Camera shot addition/subtraction to improve an episode

[Talos IV]

As beautifully directed as TOS often was, sometimes there were missed-opportunity camera shots that would have improved certain episodes. Likewise, if some questionable camera shots had been left on the cutting-room floor, the episode would have looked better overall.

For the former: I love "Dagger of the Mind," but always thought the neural neutralizer should have had some sort of camera angle or camera move that showed it overhead, in relation to its victim. Instead of just this:

And for the latter: I wish they'd jetissoned that zoom-in-and-out to the red alert light in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." It's tawdry:

Any others?

 

[M'Sharak]

And for the latter: I wish they'd jetissoned that zoom-in-and-out to the red alert light in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." It's tawdry:

It was very much of the time when that episode was made.

While camera zoom had introduced decades earlier for motion pictures, its use had gone in and out of fashion over the years. The late 1960s / early 1970s marked a distinct upswing in its use, and coincided with several other advances in tech which made it popular for use in television and video photography. The introduction of the rapid in-out-in-out zoom in particular dates to this time period, with especially heavy use in presenting pop & rock acts on TV shows and in concert footage.

Dated? Sure. Tawdry? Eh.

It was a thing people did with cameras then.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Dated? Sure. Tawdry? Eh.

It was a thing people did with cameras then.

Ok, but that "bouncing zoom" bit was better suited to Laugh-In and The Monkees than Star Trek. I have to agree with the OP. It didn't work in a serious drama. It gummed up the visual narrative.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Ok, but that "bouncing zoom" bit was better suited to Laugh-In and The Monkees than Star Trek. I have to agree with the OP. It didn't work in a serious drama. It gummed up the visual narrative.

Thank you for not saying Batman! That series never did that, but time and again people connected it to the series mostly because Gorshin was in this episode. I once got into an interweb argument with someone about it never being a Batman trait and he said "source?!" Yeah, the f'n Blu Rays....

Anyways....

I'd remove every flopped shot of Shatner and replace it with a correctly filmed shot of him facing the right direction.

 

[Henoch]

I'd remove every flopped shot of Shatner and replace it with a correctly filmed shot of him facing the right direction.

Agreed, I also hate all the flopped shots; they were always noticeable and jarred me out of the scene. Most of them seem to be for a few seconds of filler (I think a few of them were also canned shots), and I would have preferred the film editor to make up the seconds with anything else.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Agreed, I also hate all the flopped shots; they were always noticeable and jarred me out of the scene. Most of them seem to be for a few seconds of filler (I think a few of them were also canned shots), and I would have preferred the film editor to make up the seconds with anything else.

There is one of McCoy in The Doomsday Machine as he listens to Kirk, but the third season had its fair share. The real offender was in The Way To Eden as Severin runs off. Badly dubbed shouts from Kirk and two - count em, two - flopped shots of Kirk just kind of puzzled cut into the clips of Severin climbing the tree. Totally doesn't match the mood of the scene.

 

[Metryq]

All of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" should have been on the cutting room floor. But I'm no fan of the bounce-zoom shot. I had been under the impression that most cinematography was done with "prime" lenses (not variable focal length "Zoomar" lenses).

I was never bothered by the lack of a shot showing the overhead "relationship" of the neuralizer (later acquired by the Men In Black). It's understandable though why there was no such shot. Almost all sets were open-topped for lighting. And the film stocks then needed a lot of light. There are even one or two places in Space: 1999—which had uniform lighting all around—where the edge of a missing ceiling light can be seen so that a spotlight could be thrown through.

 

[Henoch]

There is one of McCoy in The Doomsday Machine as he listens to Kirk, but the third season had its fair share. The real offender was in The Way To Eden as Severin runs off. Badly dubbed shouts from Kirk and two - count em, two - flopped shots of Kirk just kind of puzzled cut into the clips of Severin climbing the tree. Totally doesn't match the mood of the scene.

Fixed it:

 

[Ssosmcin]

Ha nicely done.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

I wouldn't necessarily change it, as it is a refreshing change, but the opening to Wink of An Eye could have easily been a typical Captain's Log and beam down, as opposed to coming straight in with Scott. (I know they used an unused scene from The Empath). The fact it's different, makes a nice change in a season that heavily features the trio beaming down at the beginning.

