An Interview with Robert Mellette, Part Two

Robert Mellette may not be a name familiar to you but if you were active in online Xena fandom in the 1990s you may have heard of Xenastaff, the forum admin account that interacted with fans at the official MCA/Universal Web forum. Robert was the person behind the account. A production assistant at the time, he took on many tasks that brought him close to fans of the show. And he was also responsible for writing “The Xena Scrolls”, a section of the site that followed in step with first-season episodes through leaked emails from archaeologists who had discovered and translated the original stories about Xena. This fascinating Web content served as the inspiration for the clips episode of the same name.

Since leaving Xena: Warrior Princess Robert has become very active in independent film, but he has also just published a book titled Billy Bobble Makes a Magic Wand, which blends quantum theory with youthful ideas about magic. Robert contacted the Xenite.Org/SF-Fandom network and asked if we would be interested in interviewing him. He said he would be glad to answer questions about his days as Xenastaff. How could we turn down that opportunity?

Of course, not everything went as planned. We had originally thought we would do one big article and then promote it on our network. But so many delays in the process have left me feeling a bit guilty, so I thought I would go the extra mile and break up the interview into two parts. Part One was published on Xenite.Org and this is Part Two. There is only a little bit of overlap between the two articles. And it really doesn’t matter if you start reading Part Two first.

About BILLY BOBBLE MAKES A MAGIC WAND: “E = mc2 is no longer the most powerful force in the universe. Your wand is.” Twelve-year-old Billy Bobble and his best friend Suzy Quinofski didn’t mean to change the universe. Billy, a quantum physics prodigy, just wanted to find a way to help his hoarding, schizophrenic mother – and maybe impress a coven of older girls in high school. Suzy, his intellectual equal, wanted to help her friend and cling to her last remnant of childhood, a belief in magic. Together they made Billy a real, working, magic wand, and opened a door to the Quantum World where thoughts create reality, and all things – good and bad – are possible.

What kind of research did you do to prepare for the story?

In addition to talk about Billy Bobble we also talked about Robert’s career in independent film-making. He offers some advice to film-makers. This was a fascinating opportunity for us because we don’t often get to interview someone about three different topics (a book, a television show, and independent film-making). Hope you enjoy both articles.

None, really. Up until my junior year of high school I wanted to be an astrophysicist – AP Chemistry took care of that dream. Since then, I’ve always been a fan of science, so watching Nova, reading the occasional Scientific American magazine article, etc. are things I do for fun. When it came time to writing about it, a few google searches to firm up my casual knowledge was all I needed.

How long did it take to write the story?

That’s always hard to figure out. I think I wrote the short story version around 2009. It wasn’t very good, mostly because it was too much to try to get it all into a short format. I then worked on another project, shelved that. Went back to Billy Bobble, but this time as a TV pilot. That was terrible! I kicked around a few other ideas, then came back to Billy, this time as a novel, and it finally took off. From there, it took about nine months to get a first draft, another year or so to re-write. I did that while trying to find an agent. Once it found a home with Elephant’s Bookshelf Press, then it was another year of editing and waiting for the publishing window.

How long is all of that? I have no idea.

The title reminds me of Harry Potter but when I was younger I read books about inventor whiz kids like Danny Dunn and Homer Fink. Did you have any childhood influences in mind when writing this story?

Being dyslexic, I didn’t grow up reading a lot, so my influences are mostly from my own life. I was a complete science-geek as a kid, and lucky enough to have a dad who answered every “why?” question I came up with. I remember having a toy helicopter and flipping the blades in front of the TV to watch them spin backwards and forwards. I asked my dad why it looked like they changed direction. That was about 6:00 in the evening. By 11:00, he’d covered Stroboscopic effect, the Speed of Light, Faster than light travel, and sparked an imaginative fire in my head that still burns.

In ninth grade I wrote an English paper trying to define Time. I interviewed kids from second grade to ninth grade for what they thought Time was – which was interesting. I concluded myself that Time is equal to the speed of light divided by zero T=c/0 – which I put in Billy Bobble.

I’ll have to check out Danny Dunn and Homer Fink to see what I was missing.

How does one go about writing a book for the “upper middle grade/lower young adult” audience? Is there is “how to …” guide somewhere? Do you take a class? How do you gauge the writing level as you go along?

I don’t target a particular age. I just write what I like, and others have told me it’s Middle Grade, or Young Adult, or whatever. I do know that working on a show like Xena helped tremendously. Xena aired in such a variety of time slots depending on when a particular station thought it was appropriate. In some markets, it was on at 8:00 on Saturday nights for kids. In others, it was on at midnight for the college crowd. I’ve always liked that sort of entertainment. Like Bugs Bunny, the entertainment value changes with the age of the audience.

I think Science-Fiction is a natural at hitting that good-for-all-ages market. There’s something about stepping out of our reality to look back and examine ourselves that resonates on so many levels. Inside each kid is a new adult mind that’s searching for philosophical answers. Inside each adult is an experienced, if not jaded, mind that wants to reignite that sense of wonder. I think a good storyteller works in the regions where those two mindsets intersect.

