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DAVID CARSON
(Director, 'Emissary')
"I'm one of those people who believe preparation is an
immensely important thing. You can save time and money by
preparing properly and you can also examine everything
from all the angles with all the possibilities that have
to be thought about. You can then produce a product that
is far superior to one that is shot from the hip, on the
run, as it were. Although you may be very fortuitous when
you shoot from the hip because it's very exciting, and it
does get the adrenaline going, I'm one of those people who
tend to think that overall planning is one of the most
important elements. If you have the time to plan properly
and carefully put together a jigsaw that tells a story,
you'll have a much more effective result in the end.
One of the
great weaknesses we had because our casting was left till
so late was we did not have enough time to rehearse.
Normally that doesn't matter in television because you're
not dealing with things that are rehearsable, but this
project was so complicated in some of its philosophical
content and so difficult, it would have benefited all of
us greatly and helped in the gradation of the characters
through the scenes.
It was an
extremely enjoyable experience. We all had a great time
doing it. I always thought that the film was rare, even in
Star Trek terms, because of its philosophical content and
the way it went about solving the emotional problems that
it had in it. The show was very unique and very
intelligent. Such a complicated and complex piece of work
that was challenging on so many levels made for an
extremely complex pattern for the audience to follow. You
would think from time to time that it was like something
out of European television in its content. Is America
ready for this? As is often the case, television
underestimates the audience - particularly the networks. I
think the success of DS9 goes another step to prove the
audience is challenged and titillated by exciting and
interesting and penetrating work.
You are given
your cut and you hand it over to the producers, and they
do what they feel they want to do with it because after
all, in episodic television you're a guest and you're not
the prime mover of the project as you are, often, in a
feature film. You come in and fulfil what needs to be done
and return the product to the producers and the writers,
who then shape it as they want to. Part of the job s not
to be pigheaded about the way you see it. It's all a
matter of taste, and there's no real way of saying whose
taste is right and whose taste is wrong, except that one
believes that one's own taste always is right."
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