SEVEN AND ONE QUESTIONS - A PROFILE OF A MILLENNIUM FAN

(click on biography image, opens in a new window)

Dear Supporters,

In a previous entry we espoused the need for fans of the franchise to demonstrate their appreciation of Millennium in order to provide evidence of the wide support the franchise continues to elicit. To this end we asked you to consider taking a few moments of your time to complete a simple questionnaire that we can utilise. We thank all those who responded to our request and, as promised, here are more thoughts from the heart of Millennium fandom. Please keep these coming and do not hesitate to send us all your thoughts and queries on anything Millennium and Frank Black related. If you would like to complete the brief questionnaire I have listed the questions below for your perusal.

1. About You.

2. Why are you a fan?

3. How long have you been a fan?

4. What's your favorite episode.

5. What's your favorite scene or moment?

6. If a movie was made which characters would you like to see in it?

7. Why do you think Millennium should come back?

8. What are you watching right now?

APOCALYPSE NOW - BEHIND THE SCENES OF AN INDEPENDANT MOVIE PT 2

Dear Friends,

Today we bring you the second part of our conversation with the creative team behind 'Millennium: Apocalypse', the fan made series that told the continuing story of, a now adult, Jordan Black. Our thanks, once again, To Jason, Shoni and Jeremia for the kind donation of their time and for keeping the flame of 'Millennium' alive at a time when it was sorely missed. Please keep your eyes peeled in the next few days for more BTFB exclusives including another interview with a member of the cast I know you will all enjoy. And, if you haven't sent those letters and Polaroids, what are you waiting for? Let's bring Frank Back!

BTFB: How true did you try to stay to the original series. We spoke to Robert MacLachlan recently who commented that the cinematography on Millennium was instrumental in creating its character if you will. How much did you attempt to reproduce the look of the series or did you strive for a unique character of your own?

JASON: Well we wanted to keep the same feeling but we did try to make this more of Jordan's world. We saw Franks world and the darkness, with Jordan I wanted hope and more of a curious environment than the forboding doom and darkness of the original show.

BTFB: Was changing the ouroboros logo part of creating that new identity for the show and Jordan's story or born out of a desire not to infringe copyright?

JASON: It was kind of both. I knew I wanted a different design but going back to the original story the show did not fully explore both factions of the group so we decided to create kind of a full circle and add more lore to the story by creating two more factions, one being the Ravens, also the native American story line of the Anasazi logo.

SHONI: Well we had originally wanted Jordan to have an ouroboros tattoo but it did not work out without me actually getting one.

JASON: Yeah the tattoo thing was tough, first I discovered that another show I loved at the time, The Invisible Man, Vincent Vantrasca's character Darian Fawks has an ourborous tattoo on his writst, which is where we placed it for Jordan, we also discovered that the fake tattoos we used were very shinny on camera and fell of very easily so it was a pain to work with, after shooting with them for a day we scrapped the idea.

BTFB: I did revisit the 'Apocalypse' forums today and a quick re-read highlighted a number of problems you experienced during filming with location, budget, disagreements regarding the finalised scripts and so on. Did you anticipate the experience would be challenging and at any point did you loose faith in what you were doing?

SHONI: Time, location issues, weather, making scenes match whilst they were shot days maybe weeks apart. It was fun.

JASON: Budget...there was none. Disagreements, many, and not far enough apart, but hey that's what happens when you get creative people in the same room. The script writing was always tough, I found myself wanting to stick to a TV style schedule which was way too ambitious and way too complicated for what we where doing, this caused issues among us and I am completely to blame for that.

JEREMIA: The hardest thing about getting a bunch of people together that are so passionate about something is trying not to hurt feelings and staying commited when people don't agree on things.

JASON: I pushed hard and changed things without speaking to the writers and that was not the right thing to do. In my defense, however, sometimes you see things that are impossible to do and you have these commitments and schedules to keep and things happen fast sometimes and you get caught up in the flow...it is very hard to think about the individuals involved and not the project as a whole but you live and learn.

