The Production GuideScript To Screen: Force Of Life
by Martin Willey
The Production GuideAfter filming on the Nuclear Generating Area set on Friday 7th June, the cast and crew broke for 3 weeks of summer holidays. The Landaus went for a European family holiday, travelling to Amsterdam, followed by Knokke and Bruges in Belgium, then Paris, before going to Biarritz in south-eastern France.
On Monday 1st July they returned to the same set, to continue with Force Of Life. The original plan was to complete filming on the set on Monday. On Tuesday 2nd July Ray Austin would direct scenes for Alpha Child on the set, before David Tomblin resumed shooting Force Of Life scenes in Main Mission. But instead on Tuesday they had to complete the shots of the burnt Zoref opening the nuclear furnace. The Alpha Child shots were pushed back to the afternoon of Friday 5th.
The first scene of Tuesday 2nd July 1974 completes the shots of Zoref opening the nuclear furnace door and walking into the bright light.
Ian McShane in full make-up, with his "smoking costume". The "FP eye pieces" described in the SFX requirements are pieces of reflective front projection material, which appear luminescent on camera.
The combination lock is the buttons, lights and tubes alongside the door.
At 10am, the crew moved to L Stage, next door, to work on 3 scenes in Koenig's office with Landau, Bain and Morse.
Scene 20 is between Landau and Morse, with Bain appearing on the communications post (a live TV link with Bain being filming just off-set).
In scene 31, Bergman shows his "radiographic plate" of the energy source, and a second showing the time of Dominix's death. "This alien force is here, right now, somewhere on Alpha." A chronologically earlier scene with Koenig and Bergman examining the first of these plates would be filmed two days later, on Thursday 4th July.
In scene 40, Helena finishes a call to Koenig on his desk screen. They then go into Main Mission to ask Kano to check Zoref's records. The Main Mission portion of the scene moves them into the new set with the rest of the cast. This was scheduled for 11:30am.
The "practical readout" and "large printout sheet" that are required for scene 40 will come out of Kano's desk.
They now filmed the very first scenes of the episode. In scene 2, Bergman and Koenig are looking out the balcony windows. In scene 5, they come down to floor level, and Koenig tells Paul to assemble section heads. In scene 9, everyone freezes, and stay frozen until scene 16. They only got as far as scene 5, and it had to be finished on Wednesday 3rd July, before the frozen shots.
| GROUP THREE PRODUCTIONS LIMITED. | "SPACE 1999" TV SERIES. "FORCE OF LIFE" - EPISODE 9. |
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| CALL SHEET NO: 11 |
| DIRECTOR: | DAVID TOMBLIN | STAGES: | 'M' and 'L' |
| DATE: | TUESDAY, 2ND. JULY, 1974 | UNIT CALL: | 8.30.AM. |
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| ARTISTE | CHARACTER | D/R | MAKE-UP CALL | SET CALL | |
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| (1) INT. NUCLEAR GENERATING AREA. SC.NOS: 86 to comp. 'M' STAGE | |||||
| IAN McSHANE | ZOREF | 325 | 7.30 | 8.30 | |
| STAND-IN: | |||||
| BILL RISLEY FOR MR.McSHANE | - | 8.00 | 8.30 | ||
| PROPS: | Commlock. | ||||
| MAKE-UP/WARDROBE: | Burnt fx on Zoref. | ||||
| SFX: | Smoking costume fx on Zoref. FP eye pieces. Combination lock fx. |
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| FIRE DEPT: | Smoke alarms to be removed on 'M' stage. | ||||
| ELECTRICAL: | Exploding light fx on Sc.86. | ||||
| CAMERA: | 9.8 lens required. | ||||
| MEDICAL: | Nurse to S/BY from 8.30.AM. | ||||
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INT. KOENIG'S OFFICE,MAIN MISSION. SC.20.31.40. 'L' STAGE SCS.2.5.9.11.15.16pt. |
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| MARTIN LANDAU | KOENIG | 321 | 9.00 | 10.00 | |
| BARBARA BAIN | HELENA | 322 | 8.30 | 10.00 | |
| BARRY MORSE | BERGMAN | 324 | 9.30 | 10.00 | |
| PRENTIS HANCOCK | MORROW | 335 | 10.30 | 11.30 | |
| ZIENIA MERTON | SANDRA | 328 | 10.30 | 11.30 | |
| NICK TATE | CARTER | 326 | 10.30 | 11.30 | |
| CLIFTON JONES | KANO | 327 | 11.00 | 11.30 | |
| SUZANNA ROQUETTE | TANYA | 336 | 10.00 | 11.30 | |
| JUNE BOLTON | OPERATIVE 1 | 336 | 10.00 | 11.30 | |
| SARAH BULLEN | OPERATIVE 2 | 336 | 10.00 | 11.30 | |
| RATMOND HARRIS | OPERATIVE 3 | - | 10.30 | 11.30 | |
| LOFTUS BURTON | OPERATIVE 4 | - | 10.30 | 11.30 | |
| ANDY DEMPSEY | OPERATIVE 5 | - | 10.30 | 11.30 | |
| STAND-INS: | |||||
| ALAN MEACHAM FOR MR.LANDAU | - | 8.30 | 9.00 | ||
| SUZANNE HEIMER FOR MISS BAIN | - | 8.30 | 9.00 | ||
| RON WATKINS FOR MR.MORSE | - | 8.30 | 9.00 | ||
| PROPS: | Commlocks. wrist monitors. large printout sheet (Sc.40). Radiographic plates. |
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| CAMERA: | Fish eye lens. 9.8 and S 35 required. | ||||
| ELECTRICAL: | Practical readout for Sc.40. Blue light for Sc.2. (fx) |
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| ELECTRONIC: | Sc.20: compost: Moonbase panning to Helena TV link. Sc.31: compost: Moonbase panning. Sc.40: compost: Moonbase panning. Desk monitor: Helena TV link. Monitors ABCD as Sc.15. Scs.2.5.9.11 (a) Radar (b) Tech trace(c) Moonbase. (d) Eagle on pad. Sc.15 (a) Noise (bed) as (2). |
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| CATERING: | AM break to be advised. PM break'L' Stage for 80. | ||||
| RUSHES: | Theatre 7 at 5.30.pm | ||||
| TRANSPORT: | (1) Ray Atkin to collect Miss Bain at 7.45.am (2) Unit car to collect Martin Landau at 8.15.am. (3) Unit car to collect Mr.Morse at 8.45.am. |
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KEN BAKER,
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR.