Name this band!

Two episodes really stand out for me over my five year involvement with Stargate: Atlantis.  The first was
“Harmony”.  The second was this one, “Whispers”.  I would occasionally venture down to set during production, but those visits were few and far between simply because I often had my hands full with either prep, post, or scriptwriting.  In the case of the aforementioned episodes, however, I was able to carve out some time and spend some extended time on set.  And the fact that director Will Waring was at the helm made all the more memorable.

I remember doing an initial test run of the smog effect on one of our closed sets and the results weren’t ver promising.  In order to get the desired density level, we would have had to fog the hell out of the place  and, at even moderate levels, it caused the crew some discomfort.  So we ended up choosing one of the bigger sound stages that offered good cross ventilation, and set up individual tented areas we could fog up for limited spans.

The creature designs were another challenge,  Between the “eyeless” applications and the smog, the performers were flying blind.  The first rehearsal was absolute mayhem.  As a result, adjustments were made to the make-up to allow for a better visibility.

In fact, this episode was full of challenges.  Another instant was the wall-crawling sequence which required one of the creatures to defy gravity.  This was achieved with the help of a false wall and some trickery.

It was a tricky, dare I say difficult shoot, but we were in great hands with Will at the helm.  And the on set mood was buoyant, no doubt in part due to our terrific guest stars, among them Nicole de Boer, Christina Cox, Javina Gavankar, and Leela Savasta.

Finally, one of my favorite keepsakes from my time working on the franchise was adorable this little something left on my chair by Production Designer James Robbins.

Good times!