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Oct
01
1995

Cinefantastique: Family Ties

Oct-??-1995
Cinefantastique
Family Ties
Paula Vitaris

The show’s basic premise turns on a family tragedy, tracing Mulder and Scully’s backstory.

I once had the opportunity to ask what Glen Morgan thought about Chris Carter killing off Melissa Scully, because personally, that REALLY pissed me off! He told me that most networks have what’s called “character payments”. If a character that a writer created returns in another episode, they get a couple hundred bucks. This doesn’t happen on FOX, so there goes any cash for the Lone Gunmen, Skinner, Tooms, Scully’s Ma…etc. “If we did get character payments, I would have been more bummed that they killed Melissa. Now I just feel bad for Melinda who is a wonderful actress and a really nice person … sorry if I sound greedy but it’s sort of joke between Jim and I.”

Anyways, just thought I’d share that little anecdote since this article was written before Melissa’s unfortunate demise. – Sensation

Although the main focus of The X-Files is the cases Mulder and Scully solve every week, the show’s basic premise turns on a family tragedy, the disappearance of Mulder’s sister, Samantha. Although the writers have wisely refrained from overplaying Mulder’s quest for Samantha, it is inevitable that they (and the viewers) would want to see both Mulder’s and Scully’s families worked into the storylines. Mulder’s parents did not appear until late in the second season, in the two-parter “Colony/Endgame” and the finale, “Anasazi,” but viewers met Scully’s family early on in the series with the first season’s “Beyond the Sea”, and subsequently in the second season’s” Ascension” and “One Breath”. Even though their presence has been brief overall, Scully’s family has become much loved by the show’s audience.

The conception for “Beyond the Sea” originated with a desire on the part of scripters Glen Morgan and James Wong to write a “Scully episode” with the goal that such a story would both highlight Gillian Anderson’s acting ability, and humanize the dour Scully. They believed the best way to achieve that was to tie the episode’s X-File case to her in a personal way: by introducing her parents and having her father die before the teaser ended, and then linking her need to speak once more with her father to a psychic prisoner on death row.

Morgan recalled that, “In the pilot, Scully mentioned that her parents didn’t want her to become an FBI agent. We found that interesting. So many people want their own lives, and yet need their parents to accept that life, and we thought it seemed to be a common phenomenon around us. So we put it into the story and hoped it would connect with people. And we thought maybe Scully’s parents lived in Washington. And if they live in Washington, what could her father do? It was kind of obvious to us he was in the government and we put him in the military. Then we thought, ‘OK, he has to be a higher rank, a Navy captain’s kind of neat. And we just worked backwards from that.”

Director David Nutter cast Don Davis, familiar to genre viewers as Major Briggs in Twin Peaks, as William Scully, and Sheila Larken as Margaret Scully. “Scully needed to have a father and mother both of real strong qualities and charisma and three dimensions,” he said. “I felt that Don David and Sheila Larken would bring the required weird to the parts.”

Davis, who has a Ph.D. in theater, moved to Canada in 1981 to teach in the theater department of the University of British Columbia. He started doing extra work during the summers, and eventually found himself doubling for Dana Elcar in Macgyver He won a leading guest role in that show, with more series work to follow, and was able to give up teaching for full-time acting. Nutter had worked with Davis previously on several shows, including Broken Badges, and called him personally to ask him if he would accept the role of William Scully, despite its brevity.

“The character is very similar to Briggs on Twin Peaks,” Davis noted. “William is a military man who, although he loved his child deeply, was unable to verbalize that love until it was too late. It was very much along the line of the Major Briggs character, that this was a guy who was at the top of his field and the way he showed his love to his family was to give his children an example to follow and to provide them with great security. That’s kind of where I started off from with the character.”

Although William had died, on The X-Files anything can happen, and he reappeared in “One Breath” to deliver to the comatose Scully the paternal message she had longed for in “Beyond the Sea”. David said that director Bob Goodwin’s concern was that his monologue would not “become maudlin. He wanted me to be on the verge of being overcome, but he didn’t want it to happen. He wanted the character to be strong, to be very much the man that had fathered Dana. So what I tried to do was to show a man holding himself in, a man who was filled with emotion but who, as a military man, controlled the emotion. We did a few takes and each time Bob was bringing me down.”

In between “Beyond the Sea” and “One Breath” David made an uncredited, off screen appearance as a dialogue coach for “Miracle Man.” As a native of the Ozark Mountains region, and a former theater professor, he lent his expertise to the guest cast to help them properly pronounce Southern accents.

Scully’s mother Margaret was portrayed by actress Sheila Larken, and in the X-Files world, where almost everyone has a hidden agenda, Larken’s maternal warmth and sincerity was a bright spot within all the bleakness. David Nutter had met Larken when he auditioned her for his 1985 film Cease FIRE, and although he didn’t cast her, she made an impression on the director.

Larken’s husband, X-Files’ co-executive producer Bob Goodwin, mentioned her at one point to Nutter, and Nutter immediately thought of her for Margaret. “She was perfect. She was the one, and I hired her.”

Larken was reluctant to take on the role of Margaret Scully. The New York native had left acting several years ago and had obtained a master’s degree in clinical social work. But after moving to Washington state with her husband, X-Files’ co-executive producer Bob Goodwin, she found herself busy with acting offers. Her hesitation stemmed, she said, from her own father’s death the year before from a heart attack.

“It wasn’t really something I really wanted to do or pull up,” she said. “But I did it anyway. I never thought the part would repeat. My interpretation when I did that scene at the funeral was of a woman so involved with her own pain, she couldn’t even react to what her daughter was asking her. And they allowed that, even though the daughter was the lead in the show.”

Larken saw Margaret as “a military wife, married before I graduated college, someone who never gets to finish her college degree or find a career for herself, but mainly gets enmeshed in her family. You know, the Everymother. Part of her emergence in becoming self-sufficient was during the course of this show with Dana. I think Margaret is ever-evolving. ”

Larken’s favorite scene came in “Ascension, ” when Margaret and Mulder meet at a park and talk about the missing Scully. “You explore a scene and try to find what you’re thinking, and what you’re not thinking, and that one just jelled together. There were just so many little itsy-bitsy things that came together and they came together on camera.” She found working with Anderson and Duchovny to be a particular treat. “Their depth is multi-layered. A lot of times you work with actors, and when you look into their eyes, they’re a blank. You’re working alone. But when you get to work with Gillian and David, whatever you send is received and vice versa.”

Larken said that as Margaret she usually does not draw on her own experience as a mother, because “it’s almost too vulnerable to let in. ” She did admit to an exception: “There’s one scene where being a parent did work. In ‘One Breath’ where Margaret says to pull the plug on her daughter, Mulder doesn’t want her to do it. He moved away on me, and I called him his first name. I just went, ‘Fox!’ I could hear that ‘mother’ voice. And David stopped cold, he stopped in his tracks. It was like the voice of every mother; in that sense, the mother did come through.”

