Follow-Up: More on 'Caprica's' Production Interruptions 
Syfy acknowledges creative changes have prompted hiatuses
By Robert Falconer | Thursday, October 8, 2009
You may recall that back on September 13 CinemaSpy broke the story that Caprica was facing serious creative and/or script challenges that could create a production shutdown. As of the publishing date we had been unable to corroborate — or by definition refute — the information independently. Shortly thereafter, the sci-fi fan site Airlock Alpha asserted that they had spoken to Jane Espenson, who apparently told them: "I'm one of the producers and I'm absolutely thrilled with the work my writers have done."
Espenson ostensibly suggested that any production delays were precipitated by the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. "The Olympics might require a couple scheduling adjustments," Espenson was quoted as saying. "Those are probably being misunderstood."
The remarks by Espenson stopped well short of actually refuting our report in any substantive way, nor was any direct connection drawn between script issues and potential scheduling adjustments due to the Olympics.
Though we were unable to reach Espenson directly for comment, CinemaSpy has subsequently learned a little more about the circumstances surrounding the production delays, which now essentially confirms our original report.
First of all, our original source reiterated to us over the past two weeks that script issues have definitely been interrupting production. Our source added that while it might not derail Caprica, "if you know anything about television production, shutdowns of this kind are disruptive and costly."
Interestingly, this was confirmed during an impromptu conversation yours truly had with a VFS (Vancouver Film Studios) crew member on-set Tuesday, who unexpectedly brought up the issue of the series' production interruptions, stating matter-of-factly that the crew have been — and continue to be — very stressed about all the breaks in filming.
Perhaps most telling, however, during Tuesday's Syfy press tour in Vancouver, the network's Exec VP of Original Programming, Mark Stern, directly alluded to deliberate alterations in Caprica's creative direction by the tenth episode, and the resultant production interruptions. Here's what Stern told us:
"Trying to find [the] journey with these characters has been really interesting. I know for the writers — in terms of where you think you're going to go — turns out to be, not exactly where you ... there are things that have been pitched out ... this, episode 8, we're going to do this, and it's going to be a whole torture sequence on this other planet, and it's like 'no, actually that doesn't work in terms of where the stories have taken us'. And we actually took a break. We shut down for a few weeks so that we could, at the mid-point ... so that we could regroup and say, 'OK, what have we learned from the first ten; where do we want to go from here?'"
Stern also talked about the Olympics:
"If it wasn't for the Olympics, there wouldn't even be a discussion, but unfortunately, because of the Olympics, we've been really up against when we really have to be out of production. So what would normally be a very easy decision in terms of 'let's take a hiatus and take a break and write more scripts', became a very difficult and expensive proposition...but we did it anyway because it was worth it."
At this point it should be mentioned that the series is about to take another break.
Reading between the lines of the above, it seems as though the show has, indeed, been taking hiatuses for creative/script reworking, and that these delays may be extending the production dates longer than the series' original planned end date of early February. The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics run from February 12 to March 21, so delays could foreseeably create location shooting problems for the series, particularly if any filming is required in downtown Vancouver, where shooting permits will be severely curtailed.
So, while Jane Espenson was correct in her assertion that the series might require some scheduling adjustments due to the Olympics, she apparently neglected to add that those scheduling adjustments were due to production delays—delays that are seemingly being caused by the aforementioned creative/script issues about which we originally reported.
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(5 Comments)
Further to our article
Posted by Robert (Admin) on October 9th, 5:19pm
Unfortunately, Airlock Alpha is based in Florida with few resources and little access to what happens on the ground in Hollywood North. The credibility of their reporting is questionable, IMO, and I'll explain why in the next paragraph below. Meanwhile, those of us who live in a major production center and have a lot of industry contacts in said center are typically in a better position to know.
If you want to understand what's going on with a production day-to-day, you don't talk to the generals to get an honest opinion, you talk to the soldiers on the front line—they're the ones who know. Everyone at Syfy — and this includes Jane Espenson — has a vested interest in stating publicly that everything is just fine, particularly when there is money and jobs on the line. Can you imagine Espenson coming straight out and saying to Michael Hinman at Airlock Alpha, "Yeah, you're right, Michael, we're having serious problems with our scripts and that is creating production stoppages"?
