RDA Tech-TV interview

Originally posted by spookypumpkin
yeh, that kinda thing, and there was a break in the middle! he probably made someone laugh or went completely off topic!
Click to expand...
Actually, after catching Martin on the ScreenSavers yesterday I do understand why the ending of the interview was so funny. The idea that Martin was being a calm and respoinsible intrerviewer is quite funny.
 
transcript please

Oh yes, if you could post a transcript I'd love it. My home computer is so slow it sucks to watch anything on it. Maybe post a new thread so we can find it too. Thanks!!! SS
 
Transcript

Martin: Richard Dean Anderson, let's chat.

RDA: Nice voice!

(audio drops out)

Martin: Rumors... that you're a gadget nut. Can you confirm or deny it?

RDA: I totally deny it. I'm so not a gadget guy. Uh, despite roles that I've played in the past that I was gadgetry orientated, uh, I tend not to like gimmicks. I've run rivers and like to ski a lot. I ride cycle. Um. Anytime there's gimitry-- gimmickry around any given established way of doing something I start to be suspect. I like the simplicity of, ah, the mechanics and physics of things. Things that are-- Actually what it is is basically old fashioned. I might be born of my heritage. But things that are proven to work for me in the past, say in the mountains somewhere, I tend to stick with rather than layering on the latest stuff. Which-- and I hesitate to call it "****" because I like what's going on evolution-- the evolution of technology, I appreciate it but, boy, I've gotten lost-- I'm caught in the wake. So, uh, and I don't, there's no catching up at my age, I just kinda like watch it go by.

Martin: So in your role as MacGyver, which of course you're nationally famous for, that was actually quite a bit of acting, then, because he was a gadget freak.

RDA: Well, he was... what do you call him... he was aware of the way things worked. This is one of the only things that he and I had in common (Sound of shovel being used off behind him. RDA turns.) Go ahead, shovel away! (turns back to camera) The old fashioned shovel works. Um. MacGyver had a way of thinking. And that was more logical and he'd piece puzzles together with-- ah (mumbled) -- things that were available to him. He wasn't like into gadgets. Swiss army knife was his one and only gadget which remains to this day virtually the only thing that I have, that I've kept from the show. But it was a mode of thought , a way of solving problems, and regardless of how complicated they might have been. But uh I, in real life, you know, I'm simple. I have one tool that I take when I'm cycling. And it's called the "MacGyver" tool oddly enough, and I expect to get a gross of them for saying that.

Martin: MacGyver has sort of become a verb. In fact, in the first episode of Stargate SG-1 somebody said "can you MacGyver this thing together?"

RDA: Yeah, it was a quiet little homage, apparently that got snuck in. It was nice. Quite a complement.

Martin: So you think if, uh, if MacGyver were being produced today, let's just say hypothetically, you think things would be different? He would use things like GPS transceivers and various other gadgets to help him solve problems non-violently?

RDA: There's...There's a chance, because of the concept of the show and of the character that rather than using global positioning satellite, um, that he would make one. Or find some way of other-- what we'd do is-- writers and producers is tear apart one of those things, see how it works and fashion something out of -- I donno -- common everyday stuff that might be laying around. And I have no idea what it would be but, um, that-- that was the concept behind MacGyver. Rather than using the actual key to open the door, he'd have the key, take a bar of soap and carve out, you know a soap-- a key. And even in fact Mad Magazine did a send up some years ago of a [Ed Ebartole] shot or put together, ah, McGimick was the title of it. And that was an homage sort of thing but it skewered us perfectly and I was so, it was like my career was complete. That and the allusion on the Simpsons to MacGyver. But yeah, Mad Magazine got it right.

Martin: Once you make it on the Simpsons,

(Break in interview) 4:10

RDA: I'm alright. You guys ready?

Martin: So you are the executive producer and the star of the show Stargate SG-1.

RDA: I'm an executive producer.

Martin: An executive producer.

RDA: Not the executive producer.

Martin: Alright. What's the basic premise of the show?

RDA: D'you see the movie?

Martin: Yes. I've seen the movie--

RDA: There you go.

