Directions By Jay Woelfel

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Jay Woelfel has spent his career working in all phases of production and post production in film, video, and interactive media. Jay won the first-ever Interactive Academy Award for Best Documentary for Titanic, a project he wrote and directed which was narrated by Patrick Stewart. It is one of five awards Titanic has won since its release in 1994. In 1993, he won two Emmy Awards for his production of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark. (It aired nationally on PBS stations.) He moved to Los Angeles, California from Columbus, Ohio in 1990; the first film he worked on in his new hometwon was the Academy Award nominated short film, Bronx Cheers.

On the strenght of his body of work, Jay was selected as one of the six best film students in the United States in 1996. He was sent to the 1986 Cannes Film Festival where two of his short films were screened. He has written and directed six feature films, worked on 79 films and won 23 awards for his work. He has also lectured about filmmaking at UCLA and IFP west.

In September 1999, BattlestarGalactica.com talked at length with Jay about his background, his projects, and his co-directing the Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming trailer.

Q: Some people think that directors yell, "Lights, Camera, Action!" Can you give us a better description of what directors like yourself do during the filmmaking process?

There's three important and basic things a director does -- and must do well -- if he/she can ever be a good director.

The director must tell a story visually. Even if you didn't write the script your job is to tell the story in a way that can only be done in a movie. If you're simply shooting actors performing in as neutral way as possible, you shouldn't be making a movie -- you should be doing a play. Plays have a "live" feel that won't exist on film. And an audience watching people talk on film will quickly become bored or phase out long enough to lose the thread of action and give up.

On the opposite end of this is someone who is just putting together the coolest shots in the flashiest way possible. This is not a director. A bunch of cool shots for their own sake or elaborate editing tricks will not sustain 90 minutes of film time. This is fine for a music video which is using visuals to add to the music which is the main driving force. This is also fine and important in a commercial where you are trying to catch someone's attention for long enough to get them to buy a product. A film had better be visually appropriate and stimulating as possible as long as it furthers the story you're telling.

Telling a story means lots of other things, too. You must make the characters real. The performances must not seem like performances but like real chracters in a real story, especially if your story is SCI FI or fantasy and "obviously" not real. Story without drama is useless to a director and the reverse is true as well.

Again the test is, could this story be told better in another way, as a book or a play or even as music or a painting? If the answer is yes, you'd either better not make it a movie, or find a way to tell that story in a way that can only be a movie. Remember, film combines parts of all the arts, which is why it's so exciting to work in.

The second thing a director is, is the Captain of the production. As a Captain, everyone is ultimately your responsibility. You must keep the ship going to where its getting to, and keep everyone from killing each other while getting there. You're responsible for their happiness and safety, both real safety from getting physically hurt on a set. And the safety to perform their job to the best of their ability in an environment that's fun to be in -- and okay to be vulnerable and honest in. I'm talking here, of course, about helping the actors, who are always portrayed rather unfairly as being sensitive or need ego boosts.

But I'm also talking about every technical position, too. Someone shouldn't be afraid to offer a creative idea because the Captain is a dictator. The Captain is in charge and must guide and filter, even reject things that don't lead to the goal which is always making the best of every situation and making the best film possible.

Finally I'd say the director is the first audience for the film. He/she's right in there during the filming and editing. You know you sit there in the audience and go "Why didn't they do that?" or "It would have been better if..."

Well, as the director, you get to act on those impulses and do those things. As the audience you never want to be bored, you should always try to step back and go, yeah we've already got the point lets move on. As the audience you should also approve of good work as you go to encourage those "performing for you" to keep up the good work as you keep going down the long road that all films take to finally be completed. If you're making a film that you'd never see as an audience member then you're not the right director for the film. You can always tell when a director is pandering to an audience rather than really understanding what the audience wants. This goes to your natural tastes and instincts because I don't think you'll succeed for very long "faking it." The people who reach a mass audience aren't those who aren't in some way part of that audience by nature.

Q: Inquiring minds want to know: How did you get involved with Richard Hatch on the Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming trailer?

I'd done two independent features in a row with Richard. I'd found him to be very unassuming and hard working actor. I enjoyed working with him and felt we'd done good work together. I even considered him at that point to be a friend and I don't treat friend lightly. I assume he felt enough of these same things to ask me to be involved and I was happy to do so. If I didn't think he could use my help I wouldn't have "burdened" him with it. I think (now that the trailer is done) that we worked well together. And the finished thing wouldn't have been the same or as good have either of us not been involved.