The arrival of Scully’s sister Melissa, in ‘One Breath’ was an unexpected one. Scully’s two brothers, of whom she spoke in ‘Roland,’ were glimpsed in “Beyond the Sea” and were seen as children in a flashback of ‘ One Breath.’ Yet the sibling who turned up in that latter episode was a previously unheard of sister, Melissa, played by Melinda McGraw. McGraw, who had trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, had spend several years as Syd Madison on The Commish, where she had become friends with Morgan and Wong, and they had wanted to write a part on The X-Files specifically for her. “Melissa was someone who had to understand Scully and yet be different to challenge Mulder’s actions,” said Morgan. “Who better than a mother or a sister? Considering where Mulder was at that time, we thought it would be interesting to see Mulder’s reaction to a believer of ‘positive’ ideas. So, again, it was a character that was created from the needs of Mulder and Scully’s characters. Most importantly, we wanted to write a good part of Melinda McGraw, with whom we shared a frustrating time on The Commish.”

Coincidentally, McGraw said, she brought up the idea of making Melissa a psychic, and found Morgan and Wong had already had the same thought. McGraw enjoyed playing a softer role after several years as a police detective. “It was really great for me to play a different character,” she said. McGraw felt that Melissa “was the black sheep in this family, probably a very difficult teenager, in trouble, very curious. She experimented, I’m sure, with drugs and boys, was very political and was always a bit left of center and always pretty conscious of developing her psychic ability.”

Morgan and Wong had also played around with making Melissa a girlfriend for Mulder, and although that idea was jettisoned, McGraw said she felt the element of attraction was still there, “Certainly from Melissa’s side. We had talked about that, and I think that for various reasons it wasn’t to be. Mulder had just had a romance the week before (in “3 “). McGraw felt that in the end, it was a good idea that the relationship “didn’t go that far, because that left grounds for something later. I think they wrote Melissa in a neat way, because she wasn’t all pure and light. She had this dark side to her, and this slightly jealous side, of being jealous of Dana.” But, she concluded, there is also a “total love. The bond of sibling love is so intense. It’s an age-old dramatic theme, and it’s one of the greatest loves that human beings have. It’s undeniably bigger than any other connection, because you’ve shared not only the same parents, but the same actual physical experience of being born to that mother.”

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Oct
01
1995

Cinefantastique: Making Humbug

Oct-??-1995
Cinefantastique
Making Humbug
Paula Vitaris

Behind the scenes of the show’s popular “comedy of horrors.” We’ve seen some pretty way-out things on The X-Files in the past two years. Morphing aliens, exploding facial boils, possessed kids, and lots and lots of glowing green bugs hungry to drain our body fluids… everything is grist for the gloomy X-Files mill. But nothing could have been a more extreme possibility than what arrived on our TV sets on March 31, 1995: a funny episode of The X-Files.

Funny? The X-Files? Well, why not? Comedy attempts to manage pain and chaos, and from the pilot on, there has always been a streak of wonderfully dry, ironic wit running throughout this very serious show. “Humbug” worked a neat reversal, with the humor, as dry and ironic as ever, finally taking centre stage. Yet the episode remains anchored to a core of sadness, and its X-Files roots, with a tale of sibling love and loss unfolding after prim and proper Mulder and Scully arrive to investigate a murder in a Florida town inhabited by sideshow artists with names like Dr. Blockhead and The Enigma.

Two of the X-Files newest staffers, writer Darin Morgan and director/producer Kim Manners, are responsible for this particular hour of madness, although some of the credit can also be laid at the foot of Morgan’s older brother, former X-Files writer and co-executive producer Glen Morgan. “The word came down from Glen, ‘Do one about circus freaks’ ” recalled Morgan, who immediately sat down to watch a tape of the Jim Rose Circus given to him by his brother.

Morgan’s X-Files debut came not as a writer but as an actor, when he played the Flukeman in “The Host”. He also received a story credit for the subsequent episode, “Blood”. Morgan’s credits previous to The X-Files are sparse. He had guest roles on The Commish and 21 Jump Street – “I wasn’t very good, ” he joked. Taking the job with a show as dark in tone as The X-Files created something of a dilemma for him, because he considers himself primarily a comedy writer: “I just don’t know how to write non-comedy. ”

Handed the assignment to write about characters who could possibly by played by Jim Rose and members of his troupe, Morgan “did a ton of research.” On the history of sideshows and circus freaks. Once embarked upon the script, he found he couldn’t help but write it with a humorous slant. “I wasn’t trying to be goofy,” Morgan said. “I wasn’t told to do a funny X-File. I just wrote an episode that would have enough scares and be strange enough to be an X-File, and where the comedy would be good enough that they would let it slide. And that’s what they did. They said, ‘Okay, we’re going to go with it.'”

Executive producer Chris Carter was ready to “throw a knuckleball” at the audience. “I felt that by episode 44 we had earned the right to take a breather, and that people would appreciate a break from the unrelenting tension and paranoia, ” Carter explained. “And it wasn’t so far afield for The X-Files, even though the tone was different. We were still dealing with rather creepy stuff.”

Carter said the studio was “nervous about Humbug, but probably the most nervous person was director Kim Manners, who confessed to a panic attack when he realized he was about to undertake “the first comedy X-Files.” While the episode was shooting, he had no idea whether it was going to work or not. “This is only the second episode I directed, and Chris Carter wants to explore new ground. And I’m the guy that’s going to take the patient into the operating room and do an entirely unproved operation and see if it’s going to still have a heartbeat when it leaves surgery. And it did. But I was really scared to death. I’ve been directing in television for 16 years and it was the first time since the first episode of television I ever directed that I’ve literally been frightened.”

Manners’ first directing assignment on The X-Files had come earlier in the year when Glen Morgan and James Wong, with whom he had worked on 21 Jump Street, brought him in to directed their final script for the show, “Die Hand Die Verletzt.” That episode had moments of exaggerated humour played as straightforwardly as possible, and Manners’ approach towards “Humbug” was similar. “I felt that the script was funny, and if I played it straight and let the comedy bleed through, it would be genuinely, honestly funny. I tried to stay away from the obvious slapstick and to keep it from being too broad. It was a struggle. The idea was, we better not say, ‘Hey, this is X-Files the comedy.’ What I wanted to do was say, ‘This is X-Files, and it’s a funny episode, so enjoy it for that.”

One scene that illustrated Morgan’s theme of not being able to judge a book by its cover took place in a museum of curiosities. Beautifully shot by Manners and director of photography John Bartley, the sequence allowed the viewer to glimpse the museum curator’s severely disfigured face and hand primarily through reflections from a number of mirrors, or from obscuring angles. Morgan wrote it that way for several reasons, one of which was practical in nature. “I didn’t know how much time [SFX makeup designer] Toby Lindala would have. This was just one scene, and I didn’t want to do too intricate a makeup job, so we did end up showing a little bit more of it that I originally thought we would.” Morgan also didn’t want to “gross people out, to be honest. I didn’t want people to be afraid to look at it. But also, it had to do with people with physical deformities, the idea being that you want to look but don’t want to look -looking by not looking.”

This latter idea also inspired a scene where Gillian Anderson, as Scully and Vincent Schiavelli, who plays Lanny, a man with a “parasitic” or underdeveloped twin attached to his body, encounter each other early in the morning. Their bathrobes are slightly open, and they can’t help but peek at each other. “People look at other people’s body parts, without trying to look like they’re looking,” observes Morgan. “If any man were to see Scully in her bathrobe, and it was slightly ajar, he would glance, but trying to look like he was not glancing. And I believe it’s the same way with people’s deformities. You don’t want to stare, and yet you’re attracted. And so I was playing off those inclinations.”

