I'm sorry I asked!!
All the Best,
BRIAN
PS. Only kidding!
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Rob <
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To:
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Sent: Sat, 13 March, 2010 19:17:12
Subject: [SHADO] Re: SHADO BLACK & WHITE MONITOR SCREENS
I hate to nitpick Griff, but blue/greenscreen opticals are also mattes. A matte is a two-part process to obscure one part of the screen whilst the other is exposed, then the mattes are reversed and the second part can be added. This was a post production process using a device called an optical printer.
As you pointed out, Star Trek was shot on 35mm, and 'static mattes' were used to overlay screens where required. Usually they just stuck pictures of galaxies on the walls, as opticals were expensive, so they wouldn't use one unless it was totally necessary. If something needed overlaying, they wouldsometimes use blue screens for backgrounds. (Green screen is a new technique that only emerged with digital) - Blue was chosen as it was the colour with the fewest skin tones, and so could be isolated photographically. This technique is called a 'travelling matte', as each frame is different. It's a much more complex process that requires four separate rolls of film to becarefully aligned, both in position and time. Even then, it was never perfect and you often got a thick black line round the edges.
The term 'Chroma-Key' is an American buzzword for 'Colour Separation Overlay (CSO)' - and is a process used only by television vision systems and is acompletely electronic process, but many people assume it is the same thing. It bears the classic 'buzzline' round edges seen so often in TV such as Doctor Who and Blake's 7.
Very nasty.
Hope that enlightens.
Rob
> Star Trek production 'faked' active colour screens (such as the main viewer) using a matte, where at the time of film transfer, the filmed scene (i.e. The Enterprise bridge) had the main viewer display optically merged at the time of transfer, giving the effect of a 'live feed main viewer' when inactual fact there was probably just a blank wall there for the actors to marvel at.
>
> According to the Star Trek production information I have, there wasn't much 'colour keying (blue or green screen)' used in Star Trek at all... it was nearly ALL matte work.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Griff
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