Q: Let's go back to the two independent features for a minute. Can you give us an insight of Richard's work in them?

In Iron Thunder I had initially wanted Richard to play the more obvious hero role, but in talking with him he really responded to the bad guy part. The bad guy in Iron Thunder is a U.S. Army Colonel who, due to a computer implant in his head, thinks he is on a heroic mission behind enemy lines. In fact he's in the Mojave desert in a brand new -- and very dangerous -- tank. So he's a villain that doesn't know he's a villain. He's "misunderstood" as the old joke goes. He's a man who deep down does love war and warfare and by the end of the film realizes and has demonstrated to him just how bad this can be.

I think Richard gave one of his best performances in the film. The fact that Richard was willing to step out of the good guy image he carries with him and do the film, and then do it so well, showed a flexibilty of mind and talent that I was impressed with. In Unseen, the second film I did with him, he's a bad guy who realizes part way in that he is in fact a bad guy and decides its all he has left and dedicates himself to greed. Another very different role and well done by him.

Q: You and I understand why Richard pulled this trailer together. Can you go ahead and explain to our readers what the purpose of the trailer is?

There's been questions as to the purpose of our trailer. "What do we think we're doing, etc." Richard never claimed to have the rights to Galactica. The only party in this who has demonstrated they have rights to Galactica so far is Universal Studios. The purpose to the trailer was to demonstrate quickly and powerfully what a new Galactica would be. If you watch the trailer and say. "When's it on?" or "I could see this being on right now?" is having the reaction you're supposed to have.

The trailer is to show, not tell what the whole concept is. People have in the past done short versions and or previews for films they hoped to do in order to get Universal Studios interested in funding things. I know of some cases where it's worked and cases where it doesn't. Of course I hope ours works. I just want to say that this isn't some "affront" to life or business as we know it. The trailer is not for commercial purposes at all. Everyone involved wanted a chance at being involved if the series went by demonstrating that we could do the job by doing the trailer.

I feel you only get hired to do things in Hollywood that you've already done. The best way to convince Universal that Richard Hatch's version is viable to show them it right now. This trailer is Richard's "pitch" to Universal, perhaps the most public and elaborate pitch meeting ever.

I remembered staying up really late watching the first episode and thinking it was more important to the world that Egypt and Israel sign a peace accord, but that it was really rotten luck for the show. You could almost hear peolple turning off their sets and not being able to wait around to see how it all turned out. After that I was busy with high school, I was in the Marching Band and was up early and working late and unfortunately fell out of touch with a show that initially looked forward to and enjoyed very much.

One thing I thought was very cool about it was that it was taking place right now, you know the opening "Even now, there may be brothers of man struggling to survive..." This was a story before Terminator of a robotic race intent on destroying humans. It was us on the run looking for a new home, and that home was Earth! The weaknesses of the show were the elements it just seemed to take from Star Wars, and the pressures that tried to make it into just another TV show. I gave up on the show entirely when Galactica 1980 came on because it looked like they wanted it to be CHiPS with the Galactica flying around in stock footage from the first season -- and without most of the cast that we'd just gotten to know.

I never even thought I'd be involved in Galactica in any way. It's very strange, and great, to be on a set working with elements that you never considered would be a part of your own life in the industry of filmmaking. You suddenly get to do things you thought about as the audience and can now actually do.

Q: Jay, Battlestar Galactica fans are looking for a new series or movie to remain true to the original. How did you view Richard's efforts of continuing/ improving upon the old themes?

Twenty years have past. You have to deal with that. Lorne Greene is dead, everyone is older because they are! If you try to pretend this hasn't happened, you'll fail. If, at the same time, you pretend that 20 years ago there wasn't a cast and story and remake it from scratch, I think you're kidding yourself, too. The reason the show is remembered is because, like all film, it can be seen fresh and new anytime, like when you rent an episode or watch the Sci Fi Channel. Remakes like Psycho, Lost in Space, Wild Wild West, and McHale's Navy all brilliantly illustrate what a bad idea that can be.