Martin: --I don't know that they have.

RDA: Um. Well the basic concept is based around-- ahm, God its such an unfortunate question. It's about a big-- round circle of water in which we pass and go to ancient lands-- look, I'd-- I don't know. It's convoluted. Complicated for me. What if I just said, "I don't know?"

Martin: Have a thought?

RDA: No, it's-- um-- historic-- as concept goes, story goes: uh, there was a discovery of an ancient relic, "Stargate" we've deemed it, ah um, that was buried in Egypt, you know, a few millennia ago. And, um, some ancients had left it there, it was discovered modern day and we're able to, as the movie set up, we were able to get it to work. And by passing through it we'd go to these different, you know, these different worlds, planets, stars, whatever. Uh, where we discover different civilizations that were born of Earth or other parts that, um, all humanoids oddly enough, mostly humanoid and speaking English.

Martin: Kind of like in StarTrek[?]--

RDA: Very weird. Not too unlike, except this is modern day. Um, and therein all the fun begins. We discover all these civilizations that've been-- that were plucked from different pieces of Earth's history, or the universe, the galaxy's history and settled in by the bad-- or settled in colonies by the "bad guys," the Gou'alds, and duhm, I'd... you know, that's basically it good guys-- good vs. evil. Ev-eil.

Martin: Mmhmm. So in being one of the producers and star of the show, has your knowledge of science through science fiction increased any? Have you...?

RDA: My awareness of it might. I'd... I've always been fascinated by things of science and physics and all that stuff. I've no aptitude to comprehend beyond awe. Um, but just by association, you know, I've been able to. If nothing else, I've been able to-- I've been surrounded by brilliant special effects and visual effects technology, which helps me in the real world. Um. But beyond that it's all conceptual. And theory. I'm fascinated by people of that mindset and of that ilk. But uh, I've, you know, no business conversing with them other than to say, "God, how'd you think of that?"

Martin: The special effects--

RDA: What do you mean by that?

Martin: The special effects on the show are amazing. Can you pick one scene from the show and tell us sort of how you did it?

RDA: (pauses) No. (laughs)

Martin: Let's take the Stargate, for example. We've all seen the Stargate and it looks like there's this huge burst of water coming through it. You're one of the producers, sort of how is that done? Is it blue screen? Is it all computer generated?

RDA: I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you these things. I donno...

Martin: It's like the magician's secret.

RDA: I may have to let James tell you of the technical end of it. I do know how they, um, the original Stargate was made, apparently it was a... actually is a, um, what's the -- I donno, a glass of water shot from an angle where a BB or a steel ball is dropped into it. And, uh, then reverse the film-- I don't know, something bizarre like that. But us passing through it, yeah, it's a pretty basic green screen process where the mattes are all put in and we walk into a green screen. An' put the water in later. So that's about as complicated as-- I do know that I did an episode where I aged from my age to about a hundred, which is about a fifteen year gap. An', oh it was just pure and simple makeup. Genius, genius makeup.

Martin: A couple of years back, I was in an online chat with you for Stargate fans and you said, "This web world tends to confuse me." Since then have you become a little more comfortable with the Internet and cyberspace?

RDA: Nah. No, I own ah-- I have a couple of computers. One of which I should still be back in the box. It's the G4 Mac that I got specifically to edit a lot of footage I'd been taking around the world. And I can't figure it out. I can't even do iMovie. I don't understand-- I'm a damn idiot, I've got a beautiful piece of machinery that I don't know how-- how to run. And my other stuff is just, uh, I thought that I was gonna-- this is the way I think: I wanted a laptop. So I could travel every week back to Los Angles and do a variety of different global travelings. And I thought, I should have a computer with me. So I got a good laptop. I got the notebook, the IBM thing. But I got the biggest screen possible, at the time whatever it was, it's like thirty-six incher. It's a laptop. So, I might as well be bringing this mainframe onboard. You open it up and it's, like, bigger than the tray. I's-- I don't know what I'm doing with it. I-- Thankfully, I have friends, brilliant "computer people" that really know what they're doing. They take pity and come to me, "It's, you know, alt-delete-send" or whatever.

