Jefferies tube painted on in "Lessons"

You can tell the jefferies tube behind them is painted on by the different color and being able to see the shadow on it. It was a little disappointing to have the fake background right in the center of the footage like that

 

Yeah, that's supposed to be used for background shots. I was pretty gobsmacked back in the day when I first saw that.

 

That's actually a dimensional gateway applied by Ensign Wile E. Coyote.

 

Must be Q hiding in plain sight...

Actually I never noticed that, probably due to Nella Daren being onscreen the hottest person to appear on TNG

 

Technically that's a translight, which is artwork or a photo printed onto a clear surface and light from behind.

 

Not nearly as bad as the hallway from "Coming of Age". It's hard to find a screencap that decently captures how obvious it is when viewing the episode. Its like a school play.

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x19/comingofage_hd_373.jpg

 

Yeah, that's really fake looking.

This use of a trompe l'oeil painted backdrop in the original Outer Limits is more convincing -- and it's from 1963.

 

The problem is, there is also literally a shadow cast on the forced perspective, which includes ceiling lights.

 

First time I saw this (before noticing the TNG tag) I thought it was Captain Janeway.

 

And if they want to use something flat with perspective in it like that, they also really need to lock the camera down. Any kind of movement gives it away.

I don't know about that, but I always thought that keyboard was one of the corniest props ever to appear on TNG.

 

Okay but if you watch it on a TV manufactured in 1980, with a 19 inch screen , it looks totally real.

 

It looked crummy on my old TV and a bootlegged tape back in the '90s and it looks crummy now.

 

Perspective translights/paintings only work from one single viewpoint or angle. Getting it off by just a couple of degrees and the effect is ruined.
That jefferies tube translight was designed to be seen from directly the junction, whoever set up that shot was a moron.

 

Maybe when I rewatch this episode in a year or two I might remember to notice this.
But honestly, I never even noticed this.

 

Now the trick is to come up with a plausible in-universe explanation for stuff like this that looks funky to the viewing audience.

Kor

 

The door on that jeffries tube was broken so Nella Darren set up a forcefield blocking the audio because the perfect accoustics only work when that specific tube is closed. An anti audio forcefield was also used in Coming of Age, they didn't want to bother everyone just doing their work with a bunch of explosions and Wesley screaming for help.
Audio forcefields just happen to distort the view a bit, it's called the "painted wall effect" and affects humans the most, their immediate reaction is to think "That's not a hallway, that's a painted wall, do they think I'm stupid?", audio forcefields are rarely used on ships and starbases mostly manned by humans for that reason, Wesley not noticing the forcefield was the real reason he didn't make it, had he realized they were just fucking with him right away he would have been on the next ship back to earth in his new cadet uniform.

 

I have a weird soft spot for matte set extensions. So I forgive it, even if the director had a little too much faith in it's realism.

 

The scene has more problems, as well. For example:

That roll-out piano she laid down, suddenly grew legs when she was seen playing it shortly later in that scene.

 

Then again, it's supposed to be a set, in-universe. There's a fake room behind the doors Wes is headed for, too...

Clearly, this whole wing is dedicated to training tomfoolery. That the forced perspective mural doesn't cue Wes to this fact shouldn't be taken as testimony for his stupidity, though - not if every second wall in that wing is covered with such a mural, or worse.

Timo Saloniemi

 

You guys are killing me!
Now I'm going to have to watch the episode tonight