I've seen 30 pages of Richard's script and really feel it re-awakened what was good about the show, and put it into new areas also. There's plenty of new characters and ideas and plenty of life left in the original format to justify doing a new series of movie. I wouldn't have done this for the sake of nostalgia; there would have been no point. Part of the fun of doing it was giving the people what they want. We got a standing ovation at the San Diego Comic Convention from 1200 people. One fan told me his buddy was crying next to him he was so happy. It took a lot of hard work to get this done and having that kind of reaction is what you dream about, but rarely get.

It gave me a chance to make a space battle kind of sci-fi show and I had a lifetime of ideas I wanted to get in there, new ways of showing space, making the action physical, making sure that people were part of the action, not just special effects. Of course I barely scratched the surface of things I wanted to do, but at least I did scratch the itch and that felt good. The itch is growing again though, I'm ready for more...

Q: When Richard put the trailer project together, he had a vision for its direction. When you joined the project, how did you maintain/embody/grow that vision?

Richard was not a director, having never done it. I was, having done it many times. I really felt that being there to help him direct my first job was to listen to what his vision was and put it into pracitcal terms, shot lists, etc. that could make the movie he wanted to make. Working together you have to have the same goal and Richard's untried ideas I felt were very good and many of them were my own. As we went alone I grew less timid and let more of my own ideas sort of join the parade and knowing where he was coming from I was more assertive when I felt things needed to be changed or where I felt I had ideas that added to his overall vision.

Richard and I did shot lists before each shoot, then on the set I ran it like I would if I was directing by myself, which left Richard free to deal with the actors. I would make comments from time to time, but the main actor I directed was Richard, because otherwise he would have had no director. When you act and direct there is no director because you can't watch yourself from both sides of the camera. Even watching video play back isn't the same because you still know it's you there. So I'll take a usual director's share of credit for Richard's performance.

At first, Richard had mostly fans helping him out and many of them had no or very limited actual on set experience. I added to this with profession crew people who I had worked with. And, of course, trying to deal professionally with the big names like Dean Cundey. The Producer, Johnnie Young, had worked with me many times in the past, so he and I did our best to bring in people we knew we could count on. I really want to say that the quality of the trailer is a product of lots of us "up and coming" people, working hard to prove what we can do when given the chance.

I think 80 percent the quality there was from those kind of people. I don't want to say we we're also fans, but some of the press refers to the whole crew as fans -- like that's all we do is be a fan. Many/most work daily in film and donated time that they are usually paid for in the effort.

Q: How else did you and Richard collaborate in the trailer?

There would be occasions where Richard and I would talk quietly on set beforehand and then I would seemingly go off on my own to get things done. This didn't mean we weren't collaborating. I did jump in mid-stream and didn't have any involvement in casting, although three actors who I had worked with before had already been cast by Richard. Four, including Richard, were involved, so I already had a working relationship with them.

I really felt it was my job to get the most out of the money we had especially since it was Richard's money. I think money is mis-spent on films all the time. The money has to be up there on the screen, I have a long history with independent production and I'll boast and say that no matter how much or how little money I've had for a production the finished product always looks like more than what we spent. This trailer had to look like millions of bucks and we had hundreds so it was tougher than usual.

Richard and I collaborated well and if we hadn't the trailer wouldn't be the way it is. Richard's also a very nice guy and sometimes I had to play the bad cop in certain situations to get things done right. I co-directed something long ago so I had some experience in doing it. It isn't the easiest thing to do, but Richard and I made a good team.

Q: Any particularly funny moments during the filming?

About 12 hours into a 20 hour day, the make-up man (Tony Castillo) came to me and said that "Sammy" (I believe that was his name) was getting really tired and needed a break. Now Sammy was wearing a full body Lizard type suit. He had been doing complicated Wire flying stunts in the suit all day and I'm sure he was tired. But while the make-up guy is telling me this, I look over his shoulder to see Sammy. Sammy is there, in full costume, walking on his hands down the center of the set. He continued doing this the whole time the guy was telling me how exhausted Sammy was. Very surreal. You can't pay money to see things like that.

Q: Any hair-raising moments during the filming?

About five hours after the previous incident, I just told we were filming our band of Colonials escaping from the dreaded Sammy, still in his suit. We are way up about two and a half stories in the air on a catwalk and Sammy and Richard are fighting hand to hand in the tight metal walkways. I walked up the ladder to get to them. I saw the stunt crew put out what looked like a thin small mattress below where Richard and Sammy were fighting. I get way up there in the air. The stunt guy and Sammy come up to me: "Hey, how about we do this..." Sammy proceeds to take a hit and fly over the railing and fall down into that tiny bad mattress below. I thought the mattress was just in case, not a practical fall bag.