(end file one)

Martin: So you got the G4, we can, you got the G4. Because, uh, you wanted to edit footage you've been taking around the world, you're involved in this class five rapids-- I guess that's the project that you funded?

RDA: Well, that's not what we're calling it. It's actually called, um, we're loosely calling it The River Project and it’s a project that, ah, involves chronicling some of the great rivers of the world, their condition-- their current condition, and potential condition they might may be in down the road depending on what issue might be surrounding them. Like, uh, [] Chile I've been to a couple of times. We’ve been filming that. There's threatened damming down there by a big hydroelectric corporation. Went to the [Yahgsee ] and Tibet last, I guess last year, last summer, and, uh, that was more of a cultural piece. We'll be going to Peru, that's a big adventure. The [colca?], the big adventure, white water class-five run. There's, uh, some issues surrounding some rivers in Alaska and British Columbia and Qubec. Um, all of which we'll be chronicling. Right now it's in a state of acuminating a library of footage that we'll be able to cut together for pieces. That possibly. It's so loose-structured now I can only say we'd hope Discovery would look at us. Or National Geographic. Or one of those types. Mostly for education and enlightenment. There's no... you know, it's-- I'm on the verge of retiring. Let's put it that way. Out of commercial television and I've involved in environmental causes for some time, but more peripherally than I'd like to be. So, this is my effort to make a more creative contribution to that world And I’m new to the documentary world, but it's, uh, sure affording me great travel and great adventures. Which I've done as well. So I'm kind of combining two interests in the world, uh, in life.

Martin: And you had the notion you'd be able to put some of this footage together using your new Mac G4 but-- what was it about it you just couldn't grasp? You're MacGyver, come on.

RDA: What do you mean? How to plug it in. What are you kidding?

Martin: It comes with an instruction manual.

RDA: Yeah that would entail actually reading it.

Martin: Mmmhmm.

RDA: No, I'm-- You know what? I can... I can sort of describe what my aptitude is, basically, about computers and technology by describing what it would be like to fly with my father. My father is a pilot, owns his own plane. And he flies around. I can fly that airplane, once we get it up and its flying, I can fly-- I've tried to do loops and snap rolls in a twin Comanche Chicane and he'd, you know, I'd no problem once it's going. But to get it up in the air, and land it, that's, you know, I just don't have the aptitude to learn about, uh, ground school. It's like: please, give me the wheel. I can drive. I used to race cars. Ah, fairly okay driver, mediocre at best, but, uh, open that hood and I'm dead meat. That's the bottom line to it all.

Martin: It's pretty amazing, I mean, we're on this pretty lavish television set here with all the latest in camera equipment and whatnot, yet, you can for $1500 buy a DV mini-camera and a computer like you have and make pretty good footage.

RDA: Sure. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to make myself out to be a total idiot, I'm a virtual idiot, let's put it that way when it comes to all this stuff. I have such respect for, uh, Gary Marshall, um, who I've known and met a long time ago, but he said, you know, twenty years ago, he said, "Learn computers. If you don't know how to run a computer down the road you're going to be lost in this business." And it's true. It's absolutely true. I dono, there's not a movie made today that doesn't use some element of-- well, they all do, let's put it that way. Computerized mechanisms and such. So it's not to say I'm lost in the business, but I think I might be easing out just in time. To go to school or something to learn how to do it properly.

Martin: Should watch the Screensavers on TechTV. Teach you everything you need to know.

RDA: Oh TechTV? Screensavers?

Martin: That's right.

RDA: Sounds like a great idea.

Martin: You're a-- besides the video camera stuff-- you're sort of a shutter bug, you take still photography, right?

RDA: Yeah.

Martin: You're still using film, or have you considered moving to the digital cameras?

