JMS SDCC 2014 Spotlight Panel - Full audio

[Ubik]

Wasn't sure where best to post this, but here's audio for the spotlight panel in full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx02FBuKih8

*Not had a chance to check quality, but I assume this will be okay.

[Dan Dassow]

Wasn't sure where best to post this, but here's audio for the spotlight panel in full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx02FBuKih8

*Not had a chance to check quality, but I assume this will be okay.

Ubik,

Thanks for posting the link. The audio quality is very good; there is no video except as static image of Studio JMS. I could hear everything that Joe said and most of what the member "Board of Directors" in the audience said.

By the way, Joe mentions a very special person associated with Save Babylon 5 towards the end of the video. I imagine she was blushing when he mentioned her name.

JMS Spotlight Panel SDCC 2014 (AUDIO)
jms start talking about B5 movie at this time stamp.

http://youtu.be/Nx02FBuKih8?t=21m45s

[Looney]

Ubik,

Thanks for posting the link. The audio quality is very good; there is no video except as static image of Studio JMS. I could hear everything that Joe said and most of what the member "Board of Directors" in the audience said.

By the way, Joe mentions a very special person associated with Save Babylon 5 towards the end of the video. I imagine she was blushing when he mentioned her name.

JMS Spotlight Panel SDCC 2014 (AUDIO)
jms start talking about B5 movie at this time stamp.
http://youtu.be/Nx02FBuKih8?t=21m45s

Are you sure that isn't me he is referencing? My mother always tells me I am very special.

[Dan Dassow]

Are you sure that isn't me he is referencing? My mother always tells me I am very special.

No the very special person that Joe thanks is the other JMS.

[Jan]

And guess what?! This time I've actually got a picture of the two of us together! Talk about a study in opposites!!

Will post it soon.

Jan

[Ubik]

Hey Jan,

Out of curiosity can I ask how many people (roughly) attended the JMS panel? I'm just curious what kind of crowd JMS draws these days.

[Jan]

The room holds 480 per the convention center website and I'd say the room was at least 3/4 full when I was running around handing out buttons and postcards. Usually quite a few people come in as or after the panel starts so it was probably very close to full.

Jan

[Ubik]

The room holds 480 per the convention center website and I'd say the room was at least 3/4 full when I was running around handing out buttons and postcards. Usually quite a few people come in as or after the panel starts so it was probably very close to full.

Jan

That's good! I think I’m trying to get a better idea of B5 fandom that’s currently active and anticipating this feature film. When I take a step back and look at the low number of posts on here and B5TV, I sometimes get disparaged that we are in a minority. I mean, this is massive news, but it doesn’t seem to have caused that much of a stir. I suppose a lot of fans are waiting for something more concrete before getting all worked up about it.

[Jan]

Hard to tell how many B5 fans there were in the room since I had a volunteer handing things out at the door while I was working the inside of the room for people who were already there.

Jan

[sftv]

There seemed to be some oddities with panel attendance this year. In room 6A, which seats around 1000, they had a panel with George Martin, Pat Rothfuss, Diana Gabaldon, Lev Grossman, and Joe Abercrombie. It was only 2/3 full. A solo Rothfuss panel at Phoenix Comicon drew well over 1000.

Joe's autograph line seemed comparable to previous ones, but I also hadn't been for a couple of years.

Lee Whiteside

[Triple F]

I mean, this is massive news, but it doesn’t seem to have caused that much of a stir. I suppose a lot of fans are waiting for something more concrete before getting all worked up about it.

Sorry. But I don’t believe it is massive news.

When jms was first on the web he wasn’t the only game in town, but he was certainly one of the most high profile people to be active on it – and he was only the producer and writer of a few television shows back then…. But what he did was new and got looked at. Now compare that with the internet today and the number of very high profile “celebrities” including A-list actors and directors with wonderful news to share………..

Outside of a section of the sci-fi and comic reading community jms is essentially unknown. So a writer saying that in a years time he’s going to produce a movie script THEN after that try and find someone to fund it….. Seriously. If it wasn’t jms saying it, and it wasn’t about Babylon 5, wouldn’t you really just file it away with barely a comment along with the other dozen rumours and pet projects you see coming out of Hollywood every day of the year.