You have an extensive background in theater, television, and both feature and independent films. How much of a transition in thinking is it to go from those forms of expression to writing a book like Billy Bobble?

It’s all storytelling, but there is definitely a learning curve when it comes to changing media. I always have to remind myself to respect the art form I’m working in. What are the strengths and weakness of each? Writing a script is a lot like writing a symphony – what’s on the page is not the finished product. It’s just a roadmap for fellow professionals to follow. A novel is the finished product, and it takes as much work to complete that as it does a film. In a screenplay, I can write:

“INT. NEW YORK APARTMENT – DAY

John’s teacher’s salary shows in the size of his living quarters, which is as cluttered as his mind.”

Then it’s up to the set designers to research how big the space might be, what kind of furniture, decorations, etc. They will also study the character to get feel for what I mean by cluttered.

For a novel, I have to fill in more of the description – but not so much that I slow down the action. Countless times, I’ve begged my computer to give me a costume or set designer when I’m working on novel. My background is mostly acting. I don’t care what the characters are wearing as long as the dialogue rings true and moves the story. So I’m constantly trying to balance how much of the world I put in the reader’s head and how much I let them fill in themselves.

Whose idea was it to create the MCA/Universal forums for Hercules and Xena? Did that come from Rob Tapert or did it come from Universal?

It definitely did not come from Rob. That’s no slight on him at all. Remember, this was 1994. Unless you were a total online geek, chances are you had no idea what a net forum was. I had just gotten AOL myself, and was trying not to use up too many minutes, because that’s the way they charged back then.

The initial webpages for all of Universal’s TV shows were set up by a department called Television Information Services, or TVIS. That also happened to be the first department I worked in at Universal. A friend of mine in that department oversaw the page creations. He then left Universal. Another friend managed the site for a long time before Universal created an entire New Media Department. That was when the Xena Scrolls jumped the shark.

Have you followed any of the fan fiction for the scrolls? If so, when did you first become aware of it?

I have heard there is a ton of it, but no I haven’t followed it. That’s an old habit from working on the show. The internet changed everything in the world of fan-to-show communication, and the people in legal were afraid a fan would sue if we made a show that was like fan fiction – so any hint of even peaking at fan fic was a no-no.

I pitched an episode with Calisto as a Nazi looking for more Ambrosia since the dose that made her immortal was running out. Mostly, that was an excuse to get Hudson in the uniform. Should I worry about the fact that I think the bad Calisto would have made a really hot Nazi?

I had Janis and Mel running around without any Scrolls, being accused by the Allies of being spies, and not able to hang with the Axis because they’re American. So everyone thought they were either crazy archeologists or dangerous spies. A ton of fun!

Was there any foreshadowing (other than with the characters of Melinda Pappas, Janice Covington, and Jack Kleinman) in what you wrote with respect to what later appeared on the show?

Absolutely. I can’t think of any specific cases, but since I worked in the writer’s office, I had access to the scripts long before they aired, or were even shot. I would sneak in little hints of what was coming up from time-to-time.

Dances With Films bills itself as the last independent film festival and you have a long relationship with the festival. What role will you be fulfilling in the coming year?

Actually, it’s “The last independent independent film festival” (two independents). My film, Jacks or Better, premiered there in 2000 and won best screenplay. I’ve been working with them ever since. We don’t use a lot of titles, but whenever I’m introduced to do a Q & A or a panel, they call me Associate Director. Basically, I am part of the team that screen submissions, 3 or 4 of us make the final decisions, and I also write the blog (http://rsmellette.blogspot.com/).

How involved were you in “The Voyage of Vera Velasco”? This movie was “shot, edited, and finished in just FOUR hours!” Is that one of the 2-minute 2-step challenge films?

All of my short film producer credits come from the Dances With Films Festival short film competition called the 2-Minute 2-Step. I wrote the rules for the competition, where filmmakers are given four hours to shoot and edit a 2-minute movie that would screen the next night at the festival. We shot 8 films in four days the first year. That was exhausting. After that, we spread them out over six days, I think. At any rate, I got producer credit on all of them as part of the deal with Dances With Films and the filmmakers. Sort of like Sam Raimi’s credit on Xena.

“Jacks or Better” (year 2000) won six awards (Cf. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230350/awards?ref_=tt_awd). Can people watch it online? (I was unable to find it.) The plot is about a man who kills his wife in the kitchen so that he can play poker in the living room, or so I have read.

I did theatre in Los Angeles for over a decade, and quickly fell into what they call the David Mamet Mafia – the ensemble of actors David Mamet worked with in Chicago. I wrote Jacks or Better as a vehicle for some of those actors to work together, which would give me the leverage to write and direct my own film. It was made under the old SAG experiment project, so unfortunately I can’t distribute it. That’s a long story. I have a 35 mm print in my garage… like so many filmmakers of a certain age.

Afterword

We extend our thanks to Robert for his consideration of the Xenite.Org/SF-Fandom community, and his patience in facing all the delays we experienced in producing this article.  You can follow Robert Mellette on his blog.

And please read the first part of this interview at Xenite.Org.