RDA: I've-- I've got my little, uh, little Nikon 990. Yeah, I, I did make the transition. I don't fancy myself a professional photographer. When I had, ah, a daughter, she's three and a half years old, when she was born that was my excuse to really start taking pictures. Because there's no better subject than your own kid. Your first and only kid. So I just started firing away, uh, not knowing what to-- I still don't, I don't know speed, shutter, aperture, any of that stuff. I wanna know it. It's the same, you know, we're dealing about with the virtually the same mentality, aptitude, but I, you know, I've got an idea about what I want and it's a matter of how to get it. Composition, I understanding a little bit better. So I've gotten lucky in taking a lot of pictures. But what's become my point-and-shoot, now-- 'cause in running these rivers you have to have something you can take out and whip 'cause, you know, you can't be doing this (mimes camera fumbling) with a big ole thirty-five. And, um, so I've got the-- got my little digital thing. That becomes my point-and-shoot. And I've had, you know, a fair amount of luck with it. It really does-- what I use it for is more of a chronicling rather than "the art shot" I use really cheap [Polgas and Dianna?] cameras for my art-- as my mom would say my "artsy shots." My nice black and whites that are all very grainy and spilled with light. When I want something that’s pristine and, uh, boring-- with all due respect for the digital world, I'll use the-- my Nikon. But.

Martin: But you've managed to hook the Nikon 990 up to the computer, transfer all the images--

RDA: You can do that? F#*k.

Martin: --save them on there?

RDA: I didn't know you could do that. No, I've-- You know what? I know how to get the chips outa the damn thing and get them into the computer, but I'm still kinda trying to figure out how ta down-- No, I'm getting close to really getting the hang of that. But, um, I have an assistant who'll, for safety's sake-- Because if you go to Tibet, or you go down these big rivers, or, you know, climb these mountains you've taken a slew of pictures. The last thing you want to do is, like, accidentally hit delete, you know, suddenly you make them all disappear. So I have people that'll back them up. Which apparently you can do now.

Martin: You have "people" who do this for you?

RDA: Well, yah. And-- But I'm over the shoulder trying to cheat.

Martin: Did you ever, like, edit them, you know, using Photoshop? Make them look a little bit better?

RDA: You know what?

Martin:

RDA: You know what, my mother does that. She, bless her heart, because I've also taken a lot of, uh, thirty-five, um uh, slide film. Which I hadn't-- I'd only been in prints. 'Cause I'm lazy and not a photographer. But, I went to Tibet and took a bunch of slide. I hired my mom to do all this, and she's a computer whiz of sorts, and she started downloading and printing out and scanning and whatever else you can do and, uh, she plays with that stuff. And I told her, "Stop it! You're taking away my 'artsyness,' Ma."

Martin: Do you surf the Internet at all?

RDA: Ah, not so much. Not too much. I, um, my computer I've used more as a communication device. Which, that is to say, email. And I've done some searching for products. Um. Actually, I was looking for cameras, some old [Dianna ?] cameras, and Ebay loomed in front of me, it was-- that was kind of a, um, innocent discovery. Um, but yeah, if I'm specifically looking for something like -- I was getting ready to go to Tibet last year and I needed research a lot, because I knew nothing about it and I found just scads of, uh, information there. But I'm not a big surfer, no. I'm not looking fer anything particular. It never occurs to me.

Martin: You ever, uh, search on your own name? See all the fan pages there out there?

RDA: I was directed to, uh, to a website that a woman, um, put together. And it was frighteningly wonderful site. I-- it's the rdanderson website and it's--

Martin: Oh, I thought that was your own personal site.

RDA: No. No. It's a woman who've I've known for quite some years. Um, just put it together on her own. And I-- the stuff she's got, and insight that she's shed, um, from afar is amazing. And I'm quite impressed with it, actually. And, um, I should actually be a little more helpful, and feeding her some photos or something. But she's got everything there. I'm impressed by that too, you know. And I know I'm talking such plebian stuff to you guys, because you--

Martin: No.

RDA: You guys are in a whole different world altogether. So, I'm the common man here. I'll be Mr. Blue-collar Computer Guy.

Martin: Doesn't that kind of thing, you know, creep you out a little bit? That some woman you don't even know has built this shrine to you in cyberspace?

RDA: But I do know this woman. And I'd--

Martin: You do know her.

