[TwoBrainedCylon]

Both approaches have strong advantages. The pure CG could (in theory) be done by a few guys who wanted to sacrifice their lives for a couple of years who were then supported by voice actors who could do their part from anywhere in the world. The CG burden is immense under this scenario.

The live action advantage is that if you got folks together and either had connections to a green screen studio or could build one, you could do wonders with it and really advance the presentation for the same amount of money/time. If you look at what Richard did with 2nd Coming, you should get an idea of what could be done, especially when you consider that was done 8 years ago. Plus, Galactica made liberal use of the sorts of settings that would marry up well with a modern low-budget production. A couple good matte artists joined up with about four respectable CG folks could really make a short film shine and feel like it belonged with the series. (I'm thinking something about the length and complexity of Star Wars: Revelations).

The larger problem is copyright. Trek and Star Wars both have the advantage of knowing who to get the wink and nod from to do a larger production without any follow-on hassles. With Galactica, you have a murky copyright situation with a lot of folks hovering to make things difficult. Richard muddled up the waters somewhat in this area and they're still churned up quite a bit. I also wouldn't put it past a certain producer and "developer" (or a handful of their supporters) to cause difficulties for anyone working to do a production that ignored their "masterpiece" and instead praised the cheesy show from the 70s. I'd warn anyone wanting to put forth some serious resources to first get a copyright OK before running too far down the road.

Yet, for anyone capable of getting over these initial hurdles, there are a lot of resources available. I know places in both Orlando and Los Angeles that could be converted into viable sets for a handful of cash and there's several film crews who could be enlisted to work on such a project and they all come with at least some equipment. Such a production would still cost about $1000 a minute at a minimum but it would look pretty damn good when all was said and done. (That's live action with roughly 3-5 minutes fo final cut shot per day).

The CG approach could cut that cost down significantly but would then have a massive increase in time and I'd seriously expect about six weeks a minute of production time with a much higher chance of the crew working on it to throw up their hands and walk away.

I'd again look to Jon Roger and RJ and get their take as to what worked well for them and what failed and why. Then figure about $50,000 for a live action 46 minute episode or about $18,000 and a lot of time and talent for a CG episode of the same length.

... and if anyone still wants to try it, ... God bless them.

I'll also add that given the history over the past ten years, I've gotten 30 times more enjoyment just seeing DeSanto's pre-production stuff than I did from the entire run of GINO, which proves that even an aborted effort can do more for Galactica than the wrong production pressed to completion, at least in my eyes.

All my best,


Russell