Mudd's gobos

[jayrath]

Re-re-rewatching "Mudd's Women" on MeTV (incidentally, watch TOS with commercials for a true 1960s experience) I noticed gobos in the conference room scene.

A gobo is template -- in old time instances, often an actual scissored aluminum plate -- placed over a theatrical lighting instrument. It's cut so that light cast through it shows up on stage as representing a sky with clouds or trees, a wall opposite window sills, or similar effects.

Modern stage tech has animated gobos to create snow and rain effects. You get the idea. A gobo creates sharp shadows. (A related though not identical gimmick in cinema is termed a cookaloris.)

In "Mudd's Women" we see great big, round gobo images between each of the conference room stanchions. Apparently, light coming in from portholes? And each is crossed up and across: an "O" with a "+" placed over it.
It seems to me that the cinematic intent was to show evidence of space-light coming through ship windows.

Or?

 

[USS Triumphant]

I had never heard of gobos before reading this thread. Now you've got me wondering what the connection is (if any) between them and Gobo Fraggle (like if hearing the word around sets influenced his name).

 

[Spock's Barber]

Didn't GR tell cinematographer Jerry Finnerman to 'paint' the sets with exotic colors and effects since ST was in the future and no one would know what to expect?

 

[Albertese]

It never occurred to me that those might have been meant to simulate windows, just decorative lighting.

--Alex

 

[Maurice]

cuculoris is the actual spelling, but it's sometimes written in other ways. Shorthand for a cuculoris is a "cookie". The term "gobo" originated as stage slang for “Go Blackout”, but in film is often defined as “GOes Before Optic”, and are slang for things which go between a light and what it's illuminating. And, to be more accurate, all cuculorises are gobos, but not all gobos are cuculorises.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

cuculoris is the actual spelling, but it's sometimes written in other ways. Shorthand for a cuculoris is a "cookie". The term "gobo" originated as stage slang for “Go Blackout”, but in film is often defined as “GOes Before Optic”, and are slang for things which go between a light and what it's illuminating.

Also a term in recording for any kind of studio isolation divider. Hence my confusion at this thread.

 

[PCz911]

Re-re-rewatching "Mudd's Women" on MeTV (incidentally, watch TOS with commercials for a true 1960s experience) I noticed gobos in the conference room scene.

A gobo is template -- in old time instances, often an actual scissored aluminum plate -- placed over a theatrical lighting instrument. It's cut so that light cast through it shows up on stage as representing a sky with clouds or trees, a wall opposite window sills, or similar effects.

Modern stage tech has animated gobos to create snow and rain effects. You get the idea. A gobo creates sharp shadows. (A related though not identical gimmick in cinema is termed a cookaloris.)



In "Mudd's Women" we see great big, round gobo images between each of the conference room stanchions. Apparently, light coming in from portholes? And each is crossed up and across: an "O" with a "+" placed over it.
It seems to me that the cinematic intent was to show evidence of space-light coming through ship windows.

Or?

Ok, I looked...and missed it. Do you have the screenshot?

 

[mach7]

You mean this?

 

[Spock's Barber]

You mean this?

What light effects? I can't take my eyes off of those Trek babes!

 

[GSchnitzer]

Re-re-rewatching "Mudd's Women" on MeTV (incidentally, watch TOS with commercials for a true 1960s experience) I noticed gobos in the conference room scene.

A gobo is template -- in old time instances, often an actual scissored aluminum plate -- placed over a theatrical lighting instrument. It's cut so that light cast through it shows up on stage as representing a sky with clouds or trees, a wall opposite window sills, or similar effects.

Modern stage tech has animated gobos to create snow and rain effects. You get the idea. A gobo creates sharp shadows. (A related though not identical gimmick in cinema is termed a cookaloris.)

In "Mudd's Women" we see great big, round gobo images between each of the conference room stanchions. Apparently, light coming in from portholes? And each is crossed up and across: an "O" with a "+" placed over it.
It seems to me that the cinematic intent was to show evidence of space-light coming through ship windows.

Or?

For what it's worth, I think it is meant to evoke the round portholes of a ship and cross-hairs of a military vessel. I think it is meant to do that subliminally, not actually.

More information here:

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/2...erhoff-from-inside-star-trek-issue-number-12/

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I don't know if the effect was meant to suggest port holes, but another motive could be to add affordable detail to plain walls. This would reduce the tendency of close-ups to look too simple, like a person in front of a blank, unvarying background.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd189.jpg

 

[GSchnitzer]

I don't know if the effect was meant to suggest port holes, but another motive could be to add affordable detail to plain walls. This would reduce the tendency of close-ups to look too simple, like a person in front of a blank, unvarying background.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd189.jpg

Oh, I agree that it's meant to give texture to a plain wall. But they didn't use a gobo that looks like light coming through trees and leaves; they didn't use a gobo that looks like light coming through a venetian blind. They added texture to make it look like this. What is this supposed to be?

 

[Melakon]

Probably to suggest light coming through beams in the ceiling. A similar effect sometimes showed up near the bridge turbolift, that looked like light through an overhead grill.

 

[GNDN18]

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but Walsh/Mudd is "in the crosshairs" (thanks, GSchnitzer!), of the board of inquiry; detention was the probable denouement of those proceedings, and prison bars are suggested by the pattern.

Much has been written here and elsewhere about director Harvey Hart's artistic camera setups and the resultant overtime that led to his banishment from the lot. It wouldn't surprise me if he paid that kind of attention to the lighting.

 

[Elder Knight]

I had never heard of gobos before reading this thread. Now you've got me wondering what the connection is (if any) between them and Gobo Fraggle (like if hearing the word around sets influenced his name).

My son used to watch the Fraggles show: I recall a character was named "Traveling Matt." Thus, the producers were conscious of cinematographic jargon, and your guess is probably correct.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Probably to suggest light coming through beams in the ceiling. A similar effect sometimes showed up near the bridge turbolift, that looked like light through an overhead grill.

That's only because it was light coming through an overhead grill:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x10hd/thecorbomitemaneuverhd547.jpg

...but I think this also counts as a cuculoris.

 

[scotpens]

I had never heard of gobos before reading this thread.

Neither had I. I thought maybe it was a new slang word for testicles.

 

[Green Shirt]

I had never heard of gobos before reading this thread.

Neither had I. I thought maybe it was a new slang word for testicles.

Exactly my first thought. Mudd sure had big gobos for taking on Kirk the way he did.

 

[The Old Mixer]

So would these gobos, or whatever they're called, include effects like casting light reflecting off water in a window to suggest that the set is on the seaside? I noticed this on one of the regular sets of an old show that I've been watching.

 

[Maurice]

No. Reflectors aren't gobos. A common way to create the impression of light coming off a body of water is to put mirrors in the bottom of shallow trays filled with water, and bounce light off that while using a tool to get some minor wave action in the water.