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Gold Proof

Metryq

Metryq

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
See? The command uniforms are GOLD! They looked gold on TV. The command shirts in TAS were gold. I have behind-the-scenes production stills where the shirts are gold. I know, I know. The costume material had a slight iridescence that made it look sorta-green under the right lighting. But Kirk's wrap-around and the dress uniform jacket were the only items unambiguously green (not counting Orions). So, of course, the color grading for Blu-ray remaster forced the color to be green.


"Starfleet Officers TOS" by nono62, DeviantArt
 
I'm glad Theiss didn't use a plain yellow dye for Command division, which could look too simplistic (like Lego figures), but even that would look better than the sickly pale green that his chosen shade had in dim lighting, and we never saw under the studio lights.

He said he was very exacting about his dyeing instructions, and he called it lime green. Google AI: "Lime green is a vibrant, energetic color with bright yellow undertones." Sounds right.

The white uniform is flattering as hell, like for Medical division, but that wasn't going to thrill RCA in 1966.
 
 
ZapBrannigan said:
he called it lime green
Click to expand...
I think "avocado" would be a better term. I recall a lot of that color in kitchens and the like while growing up. As for primary colors (yellow or green) depends on whether you are using print or light (like TV/film).
 
Metryq said:
I think "avocado" would be a better term. I recall a lot of that color in kitchens and the like while growing up. As for primary colors (yellow or green) depends on whether you are using print or light (like TV/film).
Click to expand...
Yeah, he might have said avocado. I didn't dig out the interview.

Google: "Avocado green is a warm, earthy hue that blends green, yellow, and subtle brown undertones to mimic the natural colors of a ripe avocado fruit. Because it varies from a bright, creamy interior yellow-green to a dark, olive-toned outer skin, multiple shades exist across design platforms.
 
BK613 said:
Yet red, blue and gold regular unis? Nah.
Click to expand...
Yup


Whatever the color was on set, over the air, it was gold. And that's what counts. Just like George Reeves' Superman costume was brown, gray and white on set in the black and white episodes so it stood out in monochrome. Didn't mean that was the character's actual color scheme.

The blu rays changed the uniform colors to reflect the on set color schemes. Not what we all saw. I can't imagine they wanted the command uniforms to be avocado and didn't take pains to make sure it showed up that way. We saw what they wanted us to see. Which was a vivid color palette. Didn't matter if the dress uniforms of Kirk's wrap was green. In the grand scheme of things, they wanted a ton of colors in 1966 to sell those RCA color sets.

Funny also how the TOS colors on home video packaging tends to reflect Gold, Red and Blue also. Not a single avocado set in my library. Maybe leaning towards mustard a little. But yellow mustard.
 
Color reproduction in digital video and with the displays we have now leaves analog video and CRT displays in the dust. The exact technical details would fill a very thick book, so I won't bore anyone here.

Some colors fill huge areas of a "chromaticity diagram" so that variations in "the" color look like the same color. Then there are those transitional areas where something might look "blue" on one person's TV yet "green" on another.



"Yellow" is one of those "transitional" colors that might tip either way. I've been watching some older TV shows from the '80s and '90s that I know were shot on video. Despite the fact that professional engineers were babysitting the gear, I've noticed that many of the yellows (blonde hair, lighter wood tones, etc.) look decidedly greenish. I've checked the recordings on several monitors, including one made for color reference. (Yes, and vectorscopes and parade displays.) And I just itch to pump a bit of blue into those scenes. It would make people look more natural, and less like the Simpsons.

Thus, it would not be surprising to see a "yellow" item run the gamut from green highlights, to yellow mid-tones to almost orangey shadows, as in the "Corbomite Maneuver" frame Ssosmcin linked above.
 
Theiss intended the command uniforms to be green. That’s apparent in his wardrobe notes. How it photographed is a separate issue. Also, once they dyed a bunch of the fabric, they weren’t about to go through the expensive dying another batch to be closer to their intention. I suspect that the third season when they switched to the double-knit fabric they decided to stick with what was familiar.
 
In "Trials and Tribble-ations" it is explicitly stated by Sisko that the command division color in Kirk's day was gold. Which is what we have seen on screen for decades as well.

What Theiss intended, or what it looked like on set, is irrelevant.
 
Ssosmcin said:
Whatever the color was on set, over the air, it was gold. And that's what counts.
Click to expand...

Indeed, no matter the camera, type of film, lighting or accepted color for animators, it was not green...

RQD1Fjh.jpg
 
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