• bleistift2@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Is there anybody here who can enlighten me on why, in certain scenes, light would be shone upon an actor’s eyes in TOS? I believe they stopped that during the first season.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      I would bet it’s because they were still filming with black and white TVs in mind, so some of the lighting choices reflect how it will look in black and white. Example.

      • bleistift2@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Still I find the lighting unnatural (personally), so there must have been some special reason to do it.

        • VioletTeacup@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          Eye lights were common back in the day because film stocks were extremely slow (needed a lot of light to expose properly). It’s always important to ensure eyes are well lit, since they’re so important for expression, even if it’s a bit overdone here.

        • void@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          It’s just a variant of “Chiaroscuro”, the Renaissance artstyle. It’s an easy way to guide the viewers focus and to give a scene some “drama”.

          This particular style is probably most famous because of the 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi. It’s become an overused trope for sure, the same way the venetian blinds cucoloris became a stereotypical “film noir” thing. See Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams where it just acts as an ironic gesture towards the Dracula movie.

          I’m not sure if the lighting director in TOS already saw it as a trope, but it’s definitely possible.

  • The_Mike_Drop@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to tell you something I’ve kept to myself all of these years. I was in the war, Medical Corps. One night they brought in a badly wounded pilot from one of the raids. He looked at me and said, “Doc, the odds were against us up there, but we went in anyway. I’m glad. Captain made the right decision.” The pilot’s name was George Zip.

    George Zip said that?

    Yes, he looked at me and said, “Doc,” he said, “Some time, when the crew is up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell 'em to get out there and give it all they’ve got. And win just one for the Zipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then Doc, he said. But I won’t smell too good, that’s for sure.”