Tuesday, July 12, 2022

I dream of genie in a bottle

 


17 comments:

  1. I wonder why it's set up so high?

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    1. Most likely to accommodate low camera angle shots, for which the mike placement on the left, low to the cushion, provides a clue. Low shots of the actress prostrate on the near cushions would also bring into frame the upper bounds of the "bottle" to reinforce the sense that the actress is confined in the "bottle." The mike on the right is likely for shots of the actress seated or propped on her elbow on the cushions. That low-high setup also allows for the actress to move about in the (false) confines of the "bottle," to allow her and the director to use her movement inside the "bottle" for expression, striking attitudes in accordance with the script/storyline. If the set was at ground level, the camera dollies of that period couldn't lower a camera enough to get low or eye-level shots of the actress lying down on the cushions; but the dollies were able to elevate to take high shots.

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  2. There should be a hookah in the middle.

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  3. I think the metal framework might have movement capability. I have a vague memory of one of the shots is the bottle shaking/tilting as someone picks it up.

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    1. The framework might have incorporated a motion feature, but most of the shake-up shots of that period were done by shaking the camera to simulate impacts, tremors, quakes, &c.

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    2. I remembered the 'shaking' sequences from the original series, and was wondering that too. But I looked at the frame as closely as I could and saw only angle braces, no hydraulic cylinders. Appreciate the exhange, thanks!

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    3. Process shots, where something appears to be moving, shaken, etc., esp. in that era, but today as well, are most often accomplished by two fat grips (guys who move and place everything on set) leaning on a 4x4 under one side, and jacking the bottle set around via good old fashioned muscle power. I'll match paychecks that method was responsible on more than one episode.

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    4. I remember seeing the interior of the submarine in The Hunt for Red October
      ( may have been one of your posts?) The whole set was on moveable platform to provide the action in the control room.
      Bubbrust

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    5. Not my post.
      But that'd be the difference between Hollywood FX circa 1967, and Hollywood FX circa 1990.

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  4. Bald guy in the lower right has a big grin, I betcha. I sure would.

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  5. Anybody else wonder why they had her climbing on the backside of the ladder?

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    1. Appears to be a double sided ladder. Notice the double top rails.

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    2. Grip Dept. standard. They also use double ladders on a dolly with a pulley-raised center section.

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  6. WRT the Red October motion platform . . . on one of my midshipman cruises I went to Charleston, SC for exposure to the submarine Navy. They had a large motion platform that was loaded with a number of simulators. Helm, stations for the planesmen, ballast control, missile control, etc. They told us about crash dives and said that if the sub got too much down-angle it would be unrecoverable. Then they simulated that with the motion platform. Before they stopped, we midshipmen were standing on the sides of the control cabinets.

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    1. Great place, Charleston. Had our scout troop doing A weekend camping
      experience on the Yorktown. Friend and assistant on the trip was
      retired navy submariner. Called and got the troop A visit and tour of
      nuclear sub Bluefish and a missile ship. Incredible!!
      Bubbarust

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  7. Best manicurist Mayberry ever had.

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