Executive Producer Scott Rosenbaum on the March Return of “V”

Tonight’s episode of “V” is scheduled to be the last one to air on ABC until the show returns in March, following the airing of the Winter Olympics. The question amongst fans of the show, however, is whether or not this is a programming mistake. As has become extremely evident over the past couple of seasons, there is very little viewer loyalty with audiences quickly growing used to not seeing a show when it’s off the air. Will this take away something from the momentum “V” has been building?
Scott Rosenbaum, the show’s new executive producer, whose real influence will be felt beginning with the its return in March, doesn’t think so. “This scheduling was done on purpose to make the show even better,” he offers. “I think the reason they [ABC] did this – and it makes a lot of sense – is that they view this as a big event, and it’s also an expensive show to do. By breaking it up into these different sections, I think it allows more time for writing and more time for production. The idea is to make the show even bigger and essentially better. Think of a television season as a movie. Look at the first season of ‘V’ as 12 episodes [after the pilot]. The first four are the beginning, Act 1; the second four will be Act 2 and the final four will be Act 3. Approaching it that way, I think, will make the show even better. Is it going to be frustrating for people because they want to see new episodes? Possibly. But I think the plan is, by doing it this way, is that more people will be excited by the next group, and they’ll know that when they get to that next group of episodes, they’re going to get something that’s better than anything they’re going to get anywhere else, because we were able to put more time and effort into every aspect of production.”

The fear, of course, is that the network will look at the fact that the ratings have dipped from week to week and decide not to proceed with additional episodes. Rosenbaum doesn’t see this as a possibility. “I think they’ll stick to the plan, because everyone here agrees it’s a good one,” he says. “It’s like event programming. Truthfully, I’m thrilled that this is the way they’re doing it. It might be a little annoying, but this will work. I also think that season two or three will be more like a regular show with 22 episodes. In this first season, this is a property that people know from before. It was a huge event back in the days when it first appeared, and I think the spirit here was, ‘Let’s reintroduce it in a way that’s different from what everyone else is doing.’

“I think ‘V’ has great potential,” closes Rosenbaum. “I think it can be not just an entertaining show, but I think it can be an important show, if done right. It can be a show that has a sort of lasting effect, and can be bigger than just a TV show. It allows you to dive into things that most TV shows don’t allow you to do. Just in terms of the state of the world, the state of humanity, who we are as people, what is good and bad about us, how we can fix things in our nature – everything about humans beings’ place in the world and in the universe. It can be an intellectual exercise as well, and not just a fun action show. It gives you all the tools to play with, which is really nice.”

Ratings “V”ictory

The Hollywood Reporter.com is stating that ABC’s massive marketing of “V” paid off – big time. The premiere episode of the series, based on overnight ratings (which could change based on national numbers), was seen by 13.9 million people, and its rating among adults 18-49 was the highest of the night, even beating CBS powerhouse NCIS. “That’s the biggest scripted series premiere rating for a freshman show this fall,” offers the story. The real question ABC is asking is how many of those people will return next week? Let’s hope the audience stays with the show.

