A very happy Jay Firestone on the Dark Matter set. Photo copyright of Joe Mallozzi.
Like all the ingredients of a well-conceived recipe, there is a wonderful sense of anticipation when various creative minds come together to entertain audiences and tell a story that will hopefully be a popular one. Gemini-award winning feature film and TV producer Jay Firestone has a knack for spotting such potential hits. Currently, he and his Toronto-based production company Prodigy Pictures is working with veteran writers/producers Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie – formerly of the long-running Stargate franchise – on their new Sci-Fi TV series Dark Matter. This particular story is one to which Firestone was immediately attracted.
“First and foremost, I like Joe and Paul as people, and I had talked with them about developing a few projects,” says Firestone. “I had the proof of their Dark Matter graphic novel [on which the TV series is based] with me during a trip to New York to meet with the people at the Syfy channel. Their executives were telling me how hard it was to find a decent 'space opera.' To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with that expression, but basically it means a really great story set in outer space.
“I was looking at a number of things to do with Syfy, but I wasn’t really up for the monster-of-the-week stuff. I’ve done that before, but I didn’t think people wanted another one of those. I’d heard someone talking about how the problem with a lot of Sci-Fi shows is that the characters aren’t as exciting as the action or visual effects. Joe and Paul had pitched me their graphic novel, which was all-character, all-story, and I thought, ‘This is what’s lacking half the time, the character stuff.’ With Dark Matter, you’re going to fall in love with at least one of these characters and want to follow the progress of that character. That’s what it’s all about, right? I think most viewers are getting tired of an action scene with no substance, or a great visual effect of spaceship travelling through space but with no story. Joe and Paul are all about the story, and that’s what I love.”
Set in deep space, Dark Matter opens with the small crew of a spaceship awakening from stasis and lacking any knowledge of who they are or what their mission is. As they start to unravel the mystery surrounding both these issues, they discover some disturbing truths. Helping these characters put together all these missing pieces are a number of talented directors, many of whom, including T.J. Scott and Amanda Tapping, are already familiar to TV genre audiences. Filming on Dark Matter commenced back in January and just wrapped this past week. Not surprisingly, it was an exciting and enjoyable collaborative process right from the start to finish for all concerned.
“First of all, I think the directors love working on these sets, because it’s a different experience than, let’s say, the average police drama when you have a detective’s office and someone walking down a street,” notes Firestone. “You also don’t have, for example, weapons or gunfights quite like we do here on Dark Matter. So I think the directors are really challenged when they come onto this show, and, again, Joe and Paul have the vision, so when a director sits down and asks, ‘Where are we going with this story?’ there’s a definite answer and not a lot of ifs, ands or buts.
“Our directors love our cast, too, because these are younger actors who want to soak everything up. They’re open to everything that a director wants to do, and what’s great, too, is that each of our characters has a specific story arc. That’s the benefit of having scripts done ahead of time. We know where these characters are going over the next five or six episodes, so the directors get to say, ‘Here’s where this character is now and here’s where they going. It’s my job as a director to put them one step further on his or her journey to becoming who they actually are.’ For a director, having that information and knowing how a character is supposed to be progressing, only helps him or her do their job, so I think they’re pretty excited about that.”
Not one to sit back and let everyone else have fun, Firestone takes an active role in the production of Dark Matter. “I worked very closely with the guys on the scripts as well as with the directors during filming, but my favorite job is in the editing room,” he says. “Editing action, especially for a Sci-Fi show, is a lot of fun. You need to make sure you have pace as well as surprise grabs and throws. Then there are things like anti-gravity moves where we have to work on how your character falls due to the loss of gravity, or a scene where a character is running down the hallway of a spaceship, jumps into the control seat and blasts off. You have all these cuts back and forth between that and the actual visual effect of the ship blasting off. That’s a very different pace compared to that of most other types of TV shows, and I truly love being a part of that creative process,” enthuses Firestone.
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo courtesy/copyright of Joe Mallozzi, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Many thanks Jay! It feels like an eternity since we've had a good ship-based sci-fi series on the air and finally in 2015, Dark Matter is going to fill that void. Can't express my gratitude enough for managing to pull this one off! Really hope Dark Matter lasts at least 5 seasons. From a sci-fi fan who loves Star Trek, Stargate, Galactica, Buck Rogers, et al, thank you! :D
Posted by: Scott | 05/23/2015 at 07:05 PM