That’s not “joe bashing” but an honest opinion about how jms, and the news of a possible B5 movie isn’t quite the internet shaking event it might have been in the past….. In addition to that, like it or not, jms has mentioned other projects that might be coming along (not necessarily movies), which disappeared like a fart in the wind, and many of the fans know that so are a little cynical.

Now, in 18 months time and a deal has been struck with WB (or whoever) and the first photos from early location shoots were to be leaked on the web….. Then I’d expect people would take notice, BIG TIME… But right now. Not so much.

[Jan]

Outside of a section of the sci-fi and comic reading community jms is essentially unknown.

I don't think anybody who's had a film compete at Cannes that was directed by Clint Eastwood and starred Angelina Jolie can be considered an unknown.

Face it, when JMS says that he's got footprints in film, TV and comics, he's right. While his profile might not be as high/mainstream as say, Joss Wheadon, 'unknown' isn't an applicable term here. And while we've seen projects announced that failed to materialize, those have been projects where he was dependent on others which is why we never saw TMoS or Lensman or several others. The whole point of Studio JMS is to remove that dependence.

Jan

[Triple F]

I never said he’s unknown, I said he’s essentially unknown, maybe I should have said virtually or even relatively, but since you ignored the word before unknown, I’m guessing it doesn’t really matter. The internet is a huge virtual place and a billion or two people visit it each day, and something like 99.999989% of them have no idea who jms is.

But of course, in the greatest of “fan” traditions you chose to completely ignore the obvious point… Unless your going to go with the “how do you know” approach. In which case you “win”. I’m wrong. And it’s a complete friggin mystery why there’s isn’t a more widely excited response to jms’s announcement that he’s going to write a script in 12 months and he doesn’t have a buyer yet.

As for not having to rely on others to get the movie made…… eh, that’s not what he said. jms doesn’t have something around 100 million to gamble on a movie….. He’s indicated that he can have funding in place and has mentioned an *expected* amount….

Considering we’re talking Hollywood here, that’s hardly a guarantee of anything. Especially as we’re dealing in a time frame of what, 1 year to write the script and he’s given WB another year to decide if hey want it and if they don’t, the investors he’s got in mind are just going to sit their on their money quietly twiddling their thumbs (knowing that they’re not his first choice)…. . Oh how about this one – they’ll also hand over their money and trust jms to write and produce a commercially successful blockbuster movie (and he hasn’t even done that with a low budget one yet) – because that’s what the notion of full creative control really means. Come to think of it, not having this widely announced so people other than B5 fans might find out about this might be a good thing…… But saying all that I do sincerely hope something does develop but as of right now, I'd suggest that was an announcement made at least a year too soon.

[Jan]

I never said he’s unknown, I said he’s essentially unknown, maybe I should have said virtually or even relatively, but since you ignored the word before unknown, I’m guessing it doesn’t really matter. The internet is a huge virtual place and a billion or two people visit it each day, and something like 99.999989% of them have no idea who jms is.

I guess I just don't understand what point you're trying to make? He's well known in various areas and pretty much everybody is, as you say, virtually unknown. So...what? *My* point was that it's probably not going to be an issue for him to come up with the investors he's looking for. The other 99+% aren't really germane to the discussion at hand, are they?

Jan

[Looney]

Okay so I finally took the time to sit and listen to the entire panel the other day. The thing I found shocking was that there weren't more questions about the movie. If I'd been there it would have taken a few moments for the shock to settle, but then I would have gotten in line and after asking my one question I would have tried to get back in line to ask another. Anyone planning to attend the next Con JMS appears at please contact me for a list of 50 Babylon 5 movie related questions I'd like you to ask. We'll work out the details on which ones are the best to put forward. Yeah he isn't going to be able to answer specifics yet, but we could have gotten a better feel for what he was saying and what his general hopes are for the project.

So here are some questions for you Jan. Were you the first person who asked a question? (I am only asking because I couldn't quite tell if that was your voice or not. And I don't include you as one of the people who dropped the ball on asking questions. I know you had your hands full, your mind full, and that you usually try to get up there and ask questions.) And when he ended it were there still people in the question line?

I also took note that he really didn't stress the word "reboot" as a major deal. I think if he was going to re-imagine the whole concept he might have stressed that more. As it is he basically said he would have to do some recasting and moving people around, not I am wiping the slate clean and delving into a whole new Universe. Maybe that is still to come, but I didn't hear it in what he announced.