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Favorite camera angle?

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balanceofterrorhd655.jpg
balanceofterrorhd655.jpg


End of Balance of Terror.
 
Some of the examples here are lighting, not really camera angles. Maybe "favorite shot" is more accurate?
 
I like seeing the starboard side of the bridge for a change, as in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"

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Another nice view is the overhead shot looking straight down on the bridge in "The Galileo Seven" and re-used as stock footage in "The Lights of Zetar"

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x16hd/thegalileosevenhd003.jpg

We reach. I freeze on starboard bridge shots and zoom in.

I love Kirk in the middle of the bridge. Also at end of Enemy Within, fittingly. Very Jungian. The producers/director channelled the archetype of the squared circle (bridge) with the whole person (in-dividuated, undivided) Kirk, who balances animus-Spock and anima-McCoy right in the middle. Perfect! No wonder Trek is so iconic with all that primal, mythic stuff going on!!
 
Some of the examples here are lighting, not really camera angles. Maybe "favorite shot" is more accurate?


Since a director and DP work together, that makes more sense.

Also since directors on dramas in those days got a week prep time, he usually would have most of his shots if not planned, certainly in his head, especially a Daniels or Pevney who knew the show very well. He would then discuss them with Finnerman/Francis, who would make suggestions/start thinking about lighting.
 
"Mudd's Women" has a ton of interesting camera setups that are interesting to look at as far as composition, but viewed in the actual episode, the cuts between shots are very awkward and it feels very stagey.

This is my favorite one though:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd006.jpg


Thats because he gave the editors very little to work with, because of his 'camera editing.' When given the material to work with, the Trek editors were among the best in the business. They still messed up once in a while - the pressure on them was crazy - but they still did damn fine work.
 
This shot from The Immunity Syndrome, which I also like, is also from behind the scanner, but it's not the same.

Augh. They could have moved in just a hair and not made it so obvious the upper part of the stations are missing.

The most obvious shot of this type is the one from Errand of Mercy, with the wood floor support and the side of Spock's station visible.

Do you mean this one? :lol: What makes that, and this one from The Changeling, especially egregious is that Nimoy's hand is draped over the edge of the console and is occupying space that should "really" be filled with the next station.

Shots from the side of the science station, where the side of the station was visible, as in these, were rather frequent, so the shot from The Immunity Syndrome doesn't bother me at all, certainly not by comparison. Even the one from The Doomsday Machine probably shows too much height of the scanner (IIRC, it was extracted from the station just for that shot).
 
Do you mean this one? :lol: What makes that, and this one from The Changeling, especially egregious is that Nimoy's hand is draped over the edge of the console and is occupying space that should "really" be filled with the next station.

Shots from the side of the science station, where the side of the station was visible, as in these, were rather frequent, so the shot from The Immunity Syndrome doesn't bother me at all, certainly not by comparison. Even the one from The Doomsday Machine probably shows too much height of the scanner (IIRC, it was extracted from the station just for that shot).


Agreed, but I think the filmmakers were rightly confident that not one viewer in a thousand was going to notice these issues.

1.) The typical TV set of the late 1960s had some overscan built in, meaning you couldn't see all the way to the edge of the frame.

2.) The show was meant to be seen by a public who didn't have the set designs memorized and would simply accept what they were seeing.

Thinking back, as a seasoned fan I noticed Spock's hand going out of bounds during the SD/CRT era and considered it a minor flaw in the staging, but you accept those things.
 
1.) The typical TV set of the late 1960s had some overscan built in, meaning you couldn't see all the way to the edge of the frame.

It's really noticeable watching old shows on DVD. Very often in a head shot of a character, there's a great deal of open space above them, leaving the impression that the camera is shooting too high. It's a lot like a comic book page in production, where open space is left for dialogue balloons!
 
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