EXCLUSIVE: “V” Director Yves Simoneau

Director Yves Simoneau, who had previously collaborated with executive producer Scott Peters on the pilot episode of The 4400, spoke to Visitors Among Us while in the midst of production of what would end up being the last episode of the new “V” shot prior to the show commencing on its second production hiatus. In this excerpt from the interview, he discusses his reasons for doing the pilot and his feelings about the show’s potential.
VISITORS AMONG US: Is this the kind of project that attracts your attention?
YVES SIMONEAU: I’m very eclectic in terms of what I like. I did big historical war movies, and I did some noirs and then a bit of science fiction, so when I got the call I was very interested in going back to that world a bit, because I hadn’t visited there for a awhile. I don’t have a specific affinity for other things – I’m interested by a variety of things.
VISITORS AMONG US: What was it about “V” that made you want to do it?
YVES SIMONEAU: There’s something about that notion of an alien “country” coming to earth that feels somewhereat relevant to what’s happening here on this planet, because you can draw a lot of parallels to a lot of things. If you have a powerful nation that’s decided to go to another nation and integrate, or try to absorb, there’s a lot to compare to. And also this notion of foreign life existing, which I believe in – I think it would be a little short-sighted not to think of it. And in a way, people are getting more open to it, changing the way we’re thinking about that sort of question. Before, we were the know-it-alls, when people were saying “I believe in aliens,” you were treated like a fool. Now people are more and more open to the idea that there is life out there in one form or another. I’m not saying they’re Vs – but I don’t think we’re alone in the universe. Also, if you remember the original, it’s something that made an impact, so you’re receiving a sort of a trademark to play with, which is always a big deal. All that made it very interesting.
VISITORS AMONG US: Did you go back and look at the original before you shot this?
YVES SIMONEAU: I didn’t do that until later in the process, because I was concentrating on what we had in front of us. I tried to address basically the questions we had about the script, and the production, and then later on, when I was somewhere in the middle of it, I started looking at it, just to make sure I wasn’t completely either disconnected from it or too connected to it. Now that I had established my own position, I wanted to put it in relationship with the original, and it was a lot of fun, because we were very different, but at the same time I think we respected a lot of what made it work in the first place. It was a good re-imagination, I think it worked.
VISITORS AMONG US: What are the primary differences between the approach taken with the original and the approach in 2009?
YVES SIMONEAU: It has more shades of gray in it, it is not as black and white, in a sense that a lot of people will adopt the aliens as their favorite characters, and I think that in that regard it’s a little different – in the original, most of them were presented as invaders and bad people, and this time we’re presenting a little variety. We are not totally sure about their real intent- – we know they want to take over, and we know there are bad elements there, but there is also a whole dimension of that group of people that is positive, and I think that’s what’s going to make it interesting in the long run. The original miniseries lasted for four hours. This let’s you do what you want for many hours so you have to develop a richer, more complex environment for the characters so you have enough to go on with. I think this new version is trying to connect with the reality of today, and so in that way it is connected to the original, but it is different from the original. And that’s established the right balance there.
VISITORS AMONG US: Obviously the original was a re-telling of the Holocaust – for today’s audience, what are the allegories?
YVES SIMONEAU: It’s more about how do you deal with foreign people, foreign elements, foreign objects, how do you deal with something that doesn’t belong in your world? And I think it’s beyond the Holocaust, and all that, it’s about humanity as a whole, how do we behave when something really foreign hits us? I think that’s where I would put it. I don’t think it’s as precise as the original was, in terms of representing the Holocaust or something of that nature. I think it’s something bigger than that – not that the Holocaust wasn’t big, but it’s going beyond that specific event – it’s that event, and all the events like that. And not only here, but from everywhere. It’s about what makes us human, and how we react and survive and move on and develop.

Exclusive: Morena Baccarin Discusses “V”

We’re now only a few weeks away from the arri”v”al of “V”, and SciFi TV Zone editor Edward Gross caught up with Morena Baccarin for an exclusive one-on-one interview in which she discusses the series and her role in it. In segment two, she discusses the ongoing fan interest in her series Firefly.

To hear Morena’s additional thoughts on “V”, head over to Visitors Among Us, the online “V” fan community, by clicking HERE.

Click To Play

Morena Baccarin on Firefly:

Click To Play

The Visual Effects of “V”

Handling the visual effects for “V” is Zoic Studio, which concurrently handles effects for Fringe and the midseason series Human Target. As visual effects supervisor Andrew Orloff explains it, in the case of “V” the company came on board early on in the process.

   “We were involved very early on with a very early draft of the script,” says Orloff. “Actually, it was more of a conceptual draft, not even in the script phase. They had an idea of what it would take to do this and we read a very early version of the script, which led to a bunch of discussions with one of the executive producers about what our visual effects approach would be. There was definitely a match there, from the work we’ve done on Battlestar Galactica and Firefly and Fringe. We’ve got this very naturalistic kind of philosophy to visual effects, and we’re also the kind of facility that does a lot of design work, so we’ve had a lot of experience designing ships and designing effects.
   “As the series goes on,” he continues, “you’ll see that the pilot’s effects are devoted largely to  spaceships, but you can also see with the pilot, as it stands now, that there’s going to be some issues about what do the Vs look like? You know that that’s coming. I pitched out some ideas about the ship design, and how it should be a real modern, contemporary ship design, but it has to speak to some of the original design tenets of the original ship. Making sure the way and the approach to visual effects met with this update of having it be so real and so character based, and some of the shots even seem like the ship is a throwaway, it’s just kind of there, and it starts being something that’s just part of the environment. There are plenty of shots where you focus on it, but there are places where the mothership becomes like another building in the skyline.

   “We talked a lot about how would we do it, and I think from the very beginning we were involved on that level, so when the project became real, we were kind of the first call. And as the team firmed up, we just had a really good relationship very early in the process, designing on paper, working on the mother ship, working on the shuttle, and it was also clear very early on that there was not going to be an opportunity to build the sets inside the mother ship to the scale and grandeur that they wanted by doing it practically. There are four main environments in the pilot and that’s only a fraction of what the ship is going to be for the series, and even to do typical set extension would mean that you would have to build four pieces of set and find a stage big enough to hold those pieces with enough green screen behind them so you can shoot them. That practicality dictated that we were going to have to do all the sets of the ship interior in a whole green screen environment and do everything that you see in the pilot, for all the stuff you see on the ship, the walls, the ceiling, the floor — everything is CG. Everything is CG, entirely shot on green screen. This is the farthest we’ve ever pushed this idea of a true virtual environment.”

   For more with Andrew Orloff, head over to the Visitors Among Us “V” online community by clicking HERE.