Some of The X-Files’ online fans read more into Morgan’s gentle spoof than he intended. Although he wanted to “have fun with the viewers’ expectations of the show, Morgan was not responding to any specific audience concerns. For example, in one scene, Mulder falls onto a bed of nails and pronounces it more comfortable than a futon. Fans thought that was a joke referring to a computer conference where Chris Carter had said Mulder sleeps on a futon. Morgan, whose first contact with online computer discussions was a huge sheaf of printouts about “Humbug” given to him by the X-Files staff, said the line “was just a reference to futons. I had no idea there was a question among the viewers as to what Mulder sleeps on!” Another example was the hotel manager’s comments about Mulder’s “unimaginative necktie design.” Said Morgan, “I didn’t know that Mulder normally wears flashy ties. I watch the show and I picked that up, and people commented, ‘Oh, he’s making a joke about the ties,’ but I was not aware that Mulder’s ties were a past topic of discussion.” He added ruefully, “I had no idea I was tapping into the collective unconscious. ”

Although “Humbug” was fraught with dialogue and situations of deadpan hilarity, the characters were always treated with dignity and respect, and when the story called for earnestness, levity was temporarily abandoned. The central scene for both Morgan and Manners was a completely serious one: Lanny’s confession in the jail cell that his underdeveloped twin has the ability to detach himself and has inadvertently killed trying to find a new host to replace the dying, alcoholic Lanny. “I wanted to play that for real compassion and sympathy, and make it an honest, heartfelt moment,” said Manners. “It made me feel good that, in the middle of this carnival of fun, we could give the audience a scene where there was a guy who was really dying of alcoholism. And we showed his pain about this twin brother that he had taken care of, and done everything for – he had nothing in his life because of this brother. And that scene paid off. I felt really good about it.”

Fortunately for an episode set in Florida, most of the shoot took place during weather unusually warm and sunny for winter in Vancouver. Even so, Mother Nature played havoc with the cast and crew. The sideshow artist known as The Enigma, who played a character known as The Conundrum, had to wade for several takes in water close to freezing in temperature. And when the crew arrived to shoot the opening cemetery scene, Manners recalled that “it was Monday morning and it snowed over the weekend, so there was four inches of snow on the ground when we got there in the morning. We had guys with torches who were walking around melting it. We brought in a water truck to wash it away and a steam truck to steam it away, and I had to start the sequence shooting all the close-ups.”

The tight shooting schedule also prevented some scenes from working out to Morgan’s complete satisfaction. His inspiration for the funhouse sequence where Scully shoots out some mirrors was not so much Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai – a film Morgan dislikes – but “every chase through the mirrors” he’s seen in film. A fan of silent era comedy, Morgan greatly admires Chaplin’s funhouse mirror scene in The Circus, and he brought a videotape with him to Vancouver (Morgan was on set for the entire shoot) to show Manners and the art department. The scene ended up much shorter and simpler than what Morgan had hoped for. The filming took place late at night at the end of a 15-hour work day.

“I actually had no time to shoot it, ” Manners said. , “It was time for us to go home. So I planted the camera in one spot; I either had it high or for another shot I had it low, and I tweaked the mirrors, I never moved the camera. We shot the whole sequence in about 45 minutes, because we had to get off the clock. I wish I could say it was a designed sequence, but in television sometimes you can design a sequence and when you get to work and you’re in your 15th hour you take your homework and throw it out the window. You’re now going to tap dance, and that was one of those sequences that was just completely winged.”

Despite the long hours, Manners said everyone enjoyed poking a bit of fun at themselves, and the stars themselves got into the spirit of things. “We all had a good time. It was good for David and Gillian to be able to do the jokes, do the yucks, and not have to be Mulder and Scully, we’re FBI, we investigate the paranormal. It was our version of MAD magazine. David loves to open up his comedic wings. In every episode, he’ll come up with a funny line. So we’ll do what’s scripted, and then we’ll do another take with his comedy lines in it, and oftentimes Chris will say, ‘Let’s use it.’ “One scene had Scully pretending to eat a cricket, and on a dare from Jim Rose, Gillian Anderson actually ate one. When it came time to film the scene she shocked Manners by volunteering to swallow more live insects, even though the producers had spent $2000 on edible honeycomb crickets. A bemused Manners laughed that Anderson was “nuts, absolutely nuts, but then she’s young enough to be nuts.”

Manners allowed the actors to play with different line readings. “I would say, ‘Let’s go a little bigger here, let’s try one a little smaller.’ And I would print two or three takes. I got in the cutting room and I looked at all of them, and even as I was cutting the picture, I was still thinking what would be the best way to go, because I was walking on thin ice.”

Certainly, “Humbug” was an enormous risk for all involved, but The X-Files has always been about taken risks, not only for the characters, who frequently put their lives on the line, but for the producers, who continually experiment with every aspect of the show. “I’m very proud of the episode,” said Chris Carter. But Morgan is characteristically ambivalent; he is “still not sure” how well “Humbug” succeeded.

Is there another humorous X-Files on the way? That’s open to question, but without a doubt, this time the risk paid off with a unique lighthearted and affecting hour of television.

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Oct
01
1995

Cinefantastique: FBI Judas

Oct-01-1995
Cinefantastique
FBI Judas
By Paula Vitaris

Nicholas Lea on playing Krycek, Mulder’s back-stabbing partner.

“Krycek, Alex Krycek.” An introduction reminiscent of James Bond, but in the nebulous world of the X-Files, the heroes and villains are not as clear-cut. In his initial appearance as Mulder’s new partner in the second season episode “Sleepless,” Special Agent Alex Krycek, played by Nicholas Lea, comes off at first like the prototypical Boy Scout, but he seems terribly anxious to worm his way into Mulder’s confidence; no wonder that by hour’s end he is revealed to be a plant of Mulder’s nemesis, the Cigarette Smoking Man.

It didn’t take long for the computer network fans to find something else to call Krycek other than “Alex.” “They’ve named me ‘Ratboy,'” chuckled Lea, who was delighted to hear that other net nicknames for Krycek are “Skippy” and “The Weasel.” He’s happy that the audience dislikes him so, because Lea likes playing a bad guy, particularly a bad guy who in his own mind may be as patriotic as, for instance, James Bond.

“I love playing those kind of characters,” Lea said. “Hopefully I’m not just a guy whos bad, but a guy’s who’s doing something for a particular reason. I don’t think anybody who does bad things really thinks they’re bad. They just think they’re doing what they should be doing. And it’s either bad guys who are doing wrong and not knowing it, or good guys doing wrong and trying to do good. Those are are interesting characters to play.”

Lea’s most prominent role before the X-Files was police officer Nicky Caruso in the Commish. Before he took up acting at age 25, the Vancouver native had a variety of careers: he served in the Canadian navy, sang in a rock band and attended art school. But he had always wanted to be an actor. He quit his job at a clothing store and enrolled in acting class. Soon he began to snag small parts in Vancouver-based television show, including an appearance on HIGHLANDER playing a “low-life alcoholic. “That was a fun show for me. Usually people in Hollywood tend to cast you because of the way you look. They put you in a little box. But this was great. I got to play an alcoholic. I love doing that kind of stuff, but I don’t always get to, because of the way I look, I guess. Playing a real loser, that’s always fun.” Eventually Lea won the recurring role of Caruso on THE COMMISH, which gave him a consistent opportunity to develop his craft. When he started out, Lea said, he was a pretty bad actor, but as roles came along he got “a little bit better and a little bit better. I guess what was a big crack for me was three years on THE COMMISH. That really gave me a lot of exposure in front of the camera, and I studies all the way through that.”

Krycek was not Lea’s first appearance on THE X-FILES. He made his debut in first season’s “Gender Bender,” in a small role as a dance club patron who is the sole survivor of the episode’s murderous gender-switching alien, and his performance stood out for its intensity. Rob Bowman, who directed “Gender Bender,” was particularly impressed with Lea’s acting in a scene where his character witnesses Marty, the alien, shifting from female to male. “During that last shot in the car when he sees that the girl has now become a guy, I thought Nick did a beautiful job walking the line in conveying a turning point in his life. He’ll never be the same again for the rest to his life, after seeing that. And I thought he found just the right level to play that.”

Bowman, who also directed “Sleepless,” suggested bringing in Lea to read for the part of Krycek. He was the only Vancouver-based actor to be asked in, and the audition process was a prolonged one. Lea had to read several times, but, Bowman observed, “Nick was the best of all. He earned the role. He beat out everybody else.”

Lea was thrilled. “It was really great. It told me I was doing the right thing after all.” Once he was cast, Lea began to give some thought to what kind of person Krycek was. As with many of the roles on THE X-FILES, there was no background in the scripts on which to build. “I felt right from the very beginning that Krycek was a guy who is really good at what he does,” Lea said. “He’s aggressive, he had a lot to prove to himself and to the people in his past. He was really just following orders, he was just trying to do his job the best he saw fit. In ‘Ascension,’ the last scene I had with the Cigarette Smiling Man, we were in the car together, and I was saying,’Listen, I don’t know if what I’m doing is right,’ and he said,’Just do it, because you do what we tell you to do.’ Kryeck is just a guy who’s maybe a little over-zealous and doing what he was told to do, following orders, doing his job.”

Lea could not pick out a favorite episode from the three he appeared in during the second season’s opening arc, although he felt his best performance cam in “Ascension.” He did single out “Duane Barry” for the fine script and the “mesmerizing” acting of guest star Steve Railsback. Although Lea’s participation in “Duane Barry” was much smaller than the other two episodes, he did have one memorably humorous scene, when guest star CCH Pounder, as FBI hostage negotiator Lucy Kazdin, tells the eager-beaver Krycek to fetch coffee. Despite being the object of ridicule, Lea was as amused as the viewers. “I don’t know if you notice, but later on in the scene, I’m serving coffee to everybody. It was funny,” he laughed.

Another moment Lea enjoyed occurred in “Ascension.” Immediately after pistol-whipping a tram operator, Lea ran his hand back over his head, making sure every hair was still in place. “That wasn’t the way it was scripted,” Lea said. “I was supposed to crack him over the head, and then as his body falls across the frame, they would cut instantly to the tram going up the track. But when I whacked him, they decided to hold on me. I’m glad they kept that, too. I love those kinds of things, the little movements, the little mannerisms that show you more of the person.”

Lea was planning to return for more of those moments, since Krycek, who had taken a powder at the end of “Ascension,” was due to show up in season finale “Anasazi.” “I couldn’t be happier about that,” he said. “I’d do that show till the sun goes down if I had my druthers. I love all the people that are involved. I worked with David [Duchovny] the most. Sometimes I have a tendency to get a little intense in my work, high energy. David’s energy, although it’s intense, is low-level, and working with him is really great because he makes you just stand there and talk, like people do. I think that’s always good for anybody’s acting, to just stand there and talk and not do anything outrageous. Less and less is called for. That’s really what it’s all about for me, doing a good job and learning.”

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Oct
01
1995

People Magazine: Online conference with Chris Carter

Oct-??-1995
People Magazine
Online conference with Chris Carter

HOST: Good evening everyone! I’m Patrizia DiLucchio, your host, and on behalf of People Magazine I’d like to welcome you all here.

“The X-Files”, now into its third season has gone from a cult hit for folks in the know to a genuine mainstream phenomenon. Not since Rod Serling has the genuinely macabre drawn such an audience. As the creator, producer and sometimes writer/director of “The X-Files”, Chris Carter deserves the lion’s share of the credit.

Welcome Chris!

Just type “hi” to reassure me that yr keyboard is working…

Chris Carter: Hi. Nice to be here.

HOST: Kool!

Chris Carter: hi

Adam: Did you ever watch or read any stuff of Boris Karloff and if so, how did they affect your style of writing?

Chris Carter: All the old horror movies are probably rattling around in my head somewhere. I haven’t be inspired directly.

Yoda: What inspired you to do the X-Files? Was it a current tv show or book?

Chris Carter: I wanted to scare the shit out of people.

Fatsucking Vampire: Will Mulder ever get even with Cancer guy’s assassin for killing his father?

Chris Carter: Stay tuned. Krycek may be coming back sooner than you think.

Alexander Cooper: Did you ever think that the x files would be such a hit ?

Chris Carter: No. But you always have to begin something with the great hope that it will work. I got very lucky.

Chris Williams: Chris, thanks for a great show. There has been much discussion on internet about the parallels in XF with classic literature. Are the similarities of Mulder’s quest with epic quests of classic heroes accidental or intended?

Chris Carter: I was originally inspired by M. Shelley’s Frankenstein, but did not use it directly. I think Mulder fits the mold of the romantic hero, though..

Andrea & Rob: Why has there been so much more gore these past two seasons than there was in the first season? It was scarier, more intense, and more compelling without it.

Chris Carter: I don’t think there has been as much gore as people are saying. We had some maggots in The List, some decomposing corpse in Bruckman. And some gooey stuff in 2Shy. Stay tuned.

Holly: Is production on the show going to be postponed when the filming for the XF movie starts?

Dave Shrader: If you were forced to choose one of your character’s lives to lead, which one would it be?

Chris Carter: I’m going to answer two questions here. First, the movie won’t happen until next year. Second, I would just like to live my own life, thank you.

HOST: Once again, a reminder– To submit a question… either select the question icon or type /question.

Karsten Hormann: Will the X-Files movie mean the end of the TV-series?

Chris Carter: No. The movie will not mean the end of the series..

Katie Of Toronto: Mr. Carter, I heard that Mulder is getting a girlfriend this season, is that true? Thanks I also wanted to say that i really admire your devotion to the show!

Chris Carter: Thank you. Mulder may be getting a girl, but not exactly a “girlfriend.” Stay tuned

Mr Noname/Red 20: What kind of demented people create each individual X-Files episode? They must be really fun to be around!

Chris Carter: We’re all weird and twisted, and one step ahead of the law.

Erin Carter: Considering last week’s episode, are you very involved in the internet?

Chris Carter: Yes. I have cybersex two or three times a day.

IRVIN LIM: To what extent is the X-files related to the government’s own x-files?

Chris Carter: The FBI says it has nothing like the X-files. I refuse to believe that.

Tony: Have you been dropping clues in any recent episodes on things that may pop up again in the future?

Chris Carter: We’re always dropping clues. Watch closely now.

Robin: X-Files has shattered a lot of television paradigms. Are you afraid of the show possibly creating–and succumbing to–it’s own new set of paradigms?

Chris Carter: Holy shit… I have no idea. We just try to keep it smart and scary.

Dmintz: will any stories go into more detail about skinner, the FBI chief?

Chris Carter: Yes. We’ll do a “Skinner” episode later this season.

HOST: Everyone–don’t be shy! Keep those questions coming please. Select the question icon or type /question.

Paul R XXY-FILESl Have you heard of the XXY-FILES parody? If so, what did you think of it?

Chris Carter: I’ve heard of it. I’ve also seen someone’s cartoon parody. I think it’s all pretty cool.

Penelope: Hi. Is it true you are trying to stop the Unofficial X-Files Companion?

Chris Carter: Hi, Penelope. No, I’m not personally. Anyway, it’s coming out.

Alexander Cooper: Have you ever been contacted by the government about the show , and if so how do they feel about it ?

Chris Carter: I’ve talked to the FBI directly. They seem to really like it. Unofficially.

Mike Topf: What prompted you to film in Vancouver, and does the rain ever get to you?

Chris Carter: Vancouver is great. It has the right light and the right look. Those were the primary reasons. Also, there’s a financial incentive. You get more for your money, so more goes on screen.

The Emperor: Hi Chris. Is there any chance that Mulder and Scully will investigate an X-File in Britain?

Chris Carter: I’d love to travel the show. I’d love to find a reason to shoot in London.

Genie: I’ve often heard you should write about what you know, do you know much about the FBI or paranormal happenings?

Chris Carter: I’ve read a fair bit, as you might imagine. Most of our stories come from sources other than those writings you mentioned, however.

Cindy Khoo: My Chinese grandmother oft told me ghostly tales of my ancestors and once swore to me that she saw a dragon’s tail descend from the sky. Would you consider doing an Asian folklore episode or any other foreign ethnic storyline?

Chris Carter: It’s in the works!.

Me.. Naber: With the departure of Sara Charno, do you have any plans to add a female writer to your staff?

Chris Carter: We have a female writer on staff. Her name is Kim Newton. she has written episode number 11 this season..

Chris Williams: You said last time here that you knew what would be in the last few episodes. Without revealing what you have in mind for the series ending, can you tell us if you’ve ever considered a purely tragic ending?

Chris Carter: Yes. I’ve considered it. Hopefully, I won’t have to consider it seriously for a few more years..

Rick Wilson: will fluke man return? on xf tv show

Chris Carter: Flukie may return, but with a new haircut and wardrobe..

Elias Li: How did you get your start in TV? How do you select the directors of your shows?

Chris Carter: I got started as a writer. And yes, I help to select the directors..

Kim: Are we ever going to meet Mulder’s sister, or is this the eternal search??

Chris Carter: Opps… sorry. That last question was how do I select directors. I select them based on their previous work. As for Mulder’s sister, he’ll keep searching, but I’m sure there will be evolution and eventually resolution.

Dave Shrader: What is your impression of Space: Above and Beyond & what @ Fox’s pushing the connection with the X-Files?

Chris Carter: Sorry, I haven’t had time to watch Space. Fox, of course, is going to use anything. It’s going to use anything it can to launch a new show, so the X-files connection was a natural, I guess.

HOST: Here’s the question we’ve all been waiting for…

Mike Kirchhoff: Are you disappointed that David Duchovny lost celebrity Jeopardy to Stephen King last night?

Chris Carter: I’m only sorry for the kids who benefit from that charity he was giving to.

Bob Edison: Is there going to be a conclusion to the season opener. I mean can we hope that cancerman gets his due?

Chris Carter: We have several “arc” shows coming. There will be developments.

Andrea & Rob: Will the movie affect the story line in television episodes that follow it?

Chris Carter: It’s too early to tell. I hope not. I hope the movie makes the series better.

Hilary: Chris, your work is terrific! What are your ambitions/hopes for X-Files over the next couple seasons?

Chris Carter: Thank you. I hope we can continue to keep the quality high, both in storytelling and production value. We work like dogs!

Annette Kirby: Will Darrin McGavin make an appearance on the show?

Chris Carter: I’ve tried to get him twice, but he wasn’t available. We’ll keep trying.

C: Does anyone from the show look at the X-Files forum on CompuServe?

Chris Carter: Yes. We pay close attention to all the on-line stuff.

JMac X-Files: How does a writer get a script to you? Do you take open submissions?

Chris Carter: Submissions through agents only. Sorry.

Scully wanabe: I have really been enjoying the humor and how loose Scully and Mulder have been lately, Do you plan to continue with that?

Chris Carter: Yes. We try and mix it up, keeping a good balance. Thanks for noticing.

BRI/NJ: I have noticed that the writers aren’t afraid to kill off a blind girls mother, or Scully’s sister or Mulder’s father. Does this type of bold writing style cause any problems within the x file writer circle

Chris Carter: Actually, we’ve killed all the writers’ families, too. So, no. It’s not a problem anymore.

HOST: They write better that way anyway…

Bob: Are you aware of any cast members logging onto internet X-File chats under false names?

Chris Carter: No. They’re all too busy!

Brenda: Have you ever seen a U.F.O. or known anyone who has? If so what impact ,if any, has it had on your stories?

Chris Carter: I’ve never seen one, though a bug flew in my salad the other day. I’ve talked to A LOT of people who’ve seen them, though.

Megen: What are your plans for the future? How long do you plan to stick with the x-Files?

Chris Carter: I’ll stick with X-files until the end. My future plans: going surfing.

Autumn Tysko: It’s been a year now since Scully’s abduction and we still know very little. How much longer are you going to terrorize us by dragging this out? We need to know! 😉

Chris Carter: Stay tuned for episodes nine and ten .

Kim Thompson: Do you say “Beep”, or “Meep”? 🙂

Chris Carter: Cheep.

Penelope: Who wrote Deep Throat’s Speech in the Blessing Way? It took me hours to trace the literary references, but it’s nice to have a show on the air that has so much meaning behind it. Keep it up 🙂

Chris Carter: I wrote it. Thank you!

Sybaris: I really like the Lone Gunmen. Will we be seeing much more of them this season?

Chris Carter: They’re coming back… with a vengeance. You’re not a friend of Frohike’s are you?!

Stacey Earley: I am really pleased with the way Scully’s character has been developed this season. Will we see any personal crises (like, crises of faith, not “girl in jeopardy” stuff) materialize for Dana this season?

Chris Carter: You’re psychic. Watch for episode eleven.

Mark Williams: Who lights your show?. I find the use of lighting particularly effective: it really added to the overall atmosphere.

Chris Carter: The fabulously talented John Bartley (not Baxter!) and his amazing crew.

Jeffrey J. Howarth: What about Kolchak and Thomas Harris novels? (as influences)

Chris Carter: Both have been influential. Yes.

Dmintz: Killing off Mulder’s father was quite an irrevocable step. Is he really, really dead?

Chris Carter: Yes. He’s dead, buried… but not forgotten. Stay tuned.

HOST: For late-comers… to submit a question… select the question icon or type /question

Diane: Whose wit is behind Mulder’s sense of humor?

Chris Carter: All the writers, and David Duchovny.

Melissa: The chemistry between Mulder and Scully is great. Will their relationship ever develop into more than just being partners and friends?

Chris Carter: They’ll find out they’re actually third cousins, four times removed.

John: Who will be joining you at the x-files convention in NYC/NJ? Will you be incorporating the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in any future episodes?’

Chris Carter: Ha!!!!! I have tentative plans for NY. Yes, Scully may ask Mulder if he’s ever read Breakfast…

Howard Ball: Hi, Chris. Love the show! Just one thing, though: it often seems that Scully is put into the position of being a “victim”, but this never seems to happen to Mulder to the same degree, and I confess it bothers me – Scully is strong! She shouldn’t be put in this position so often!

Chris Carter: They both get beat up rather equally in my mind. Even if Scully is victimized, she never behaves like a victim, which I believe is the great thing about her.

Karsten Hormann: There’s rumors that people like Whoopi Goldberg want to guest-star on the show. Do you think that guest *stars* will draw the attention away from the story?

Chris Carter: That’s a fear of mine. I don’t want to put a star on if it’s going to take us out of the story.

Susan M.: With Scully’s sister and Mulder’s father gone, do you plan to introduce any new recurring characters?

Chris Carter: There are a few ideas in the works. Stay tuned.

JeffD: Hi. Will John Neville be returning in any of the upcoming episodes?

Chris Carter: I thought John Neville was great. And the crew loved him. I’m sure he’ll be back.

LittleGreenGal: Hi!! I heard that when Scully was abducted in the show and had that micro-chip implanted in the back of her neck, Gillian Anderson was actually pregnant and that you used special effects to cover it up. Is that a fact? P.S. I congratulate you on the success of you awesome show!! Keep it up!!!!

Chris Carter: Thank you. Yes, Gillian was preggy for first half of year two. We just shot around it, no special effects.

cool-one: With the growing popularity of the show, are you planning more involved FX (slime/gore) or do you prefer to leave these to the imagination?

Chris Carter: We do what we can afford and have time to do. It’s about as simple as that.

Me.. Naber: With Mulder getting a girl, will we be seeing Scully having more of a personal life or a date?

Chris Carter: Scully will join a nunnery when she learns that Mulder has strayed.

(Andy): I really loved the last season premier. My mom saw that and she really liked it. But after that came all of the gory stuff. As a result my mom says that now I am not allowed to watch The-x Files. If you could, please make another episode or series like the last season premier.

Chris Carter: Watch the next episodes. They’re not as “gory” though they are scary. Eps nine and ten are much more like one and two.

Host: Tell Mom that Chris gave you permission….

Chris Williams: Chris, TEN THIRTEEN is a perfect anagram (i.e., letters scrambled) for THE INTERNET. We know that’s your birthday, but was the anagram intended or is this an X-File :-)?

Chris Carter: Purely coincidence! I love it.

Host: Chris, your fingers… how are they holding up? How many more answers can you type?

Chris Carter: I’m good to go, babe.

Dave Shrader: With the near-death experiences of Mulder & Scully over the past year, did you feel forced to kill off Scully’s sister to maintain credibility?

Chris Carter: I just thought it worked dramatically. Also, Melinda was going away She got her own sitcom, so it was our last chance.

OVman: How was Gillian Anderson chosen to play Scully and does she have a sister who is also an actress.

Chris Carter: Gillian Anderson IS Dana Scully. She has a sister, but she’s younger, not an actress as far as I know.

Ruth Sumuel: Is there a particular episode that stands out as your favorite?

Chris Carter: Several. Beyond the Sea, Ice, E-Flask, D. Barry, this season I like.

Mary Paster: Rumors about a girlfriend for Agent Mulder have a lot of fans worried that this will ruin the “sexual tension” between him and Agent Scully — can you tell us anything about it to calm our fears?

Chris Carter: Is that Mary Paster, Donnie’s sister? About Mulder’s girlfriend… don’t worry, I won’t let anything “ruin” Mulder and Scully.

Kathy Summers: I enjoyed the episode around the “face” on Mars. Do things in the NASA press releases, astronomical events such as the eagle nebula photo or upcoming Galileo encounter with Jupiter ever trigger episode ideas?

Chris Carter: Ummm… that is actually one of our most unloved episodes. Astro stuff figures into an upcoming episode.

Cm: How did M & S get out of the cave on the season opener. It seemed like a fortress going in but more like leaving a movie theater going out.

Chris Carter: They snuck out the back door! The secret “alien” entrance.

Scully wanabe: Do you know what the Storyline is for the movie yet? And is everybody on the s how going to be in it. I hope it has something to do with Samantha

Chris Carter: It’s all hush hush. David and Gillian will be in it.

Eowyn /question: Do you have a story arc about Samantha or are you making it up as a good idea comes along. Is Scully going to turn out to be his sister? Are you going to do a Twin Peaks cross over?

Chris Carter: The Samantha thing is vague in my mind. Scully is NOT Mulder’s sister. What kind of Twin Peaks Crossover?

Fox Mulder: Is it possible to obtain a script of one of the shows???

Chris Carter: They’re all over the black market. Next.

Dawn M. Swingle: There was talk last year about a crossover story with Picket Fences, that eventually fell through. I think it’s a neat idea–any chance of a crossover with another show?

Chris Carter: Not in the near future. Sorry.

C: How has David Duchovny been handling all the attention he’s getting from the ladies? Does he have inflated ego syndrome?

Chris Carter: No. David is David. He’s a very smart, very hard working person who guards his privacy.

Carl Villasenor: What is your favorite surfing spot? What kind of board do you have?

Chris Carter: favorite spots are in Santa Barbara.

Host: This is the last question…

Mulder: Do you really believe that there are such elaborate conspiracies in the US government as you have portrayed in X-Files?

Chris Carter: I think there are things going on out there that we’ll never know and might not believe. I wake up every morning and read the paper. I’m never disappointed.

Host: At this point, Chris and everyone… I think I’m going to open the conference up. There are about 150 of you here right now! So don’t all type at once. The transcript of this conference will be available in the PEOPLE Forum early next week. GO PEOFOR Thanks Chris. I think you set the record for the number of questions answered in a single hour! Seventy-four…

Chris Carter: Thank you, Thanks.

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Aug
12
1995

Sci-Fi on the Net: Interview with Chris Carter

Aug-12-1995
Sci-Fi on the Net
Interview with Chris Carter

INTERVIEWER: Richard Van Syckle, segment producer, c|net television

PARTICIPANT: Chris Carter, creator, executive producer, “The X- Files”

VAN SYCKLE: To start with, you’ve said that winning the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Series, you were so stunned that it was sort of an “X-Files” experience in itself. Now that you’ve learned that, has the shock worn off or are you still surprised by success?

CARTER: I’m surprised by every day. It’s almost like I haven’t really lifted my head up. I’m still running so hard and just trying to do good work that all the good things and the awards and now the nominations haven’t really landed on me yet. But I think that’s a good thing. Also, it says a lot about my main motivation, which is my fear of failure. But I just try to do the best shot I possibly can, and the good things have come as a result. I don’t look at them as the carrot, I look at them as sort of things that have–the path to all the hard work.

VAN SYCKLE: In terms of this success, filling out into mediums you might not have even envisioned before, such as online, what has that been like with this whole new other world of online fans?

