Features: Articles & Interviews
Interview with Éric Bernard
What were the most challenging aspects of putting these episodes together?
To find the time to do it. :)
Just the opening sequence took me two weeks to do, to be satisfied. When I was
working on "Testament of Arkadia," I decided to change some special effect,
but I didnt want to change the look of the show. So I looked for other moon
shot, other Eagle shot, both from Space: 1999's Year One and Year Two.
I made a work tape with all those elements. I was able to use those scene and
modify them to fit into the episode (see pictures 03-04). Then I found out that
some sound effect were missing (ie. commlock sound, commpost sound, etc.). I
made a worktape of various Space: 1999 sound effects.
Then, there was the sun shot with the Eagle (picture 05). I know what they wanted
to do, but the result wasn't effective. So I changed it (picture 06). Then the
scene where they are getting out of the Eagle (picture 07) was made for "Another
Time, Another Place"... just look at the sky. I really like that shot, the effect
is marvelously done...better than some CGI effect of today. But the fact that
it was already use in an other excellent episode bothered me. So I modified
it by using a reverse Eagle shot from "Missing Link" (picture 08). I didn't
know if the angle was going to fit. I was amazed by the result... it worked!
(picture 09-10).
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Why, you ask?
Because I wanted my work to last longer. Since many shows are now filmed in the 1:85 format (even if they are not shown that way on TV, like the X-Files season 5-9 and Stargate SG-1) I wanted Space: 1999 to age well. Yes, you do lose some picture, but the frame still looks good and even better in some cases. (picture 11-12).
The main things I wanted was to make Space: 1999 look as good as possible. At the same time it gave me the chance to learn new stuff about the possibilities of my computer and the softwares. I would do "Testament of Arkadia" differently now, after six episodes, I have learned new editing tricks.
The second episode was "Breakaway." If I was going to redo the series, I had to do the pilot episode. Some new effect (picture 13-14-15-16-17) and a lot of reduction were made. I think the episode is two minute shorter.
I have to say that the only judge present in the editing room was... me. So I made the show the way I wanted it. At the time the only place this was going to be shown was at my home. I didn't expect to show it at a fan convention.
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The third episode was "Another Time, Another Place" (also one of my favorites).
I did a lot of change (picture 18-19-20) It was also the first time I added stars in the background. It change the whole aspect of space. I wich I had done it earlier. One of the good aspect of remastering a show is to improve on some sub-par effects. Like when the older Helena (well, she looked older) is passing in front of the younger Helena (picture 21).
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They didn't have the technology to do it in 1973, so let's do it now, the way it was meant to be (picture 22-23-24). Another situation came along, in the scene where Koenig is talking to Victor on Earth, the 1:85 aspect ratio was not doing well with close-up of Koenig. So I found a way to modify the picture by adding more background (which are usually soft) so we can give a 1:85 look that is not cropping the picture but give us the illusion of more picture.(picture 26-27-28). I will use that effect again with future episodes.
After that, I began working on "Collision Course." (Hey! Another of my favorites!) It started with the explosion with the asteroid. I have used the explosion of Deep Impact and Star Trek VI. I didn't have the time to make any CGI for this episode, so I use what ever I needed to make the scene look good. Integrated into a scene, no one can guess where I took the explosion, well, except the one from Star Trek VI. :)
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I also added some radiation cloud making the discovery of the Eagle and the planet more believable. (picture 29). ALSO, we never saw someone coming out of the Eagle except from "Another Time, Another Place" and "Testament of Arkadia." I wanted to see that one more time so I added a scene where Koenig is leaving the Eagle to go to the door of the spaceship. With a frame of an Eagle from "Space Warp" AND some Photoshop of me walking in front of a black background in my Halloween spacesuit costume of Space: 1999, I was able to add myself into the scene, pretending to be Koenig for a three second clip. (Picture 30-31-32-33).
I also change the collision with the planet to have a more dramatic look. (picture 34).
Just as I am writing this, many more memories are coming back from the difficulties and fun I had doing this. Like, did you know that "Collison Course" has a sound problem. We can hear some sound effect twice in part of the show. When Carter throw something on the floor, we hear it a few second earlier in the background. When Koenig run into the door before fighting with the guards, we can hear it two seconds before in the background. Well, I have been able to replace the sound and, with the help of the original music from the CDs, keep the continuity.
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I have many other favorite episodes, such as "Dragon's Domain." The only reason I have yet to work on it is because I want to do it right and I do not yet have what is necessary (good quality DVD picture) to make it better, for the moment. Hopefully the new bonus A&E DVD with three episodes remastered from the original negative including "Dragon's Domain" will be of great quality. The story is so good that it won't be upgrade that REQUIRES much new editing OR effects which is not the case of the next episode I made.
"Ring Around the Moon" is not one of my favorites. The special effect are sub-standard, the music doesn't fit... (the music is fun to listen but not in an episode) and the story... !?!?! . I decided to work on it for the challenge. I needed to make it look a lot better. After watching it and watching it over and over, I found out what I could do. I was able to remove the music, replacing it by the music of Barry Gray from the Fanderson CDs. There was almost no talking while the music was there, and if so, I could remove the scene, since the pacing was so long. The episode as now a running time of 45 minutes and you don't lose anything with the comprehension of the episode.
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