JEREMIA: As for changing things without talking to the other writers, that was hard because without a budget there wasn't much that could be done. Not being able to pay for locations, getting better set dressing and paying the cast so they still had to work their day jobs and then help out on the project made it hard to schedule things in a timely manner.

JASON: But we did not anticipate things to be difficult at all, I had never shot something long form before so this was a complete immersion in mistakes and learning, experiance is such a key to this biz that there are sometimes mistakes made that could have been prevented had you known what the hell you were REALLY doing and not just thinking you know.

JEREMIA: Learing some of those mistakes is a hard lesson because you could go to film school and still you wouldn't have learned them. They only come with experience.

BTFB: Is there anything you would have done differently with the distance of hindsight?

JASON: A lot of things I would have done differently but that is not to say I am ashamed of the project. I think we were very ambitious and a lot of those ideas make their way to the audience and fall flat.

BTFB: Do you go for drives and pass places and think "man, that would have made a great location!"

JASON: Yeah, and critique can be hard sometimes, I think people do not realize the amount of work people do to entertain people and how you must have a thick skin but hey, with everything else you get better and learn your craft better.

BTFB: I was just reading a book by the Doctor Who head writer who was saying just that - how consumerist audiences are and don't realise the difficulties, and with the net, often don't care about trying to.

JASON: Exactly it's true, but hey it's the nature of the beast you go in knowing that then it will be easier to accept it.

BTFB: Can I return to what you said earlier about the amount of people involved in the writing? When you are working with a number of writers, each with a different style and emphasis is it easy to achieve a coherence to the series or is there the danger of being widely incongruous in the feel of one episode to another?

JASON: Well it's tough but I think everyone that worked on the writing was very dedicated to the project. The overall cohesiveness was formed in the production aspect of it, the movie looks the same throughout so I think it makes the story inconsistencies a bit easier to swallow.

And again a lot of the original ideas Raven, Joe, Calixer and Michael came up with and wrote, sometimes we had to change them on the spot or we had to change them because we almost got arrested or we were waving a gun around and the actors were uncomfortable.

BTFB: Were you tempted to push the envelope as Morgan and Wong did in Season Two and do something quirky like 'Somehow Satan Got Behind Me' or something experimental like 'The Curse of Frank Black' or did you want a thematic similar to Season One?

JASON: I wanted to stay on neutral ground with everyone, try to appeal to the whole, it seems that MM fans are very split much like the two factions of the MM group. I suppose all in all we were really trying for the same thing Chris Carter was in Season Three, just make everyone happy.

BTFB: Could I ask why you think Millennium is ready for a return?

JASON: Well I think the adult audience is ready for something more sophisticated then teen horror films or Michael Bay actioners, as we approach the 2012 marker it really would be the perfect time for it. Alas, I think Chris Carter might give Frank a cameo in the 3rd X-Files film though, it is said to be related to the 2012 story line, but with your hard work and the support of all of the fans I have no doubt something bigger for Millennium will come.

BTFB: Well, we need to show that the fans are active and dynamic, and you guys are the epitome. Our thanks to all of you for taking the time to talk to us this evening.

JASON: It has been a pleasure and thank you for doing this for the fans of the show. I think what you are doing is really great and I am glad someone stepped up and took the lead.

FOR DEATAILS OF HOW YOU CAN WIN A COPY OF MILLENNIUM APOCALYPSE, CLICK HERE!

APOCALYPSE NOW - BEHIND THE SCENES OF AN INDEPENDANT MOVIE

PART ONE....


Millennium Fans are a tenacious, creative and passionate bunch of people. A bunch of people who are prepared to go that extra mile to support the franchise they care for. If anyone is under the misapprehension that there is neither the audience or the passion out there to support a Millennium movie adaptation then allow me to show you one example of the passion that exists. Myself and fellow co-coordinator, James, had the opportunity to talk to Jason D. Morris, Shoni Alysse Cook and Jeremia Draper. Three contributors to 'Millennium: Apocalypse', a fan created series, and now DVD, that kept the story of Millennium alive for its countless fans. This extremely popular and well received project lead to bigger and better things for the team but we go right back to the beginning of their success and talk about the blood, sweat and tears they shed to keep Millennium alive.

BTFB: Am I right in thinking you guys cut your teeth as independent film-makers on Apocalypse?

JASON: Yeah as far as features go, so to speak, since it was actually really shot as a bunch of shorts and then edited together for the DVD but I still consider it a feature because of the length and the amount of time and focus the project took as a whole. We had done a bunch of short films in the past but this was by far was the biggest and most ambitious project.

BTFB: Did you produce it with both short and full length in mind?

JASON: Yeah, from the beginning it was the idea, I wanted to make something that would translate to both mediums. Unfortunately I was not up on the copyright laws nor did I care at the time but that quickly changed.

BTFB: Was the whole 'Apocalypse' Team assembled from within TIWWA [Millennium's largest and most active fan community]? Or did you already have at your disposal associates who could edit, write a score, create the titles, film it etc.

JASON: Most of the entire crew came form TIWWA and everyone over there was really great to work with, they gave us our own message board and development threads to iron out the project. As we gained steam we reached out to the members and brought on Mick Moreau to help score the project, Erin, Mellissa, Joe and everyone else was almost all on board from the beginning of the project since our initial post on the forum. There was outside production crew that shot the project and acted in the project but the development and pre-production was all from within the TIWWA circle

BTFB: There seems to me to be some misconceptions regarding 'Millennium' fans who are often perceived as less visible in their support of the show than 'Philes' are with regards to the 'X-Files'. Do you share my contention of this assumption and hold 'Apocalypse' up as a strong argument against it?

JASON: Absolutely, I think the bigger issue with that though is there are many more x-philes then there MM fans and the fact that X-Files received 9 years on the tube and now two movies and MM only received three years makes a difference. I think the smaller number of fans is a factor but we are a ravenous bunch that are really, really big fans that runs deeper then just making sure we tune in when the show is aired.

BTFB: When you decided the focus of the show would be on Jordan were attempts made to go back to the source material and see if anything could be drawn from Brittany’s performance that could inform an adult portrayal of the character. Or was it concluded that it is impossible to extrapolate from a child what their adult persona will be?

SHONI: I took a lot of time and watched scenes with young Jordan, some key things I took from her. One being that she always looked like she was thinking about something and or pondering a question and I think that would remain the same into adulthood.

JASON: The curiosity of the child I would think was still a part of Jordan's persona particularly having gone through the things she had and seeing the things her father went through.

BTFB: Was it always going to be Jordan's story? Was wanting to tell her story the reason why you decided to do a film or did the desire to do a film come first with the story evolving from that?

JASON: Yeah for me it was always going to be about Jordan...no question

SHONI: I think that it needed to focus on someone close to Frank for any of it to make sense.

JASON: If we picked up where it left off I do not think the audience would have accepted new actors taking the place of ones in the original show. As to setting the project in the future it helped with that aspect, people could believe another actress playing Jordan because Brittany was not even old enough at that point to play the Jordan that we portrayed in 'Apocalypse'.

JEREMIA: Not following Jordan in the future would have pushed away a lot of fans in my opinion. The only person in MM that didn't have their story told that people would actually want to see and follow.

As always please leave your thoughts and comments, I am sure the team behind 'Millennium: Apocalypse' will appreciate them as much as we do and don't forget to check us out tomorrow for part two of this interview!

FATALLY YOURS SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN

Dear Campaigners,

We are proud to bring to your attention another plug for our efforts and a new friend of the campaign in the process. Sarah of Fatally-Yours.com has alerted her readers to our efforts and we hope you will repay her kindness by popping over there and showing your support. Fatally-Yours.com is a popular horror resource with more than its fair share of regular news, reviews and exclusive interviews. As a horror aficionado myself, may I say I spent a rather enjoyable few hours simply browsing their interviews section.

If you would like to check them out, and I recommend that you do, it's a great site with much to enjoy, click here!

SNAPSHOT OF A STALKER - DOUG HUTCHISON EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Doug Hutchison is a name very much associated with some of the most iconic moments from 1013’s past productions. Whilst a widely celebrated actor he is enshrined in the memories of fans of the ‘X-Files’ for his notable depiction of ‘Eugene Victor Tooms’ but to the fans of ‘Millennium’ he will always be ‘The Polaroid Stalker’, the psychotic individual who’s arc formed the bedrock of the first season of ‘Millennium’ and who’s effects would be felt throughout the entire second series and beyond. We are extremely grateful to Doug for taking the time to speak to us and to his personal assistant, MC, in helping to arrange securing this interview on our behalf.

BACKTOFRANKBLACK.COM: Fans of Millennium are no doubt familiar with your celebrated role on the 'X-Files' as Eugene Victor Tooms. How did the experience of working on Millennium compare to your contribution to its sister franchise?

DOUG HUTCHISON: I had a blast playing both Tooms on ’X-Files’ and Polaroid Man on ‘Millennium‘; two distinctly different roles. I had, maybe, 12 lines of dialogue as Tooms ["yes", "no", "yes", "no", "I like art", etc.] and “Polaroid Man“ couldn‘t seem to keep his mouth shut!

BTFB: The Polaroid Stalker was an integral arc throughout the entire first season of Millennium. When you were brought in to portray the character are efforts made to ensure you are aware of the character's history and place within the show's mytharc and when such an integral arc is being brought to its denouement is there a certain pressure on you to deliver a performance befitting the zenith of the audience's
expectations?

DH: Very rarely are guest stars given insight to a show‘s myth arcs and their character‘s histories, etc. However, on “Millennium", I had the extra benefit of knowing Glen Morgan and James Wong [who I had forged a relationship with on “X-Files“] and they gave me certain insights to the Polaroid Man that I might not have had otherwise. As far as pressure regarding delivering performance, well, I suppose there’s always some pressure, some trepidation, some doubt diving into any role really. But to be perfectly honest, [and I‘ve never confessed this before, so you’re getting a no hold barred uncensored exclusive here!] about 3 days before I flew up to Vancouver to shoot "Millennium", I did a hit of ecstasy and me and Polaroid Man fused! And now for the record: I don’t do drugs anymore to commune with my characters (O:

BTFB: The scenes in 'The Beginning and the End' between yourself and Megan Gallagher are, by necessity, intense to view. Are scenes in which duress and torture simulated difficult to shoot for the actors involved and do these scenes require more rehearsal and choreography or does a certain spontaneity enrich the performances of those involved?

DH: I recall, Megan and I just dove into that sequence because, generally speaking, there’s not a Hecuba lot of time luxuriating in rehearsal on episodics. We had to rehearse, obviously, for camera and lighting, but other than that we just plunged. Megan was awesome, It’s far more challenging, in my opinion, to play the victim and emit stone fear than it is to perpetuate fear. In performing the role of a King in Shakespeare, for example, they say that all the actors playing the King’s minions are the ones who enhance the actor playing the King’s performance by endowing him with absolute servitude. Megan was fiercely generous. She acted afraid impeccably and, thus, helped me to come across menacing, adding tension to the scene. Megan’s a helluvan actress.

BTFB: Millennium fans have long been preoccupied with Megan's character's response to her onscreen husbands killing of your character, The Polaroid Stalker. Many believe she was unjustified in her decision to part from Frank in light of this. With your understanding of what took place between the two characters do you believe there was narrative justification for the decision? Does it surprise you to discover that this consensus was largely held by male supporters of the show?