Sammy was fine. I said we wouldn't do that again. I didn't have the time to cover the stunt in a way that was worth the risks.

Instead, Richard just hit Sammy and he flew over the railing and dangled there with one arm, in a full Lizard "glove" until I told him okay. Then Sammy the tired Lizard that he was, quickly stopped dangling, reached up with his other arm, flipped himself back onto the catwalk and ran at the camera. An amazing display of power and grace after a whole day encased in rubber!

Some fans have asked about the lizard creature in the trailer, Richard has sworn me to secrecy about plot. Sorry -- can't tell you about that. ;-)

Q: What was it like working with Dean Cundey and Scott Spears? (Directors of Photography)

Scott's great. I have been working with since we were in film school probably did our first film together in 1984. Scott won an Emmy for shooting a short film of mine in 1993. I've worked with other DP's (Directors of Photography) but when you have a long relationship with someone, there are unspoken things that just happen between you that save conversation and discussion on the set to new important topics. This makes things move more quickly and you build and grow on the experience you have together.

Scott knows how fast he can makes things happen when he has to, and knows how to make it look good when that's all you have time for and great when you have to take the extra time to make sure it's great. Scott can also be a one man band, loading camera, lighting, etc. He had to be that at times on this shoot. I even ran a camera on some scenes. We also had a second unit cameraman Matt, who helped out and did good work for part of one day. Scott's done much work for other people than me; he's constantly getting better even as good as he is.

Dean Cundey shot for one very long day. Scott was out of town shooting a commercial. This was one day of pickup shots done after the main part of the shoot (four and a half days), all of which Scott shot. I called in extra favors from crew people I knew so that Dean would have a good professional crew to back him up. I was a huge fan of Cundey's.

He brought his own camera, one he had used as far back as Halloween and worked a 23 hour day, at the end of which he was rolling up cables with the rest of the crew. We took a group shot of the crew and he changed the lighting for the still! I really didn't want to waste Cundey's time and worked extra hard to move the shoot along. The downside of this was that I didn't get to talk to him, being a big fan. In particular he shot the footage of the menacing Cylon at the beginning of the trailer. The shots to me are like what he did with the ghost pirates in The Fog.

Cundey even came to the transfer sessions of the material he photographed. Last thing he said to me was "I'm sure I'll see you again." When you meet someone at the top of the industry like Cundey -- and he's so easy to work with and unaffected -- it gives you the courage to go on. It lets you know that you don't have to be difficult or lie, cheat, and steal to make it to the top. I wrote and directed a three hour CD-ROM documentary on the Titanic several years before this and Patrick Stewart narrated it; he was the same as Cundey.

Q: The latest version of the trailer has some stunning new additions, i.e. the planetary explosion, the Vipers flying over the Colonial settlement, a Viper vaporizing near the Galactica. How are directors involved in the editing process?

I think directors should be very involved in editing. You don't have to be, in television especially, I think they rather you not be involved. I've edited myself, so I know what it's like to sit in the editing chair. I don't usually cut my own material, I like to have an editor there to interact with during editing. Editing is pacing and performance all that can be made or broken in editing. I'd worked with the editor on Galactica, Eric Chase, before and that allowed some of the speed, etc. that I talked about having with Scott Spears. I recommened him to cut it and do the sound and he did a great job with both. Richard was there most of the time for editing also.

The effects you mentioned in the question were all done during the editing process so we knew what type of shots we needed to compliment what was there. The final version of the trailer is the fourth version. With each version we changed sound elements and created new picture elements to make it better. It's nice to have the time to do this final tweaking and shows in the final product.

INTERVIEW WITH JAY WOELFEL, PART TWO
By Michael Faries

In September 1999, BattlestarGalactica.com talked at length with Jay Woelfel about his background, his projects, and his co-directing the Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming trailer.

John Colicos lives in Canada so there was talk that we might just record his voice for the trailer, or have a crew shoot some video footage of him there. I didn't think any of this was a good idea, but he was there and we were here what could we do. Well, John was coming to L.A. for a convention, so we had the chance and took it. I came back early from a vacation in New York just to help out on the shoot, they only had one day to get him. At the time, I wasn't the director. Richard had a previous commitment to another director whom he had promised the job to before he ever met me. I knew Richard because I had directed him in two films back to back in 1997 and 1998. But Richard was too loyal to replace the other director. So I came back to just to help out and the other director (Kevin Van Hook) couldn't make it. I figured I owed Richard a favor and showed up to run sound. As soon as the shoot started, I realized that Richard was conferring with me about camera angles, etc. and we were really working as a directing team for the entire day. I didn't know what Colicos would be like. Some of these famous bad guy actors are actually kind of bad guys in person. But Colicos was great. Last thing I remember him saying was, "This thing should bloody well go." He meant Richard's attempt to do a new Galactica.

Q: Real people, like Richard and John, are captivating the audiences. But are we going to see more CGI work in possible productions?

A: There was lots of talk about CGI computer generating images and how everything could be done with them these days. Although this statement is defendable I felt that the Cylons especially needed to be good old fashioned guys in suits. There would be new Cylons who would be CG but we needed to see the old Cylons, too. We found a guy in the San Francisco Bay Area (Eric Melson) who had build a really cool Cylon suit. It was much more macho than the old Cylon's but still retained the best of the design. Richard and I were very happy with it. Neither of us liked the skirts on the Cylons, so we stripped it off and worked with the actor to have a more powerful body language. Richard and I agreed that the Cylons shouldn't be easy to kill. We also felt that people had to die in order for there to be a threat from our shiny enemies. A word from the set is that Cylons attract dust like crazy and constantly need to be buffed by hand with cheese cloth to keep their polish. Richard felt that the Cylons were too shiny on the old show, I felt that we could/should keep them glowing and just light them more dramatically but not loose that star filter lens flare that I felt was too attached to the Cylons to be forgotten entirely. You may wonder how well you can see or hear from inside a Cylon suit and the answer is: BADLY! Richard was very much into making the show physically dynamic. I was all over this idea. Running jumping hand to hand fighting all the old swashbuckling things that still work. When we got to the space battle stuff, this theory or ours was just as important. Space battles allow for movement and fighting in all directions. The fighting between ships should be like filming a boxing match, blow for blow. I really didn't want "locked down space cameras." Filming in space would be like filming on the water, the camera would rock and sway. I also wanted space to be beautiful also filled with deep blacks and flares of light from distant suns and from the laser blasts themselves. Since virtually all of our ships were now being created in a computer instead of as models we discovered something and CGI ships and models. When you make a model for a movie the thing you do to make it look real is put as much stuff on it as possible. Little details lots of them as many as possible. This proved to be a problem when we recreated the same ships, Vipers, the Galactica herself, in a computer generated world. The little details were too much for U.S. television sets to handle without werid rainbow patterns dancing over the surface of the ships. Most CGI ships are created with smooth surfaces, just the opposite of model philosophy. The CGI guys solved the problem with a little extra work. The other thing you do with models is film them from low angles with wide angle lens to make them look big and powerful, this idea translated to our CGI ships just as well.

Q: With regards to CGI work, the Galactica looks like she's endured a bit over the past twenty yahrens...

A: The battlestar Galactica herself shows some of our approach. If you look closely you'll see battlescars on one of the main struts of the ship and panels which are mismatched, discolored with age. (Remember that the Galactica can't pull into the local Colonial drydock for overhauling/sprucing up.) What you don't have to look closely to see is that the Battlestar now has "teeth." I wanted to see the Galactica actually take out a ship on its own. We added big "chin guns" to the ship so you can finally see it fight back.

Q: Staying on the theme of CGI work, how were the blue screen (should I say "green screen") shots set up? For example, there's a terrific shot of Richard, Jack, Mick, and others walking towards the camera as a Viper rises behind them.

A: Usually efxs and completely storyboarded before you shoot anything. It's rare that an efx man will let you or appreciate you coming up with new things on the set. Occasionally this may happen the bad thing about efx heavy shows is that you can't be as loose on the set with them as you could be with an actor or visual element. some of the best things in movies are surprises, like a great performance moment, or additional bit of stage business. We changed EFX groups a couple of times on this trailer to get it the was we wanted it. This meant that the new guys had to deal with things they hadn't been there to plan out. The final team we had was very flexible and great and adapting.

