Blood and Chrome

Blood & Chrome
Created by	David Eick and Michael Taylor
Starring
Theme music by	Bear McCreary
Statistics
Production company	NBC Universal
Number of seasons	1
Number of episodes	1 episode consisting of 10 installments (list)
Debut channel	Machinima Prime
US first-run airdates	November 9 through December 7, 2012
UK first-run airdates
DVD release
Production staff
Executive producer(s)	David Eick Michael Taylor
Producer(s)
Supervising producer(s)
Associate producer(s)
Co-producer(s)
Story editor(s)
Online Purchasing
Available at iTunes – [ Purchase]
Related Media
			@ BW Media

Blood and Chrome (also known as Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome) is a webisode series that follows the exploits of a young William "Husker" Adama (Luke Pasqualino), Coker Fasjovik (Ben Cotton), and Dr. Beka Kelly (Lili Bordán) during the First Cylon War.

Blood and Chrome is a sequel to Caprica and a prequel to the Re-imagined Series. On the condition that it performed to expectations, it would act as a "backdoor pilot" (much like the Miniseries) for a future series, to be aired either online or through the traditional television route.

The produced story is split into ten parts, each between seven to twelve minutes in length, debuting on Machinima's YouTube channel, Machinima Prime, starting Friday, November 9, 2012. Additional parts will be aired over the following four weeks.

Unlike previous installments in the Re-imagined Series universe, Ron D. Moore was not involved in this production due to his development contract with Sony Pictures. However, many of the creative personnel who worked on Blood and Chrome have worked on both the Re-imagined Series and its prequel Caprica, including Michael Taylor, Doug Drexler, Glenne Campbell, David Eick, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, and Jonas Pate.

Production History

Blood and Chrome was officially announced on 27 July 2010 by Syfy Channel executive vice president of programming Mark Stern as a 10-part webseries using "cutting-edge digital technology and special effects to depict the Cylon War" and following a young William Adama. The plan called for the production of a two-hour pilot written by Battlestar Galactica and Caprica vet Michael Taylor directed by then co-executive producer of Caprica Jonas Pate for release online as a 10-part webseries. It was also revealed that the series would be shot on green screen and utilize computer-generated virtual sets.

In October 2010 it was announced that Blood and Chrome would be upgraded from webseries to "full-blown pilot for a series" based on positive reception of Michael Taylor's script. The announcement prompted speculation that Blood and Chrome was intended to replace ratings troubled Caprica which was currently airing on SyFy. In an interview with Maureen Ryan at Huffpost TV Mark Stern denied this saying, "if anything, Blood & Chrome going to series would only be a great opportunity to pair it with Caprica." Caprica was canceled by SyFy four days later on 27 October 2010.

On 25 October 2010, LA Times Hero Complex published an interview with co-creator and producer David Eick discussing Blood and Chrome and its new characters, particularly Beka Kelly. In the interview, Eick also elaborated on the series' placement relative to Caprica and joked about Ronald D. Moore's lack of involvement in the show's creation.

In a 11 November 2011 radio interview, actor Nico Cortez - who had previously played William Adama in the Razor Flashbacks, also written by Michael Taylor - expressed interest in reprising the role in Blood and Chrome.

On 20 December 2010, concept artwork appeared on SyFy's website blastr depicting the Wild Weasel Raptor, an apparent Cylon-human hybrid, a snowy battle scene, and a possible design for a new Cylon Centurion. The artwork also included a glimpse of a Cylon snake called a "Cython".

By 26 January 2011 the casting of Luke Pasqualino as Ensign William Adama and Ben Cotton as ECO Coker Fasjovik was announced. The following month on 10 February 2011, it was reported that Lili Bordán had been cast as Beka Kelly, revealed to be "a Ph.D. who worked for Graystone Industries." Other casting additions included Caprica stars Brian Markinson, Zak Santiago, Carmen Moore, and John Pyper-Ferguson as characters unrelated to their previous roles.

On 2 February 2011, Mark Stern published a photo of a production meeting for Blood and Chrome showing David Eick and many other crew members on the set of SyFy's Eureka. As of 10 February 2011, production had begun on the pilot on green screen stages in Vancouver, British Columbia. On 13 February 2011, several photos appeared on Carmen Moore's Twitter feed showing the actress with castmates Karen LeBlanc and Adrian Holmes in costume. The photos were subsequently removed.

In a 21 July 2011 interview, Lili Bordán suggested that Blood and Chrome could be presented in 3-D

In August 2011, Mark Stern revealed at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con that Blood and Chrome was still a work in progress, with many VFX shots still incomplete and a release date yet to be determined. Stern also stated that while executives had seen a rough-cut of the pilot, SyFy was still weighing whether to release the series on television or online.

