TCM April 2010

TCM: What can you tell us about Aurora since we last spoke?

TV: When we last spoke, we were still mostly establishing Aurora’s characters, particularly Kara, both her past and present, and starting the dominoes to fall towards where she ends up at the end of Part 3. The trick, from a writing standpoint, was to try to balance the events that both build the characters and advance the current plot. I have a rule about writing that every scene should do two things at once—advance the plot, and let the viewer know more about the characters or your setting.

TCM: You have released better versions of the first three parts, what changes did you make and why?

TV: The biggest change, since the last released versions of Parts 1-3, is the added music, composed by a musician named John Catney, who I think did a wonderful job of capturing Aurora’s vibe by treading the line between modern and traditional music--it has a clean spare sound, but is also beautiful and haunting in some places, light and airy in others. This quality in his music I feel really enhances the scenes where it appears, and lends Aurora the kind of finish and polish that I think people expect in a complete dramatic production.

I also made a few small tweaks here and there—tightening a shot, adding the frosty breaths in the cargo bay in Part 2, etc., though for anyone who hasn’t seen the earlier parts since their first iteration—particularly Part 1—they will note much bigger changes, so I recommend giving them another look, since, with the music and the latest tweaks, I feel that Parts 1-3 are in their final form. (Probably!)