filming shortcut

[retronaut]

This is relatively easy, but I'll throw it out here anyway. What shortcut was taken to achieve these two angles for the same scene?

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x29hd/operationannihilatehd080.jpg

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x29hd/operationannihilatehd081.jpg

 

[DonIago]

...is this supposed to be some sort of quiz?

 

[Christopher]

Judging from the different displays, it looks like they moved them to a different bridge station. However, that would hardly be a shortcut, since it would require moving the whole lighting setup.

 

[retronaut]

...is this supposed to be some sort of quiz?

It was, and I thought I had the answer, but I now realize that the console in the second angle (over Uhura's shoulder) doesn't match up with any of the familiar consoles, either with respect to the small display panel, or w/ respect to the large display screen over the console. The second angle may have been filmed at one of the seldom-seen consoles (Navigation, Defense, etc.) in a standalone configuration.

So, what was intended to be an easy quiz is now a mystery. It's not the Communications console in the second angle...that's for certain. But which console is it?

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Isn't it one of the engineering stations?

 

[retronaut]

Isn't it one of the engineering stations?

I thought it was the Engineering console at first, but it doesn't match that either...nor does it match the one to its right (Environmental).

 

[Christopher]

So what did you think the answer was?

 

[retronaut]

So what did you think the answer was?

I thought it was the Engineering console, making use of a lighting setup for another scene in the episode.

Now I'm sorry I spotted the inconsistency in the first place...because it's driving me nuts.

In any case, it's a console with one wide overhead display (vs. two narrower displays), it's one with a specific button array that doesn't match the commonly-seen consoles, and the display panel we see appears nowhere else on the bridge (specifically, the yellow grid with the red diagonal of increasing magnitude, and with that particular size and positioning of the x-axis text).

EDIT: I finally determined that it's the Navigation station...the one immediately to the left of the Science station. The button layout was the giveaway. Apparently it was easier to set up for the alternate angle using that station than it would have been to film it at the Comm. station.

 

[Maurice]

The shortcut here is one commonly used on TOS. Rather than relighting a station for a specific angle, they'd often just move the actors into an existing lighting setup for another shot.

Another shortcut they used at least once was to spin the command module around so that they could shoot it from behind without putting the bridge back together (the section between Spock's station to the viewer was often pulled out. That's why there's at least one occasion when you see over the helm and there's no viewer.

 

[Christopher]

What always bugs me are those shots where you can see the bare edge of Spock's console. That shouldn't be visible, because in-universe there's always another station right next to it, flush with it. It gives away that there's a piece of the set missing so the camera can look in.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

I agree with you on this one wholeheartedly, Christopher!
It happened during the second pilot and was still occurring in the third season as late as The Cloud Minders.

 

[retronaut]

While researching this, I discovered that in "Is There In Truth No Beauty?", the Navigation and Defense station set segments were switched.

 

[Kelso]

Another shortcut they used at least once was to spin the command module around so that they could shoot it from behind without putting the bridge back together (the section between Spock's station to the viewer was often pulled out. That's why there's at least one occasion when you see over the helm and there's no viewer.

Do you happen to remember which episode that was?

 

[retronaut]

Another shortcut they used at least once was to spin the command module around so that they could shoot it from behind without putting the bridge back together (the section between Spock's station to the viewer was often pulled out. That's why there's at least one occasion when you see over the helm and there's no viewer.

Do you happen to remember which episode that was?

There is a shot of Chekov turned around at his station, in which there is a console directly in front of the command module rather than the viewing screen. At the moment, I can't recall the episode.

 

[M'Sharak]

Another shortcut they used at least once was to spin the command module around so that they could shoot it from behind without putting the bridge back together (the section between Spock's station to the viewer was often pulled out. That's why there's at least one occasion when you see over the helm and there's no viewer.

Do you happen to remember which episode that was?

There is a shot of Chekov turned around at his station, in which there is a console directly in front of the command module rather than the viewing screen. At the moment, I can't recall the episode.

That's from "By Any Other Name".

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x22/byanyothername0215.jpg

 

[GSchnitzer]

Another shortcut they used at least once was to spin the command module around so that they could shoot it from behind without putting the bridge back together (the section between Spock's station to the viewer was often pulled out. That's why there's at least one occasion when you see over the helm and there's no viewer.

Do you happen to remember which episode that was?

Here's a shot from "By Any Other Name" with a rotated "command module." After they got a shot of these guys over at the Environmental Sub-Systems Check-Out Station being reduced to cubal-octahedron things:

...they needed to get a shot of Chekov being similarly reduced. Rather than lighting the background behind Chekov's seat, they rotated the Helm/Navigation console about 45 degrees so that the background that would be visible behind Chekov would be the already-lit section of the bridge (instead of having to light a different section):

 

[Orcus]

Oh, and here's me reading the thread title and thinking it was the name for the type of shot you were after... It's called a reverse-angle shot (or reverse shot) by the way...

I didn't know I was stepping into such a minefield; looking at these photos there are many inconsistencies for the very reasons stated above...

Sorry - that was a bit of a nothing post, wasn't it...?