On 12 November 2011, Doug Drexler reported that all VFX work on Blood and Chrome had been completed. A month later, Drexler indicated that a decision regarding the fate of the series would be made around February 2012.

On 21 March 2012, an unofficial teaser trailer for Blood and Chrome began appearing on YouTube, however NBCUniversal quickly ordered its removal. At that time, several sources revealed that the project would not be moving forward as a TV series on SyFy, but could still be viable as a webseries. It was also stated that the pilot episode could air on SyFy as a standalone television movie

While promoting her work on the animated series TRON: Uprising, Number Six actress Tricia Helfer hinted at her involvement in Blood and Chrome, saying "I can't really say without giving away a little surprise, possibly, except to say maybe [there's] a little something I had to do with it." She also expressed her excitement at having seen the leaked teaser.

Bear McCreary announced on 18 February 2012 that he had recently finished scoring the two-hour Blood and Chrome pilot.

On 5 November 2012, an Entertainment Weekly exclusive revealed SyFy's plans for Blood and Chrome, detailing the pilot episode's division into ten shorter episodes to be aired on Machinima's YouTube channel, Machinima Prime, beginning Friday, November 9, 2012. The additional seven to twelve minute episodes would be released in the following four weeks, with the complete pilot episode airing on SyFy in January of 2012. On 7 November 2012, Machinima Prime released a clip from Blood and Chrome featuring a short scene from the episode. An unrated, uncut Blu-ray and DVD version of the pilot episode was announced on 8 November 2012, with a 19 February 2013 release date. As announced, the Blu-ray and DVD will include deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes documentary, “Blood & Chrome: Visual Effects”. The announcement coincided with the release of another teaser trailer featuring additional footage from Blood and Chrome.

On 9 November 2012, CGSociety published an an interview with VFX supervisor Gary Hutzel detailing the creation of Blood and Chrome and its 1,800 CGI shots. The article stated that Blood and Chrome carried a budget of $2 million.

Producer David Eick described the "unfortunate rap" Blood and Chrome had received from the long and confused post-production phase in an interview with the LA Times the day parts I & II premiered: "What became public perception was that we were doing a pilot for Syfy channel. Then when Syfy ultimately decided that it was so cool and so tailor-made for exactly the kind of experiment that we initially planned, that came off as ‘Oh, Syfy made a Battlestar pilot but they’re punting it and not gonna air it.’ And that’s just not how it came down at all — it just went right back to the original plan.”

Plot

A dorsal view of Galactica as she appeared in the First Cylon War and Blood and Chrome. Note the large array of gun turrets, armour plating and decal on the ship compared to the re-imagined series.

According to co-creator and executive producer Michael Taylor, Blood and Chrome is "about a young man's [William Adama] initiation into war: both the realities of war as fought by soldiers on the ground (and in Battlestars and Vipers), and the somewhat less real version portrayed in the media."

Further, Taylor pointed out that the scope of the series "isn't confined to Galactica. Far from it. It's a story that will take us to new corners of the Battlestar world (or worlds), and yet it aims to be a very contemporary war movie in a lot of ways. I would say I'm thinking as much of Afghanistan and Iraq--the reality of [The] Hurt Locker, Sebastian Junger's Restrepo, and similar movies--as I am about about the largely implied past of Battlestar."]

Blood and Chrome was also meant to feature adult situations as, according to Taylor, the series will not "[shy] away from R-rated blood and guts and sex" due to it being initially meant for online consumption. As was the case with The Plan, an unrated, uncut version of Blood and Chrome will appear on Blu-ray and DVD while the webseries and television movie versions will be edited for time and content.

Cast

• Luke Pasqualino as pilot William "Husker" Adama
• Ben Cotton as Raptor ECO Coker Fasjovik
• Mike Dopud as Viper pilot Captain Deke "Minute Man" Tornvald
• Brian Markinson as Commander Silas Nash
• Allison Warnyca as pilot Jaycie McGavin
• Lili Bordán as computer scientist Dr. Beka Kelly
• Zak Santiago as pilot Armin "High Top" Diaz
• Carmen Moore as Raptor pilot/ECO Nina Leotie
• Karen LeBlanc as Raptor pilot Jenna
• Adrian Holmes as pilot Decklan Elias
• Ty Olsson as Unknown role
• John Pyper-Ferguson as Xander Toth
• Sebastian Spence as Unknown role
• Leo Li Chiang as Osiris Marine Sergeant
• Tom Stevens as Marine Baris
• Jordan Weller as Seamus Fahey
• Jill Teed as Commander Ozar

Crew

• Written by Michael Taylor
• Story by David Eick, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle
• Directed by Jonas Pate

crew member handling electronic countermeasures of a craft; ECOs are standard crew aboard Raptors (see: ECO)