Rich Sternbach weighs in on Zero Hour's use of CGI:



I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice this.

Source: TrekBBS (registration required).

I'm relieved that I wasn't the only person who noticed the MIDAS array thing. It's not that big of a deal, but I did think it was kind of lazy/cheap to use the exact same model and not alter it at all.

I'm fairly new around here (been doing a lot of catch-up reading) [ETA: and this post bumps me to "Channel Surfer! Woohoo!] and so sometimes I'll come across something in one of the threads that I want to comment on, only to see that it was something from a year ago or more. Most of the time I don't bother, because it's either a minor point or it gets addressed later, but this one was, I think, kind of left hanging. In May of 2003, hollytree asked about the difference between a "story arc" and "continuity." I read the replies, and although there was "sort of" a resolution, I had a thought that I could maybe boil it down to a few words. So, here goes:

Anything that happens in the "Previously on Enterprise..." part of the teaser is story arc. It's that part of what went before that you need to know to understand this part.

I need to know that the Xindi are being aided by the SphereBuilders to understand why it is so important to destroy the spheres and thus why the Enterprise doesn't go after the super-weapon itself.

I don't need to know that T'Pol and Trip are in the "should I try for a goodnight kiss?" phase of a relationship, or that Denobulans enjoy, well, just about everything, for the episode to make sense.

Sorry for the timewarp...

That's a good distinction, Linguist. I like that guideline. Of course, in May 2003, there were no previouslies on this show, so the point really couldn't have been made back then.

The fact that there are now previouslies also says a great deal about the way this show has changed. I can't recall previouslies being used before to any great extent (BoBW on TNG perhaps?) and this season they were included in something like half of the episodes. The concept of continuity has in many ways been replaced by the story arch and I can't say that I'd like to complain about that. I rather like it.

DS9 started to use the previouslies more and more once the Dominion War started.

In the interest of pulling non-spoilery stuff out of the spoiler thread so as to share with all the children:

I won't share the link, 'cause the rest is spoilery.

Also, Startrek.com reports that they're underway with filming for the new season. Although, not filming exactly. Director of Photography Marvin Rush has switched them to digital video. He claims we won't notice the difference.

Thanks for sharing the non-spoilery stuff!! Can anyone explain what digital video is?

It means they're using a high definition digital camera to shoot the episodes instead of film. Since we never see a projected image, we shouldn't see any difference, since those of us with normal TVs will be seeing a lower resolution image than the camera is shooting anyway. Those with high-def shouldn't notice either, since the camera resolution should be as high or higher than the resolution of HDTV.

It's the same stuff that Lucas used to shoot Episodes II & III; it lends itself well to special effectsy stuff. The best film stock is still a better image than digital, but digital is cleaner and I doubt that most people could tell the difference, especially when you're only seeing it on TV.

Once Upon A Time In Mexico was also shot on DV. In the special features Rodriguez raves about how much more flexible, time saving and money saving it is.