LOST production values six feet under[]
Fellow Losties,
given the slim and improbable (though not impossible) chance, that the producers of our favorite television series visit this website occasionally, I'd like to use this platform / section to bring a subject into focus, which I think merits some attention:
LOST had a great start when it was decided to shred a real commercial airliner into pieces to start the TV series with an outspoken realistic look and feel. It made the budget for the pilot episode skyrocket and unfortunately (und undeservedly after all!!!) cost some people their jobs, but eventually was the right decision. Being successful as it is, one may to come to expect that the producers would at least try to uphold the production value but when it came to visualizing the submarines the production value plunged or submerged.
I didn't like the cheesy looking CGI effects for the Galaga submarine in "The Incident", but the life size prop section we saw sticking out above the waterline looked just like that: cheap, comical and hilarious. More like a couple of cardboard pieces put on top of a little boat. Everybody who has ever seen a real life submarine anchoring in a harbor or US Navy Base understands what I mean. There is always a prolonged section of a submarine above the waterline, not just the conning tower and its immediate surroundings.
Now I'm neither expecting an expensive and movable "above waterline" life size prop like the Typhoon Class II sub in the Paramount production HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER or the German World War II sub from the German production DAS BOOT.
The Japanese Yushio Class submarine (Widmore's submarine seems to pretend to be that kind of sub) is a rather modern and compact, snub-submarine in real life with a length of 250 feet. Yet that "thing" harboring at the Hydra Island dock is even shorter still and what really 'bakes my noodle' is the fact that the production team on location wasn't even concerned / considering ramming a post into the ground with an attached black cardboard (several dozen feet behind the sub's conning tower) to pretend at least an existing aft fin (which would have suggested some credible length, at least). Extra production costs: 100 US $ ?
What's done, has been done - but I feel that prior to the DVD and Blu-Ray release the producers should at least make the effort of adding a CGI image of the submarine's aft fin sticking out of the water - to at least make an attempt to provide some realistic feel to that scene.
Thanx for listening, please spread the word, godspeed --SokratesOne 15:52, March 19, 2010 (UTC)
Did Widmore's sub carry the portable sonic fence pylons?[]
This is another goodie that comes with Widmore's submarine. I for one am completely unable to imagine how that could have been possible (please bear in mind that the tiny sub we see is an SSN attack sub, not a giant SSBN ballistic missile carrier like an Ohio Class sub nor a Russian Typhoon class monster where instead of ballistic missiles the tubes were filled with sonic fence pylons...I'm in no position to argue with the producers about this as long as BAD ROBOT's CGI wizards transform Widmore's mini-sub into either of these for the home video release of season six).
The only plausible explanation can be that those sonic fence pylons were left in Hydra Island's storehouse. That might also explain the demise of the remaining Ajira passengers: They found the sonic pylons, messed with these (not knowing what they were doing, typical human behaviour) and thus accidentally killed themselves. --SokratesOne 16:10, March 19, 2010 (UTC)