DH: I gotta be honest, I don’t own television. So I’ve never had the opportunity to follow “Millennium” [or, for that matter any of the episodics I have worked on so I really can‘t contribute to this question. Sorry )O:

BTFB: I am aware that you fought for certain artistic changes to the intended depiction of Tooms in the famous Cocoon scene in order that a certain animalism be preserved with regards to the character. The Polaroid Stalker, during interrogation, is almost bestial, primal in his taunting of Catherine Black is it easy to bypass one's psychological inhibitions in order to harness such carnal drives and feelings?

DH: I don’t own TV or inhibitions. I just plunge. Inhibitions be damned!

BTFB: Followers of your career will no doubt be aware of 'Vampire Killers', the series of two minute webisodes you have created. What inspired you to explore the relatively untapped potential of online video and does this format allow for greater creative autonomy than would be afforded someone writing for teevee?

DH: From collecting the “The Tomb of Dracula” comics as a kid, reading Anne Rice’s novels, and digging movies like “Nosferatu”, “the Addiction”, and “the Hunger”, I’ve always had an affinity for the Vampire genre. "Vampire Killers" was initially conceived as a TV Series and then my good friend, Marco Mannone [co-writer and playing the role of Travis in “VK] suggested turning it into a web-series. I thought it was an enticing idea and the perfect venue for something like “Vampire Killers". I wanted to shoot it dark, gritty, sexy and with no holds barred. The internet is like the wild wild west. Anything goes. We’re building a global audience virally. It’s exciting. It’s the new frontier and best of all: I don’t have to deal w/studio execs breathing down my neck. I can maintain creative control. I’m to “Vampire Kilers” what Chris Carter was to the “X-Files” and Jack Bender is to “Lost”. I welcome the impeccable ideas from my creative partners [Mannone and writer/director, Tim Baldini], but ultimate - when it comes to a definitive answer/solution/decision: the buck stops with me.


BTFB: In 'Vampire Killers' there's a palpable sexual current to the stories you are telling. As sexuality and vampirism are almost a given with regards to their association what efforts have you made to ensure this aspect of the narrative remains fresh rather than familiar.

DH: I’ll leave that up to the audience. I think we’re telling a compelling and alluring story in our series, but you can be the judge: www.vampirekillers.tv.

BTFB: For fans of your continuing career what should we look forward to from you in the future?

DH: I’m co-starring with Thomas Jane and Vin Rhames in an indie feature called “Give ‘Eh Hell, Malone” directed by Russell Mulcahy [“Highlander” and “Resident Evil 3”] premiering sometime this fall. I’m also playing a recurring on “Lost” this season. Hoping to direct/produce my original screenplay, “dream birds” sometime this year, and to continue shooting “Vampire Killers” when we secure sponsorship. If anyone ever wants to keep abreast of my career, they’re welcome to visit www.doughutchison.com and/or www.darkwaterinc.com for updates.

BTFB: Thank you Doug for taking the time to talk to us and best wishes for the future.

SciFi Now Magazine - Campaign Article Update

Dear Supporters,

Please allow me to bring your attention to a change of plans originally detailed in an earlier post. As you may recall the campaign team were proud to bring to your attention the news that premiere British SciFi Magazine, SciFi Now, was to bring our campaign to the attention of its readers in their 24th issue available for purchase towards the end of January.

One of the many fans of Millennium happened upon our campaign whilst browsing and contacted the SciFi Now team at their popular forum to espouse his support for Millennium and to inquire as to the status of the article we mentioned. A staff member at SciFi Now kindly responded informing him that whilst we are still scheduled to grace the pages of their magazine this will now take place in the 25th issue of the magazine due for release in February. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause but thank all those at SciFi Now for continuing their support of us and those individuals who have continued to bring us to their attention.

Please keep your eyes peeled on their website for news of when the 25th edition of the magazine will be available for purchase and if you would like to add your voice to those who have supported us in the magazine's forums please do so!

Don't forget to visit us regularly. We have many new and exciting things to bring to you in the near future and to start the week in fine style a new and exclusive interview to share with you all tomorrow.