CNN DOCUMENTS BABYLON 5
Historic, on-set footage and interviews
shot by CNN with additional content produced by B5 Books
A digital edition of this product is is forthcoming and will be announced via out mailing list. (see sign up at bottom in footer)
Disc 1: Uncut interviews with cast members while the series was in production for seasons one, two and five (includes optional video footnotes). Like you are sitting beside the CNN interviewer for all the chitchat between bouts of "serious" Q&A.
Disc 2: Uncensored on-set footage from the production of four episodes, featuring take after take of filming and the bustle of the set between shoots (includes optional beat-by-beat audio tour). Like hanging out on the set with the cast and crew.
Disc 3: "Ivanova" and "Garibaldi" look back on CNN's visits with twenty years of hindsight, and gossip about life on the B5 set (featuring picture-in-picture video to showcase commentators and the footage they're watching).
- CNN was given complete access to all areas of the sound stages.
- Completely different than the bonus features on the Babylon 5 DVDs, this footage is unedited and uncensored. You've never seen anything like this.
- CNN's coverage completely demystifyies how Babylon 5 was shot.
- Officially licensed from CNN and available only from Babylon 5 Books.
Ummmm...yeah!
What we received was a data crystal (or maybe it was a box of professional videotapes...who can say?) of material that blew us away. The footage showed us what fans could only dream of: uncut, uncensored documentation of entire scenes being shot. It was like being a fly on the wall while cameras were rolling, and it gave us a whole new understanding of the show.
It's one thing to read about the production. It's another thing entirely to see it happening right before your eyes.
And then there were the interviews. We got to see the stars of the show completely unguarded--joking, smoking, making offhand comments--sometimes seemingly unaware they were being recorded. Other times, they were playfully giving tours of the set, pulling back the curtain to show how a hot tub factory became a 23rd century space station.
For the first time ever, fans could practically step onto the Babylon 5 soundstages, watch scenes being filmed take after take, and hang out with the cast and crew between shots.
We had only one question: How could we get this footage into the hands of Babylon 5 fans? Here was yet another instance of "faith manages..."
5 HOURS OF CONTENT
3 hours of never-before-released video material and 2 hours of bonus content
5 UNIQUE ENCOUNTERS
Encounter #1: Behind the Scenes
Encounter #2: Behind the Scenes with Tour Guide Jason Davis (bonus)
Encounter #3: Complete Interviews
Encounter #4: Complete Interviews with Video Footnotes (bonus)
Encounter #5: 20 Years Later – A picture-in-picture look back with Jerry Doyle and Claudia Christian
INTERVIEWS WITH THE CAST
Uncensored and complete. The banter between CNN and the actors shows a side of their off-camera personalities rarely glimpsed and their nervousness while being interviewed by CNN. Parts the interviews are formal, sit-down affairs, while others sections are more active, featuring tours of the C&C set, showing how things work (or don't).
VIDEO FOOTNOTE OPTION DURING INTERVIEWS WITH THE CAST
Video footnotes bring context and little-known facts to each interview, providing a great opportunity to share information the fans have not known about until now. Remember VH1's Pop-Up Video? This is our B5 version.
These optional on-screen annotations by Jason Davis--editor of 28 volumes for B5Books.com--let you fully appreciate what is being said or shown...just as Jason does in the books, but on the screen.
As a bonus, we've included an interview with Shari Belafonte (Dr. Elizabeth Trent from Thirdspace) recorded just before the movie was broadcast. We included it because it gives a well-rounded view of a guest star's experience on the Babylon 5 set.
DISC 1 HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
- Bruce Boxleitner explaining why he kept forgetting his lines when first acting opposite Andreas Katsulas.
- What Babylon 5 decision took 178 executives to approve.
- Why Claudia Christian was so disappointed by a recent #1 movie.
- Jerry Doyle quoting a Superman character.
- Discovering which Babylon 5 character was promoted during a scene that was later deleted.
- Claudia Christian reading the labels printed on the buttons of Ivanova's C&C console.
Never in the history of Babylon 5 have the fans been able to hang out on the set as shot after shot is filmed. At best, most fans have only seen 30-second snippets on entertainment news shows and DVD bonus features. What you're getting here is extraordinary--as much as sixteen minutes of footage covering the shooting of one scene.
GUIDED AUDIO TOUR OPTION DURING BEHIND THE SCENES & ON THE SET
Jason Davis provides a beat-by-beat audio tour, describing exactly what is happening on set. This is optional, so when you watch it without the audio tour, you feel like you are on the set. Watching it with Jason's voice-over, everything is explained as it happens.
DISC 2 HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
- What will you see that you've never seen before? The process of filming Babylon 5. Take after take, wardrobe fixes, technical issues, directors calling "action"...it's all here--how the team worked together to make the magic happen.
- CNN put its camera behind the film crew's, affording a big picture of the crew shooting the show (and we show you what made it in to the episode).
- Witness how the door to the Observation Dome really opens.
- Hear why a scene in Earhart's takes eight separate shots from six different angles.
- See how eleven minutes of printed footage from an entire afternoon's filming nets only one minute of what you see in "A Distant Star."
- Why would the actors–-as a group-–stare at a piece of red tape?
- What could you do on the Babylon 5 set in 1994 that would be illegal in 2016?
- Hear the unfilmed ad lib Michael O'Hare uttered after Ivanova told Sinclair about the young telepath she and Talia Winters discovered in the Zocalo.
- Revealed: A brief scene that didn't make the final cut of "Objects at Rest."
- Discover which set had happy faces painted on the walls you couldn't see.
- What do actors sign in lieu of yearbooks when the season ends? (Hint: It's NOT their scripts.)
- What set was sitting just outside the entrance to Commander Sinclair's office? (You'll never believe this!)
- See how Londo Mollari's quarters look when the set is not being used.
- Hear Bruce Boxleitner's Ronald Reagan impression.
- Find out how the electrical crew creates a twinkle in an actor's eyes.
- See how the extras in a crowded scene are directed to look "natural."
- See Stephen Furst's final scene shot on Babylon 5. You've NEVER seen this before; it was cut from the episode.
- Discover what Jerry Doyle joked about with the CNN interviewer in season one that actually occurred on screen in season five.
JERRY "GARIBALDI" DOYLE AND CLAUDIA "IVANOVA" CHRISTIAN
LOOK BACK AFTER TWENTY YEARS
Not just an audio track, but a video commentary featuring the actors AND the material they're commenting on via picture-in-picture video. Uncensored, with language in keeping with an R-rated movie.
DOES THIS SET INCLUDE A BOOK?
No. Video only. Three DVDs totaling five hours of content. Though we are Babylon 5 BOOKS, this is our first product that DOESN'T include a book.
WHAT DOES "LICENSED" MEAN?
B5 Books owns the rights to this material, and it won't appear anywhere else.
WHAT IF I HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION?
Email us at help@b5books.com. We answer all email personally. We really do!
5 HOURS OF CONTENT
3 hours of never-before-released video material and 2 hours of bonus content
5 UNIQUE ENCOUNTERS
Encounter #1: Behind the Scenes
Encounter #2: Behind the Scenes with Tour Guide Jason Davis (bonus)
Encounter #3: Complete Interviews
Encounter #4: Complete Interviews with Video Footnotes (bonus)
Encounter #5: 20 Years Later – A picture-in-picture look back with Jerry Doyle and Claudia Christian
This is the Fan Edition that includes Disc 3.
