Blood and Chrome - watch episodes 5 & 6

Machinima has posted two new episodes today. You can watch them below or on the Machinima Prime channel. The first episode has over 2 million views so far and episodes 2, 3, and 4 around 600,000. To watch all the episodes from start to finish, go here.

Jill Teed and Ty Olsson are back in episode 5 and John Pyper-Ferguson shows up to take the kids for a walk in episode 6. Also, there is the cython.

Watch the episode, and there is more stuff after the jump.

Adama dogfights Raiders while the Battlestar Osiris tries to hold off a Cylon Basestar.



Just a few more tidbits from this week for people who aren't on Facebook and Twitter.

First, there was Patton Oswalt talking to the A.V. Club about his most memorable roles:

Caprica (2010)—“Baxter Sarno”
PO: That was very frustrating, because I got a glimpse of what the second season of Caprica was going to be, and the stuff they had planned for that show was fucking amazing.

Beyond the stuff I was going to be getting to do, what they were going to do with that world, and with its darkness, would have been so thrilling. But I love the fact that even in a show as dark as Caprica—and in a lot of ways, that show was as dark as Battlestar Galactica—[Sarno] was very aware that people want their fucking distractions. Even in a future science-fiction world like Caprica, they’re going to want their Jon Stewarts, they’re going to want their Bill O’Reillys and their Rachel Maddows and their things to get all up in arms about, their Jay Lenos and their Lettermans.

So I was playing that role, and I would talk to [series creator] Ronald D. Moore about what happens to a guy like this who is kind of aggressively shallow in a lot of ways. When he’s engineering that whole fight between Eric Stoltz and Stoltz’s rival, it’s not because [he cares] about technology and where humanity is going; it’s great fucking ratings. So what happens when the shit comes down? It reminds me of that moment in Cabaret when they’re singing “Tomorrow Belongs To Me,” and they cut to the Emcee from the Kit Kat Club just smiling and nodding in his dressing room, you’re like, “What happens to that guy when the Nazis rise to power? Why is he smiling? Why is he nodding?” That stuff is really intriguing to me.

^ You can catch Patton on Burn Notice next week (Thursday, 10/9c, USA).

There is a new interview with Doug Drexler over at Lightwave3d.com. Snippets below, more at the link.

How is the production of Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome unique?
It really is an amazing experience that’s unlike any other. It’s unprecedented for guys that we’ve brought onto the show; they don’t believe me at first when I tell them, ‘This is as close as you can get to get to making a show. You won't be some nameless guy across town in a cubicle.’ We cut our own shots in with the editor. If it doesn’t work, we do a new shot, run down the hall, put it in, and look at it together. If it doesn’t flow, if it doesn’t work... there’s no approval process... we just do it.

That’s how we are able to do so many amazing shots in so little time on Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome. In eight months, we did more than 2,000 shots with nine guys— that’s because we had unprecedented freedom.

How do other production workflows compare?
I was on all the various Star Trek television series for 17 years—including Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise—and there was a really strict approval process. You couldn’t just take a leap by putting together a sequence and saying, ‘This is what we might do here.’

The process on Battlestar Galactica was a stark contrast. We did a show called 'Razor' where the Scorpio Shipyard is attacked by the Cylons. In the script, it read: ‘A dot of light approaches the station and there’s a huge explosion’—and that’s the end of the sentence! [Digital Artist and CGI Sequence Designer] Kyle Toucher and I read that and we said, ‘No Way! This is our chance to do Pearl Harbor!’ So, Kyle laid the whole sequence out—it was awesome—and Gary sold it to Ron Moore.

io9.com has an exclusive VFX featurette that has some BTS footage from next week's ep and interviews with David Eick, Gary Hutzel, and Jonas Pate.

Here are a few things David Eick said on YouTube last week:

For the love of all things Cylon will you get Caprica up and going again?
Alas, Caprica was "one and done" -- although the story bible we drafted for a possible Season 2 was awesome. Really focused the Cylon/Colonial historical struggle in a much more accessible, American Civil War metaphor. I really felt SyFy should've given it another shot. Oh well, one day....

Will we be seeing any of the 'bigger questions' that we saw in BSG in Blood and Chrome, or will this be more combat/CG and less 'why they hate us'?
B&C will definitely deal with the "why they hate us" premise... and will definitely wrestle with larger issues attendant to the BSG theme -- what it means to be human, etc. But probably a bit less esoteric and contemplative than BSG Season 4. Closer in tone to Seasons 1 & 2.

You truly captured the feel of a sub inside the Osiris. Also Galactica's 'CIC' looks a lot different than the recent series. Did you look back to the original series for ship design?
We had the original sets scanned so that we could implement/augment in a digital space. Glad you dug the Osiris -- we were definitely going for the "Das Boot" vibe...

The ship design for the Osiris is so distinct. The antennae at the rear and the reflective shell, there's no doubt it's a stealth ship. For this and other ships where did your dev team look for inspiration?
All R&D, like BSG, rooted in naval and AF tech. Definitely erred on the side of reality wherever/whenever possible.

Hi David! Do you think that there is still a market for multi season space operas like bsg in tv? Can platforms like youtube & itunes provide new possibilites for the genre?
Always a market for great scifi as long as creators and distributors are gutsy enough to allow it to be metaphorical/allegorical. When they get too soft/escapist, they tend to have shorter half-life. Works great in movies but doesn't have the "legs" for TV unless there's real depth.

For us Caprica fans, will any of the loose ends from that show be tied up in this series?
We don't address the world of "Caprica" in B&C except in offhand moments... but if there are future B&C episodes (beyond the first 10), we'll definitely get into William Adama's youth, family and culture.

Hi David. Whats the word on a tv series after the Blood and Chrome movie airs? Are you guys waiting to see how many views this minishow gets before committing?
This was always designed for online, the "digital space." That said, all our futures are tied to current success!

Will any of the human cylons be making an appearance or will it just be toasters and I'm assuming the hybrid if you were to show the end of the war?
B&C will definitely investigate the "evolutionary" nature of Cylon tech... how their process of going from rivets and metal to soft, Tricia Helfer-flesh did not happen overnight... there were several experiments in between...

And another Blood and Chrome featurette from Wired that also has some BTS footage and interviews with Michael Taylor, David Eick, Gary Hutzel, Jonas Pate, Luke Pasqualino, Lili Bordan and Ben Cotton: