Behind the Scenes

f you've been wondering what David Greenwalt has been doing since he left Angel last year, he's been pursuing miracles of a less angelic nature. As an executive producer on Miracles, the newest ABC drama to enter the mid-season replacement circuit, Greenwalt joins a production team of exceptional talent who is shedding new light on the mysteries of unexplained phenomenon. The show features Skeet Ulrich ("Scream", "The Craft", "Ride with the Devil") who portrays Paul Callan, an investigator of modern miracles who discovers his efforts reveal anything but miraculous results. The show also stars Angus MacFadyen ("Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood") who is best know for his role as Robert the Bruce in "Braveheart", as Keel, and Marisa Ramirez as Evelyn Santos (who left a two-year stint on General Hospital to join the series); all devoted to finding the 'truth' among alleged miracles and the ethereal investigations surrounding them. Between spotting and casting session Greenwalt recently took time out to give CoA an inside view in to the show, its conception, and what fans can look forward to in this unique and chilling series. Plus Angel's musical composer, Robert Kral tells us of his involvement as the man providing the saintly score behind the vision and what it's like to be doing double duty.

THAT VISION THING

Ulrich as Paul Callan who comforts a boy fighting his own battles

As with any new project there are always worries for its success, future and growth. And with a show such as Miracles those concerns often turn to nervous butterflies when seeing how genre series get cut down so quickly these days; i.e. Birds of Prey, Haunted, and even Joss Whedon's own Firefly. "In a world where Firefly is cancelled - God, oh God, anything can happen to any of us," states David. "My butterflies are more around that we worked very hard and this is a very beautiful, beautiful pilot. There was nothing that could have ever driven me away from Mr. Whedon and his beautiful shows except a piece of film that is just as gorgeous as I've ever seen. And yeah I do still get butterflies," he admits, "and you worry but you do the best you can. I learned a whole bunch about storytelling at the feet of Mr. Whedon and I brought a lot of that with me." As to that storytelling, fans can look forward to several episodes that David has written for this season. "I've produced them all and obviously I work on all the stories, I was going to direct but I got too crazy and busy," he regretfully adds, " so I hope in the future to be directing." Every series wants to be unique, enthralling, capturing the imagination of the viewer and draw them back each week. Miracles already has an appeal that will get audiences involved emotionally and psychologically. "The series came to me unique," explains David, "the series has the big questions. It's not afraid to ask about God, it's not afraid to talk about spirituality, it's not afraid to say, 'Is there a force out there that has us in mind? Oh, and by the way, if there is a force out there that has us in mind - is it good or is it evil?' "

Miracles has an X-Files connotation attached to it (looking for the truth out there), with future episode titles such as: "The Ferguson Syndrome", "The Friendly Skies", and "The Bone Scatterer" and its religious overtones which have played in its overall concept there runs a risk of pushing the boundaries too far. "I think you're pushing boundaries if you're telling good stories," David observes, "and I hope and trust that we are. The Network was so worried about, 'Don't mention religion, don't show anybody with a collar', and then all of the testing [indicated] people are just starving and hungry; they want people to talk about God, they want people to talk about religion. The thing for me that separates this show from some of the earlier efforts (and I don't mean Touched by an Angel and 7th Heaven) I mean cooler "shows" like Nothing Sacred, we are absolutely respectful of everyone's beliefs." David explains, "We don't look down on Christians, we don't look up at Atheists, everybody is on the same field here with us and that's what I like about the show. It doesn't have an axe to grind, it's not telling you, 'You should go to church', and it's not telling you, 'You shouldn't go to church', it's not really about that. It just tells cool stories, it doesn't take a position but it really touches this sort of ineffable mystery and a kind of a sorrow that exists in life and a kind of a bright hope at the same time."

"I'm somewhat older than Joss but I'm smart enough to know when I'm in a room with a genius."

One drawback to a series that offer a more mystical and surreal backdrop to their story arcs is that viewers can get lost in its own intricacies. An executive decision on how these elements will play our over the course of a season is very important and David feels very confident in how Miracles is structured around their main character. "Hopefully, one won't require a scorecard and a tutor to follow this show," he laughs. "But there is definitely a mythological overtone; it's kind of like Buffy and Angel in that there's an over arching fence and construction to it. People are going somewhere, people are on a journey and things have happened but you should be able to tune in and just watch a show and enjoy it on that level as well." David goes on to describe Ulrich's character of Paul Callan, "He's very deep and a very wounded character and he emotes a lot, you really identify with him and the more you know about him the better. But by the same token there is a story with a beginning, middle, and end every week and you don't need to know all this stuff to watch the show. On the one end the series is sort of a cult-ish, cool X-Files type of presentation and on the very distant other end I think it's a big down the middle, Touched by an Angel, heart on its sleeve, break-your-heart kind of show."

The credits list for Miracles reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood with an amazing array of talent from both film and television with directors: Bill D'Elia (American Dreams, The West Wing, Ally McBeal), Michael Ray Rhodes (Dark Angel), and Matt Reeves (Gideon's Crossing, Felicity), to producers: Gary Barber ("Rein of Fire", "Count of Monte Cristo"), and Chris Levinson (Charmed, Party of Five) and including cinematographer: Ernest Holzmann (My So Called Life). "It's great," professes David, "Dennis Murphy, the producer, put together most of these people. We kind of lucked with Bill D'Elia who came in to direct an episode, we all fell in love with him and now he's a producer/director on the show." David explains he's never had that person before (one who can handle other aspects of the producer's job) which has helped him out greatly by taking much of the heat off so he can concentrate on other responsibilities. "You know working with Joss--who does everything including the Craft's Services--you assume that's how you're supposed to do it but I'm getting a lot of help from a lot of really talented people. And Richard Hatem who created the show, he's the guy who wrote "The Mothman Prophecies"; script much better than movie by the way," he says in an aside. "He's a really good writer, he gets it you know; it's not about the supernatural thing, it's about the emotions of the people in the story. And in that sense it's very similar to Buffy and Angel work. Its a little less genre-y if you will, there's not fighting with demons and stuff but the heart and the soul is the thing. It all grows out of a very similar place and Richard loves to tell those same kind of stories that I learned how to tell over there with that great, fat, big talent Mr. Whedon."

Greenwalt directing during the episode "Dear Boy" of Angel

Although David is feeling right at home now with his new series there is no doubt that the decision to leave Angel (and his close knit family there) was a tough one; and so that everyone knows, not one that he took lightly by any means. In fact, he states it was the, "hardest thing I've ever done and shocked me, honest to God! When I met Joss, this is seven years ago now, it was love at first site and on his side a very gay kind of love," he jokes, "but nonetheless a mutual, throbbing love. You know, I'm somewhat older than Joss but I'm smart enough to know when I'm in a room with a genius. We had a great ride, I loved every moment of Buffy, I learned so much," confesses David. " It was like six years of film school in the middle of my life, it was just fantastic. And then he gave me this great opportunity to create Angel with him and in my heart and mind and soul I was committed to, minimum, five years of Angel. I felt that's the least I owe this guy and to the show, what an opportunity you know?" He adds, "I would have been happy to live the rest of my life there with that man and his enormous talent." Then, as fate would have it, David's contract with FOX was up at the end of Angel's third season and the Network's renegotiation with him didn't look favorable. It was a disappointing blow considering the devotion David had committed to his craft and a creation he was so passionate about.

"I used to go in Sunday morning at 5am," he confesses, "I missed my child growing up to be there. We've made 200-300 great episodes and [FOX] held firm and I said, 'You're telling me to go out to the bars and meet other women.' I had to do my due diligence (I hadn't been out to any of the studios or networks in all these great years of working with Joss) I went out and I didn't like too much of what I saw and then I saw this pilot. When you [see it] you'll go, 'That's the most beautiful piece of televised film that's been on that little blue box in a good ten years.' This whole thing's extraordinary, I fell in love with the story, with the actors, with the film making, with the notion of, 'This is a show I could really do and this makes a lot of sense as a next step forward for me', so they lost me. But it was the hardest thing I've ever done, it was much worse then breaking up with somebody," he candidly admits. "Every year I go take three days by myself, always some awful tragedy happens during my three days alone that makes it terrible and this year it was, 'Oh my god, I'm going to do this other show and I'm going to be, in some sense, breaking up with Joss'. He was very sweet, understanding and supportive of the whole thing because I was very happy there and it was very exciting. I'm still consulting on Angel and we talk about things for the show, but it was just horrible." One good thing which keeps David tied to the home fires is that Angel's musical composer, Robert Kral has also been brought aboard Miracles. "I took Rob," he laughs. "I tell you, Rob is just awesome; he's doing a whole different thing over here too which is great!"

Paul seeks guidance from Father Calero, (Hector Elizondo)

Creating an original piece of music is a very complex and rigorous task and with Rob composing for two shows, balancing their demands requires skill and patients. “Right now I have just been handed version 7 of one of the Miracles episodes, so I have a lot of tapes to keep track of,” Rob confesses. “As much as possible, I try to keep Angel to one part of a week's schedule, and Miracles to the other. With the show being so new, there is still a lot of experimentation happening so producing the score takes longer.” Another aspect is the sounds, as Rob explains, “I want Miracles to be all new. As such, I even went as far as renting a violin and playing it myself for some weirder sounds on the pilot (and other episodes). I haven't touched a violin in about 17 years! I will spare everyone from ever hearing anything melodic from me on violin,” he adds jokingly. “Just the weird stuff!” Rob describes Miracles as very dark, disturbing, intriguing, as well as often wonderful. He wants the music to represent that external force which the characters are experiencing. “Sometimes that tone is a sense of wonder, or external activity, and often it's a very dark element. David [Greenwalt] currently likes to hear things he is not expecting,” he says. “We're experimenting with different ways of scoring various scenes: material that works but might not be the first thing you would expect. There's a sense in which the characters, upon contact with the spiritual realm, have no control over that realm: it does what it does. Another unique aspect of music is that often there is a sense of wonder but there's also a scarier element. Kind of like the Angels visiting the shepherds in the Christmas story: the first thing they said was: ‘Be not afraid’.”

The two pieces Rob composed and auditioned for the Miracles main title [found on the CoA Media Player] are both very intense. The powerful overlaying of male chanting, female singing, and dark electronic sounds make for a very interesting piece of music; both selections are similar in this respect. “This is not what was chosen as the theme,” Rob explains, “although the tune itself is from my score. The second version represents a reworking of the first, but cut up in a different way. After recording version 1, I then decided to mess with it, move things around, displace things, delete things here and there etc. A Main Title by composer Snuffy Walden was chosen instead, however.” Spirituality may have been a specific influence that Rob drew upon when composing for Miracles as he describes for us in detail the idea was to sum up the show. “I felt that the male voices were very, very spiritual, in some ways beautiful, but quite forceful and powerful, and even dark. The female voice offsets that low darkness and power, and is very beautiful, but also very haunting, perhaps even scary, at the same time. The percussion groove brings it up to date, and gives it lots of energy. The mid section features rising basses and falling high strings that respectively rise and fall until they meet in the middle. All of this was designed to capture what I felt the show was about. Though this main title idea won't be in the show, the theme itself is in the pilot many times (in very different orchestrations each time): with [the character] Tommy, and his activities and various decisions that change lives, and then with the main character Paul as he makes his own life changing decision.” Ultimately, the music Rob creates, whether is a testament to his analysis and dedication to the core themes of the shows he works on. Whether the success of Miracles relies on a miracle of its own is yet to be seen, but rest assured that with Greenwalt at the helm the quality of the storytelling will far exceed the Devil's expectations and hopefully the audience will believe.

Written by CoA Writers, Kristy Bratton and Jeff Ritchie

CityofAngel would like to extend an enormous amount of Thanks to David Greenwalt for taking time out of his production schedule for us.

Extended Thanks also to Robert Kral for his contributions, including his Miracles theme tracks which you can listen to in the CoA Media Player.

Special Thanks to Elisabeth James for her continued support and assistance.

If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Behind the Scenes' feature, we would love to hear from you. Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com