CARTER: It’s funny. “The X-Files,” it was perfect timing but it was a fluke, really. Here’s this huge, growing thing in America and around the world, which is these computer online services, the growth of these and the Internet. And “The X-Files” just happened to come along and come of age with those things. So, it seems like the perfect show at the perfect time with the perfect medium, which is this online service. Also, our audience is a very computer-literate audience mostly, I’m imagining. So, it’s a natural that we would be, I think, really the first show to have such a great following. I’ve used it as a tool; they use it as a tool. It’s a great way to interact immediately with your audience, hear what they’re thinking, and to tell them what you’re thinking.

VAN SYCKLE: I read an interview with Rob Bowman, that he said, “We wish we had time to put everything into the show that the online fans read into it.” Tell me about that.

CARTER: Well, yeah, it’s funny. It’s like literary criticism. A lot of times I’m sure the writers had no idea that they would have their material parsed and picked over so tediously. Sometimes there are things there that maybe you put in unconsciously; sometimes there are things you put there very consciously. I put in a few–actually, the season finale–that no one ever picked up. So, as much as they see things that aren’t there, they don’t see things that are there, either. So it’s an interesting thing for me.

VAN SYCKLE: How does that dynamic work in terms of the two-way communication, the interactivity? And do you feel like you have help out there creating this “X-Files” mythology, in terms of the fans?

CARTER: Not really. I mean, I have a very strong idea as to the other writers about how the show should progress and evolve, and so I listen out there to what people are saying. I look at their reactions to things. But I’m ahead of them, because I know far in advance where the show is going and they don’t. They can only react to what we show them. I listen to what their criticisms are–what they like, what they don’t like–and I take those things all to heart and I incorporate them. But there are no ideas that I’ve taken off the Internet, no direction I’ve taken off the Internet, although there’s plenty of help I could have gotten from the fans online about how to take the season finale–which was a cliff hanger–how to finish it, how to follow up, how to end that story. There was no end of speculation on how I might do it and how I should do it.

VAN SYCKLE: Do you think that having characters, like the Lone Gunmen, who use the Internet, who are very literate–lots of references to hackers in “The X-Files”–do you think that it’s fun for the fans to see themselves or see people they’d like to be?

CARTER: Yeah. I think that those are sort of caricatures of the hard core fans. I think that most of the people that I meet, particularly at the conventions, aren’t quite that extreme. The Lone Gunmen–actually, they were created by two writers on the show who have now since left, Glen Morgan and James Wong. I think that they were inspired by the UFO conventions that we all went to and some of these other functions where you see a lot of very extreme characters selling extreme pamphlets and literature. There’s just a lot of paranoia out there and I think the Lone Gunmen became the representatives of that kind of person.

VAN SYCKLE: I know you’ve probably just been besieged by UFO fanatics and there definitely is a fringe which runs in that site, but I’m thinking of the poster in Mulder’s office that says, “I want to believe.” It doesn’t say “I do believe” or “I don’t believe” but “I want to.” Do you think that that sort of represents something that you’ve tapped into in this show out there, that there are people who want to believe?

CARTER: Well, I created that poster for the pilot and really it sort of represents my personal–I don’t know if you can call it a philosophy–my personal bias, bent. I describe myself as a nonreligious person looking for a religious experience. I want an experience, I want to find something to believe in, I want something to occur to me, I want to see something out in the desert some night that I can’t explain. I’m desperate for that experience and so is Agent Mulder. He wants to know the truth; he wants to be able to believe in these things that are rather unbelievable. So, on the flip side of that is Agent Scully, who is the skeptic, the person who refuses to believe in anything that cannot be proven scientifically, the two different sides of my character, which make a nice sort of dichotomy for the show.

VAN SYCKLE: I’ve heard some interviews in which Gillian and David talk about their own personal characters, as opposed to who they play, and it’s interesting, especially with Mitch Pileggi, who has had what you would describe as a paranormal experience. Gillian is sort of more on the believer side, and the roles reverse. Tell me about them bringing their own personalities and their own beliefs into their characters.

CARTER: None of them really bring their own beliefs into the characters, I don’t think. I think that they play the characters that are written for them and they play them very well. And they know those characters very well, so they’re able to, as actors, perform. They don’t have to bring their own belief systems. Actually, it’s very interesting to play something different than yourself. I know it’s interesting for David and for Gillian, Gillian being the believer playing the skeptic and David being the nonbeliever, basically, playing a person who is willing to take these giant leaps of faith. So, I think that it’s a testament to them as actors that they are able to sort of pull it off. But you’re right, the people and the actors are much, much different.

VAN SYCKLE: There’s a show right now on the Sci-Fi Channel that they’re rerunning, the old “Prisoner” series. And they’re doing that with the interactive chat, where they’re having people log on and it’s sort of like a collective Mystery Science Theater 3000 that you participate in. Do you think this sort of blend between computer technology and real time and science fiction and television, does that interest you at all? Is that going anywhere in a direction that you might be interested in, or what do you think about that?

CARTER: You know, not really, because it really verges on too science fiction-y for me. It’s really not what we do. I think we’re kind of a cross-genre show. You really can’t peg us. Even though I actually like that show and I remember liking it when it was on, it’s not something that inspires me or I think is something that I would ever get into. I was never a science fiction fan. I spoke to a group of people the other night, a Mensa group, and they were very upset that I’d never seen an episode of “Star Trek.” They actually hissed me, you know, sort of in jest. But I’m just not a science fiction fan. It’s never interested me. I’m really interested in personal experiences that could affect me in this place and time. I think that’s what makes “The X-Files” so scary–it seems very, very real.

VAN SYCKLE: Last question, I’ve gone through [the Internet], I’ve seen the David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade, “X-Files” on Ice, “X-Files” Christmas Carols. I think I pay too much attention to this, but do you have a favorite site out there? Do you check into any of these things ever?

CARTER: You know, I don’t. I have my basic DelPhi site because of the “X-Files” connection to DelPhi, but I’m all over the place. I have to say I’m actually one of these online illiterates. I sort of stumble around, fumble around, and find my way into different things. I have no favorite spot; I’m just all over the map. Actually, it’s funny, for as much popularity as there is for the online services and for this kind of communication now, it’s funny to me that it’s actually a step backwards in technology. It feels to me more like we’ve gone back to the telegraph but in a kind of high-tech way. I’m very interested to see how the technology develops and how I can use it more creatively. I’m interested in this real-time video that I hear is going to be happening. All this stuff sounds very interesting to me as it progresses. But right now, I think it almost seems gimmicky to me, in a way. I’m using it because it’s a tremendous communication tool, but I’m very anxious to see how we leap into the future.

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Aug
01
1995

In Camera: John Bartley shoots The X-Files on the edge of darkness

Aug-??-1995
In Camera
John Bartley shoots The X-Files on the edge of darkness

[typed by Pam]

A lot of light can be needed to achieve darkness

In one episode of The X-Files, a character’s shadow vaporises anyone it touches. Another character begins smoking when sunlight reaches into his jail cell. No one has to utter the word, the audience already knows it: vampire.

That’s typical of how Director of Photography John Bartley CSC, talks to the audience with light and shadows. In many episodes, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully probe the darkness with xenon flashlights. Somehow the brilliant splashes of light knifing through the blackness add to the aura of suspense.

Mulder and Scully specialise in investigating the paranormal for the FBI. Bartley, who earned a 1994 nomination for Outstanding Artistic Achievement from the American Society of Cinematographers and a 1994 Emmy nomination, says THE X-FILES uses darkness as a character.