RDA: Yeah, I'd met her and she's, uh, she's a brilliant woman actually. Quite smart and, um, I'd actually had met her through, um-- she was teaching deaf kids many, many years ago and I was-- we connected though a donation I made, um, to her school. And, uh, from there, you know, she was, I guess, taken with, whatever. My kindness? And, uh, she's kinda stayed in building this. It didn't creep me out. I can understand how some people would be. Because I'd gotten wind of some things that are a little bizarre.

Martin: Like, uh--

RDA: In other people's worlds.

Martin: The slash fiction thing that is going on the Internet.

RDA: What's that?

Martin: Slash fiction is, ah, the retelling of stories such as MacGyver, it's also done with StarTrek characters, is where it's an erotic story with MacGyver and, say, Murdoc as the romantic protagonists. And they're X-rated.

RDA: Oh. Never seen--

Martin: What do you think of that?

RDA: Uh, there's-- It's kinda sick. You know? Do people make money of it? I mean, with--

Martin: No.

RDA: No?

Martin: But it's a huge phenomenon on the Internet. Do a search on: "MacGyver fan fiction."

RDA: Really? I-- I-- have no need to waste my time. I waste enough of my own time to be wasting time on schlocky stuff like that.

Martin: I’m with you.

RDA: It--it--it's kinda... You wanna say, and I don't want to quote William Schatner, because I don't have the same sentiment as he does about this, but his saying "get a life?" That's kinda what you want to say to the people who are creating that kind of stuff. You know? It's senseless-- potentially harmful to kids and I'm as protective as any man could be about kids.

Martin: Because you have the three-year-year-old-- three and a half-year-old daughter--

RDA: Yeah.

Martin: You worried about what she might see on the Internet in years to come?

RDA: Not yet. She's showing quite an aptitude for computers. Unlike her dad, she's, uh, I mean, before she was three, she was mousing and clicking and... scaring me. You know, she got it-- understood how to, what did what. Which is really, probably, the way to go about it. Is go in a total innocent, with a kind of a blank page to start with. And start your mosaic of knowledge, uh, from scratch. I have too much stuff in the way. But she's-- I think she'll be, you know, quite brilliant.

Martin: Well, Richard Dean Anderson, thank you very much.

RDA: That's it? Wait a minute!

Martin: And E-mail me! When you figure it out.

RDA: Where are you? Turn to the camera and say your email address.

Martin: Martin at techtv dot com. Why don't you tell everyone your personal email address? So you can get mail--

RDA: Ah, what was it? WWW dot Standard Oil of America dot com.
 
wow! cool! thanks for that. must have taken you aaaages.
spose it was an excuse to listen to RDA's GORGEOUS voice for all that time!! ;)
 
I started out thinking it was going to be easy. But, wow! A whole lot of information is communicated in a conversation. The way RDA cuts off in mid-thought is quiet maddening. I took a course in college where we transcribed recorded conversations. I was reminded of some of that class when their voices overlaped. But I'm in no way stenographer! That class was ten years ago. If I could find my notes of how to type that sort of thing up, I don't think the average person could understand the way you type up that sort of transcribing. It's not anything like typing some businessman's letters like secretaries do.

I got through it, but there is still some stuff I need help on. It's the stuff in square brackets. Like:

The spelling of the rivers.
The spelling of the cameras he uses.
 
lol. 'fraid i cant help you there. probably old american brands. and im british, so......

well done!

i was wondering how you'd do bits where they interrupt each other! you should send him a letter telling him not to interrupt the interviewer so you can type the transcript easily!! ;)

xox
 
Thank you, CynVision. That had to have been major chore! I'd rather do dishes! ;) RDA has a really great voice but, even hearing that voice 10 trillion times wouldn't be worth it. :D

Anyhoo, it was a really good interview. I think Martin blew it, though, when RDA said his mom was the computer whiz, and he didn't laugh or tease him! and what's with the MacGuyver obsession? This is Stargate-SG1--the other show. Hello!
 
im still annoyed at martin about his description of slash. im not a big slash fan, but that was a biased description.
 
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