She's not going to say that to him or any other news outlet at this point. Doubly so if she values her job.
Everyone is going to put their best foot forward and keep this out of the media if at all possible.
Meanwhile, I had yet another email last night from my source (who has been following our story, and our naysayers' rebuttals with bemusement). Understand that this is someone who works in senior production at Vancouver Film Studios. Last night he said, and I quote: "Not to stir the pot, but the word around here (and it comes from CAST now as well as crew) is that Caprica’s hiatus IS definitely script-related..."
A word about the Olympics: This is a bit of a red-herring. They are causing no production delays for the show as of right now. In fact, discussions with location staff over at Fringe and Supernatural — FAR more location-heavy shows, BTW — have revealed that they are not experiencing any substantive problems due to the Olympics, and that any real problems anticipated for January/February were planned for LONG ago. It's thus hard to imagine that Caprica wouldn't have been aware of the Olympics when they originally went into production and not planned for them (everyone else shooting here did). But, to reiterate, as of right now, the Olympics are not interfering with Caprica shooting.
A word about production schedules: Don't be fooled—all these breaks are NOT normal. The show has already seen significant downtime and is about to go on yet ANOTHER break. This is a very expensive proposition that is highly disruptive to crew and only happens when there is dissatisfaction with the creative direction of a show at senior and/or network levels. Syfy certainly doesn't seem to be taking this kind of extensive downtime with its other Vancouver-produced shows.
Finally, there was a real muted energy from the cast on-set this past Tuesday, and everyone seemed a bit apologetic and in need of explaining the delays. And it felt as though Syfy brass was trying a bit too hard to explain their desire to "get this show right," which seemed to be a tacit admission that they were less than satisfied by the half-way point and wanted to see a change in creative/script direction. There are enough remarks in there if you read the piece and have any powers of deductive reason, that should provide more clues.
Bottom line: While it may all be circumstantial and second-hand, reading between the lines there is an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that this is a troubled production.
We'll find out soon enough.
If you want to understand what's going on with a production day-to-day, you don't talk to the generals to get an honest opinion, you talk to the soldiers on the front line—they're the ones who know. Everyone at Syfy — and this includes Jane Espenson — has a vested interest in stating publicly that everything is just fine, particularly when there is money and jobs on the line. Can you imagine Espenson coming straight out and saying to Michael Hinman at Airlock Alpha, "Yeah, you're right, Michael, we're having serious problems with our scripts and that is creating production stoppages"?
She's not going to say that to him or any other news outlet at this point. Doubly so if she values her job.
Everyone is going to put their best foot forward and keep this out of the media if at all possible.
Meanwhile, I had yet another email last night from my source (who has been following our story, and our naysayers' rebuttals with bemusement). Understand that this is someone who works in senior production at Vancouver Film Studios. Last night he said, and I quote: "Not to stir the pot, but the word around here (and it comes from CAST now as well as crew) is that Caprica’s hiatus IS definitely script-related..."
A word about the Olympics: This is a bit of a red-herring. They are causing no production delays for the show as of right now. In fact, discussions with location staff over at Fringe and Supernatural — FAR more location-heavy shows, BTW — have revealed that they are not experiencing any substantive problems due to the Olympics, and that any real problems anticipated for January/February were planned for LONG ago. It's thus hard to imagine that Caprica wouldn't have been aware of the Olympics when they originally went into production and not planned for them (everyone else shooting here did). But, to reiterate, as of right now, the Olympics are not interfering with Caprica shooting.
A word about production schedules: Don't be fooled—all these breaks are NOT normal. The show has already seen significant downtime and is about to go on yet ANOTHER break. This is a very expensive proposition that is highly disruptive to crew and only happens when there is dissatisfaction with the creative direction of a show at senior and/or network levels. Syfy certainly doesn't seem to be taking this kind of extensive downtime with its other Vancouver-produced shows.
Finally, there was a real muted energy from the cast on-set this past Tuesday, and everyone seemed a bit apologetic and in need of explaining the delays. And it felt as though Syfy brass was trying a bit too hard to explain their desire to "get this show right," which seemed to be a tacit admission that they were less than satisfied by the half-way point and wanted to see a change in creative/script direction. There are enough remarks in there if you read the piece and have any powers of deductive reason, that should provide more clues.
Bottom line: While it may all be circumstantial and second-hand, reading between the lines there is an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that this is a troubled production.
We'll find out soon enough.
Not worried
Posted by Bobathin on October 9th, 2:16pm
Compared to what Dollhouse went through, these sound like minor issues. Every show is bound to have a few creative problems that need working out, especially on a show like this, and especially when production is under pressure because of the Olympics. I have been following Jane Espenson on Twitter, and she has made it very clear how happy she is with the show and how thrilled she is with her writers and the dailies she has been watching. I still do not believe that "the producers haven't been altogether happy with the caliber of the stories." Jane Espenson's Twitter feed and her conversation with Airlock Alpha are enough for me to dismiss that claim as a rumor.
Besides, who are we to draw the line between a normal amount of production breaks and an abnormal amount? We really have no idea what is going on up there, other than the statements we have directly been given by the people working on the show. There's just not enough evidence (and too much evidence to the contrary) to make me believe that anything truly problematic is going on.
Besides, who are we to draw the line between a normal amount of production breaks and an abnormal amount? We really have no idea what is going on up there, other than the statements we have directly been given by the people working on the show. There's just not enough evidence (and too much evidence to the contrary) to make me believe that anything truly problematic is going on.
Kind of obvious
Posted by Argyle on October 9th, 6:44am
It's sort of obvious what's going on, isn't it? This many production delays just aren't normal in TV and someone is obviously hiding something. Reading the cast interviews on this site, one gets the sense that all is not well, either. Hoping for the best, personally. I like this show's whole idea, but it sounds like Syfy wasn't thrilled with the direction and decided to break for a bit and get scripts that suited their tastes better.
Guess we'll see
Guess we'll see
Another 'so-called journalist' disagrees
Posted by Al Vinci on October 9th, 2:01am
I see a 'so-called' journalist from a sci-fi (or should that be Syfy) fan site that I ran into a few years back has a different take on this story. According to him, "production pauses are commonplace among shows that are starting out their first season, and have plenty of time until premiere." I wonder which shows we are talking about here?
I know who I'm inclined to believe.
I know who I'm inclined to believe.
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I understand your desire to break news, Mr. Falconer, but the entertainment industry is so childish that people almost rush to give negative publicity to prove themselves right.
Whatever needs fixing is getting fixed, hopefully. We haven't seen any problems as viewers because the show hasn't aired, and it's no big deal to me if the show takes a bit of a hiatus when it airs to get things right.
I have faith that Mark Stern is doing the right thing because he fully backed Ron Moore's ground breaking "Occupation"/"Precipice", which explained suicide bombing to American audiences with more truth than the nationalistic US mainstream media that objects to terrorism but finds no fault in supposedly "civilized war" and regularly bombing and threatening people around the world.
However, I really think America needs to be continually challenged on issues of torture, so I hope Mr. Stern is on the right track. I really hope that David Eick is giving Ms. Espenson all the support she needs if HER instincts are right, too. I just want the best show possible. I worry about all these non-BSG writers and producers being involved and that the show will degrade and cease to be as politically insightful or dramatically powerful and realistic.
I especially don't want people getting down on this show -- saying it will get cancelled or shouldn't be watched -- because sci fi audiences are often idiotic, fickle, and impatient, and are capable of killing this series before it has finished filming its first season.
In this sensitive climate, I do worry about journalists over-emphasizing problems that the viewing public doesn't need -- or have a right -- to know about. Your piece would be fine in the context of a more mature sci fi/mainstream journalistic community, but we don't have one, especially the jerks at scifiwire.com.
I've had enough of J.J. Abrams ruling the air waves and seeing garbage on my TV and in the cinema. I want some challenging, moving stories and I pray that these stoppages will allow these things to be resolved and make for a better show, rather than hinder it.
I wish everyone on Caprica the very best and assure them that I'll dutifully be there to watch the show and buy the DVD set (I've already bought the pilot), and just hope the network does its part to use synergy to get its actors on the NBC talk shows and tells political journalists and Charlie Rose about this potentially amazing and thought-provoking show. We need a political viewership if this show is gonna survive!