If you shoot something for green screen later you have to keep track of what lens you shot with and there are ways to track how fast the camera moves. You don't have to have a mechanical motion control camera to move the camera despite what some people will tell you. It's easier, much easier, if you do, but don't believe someone who tells you that's the only way you can do it. The Viper cockpit material we shot didn't have story boards. We knew they'd be in space, and outside the window you'd see ships, etc. We did what you call "interactive lighting" with these shots. Meaning we'd move the light to simulate flight, or flash a light to simulate an explosion, etc. We actually shot the Viper cockpit, both with simulated light and without. The material with the lighting changes looked much better. What you'll find is that different sfx guys do things differently. There are certain rules that stay the same, but there are many other "rules" that are just preferences. As the filmmaker, it's important to find people who will work with you and in a way that you find natural. Shop around before you commit to a sfx house. I really feel that if you have time to do something as an incamera SFX through lighting or even with forced perspective minatures, and there's a good one of those in the trailer, do it. The best "magic" trick to SFX is to mix them up and combine them in ways that aren't the same each time. If you use all computer Sfx effects they can have a dry feel.

Q: It's a cliche question, but I'm curious: Which directors have influenced you during the course of your career?

A: One of the first films I ever saw was 2001, I was five or six at the time and was about the only person in my family who liked it. I saw it for a second time in college and was amazed at how much of it I remembered. Virtually every shot! I also saw the long Russian version of War and Peace, one of the Matt Helm films and Pinocchio. I also remember the "Devil in the Dark" episode of Star Trek -- that Horta terrified me -- and the Charles Beaumont scripted episode of Twilight Zone with the man trying to get home late at night as the city takes on aspects on the jungle and he's finally eaten by a lion. These influences remain as an accurate look at the types of things I still like. Jaws was the first film I saw more than once, Ultimately I saw it in a theater about 15 times. That started on the road to doing films. Shortly after that, in junior High, I starting watching James Bond films on Sundays on ABC. I saw Patton and Pappilon in the same year and about fell over when I saw that Jerry Goldsmith did the terrrific music for both. That was one of the first times a realized and began to look for the names behind the camera. Goldsmith also showed me the variety of opportunities for different types of expression that film can offer you. When I went to film school at Ohio State I discovered Orson Welles, Polanski, Truffaut and furthered my already interest in Alfred Hitchcock. There's lots to admire in film. You should look beyond just the big names and you'll find fascinating works from directors who normally don't get talked about. You have to look harder to find great things as you learn more, but you should keep looking. I've seen great films by brand new directors in the last few years.

Q: Some potential directors may be reading this interview on BattlestarGalactica.com. And they're wondering what it takes to break into the industry (as a director). Any free advice? Pointers?

A: Making a narrative film can be done now for less and less money all the time. Try to work in film, but work in video. Make a video feature. Finish what you start you won't learn from a film unless you finish it. You won't get better unless you work at it more than once. There's really no excuse but laziness and insecurity for not making films/videos on your own. If you expect someone to invest money in you to make films one day, isn't it worth investing your own money in yourself to learn? Although you'll be influenced by whoever you think is the greatest filmmaker, find your own voice. You'll only be an imitation of Hitchcock or Spielberg. The best chance you have of being great is being the best (place your name here) filmmaker in the world because there is only one you and there will always be plenty of people trying imitate the last big thing. Saying that "everything has been done" is no excuse. Musicians basically have the same keyboard of notes to pull from over and over. Look at the variety of music there is? Read. Not just scripts. Especially if you write, but read anyway. Especially read authors who wrote before film existed. You'll find ways to express images in ways you won't immediately think of. Watch movies, get to know filmmakers, seek out at many films of theirs as you can. Don't just watch new films and don't just watch old films. Try to enjoy films as a fan because if you lose this I think you lose the ability to like what you do and thats the first step on the road to bitterness.

Q: Any current (or future) projects you want to share with us?

A: I've got a real life based script set largely in Brazil that my agent is taking around on a studio level, it's called Wilderness of Dreams, I also have a new SCI FI script I'm excited about. Iron Thunder is the first of the two films I did with Richard Hatch. (I wrote and directed.) It should be out in video stores next year. I'm working with Johnnie and Scott on other independent projects several of which are about close enough to talk about but not quite. I'm always looking for opportunties to make the most out of something and do things in new ways that some people might think aren't doible without having millions and millions of dollars. I hope the Galactica trailer proves that isn't always so, at least if you call me first...

Thanks, Jay!

 

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