There's one shot in the Tholian Web I'd either cut or re-shoot. I've watched the episode so many times. It's when Uhura asks Spock if they will be able to rescue Kirk in the first bridge scene of Act II, and Nimoy turns in her direction. I always thought the way he moved wasn't the most natural.

 

[scotpens]

Ok, but that "bouncing zoom" bit was better suited to Laugh-In and The Monkees than Star Trek. I have to agree with the OP. It didn't work in a serious drama. It gummed up the visual narrative.

Thank you for not saying Batman! That series never did that, but time and again people connected it to the series mostly because Gorshin was in this episode.

Two words: Mandela Effect.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Two words: Mandela Effect.

More like "it's campy and Frank Gorshin's in it so it must be a tribute to his role as the Riddler."

 

[ZapBrannigan]

How about the Transporter Room scene in "Mudd's Women," when McCoy is wearing is regular shirt, but his closeup is taken from the later scene in Sickbay when he has on his medical smock:
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/103-mudds-women/mudds-women-br-091.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/103-mudds-women/mudds-women-br-095.jpg

You would think when they were getting the three-shot, they could have quickly gotten an individual shot of each man. They're all standing there, they're all lit, why not?

Maybe it's because cameras and lights in those days were nowhere near as nimble and flexible as they are today, and film stock was more finicky for lighting than HD digital video. So it would take time they didn't have. Or maybe the director didn't realize the need for individual shots, and the editor felt he couldn't do without them.

 

[blssdwlf]

How about the Transporter Room scene in "Mudd's Women," when McCoy is wearing is regular shirt, but his closeup is taken from the later scene in Sickbay when he has on his medical smock:
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/103-mudds-women/mudds-women-br-091.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/103-mudds-women/mudds-women-br-095.jpg

McCoy has his own "I'm the handsome Doctor" Venus drug close-up happening in that scene

 

[ZapBrannigan]

McCoy has his own "I'm the handsome Doctor" Venus drug close-up happening in that scene

That reminds me: we know Jerry Finnerman used a diffusion filter to soften women and give them slight glow, sometimes even with a backlight to give them a halo.

I just saw a youtube reactor watch "The Enemy Within," and when Good-half Kirk is questioning a traumatized Yeoman Rand, the reactor noticed that it was the man getting a soft treatment, while the woman was under a harsh light. That was a deliberate switch from Finnerman's usual Angelic Woman closeups.

 

[M'Sharak]

Ok, but that "bouncing zoom" bit was better suited to Laugh-In and The Monkees than Star Trek. I have to agree with the OP. It didn't work in a serious drama. It gummed up the visual narrative.

To be fair, it didn't really work most of the places where it was used. Even in a comedy setting, it was very easy to overuse or overdo.

It was a gimmick, a lot of people tried it -- because it was a thing they could do. And then--after a few short years--it was largely abandoned. In Star Trek, as were the silly sound effects heard in "The Squire of Gothos" after Kirk shoots the mirror, it remains a relic of the era in which it was made. That's all.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

In Star Trek, as were the silly sound effects heard in "The Squire of Gothos" after Kirk shoots the mirror, it remains a relic of the era in which it was made. That's all.

It was the sorts of sounds LOST IN SPACE traded in weekly.

 

[drt]

How about the Transporter Room scene in "Mudd's Women," when McCoy is wearing is regular shirt, but his closeup is taken from the later scene in Sickbay when he has on his medical smock

Maybe I'm misrembering, but I feel like this mistake happened on a couple of other occasions.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Maybe I'm misrembering, but I feel like this mistake happened on a couple of other occasions.

I think it did. McCoy's top certainly changes back and forth a few times during the Spock/McCoy sickbay scene in Turnabout Intruder.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

I think it did. McCoy's top certainly changes back and forth a few times during the Spock/McCoy sickbay scene in Turnabout Intruder.

Probably insignia-free, if he's in sickbay. Somewhat less noticeable?