Star Trek: Renegades
- Thread starter Danlav05
- Start date
We did consider green screen, we had chromat curtains available which would have been great to use, though even with green curtain, chromat or painted wood, there were issues with a green bleed on shots, especially a shallow depth of field, and the camera compression would leave us with a bigger green edge problem with green than we started with. And that's not even touching on the fact you have to light it separately to produce an even key.
I think AFX (or equivelent) post work on a black or referenced on-set graphic really gives you the freedom to do whatever you want with the animations, and if you hate it... you can change it without re-filming.
The issue with double-lighting on things like cling/adhesive vinyl or transparency is that, assuming you're starting off with a transparent medium then you'll be printing black as well as the colour, which means the light will pass through both in equal parts. Although admittedly the darker colours will let through a little less, however the last thing you want is a light black with a slightly lighter colour.
I tried everything from laser cut 300gsm black card with colour transparency in the button holes, to adhesive vinyl and nothing really provided the right look. Especially where there's limited ability to control natural light or access a decent amount of artificial light it becomes quite difficult.
What we did in our case got the best results for us, although it generated more work!
Some of the DSLR's (550 or above) have firmware upgrades you can install which let you record near-uncompressed footage, but it was a bit before our time. If I did it again (and I'm tempted!), I'd film on my 600... though I'd still add the lcars in post.
never tried the black light approach -- not sure how much fluorescence would appear on the otherside of the transparency, especially since we were using a translucent shieet behind the transparency to diffuse the light from the light source. The backlit sheets as Johnny points out make for lighter black backgrounds. I suspect the only way to achieve the result would be to cut out a sheet of opaque laminate (ie black countertop material) with the areas to be backlit already precut and then place the applique over the top of it and a piece of non-reflective glass or plexi over the top of that. Which would cost far more than Potemkin can budget for it at this time.
On Polaris we had four flatscreen monitors running DVD loops, six overhead transparencies on light boxes, and a whole mess of physical buttons lit from below. The great thing about this is we got the best of all worlds in that we had animations running on the consoles that we didn't have to matte, the controls were "practical" in that they were physical and the actors could interact with them by touch, and the overhead graphics are easy to replace in post if we want (in some cases we'd pull out the artwork and slap a green filter and diffusion in there to make an instant greenscreen.
The other benefit of having backlit art/buttons/lit screens is you get something that's difficult to achieve if you add them in post: interactive lighting. Note in the second pic that you can see the glow from the buttons on the hand of the actress just left of center.
The other benefit of having backlit art/buttons/lit screens is you get something that's difficult to achieve if you add them in post: interactive lighting. Note in the second pic that you can see the glow from the buttons on the hand of the actress just left of center.
The trickiest part is the holographic table projections, but so far NEO f/x is doing a bang-up job match moving that stuff, even when actors pass in front of it.
Last edited:
Currently, we're looking at replacing the midlevel displays with actual monitors. We'll probably keep the overheads and control panels as appliques because our cast can interact with the "touchpads" better. Physical buttons, although attractive, weren't used in our Trek timeframe. Most of the panels, displays, and all were based upon those from either TMP, TWOK and TUC.
Sorry Danlav05, I must have missed that somehow. I've not been on here in years. I love it when someone or a group builds a set, I love the look so it'll be interesting to see what they've come up with.
Unfortunately our set ended up being most of a local councils bonfire.
Whoa welcome back! I know this is off topic, but what happened to your fanfilm? is it going to be released someplace?
they could always contact this person and see if his bridge is available?
http://subspacecommunique.com/node/499
WHY and HOW did I never hear about this? This had gotta go to a fan film.
Okay, Johnny... Dude, if you're not gonna finish this thing, then please post as much imagry as you can. I LOVE this production. I can't even find the images that used to be on the Hyperion thread anymore. It was great stuff. Loved all of it. The set building pics were great. The combadge fabrication was great. The raw ship models..great.
Ah! No it was screwed together top to bottom, front to back. Took some doing getting it apart as well! The studio walls were only half a metre behind the set anyway.
I never understood why people complained so much about fan productions... you'd think they paid to watch them or something.
You'd also think that they had to watch them. Fan films won't affect the future of Star Trek and you don't have to watch them. So any complaints should be constructive. Then the productions can be improved, the viewers will enjoy it more, and everyone will be happy.
Because if you put something out for public approval, expect praise AND critisim. And I don't think there's a great deal of complaining going on about fan productions, it's just the negative comments are more likely to get disagreed with.
If someone says 'Great!' no one bats an eye-lid.
However say 'I hate this!', and everyone rally's.
Even so, my general critism is that fan productions change what star trek looks like, and therefore I tend to lose the familiarity, closely followed by my interest.
I'm not angry about it, I just have my view... and I enjoy productions that fit my views of what star trek should be.
All the best.
Well, given enough time, actual canonical Star Trek productions change what Star Trek looks like, too. Fan productions don't have a corner on the market for making changes in the Star Trek universe. After nerarly fifty years, the Star Trek universe has changed--sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically.
And, for that matter, after fifty years, even real universes change, too. I'd be surprised if the Star Trek universe exists in some kind of statis chamber--impervious to the effects of time.
Its true that even the cononical star trek will change with time, though with fan productions the longevity is not necessarily gauranteed and coincidentily is more difficult to become familiar with characters, ships, environment, especially if there are changes to what is expected from a certain era. And that's where my reservation lies.
if this production is still looking for a next gen set.... set restoration project
it might take a few years tho...
it might take a few years tho...
Two new additions to the cast:
Source:
ST:R November Newsletter
IMDB pages:
Larissa Gomes
Tarah Paige
I noticed that Tarah has had extensive stuntwork experience. I'm wondering if they were intentionally looking for a stuntwoman for that role.
Source:
ST:R November Newsletter
IMDB pages:
Larissa Gomes
Tarah Paige
I noticed that Tarah has had extensive stuntwork experience. I'm wondering if they were intentionally looking for a stuntwoman for that role.
Absolutely not true. TPTB attribute the return to the TOS Enterprise (JJ Trek) to the popularity they saw in TOS fan films.
Similar threads
