One of the wonderful little details from B5 was the holographic recording Londo made for [REDACTED] where he’s making his grand speech about how and why he’s having him [REDACTED]. The recording is constantly looking in the wrong direction, pointing accusingly at the wall, moving through people, and just obviously not lining up with the room it’s being played in because it’s just a recording.
Then the gospel choir kicks in and the episode officially becomes my all time favorite.
That is something that has bugged me since I started watching sci-fi (yes, I am relatively new to the genre), and I don’t think I have ever seen anybody talk about it.
Star Wars is so much worse on that than anything Trek-like… so much that some times people mention it. But yeah, I’ve never seen anybody mention it about Star Trek or B5.
Starting at 2:46 in Clones Wars season 2 episode 7 we see both ends of a hologram communication. I’ve always wondered how people somehow manage to maintain eye contact while using holograms to communicate since often, as in this case, each are viewing images of the other that greatly vary in size. Obi-wan Kenobi and Ki-Adi-Mundi are in a large room looking down on a 2-3 foot image of Luminara Unduli.
Master Unduli however is holding a mobile jedi holoprojector looking down at 1 foot images of Kenobi and Mundi.
How can they both be looking down at projections less than half the height of an average humanoid while still maintaining eye contact with the person on the other end?
Stranger still, at 3:16 when Anakin Skywalker enters the room, joining the other two Jedi, we see the 2-3 foot image of Unduli in the center of the room turn her entire body about 90 degrees to face Skywalker.
Then Mundi speaks up at 3:25, prompting the small Unduli image to do a 180 degree turn to face Mundi.
However we then immediately see at 3:29 that she never needed to turn since they’ve only been two little images in her hand all along.
It makes no sense for Unduli to turn right and left to face people she’s essentially holding in her hand. Curiously, Skywalker’s image is absent from Unduli’s mobile holoprojector even though we saw her turn to face him. Did he race out of the room the nanosecond he finished talking?
Daaaaaamn, a real nerd! Got the screenshots for it too!
This is actual praise, holy hell, I did not expect to see this kind of effort for a comment. I fucking love Lemmy, I hope it stays this good for as long as possible.
This was one of the issues they ran into early in the Clone Wars. In my head, I justified it as a more advanced version of modern video chat software filters. The ones subtly shift your pupils to look like they’re looking at the camera instead of the screen. I think in later episodes, I remember seeing holograms scaled to eye level, and communicators being held at eye level as often as feasible.
But this is obviously retrospective justification, and the reality is probably “idk, it just looked better to the one or two animators who worked on this shot.”
Maybe the holograms aren’t really 1:1 “images” but, instead, like avatars. This would also help to explain what the problem holographic communicator is able to get the whole body, including the back.
I think that The Expanse did a great job at leveraging the green screen thing for comms. Because they don’t have FTL, the less conversational feeling really works because, in-universe, they’re basically never speaking in real-time.
You had me at “20th century understanding on how eye contact works in a video call”.
One of the wonderful little details from B5 was the holographic recording Londo made for [REDACTED] where he’s making his grand speech about how and why he’s having him [REDACTED]. The recording is constantly looking in the wrong direction, pointing accusingly at the wall, moving through people, and just obviously not lining up with the room it’s being played in because it’s just a recording.
Then the gospel choir kicks in and the episode officially becomes my all time favorite.
An account created three months ago, named after a Babylon 5 character, and your very first comment is under this post about Babylon 5. Checks out.
That is something that has bugged me since I started watching sci-fi (yes, I am relatively new to the genre), and I don’t think I have ever seen anybody talk about it.
Star Wars is so much worse on that than anything Trek-like… so much that some times people mention it. But yeah, I’ve never seen anybody mention it about Star Trek or B5.
I assume the logistics are entirely different with a hologram compared to a 2D viewscreen. Or are there viewscreens in Star Wars as well?
EDIT: Oh, this question probably does a good job summarizing the type of inconsistencies you are talking about
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/108609/how-do-star-wars-hologram-communications-work
Daaaaaamn, a real nerd! Got the screenshots for it too!
This is actual praise, holy hell, I did not expect to see this kind of effort for a comment. I fucking love Lemmy, I hope it stays this good for as long as possible.
This was one of the issues they ran into early in the Clone Wars. In my head, I justified it as a more advanced version of modern video chat software filters. The ones subtly shift your pupils to look like they’re looking at the camera instead of the screen. I think in later episodes, I remember seeing holograms scaled to eye level, and communicators being held at eye level as often as feasible.
But this is obviously retrospective justification, and the reality is probably “idk, it just looked better to the one or two animators who worked on this shot.”
There are viewscreens in star wars:
Ohhh I forgot about this! And somebody said Andor broke the bible with their 2D video
Maybe the holograms aren’t really 1:1 “images” but, instead, like avatars. This would also help to explain what the problem holographic communicator is able to get the whole body, including the back.
It’s how its shot. Star Trek (and anything modern I guess) is green screen and the second person edited in later. The actors are talking to nobody
B5 uses CRTs, both actors are sitting in different parts of the set talking to each other live, because they could record that.
The difference it makes is crazy. So much conversation is so much more natural due to it. Wish shows would make it happen again somehow
I think that The Expanse did a great job at leveraging the green screen thing for comms. Because they don’t have FTL, the less conversational feeling really works because, in-universe, they’re basically never speaking in real-time.
I came to write exactly this, I laughed out loud at it