- of all these parts. And so what he's about is perceived willingness to be there for Kara, no matter what. And that that comes out him is to normal with this dying Six that he had no real relationship to. And for a moment there, I love it. That Leoben looks up and you think Leoben's going up to him and be like, "Whoah. Who the fuck is this guy?" And she actually looks up past him and looks up to Natalie and then they get back- into the puzzle.
"What does it mean? What does it mean? What's this mean? Where are we going?" Oh, yes. And it is all about getting drugs. You were just beginning to wonder, weren't you?
Oh, that D'anna.
Now, right here, it was originally an attack. I think that- even as they walk out there was supposed to be "boom, boom, boom". They were being attacked by Cavil's forces who had showed up off-camera and started to attack them. I cut all that in editing because it just felt like, "Are you kidding?" It's kinda a weird idea was something that- they had to get going because something had attacked.
And see that- opening shot right there of the water was what's overlaid on Kara earlier in the show.
Now, I like the way this plays now. To me, now it's a dream of Laura's. You'll notice that the colors are much brighter, much more saturated, than the show normally is. It's very- it's almost in Technicolor. This image of the people on the shore. In post I was trying to figure out- something about it didn't quite work for me. Seeing these people just standing on the shore looking up, and you couldn't quite tell who was waiting for her on the other side. And so I came up with the idea of, OK, so let's defocus everyone except the people that you're going to see. So it's like the visual is specific to you and the people that matter to you and they- the people who are not are just kinda out of focus. And that helped define this next beat, too. Where Laura looks up and sees her mother. It was a way to focus attention on her coming out of that crowd. 'Cause otherwise who would know to be looking at that, in that particular shot? And she looking, obviously, at Barbara Bush. [Laughs.] Which is something that I talked about in editing. Actually Mary was very concerned when she saw the cut. She said, "Isn't everyone gonna laugh when she looks like Barbara Bush?" Well, it was a little too late to reshoot it and I didn't really have a good fix in editorial. I didn't wanna do a visual effects job that I didn't know what to do in visual effects. So I kept it. And there's a bit of a smile, I think. But I'm hoping that as you watch the episode that your first- response is really like, "Oh my God." It's a moving bit that it's- there's Laura's mother after all this telling about that beautiful story that she told.
And see, now she wakes up. See? As a dream, I accept it. It's Laura's- interpretation in her unconscious of what Emily told her. It's not a- literal vision of exactly what life after death is. We don't wanna define life after death for the show or for the characters and get to see what really lies beyond. But I like the idea that she is influenced by what Emily said. And I like the fact that Emily doesn't even get a death scene. Emily just is gone.
One last thing about the Demetrius. The Demetrius interior, I must say, I was so impressed at the set. I mean, it's a multi-level set with many passageways. It's very large. The art department did a heroic job on this set. It did not break the bank. We were able to use it in many episodes and it sold the concept of the Demetrius just perfectly, which is not an easy burden. Sweaty, smelly ship that is uncomfortable to be in, that you don't wanna spend a lot of time in. And I remember I gat. hered the art department- I called the art- and said, "I wanna see the entire art department in the production office in ten minutes." And of course they thought they were all getting fired. And I just brought 'em in and said, "I just wanna tell you that's one of the best sets I've ever in my years in the business and you guys are just amazing. Amazing work." And I just wanted them to know that. I just still think it's one of the best sets they ever built.
I like this little beat because it's- this is just a minor tweak I made in editing was to have an actual push past the zero point. That he actually holds on a few seconds beyond it for Demetrius to show up. 'Cause it's just expecting that Demetrius is gonna arrive just like literally one second before you get to zero. And there's something kinda surprising and interesting. I think at least for a moment the audience, when they get to zero, the clock keeps going? You're like, "Well, wait a minute. He missed her." And then he waited- he's still. He's pissed. I love his reaction. And then we added in the clock going past the zero point later in post. So it wasn't really shot that way. And it just seemed- to increase the tension of the scene. And it also made him just slightly more heroic. That he- see? Maybe just those extra eight seconds, or whatever, he gives eight extra seconds and that- made it all work. And that got the baseship back home.
Remember- back to Galactica. I had to make some nips and tuck in this little scene here in Adama's quarters. I love the fact they both show up in their bathrobes. She got him out of bed. He got out of bed for her. And he's like, "Ah, OK. What the hell. Whatever. Get you some water. Get me some coffee." There were actually a little bit- a few more lines that I had to snip from Eddie and Mary to fit the scene down to time. It's still a lovely way to end the episode. I really like the- relationship. We've been playing it from the start of the series, and obviously this season [unintelligible] a little bit. But it- great performance to watch. They never- bore me. I love watching them when they [unintelligible]. It's like watching the different faces they emote. Watch them work through the scene a couple of different ways. Eddie'll throw something at her every once and a while that surprises her. It can be a reaction or he'll get up and move suddenly, and he'll just like look at her and do something odd. And Mary will try, so they experiment with each other. They trust each other. It's really been a delight to watch these two- pros who are just at the top of their game, just do really great work.
[Unintelligible, sounds like he may be repeating dialogue from the episode]
Well, I think it's a great episode. Hope you enjoyed it. That's "Faith", episode 408. I'm Ronald D. Moore. I'll be with you next time for episode 409. Until then, good night and good luck.
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