Interestingly enough, he may use plenty of lights to achieve all that darkness. His package includes HMIs, Dedolights, KinoFlos, MiniFlos, a wide variety of practicals and, of course, those famous xenon flashlights. The key is using light as a counterpoint to the darkness, emphasising what the audience can’t see (as opposed to most TV dramas, that concern themselves mostly with what can be seen).

“We actually blend light and dark,” he says. “Some things the audience can see, and other things they’re not sure if they saw them or not. It adds to the aura of mystery.”

To accentuate the foreground shadows, Bartley may add beams of coloured backlight and sidelight. They often pick up slowly — moving steam, adding to the eerie ambience.

Darkness definitely has its advantages. Like the time the crew had to shoot a scene of a submarine in the arctic circle — in the Vancouver, British Columbia studio that the show most often calls home. The crew blacked out the whole stage and positioned 6K HMIs on hydraulic lifts. As the camera changed positions, Bartley used a different light, always hidden by the submarine set. Most of what viewers could see was steam and silhouettes. That created the mood Bartley was after. Equally important, it hid the fact that the scene was fabricated on a soundstage.

“There was never more than a single light, and it was always hidden. The snow would bounce the light around,” Bartley explains. “But the periphery was always dark.”

That episode also introduced the xenon flashlights. In the corridor of the submarine, the camera picks up Mulder and Scully searching the vessel, illuminated only by the bounce from two visible shafts of light (the flashlights). The gaffers used Rosco pebble bounce to kick just enough light back into the characters to define them and leave a catch-light in their eyes.

Bartley routinely uses candles and other low-intensity practicals. They’re often the only sources serving the main characters in a scene. He consistently shoots on the edge of darkness, and relies on telecine operators, at Gastown Post and Transfer, in Vancouver, to maintain the visual integrity of the images he creates.

“I don’t use much fill,” Bartley says. “I started that on a series called Booker [Stephen J. Cannell’s 21 Jump Street spinoff/Richard Grieco vehicle]. With today’s EXR films I’ve been five stops underexposed, and have still recorded details in the highlights and shadow areas. I like to use the full latitude of the stock.

“Things have evolved over the past two years. It has become a challenge to take things dark, but not so they’re as dark as possible, because that doesn’t work on TV.”

Sometimes an editor will tell Bartley he can’t see what’s going on in a scene on the AVID monitor. But when Bartley checks the digital videotape, he finds enough detail to use the scene.

He lights interiors and night exteriors to a stop of T2.8. That produces plenty of challenges for Focus-Puller Marty McAnally, Bartley says, since the show uses some long lenses for tight closeups — anything from an 85 on the main camera to a 200 on the B camera — and to compress the foreground and background.

As for latitude, he exploits it at both ends, highlights and shadows alike. Case in point: scenes shot with apparent sunlight in the office of Assistant Director Skinner (Mulder’s boss). “Overall, it’s a dark show, but in Skinner’s office for a daytime interior, we have 2 x 20Ks coming in through the window, and the light on Skinner’s white shirt is something like a T-45, but we still shoot at T2.8 to capture the best flesh tones,” Bartley says.

“I love blowing out the highlights occasionally,” he continues. “We push the ratios to the limit, and push the film scanner. You really can’t bring a scene back when it’s that far overexposed, but somehow it holds well enough to work. It’s fun to see how far you can go.”

In addition to unusual lighting, he explores unusual visual perspectives to draw the audience into the story. In one episode he brings viewers into intimate contact with a character by zooming in on an ultra-tight shot of an eyeball. “We had a diopter on a zoom lens, and were wide open at T-3,” Bartley says. He was shooting with the 500-speed 5298 film.

In other episodes he chooses a wide-angle lens for closeups. “I’ve used 10mm and 14mm lenses, and the other day we used an 8.5mm lens,” Bartley says. “Shooting a very tight shot with an ultra-wide lens can open up the scene and give you a lot of visual impact.”

Shooting in Vancouver is a mixed blessing, Bartley says, but it is mostly a blessing. The city’s various neighbourhoods can substitute for a wide, wide variety of locales. “The storylines have taken the characters all over the US, to Puerto Rico and even up into the Arctic Circle,” Bartley explains. “But it’s really all shot right here. Vancouver can look like any city in North America.” The city is so far north that in the winter the sun never gets very high; that works for the crew, since the noon sun isn’t beating down on them from directly overhead, and Bartley can shoot throughout the day.

The downside is rain and snow. It’s omnipresent. But even that can work for a show like THE X-FILES. “We’ve been lucky with the weather. We’ve been in the forest during the rain, and we used it: we backlighted and used a lot of steam, and had lights panning across the frame as search lights,” Bartley says, explaining a scene that revolves around an alleged alien landing. The effect was chaotic, eerie and discomforting: vintage X-FILES.

The show is shot on 35mm film for a couple of reasons. Fox wanted to shoot the show in Super 35 format, providing a wide frame for future HDTV syndication. Using a large negative also gives Bartley the freedom to work with low-key lighting and maintain the richness of the show’s high-impact images.

“If we were shooting in a smaller format, we’d need a lot more light to keep grain from building up. That means we’d have to give up our minimalist approach to low-key lighting. We’ve done many scenes with just practicals. That’s living on the edge.”

And life on the edge is good. The X-Files first became a cult favourite, complete with fan clubs and discussion groups on the Internet. In its second season, Fox ordered 25 episodes (instead of the usual 22), and ratings continued to improve, up more than 40 per cent. It’s now the top-rated Friday night show among adults 18-49 in the US, and is seen in 60 countries. In describing the lighting for the jail scene in the vampire episode, Bartley may have touched on the reason. The scene employs a surreal colour palette. Through the first season, Bartley used colour sparingly; the show didn’t seem to lend itself to colour. But in the second year, he’s been more adventurous. He employed harder light than usual, along with super-blue fluorescent tubes for the jail cell scene.

“These tubes are so blue, you can’t even read them on a colour meter,” Bartley says. “Then I added just a little tungsten on their faces, and a very hard top light overhead. It doesn’t have to be a conventional sort of place. It doesn’t have to look real, or match anything. That makes things more interesting. I think it’s what makes The X-Files different.”

[Note: the film number 5298 mentioned in the text refers to Eastman EXR 500T film 5298.]

Data

John Bartley, a native of Wellington, New Zealand, apprenticed in his homeland as a prop electrician in the theatre. He later moved to Australia to work at a television station and began lighting sets. When the wanderlust took him halfway around the world to Toronto, Canada, Bartley joined a production company as a gaffer. He freelanced for several years, working with, and studying under, cinematographers such as Sven Nykvist ASC, Bob Stevens ASC, Frank Tidy, Hiro Narita and Tak Fujimoto.

In 1988, he became a Director of Photography, shooting music videos on weekends and trailers for feature projects. “I was working every weekend,” he recalls. “It was really good to get out and shoot; I was gaffing during the week and shooting over the weekends.”

He made a living for a time shooting commercials of snowmobiles and snowblowers, then lucked into a low-budget feature that had lost its cameraman during pre-production. Eventually he moved into television, with such shows as Wiseguy, Booker, The Commish and now The X-Files.

He had completed two seasons as Director of Photography on The Commish when he met Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, and Charlie Goldstein from the Fox network. “Charlie used to be an editor,” says Bartley. “He understands what you need to keep a production looking its best.”

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