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Spinward Traveller

If I understand Firefly / Serenity, (or what I've been told by a security actor who was allegedly a "big fan" of the show and movie), the setting took place in one solar system. It sounded like the show borrowed a lot of cues from Traveller, but when it came down to it, it wasn't Traveller in the least. Bab-5 wasn't Traveller in the least, though both share some common threads in terms of ideas.

A competent DP (director of photography) can cover a multitude of sins. But most of all he and the director need to go over shot design and kibitz over the visual look and feel of the film. This trailer looks very vanilla flavored, and very much a fan effort. I would reccomend scrounging through the local media directory, call up DPs, and ask for reels (DVDs of stuff they've shot); shop around, and get prices. If the crew is in the midwest, then the guide of choice is the Variety National 411 (formerly the LA411; http://variety411.com/us/los-angeles/ ). Also, hold off on aliens (because they cost money to makeup). Spend money on costumes and sets. Make it look professional, but not fancy.

Like the other guy said, 70's Dr. Who looks campy as anything in the visual effects department, but the setting and acting, with some competent camera work, offset everything else.
 
Blake's 7 was certainly very Traveller-esque in its characters and their interactions. At least compared to the groups I played with!
 
Blue Ghost said:
If I understand Firefly / Serenity, (or what I've been told by a security actor who was allegedly a "big fan" of the show and movie), the setting took place in one solar system. It sounded like the show borrowed a lot of cues from Traveller, but when it came down to it, it wasn't Traveller in the least. Bab-5 wasn't Traveller in the least, though both share some common threads in terms of ideas.
Click to expand...

Nah. That is one weird thing about Firefly/Serenity, the writers seem to have started off with one idea of the setting and then treated it as something completely different. This even shows up in a change of the voice-over at the beginning of each show. Eventually it was worked out in later-produced "about the show" works as "one solar system" with (IIRC) five widely separated stars, each with lots of planets and moons that were terraformed with some kinda magic that included earthlike gravity for bodies of very different sizes and mass.

The effect is to have as many planets/moon/colonies as anyone could possibly need for a Traveller game. Taken with the "speed of plot" interplanetary travel, they might as well all be in different star systems with FTL travel. Very "Traveller" feel.
 
Joss has insisted all along that his vision was always one big system of many stars.

Mechanically, if running it with Traveller, one can treat them as 5 separate systems...
Note that the 4 subordinate stars are listed in the official sources as at 68 AU, 68 AU, 121 AU, and 180 AU.
G1 AU68 AU121 AU180 AU
12d 19:57:123d 8:19:5231d 3:27:537d 23:38:48
22d 0:2:5316d 12:12:5022d 0:31:4126d 20:37:54
31d 15:13:5213d 11:30:2717d 23:32:2921d 22:20:22
41d 9:58:3111d 16:9:5615d 13:43:3318d 23:49:24
51d 6:23:1810d 10:35:1613d 22:16:1416d 23:42:3
61d 3:44:269d 12:45:1612d 17:8:4515d 12:10:42
71d 1:40:588d 19:47:711d 18:30:3714d 8:34:12
81d 0:1:278d 6:6:2511d 0:15:5113d 10:18:57
90d 22:39:17d 18:46:3810d 9:9:212d 15:52:56
100d 21:29:167d 9:11:339d 20:21:5412d 0:17:17

Note that at 68 AU, Sol would be a VERY bright star, but not a really discernable disk, with the naked eye. Full daylight is 100000 Lux at 1 AU through clear sky at noon on the current solar ecliptic (IE, the sun is directly vertical overhead); at 68 AU, Sol would provide about 21.6 lux - a dimly lit room.
At 121 AU, it's about 6.8 lux - similar to early sunset twilight or late sunrise twilight, a degree or two below horizon for 1AU.
at 181 AU, it's about 3.1 lux - "civil twilight" of about 6° below horizon at 1AU.

At 1 AU, Sol is 0.5° across; at 68 AU, it would be 26 seconds of arc about 15 sec of arc at 121 AU, and 10 sec of arc at 180 AU. Human peak acuity is seldom better than about 20 seconds of arc...
 
aramis said:
Joss has insisted all along that his vision was always one big system of many stars.
Click to expand...

Well... it doesn't make that exactly clear when the opening voice-over changes from "a new solar system and hundreds of new Earths" to mid-season "a whole new galaxy of Earths" - not necessarily irreconcilable, but suggesting rather different ideas to me.

Anyway, the fuzziness of what exactly constitutes the 'Verse, along with the "speed of plot" space travel, certainly gives it the feel of a Traveller game.
 
Pledge so a better film can be made.

I think the end result will be as good as the funding achieved.

Listen to some of the costs and goals outlined in this Kickstarter update:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/d20e/spinward-traveller-tv-pilot/posts/886603

Blue Ghost said:
If I understand Firefly / Serenity, (or what I've been told by a security actor who was allegedly a "big fan" of the show and movie), the setting took place in one solar system. It sounded like the show borrowed a lot of cues from Traveller, but when it came down to it, it wasn't Traveller in the least. Bab-5 wasn't Traveller in the least, though both share some common threads in terms of ideas.

A competent DP (director of photography) can cover a multitude of sins. But most of all he and the director need to go over shot design and kibitz over the visual look and feel of the film. This trailer looks very vanilla flavored, and very much a fan effort. I would reccomend scrounging through the local media directory, call up DPs, and ask for reels (DVDs of stuff they've shot); shop around, and get prices. If the crew is in the midwest, then the guide of choice is the Variety National 411 (formerly the LA411; http://variety411.com/us/los-angeles/ ). Also, hold off on aliens (because they cost money to makeup). Spend money on costumes and sets. Make it look professional, but not fancy.

Like the other guy said, 70's Dr. Who looks campy as anything in the visual effects department, but the setting and acting, with some competent camera work, offset everything else.
Click to expand...
 
Chuck Anumia said:
I bumped my contribution up today :)
Click to expand...

I just joined the Kickstarter today. :D and I'm glad I did. I feel like I'm a part of something really interesting. I consider it something fun and interesting to do for myself. I hope it works. :)

There is talk that they are "trending" toward meeting their goal, but I have seen them peaking out in the low 20,000's for several weeks now. We only have 19 days left to raise the final amount. In spite of this, many folks are very positive and are certain that we can still make the goal (and even exceed it).

I really hope so because I think it is fun to imagine what this project will be. I think it's a little unrealistic to compare this project to Blake's 7, Doctor Who or even the Beeb's famous soap operas (Coronation Street, Eastenders, Are you being served and etc.), though.

The BBC has been knocking out finished programs in a week or less (complete with new sets, completed scripts and new wardrobes/costumes) for years and they do all of it on a shoestring government budget. The "Spinward Traveller" movie/ tv-pilot is a brilliant project, IMHO, because it will be planned and worked on for almost a full year.
 
Last edited:
Blue Ghost said:
Hey Mentis. Long time no see. Well, I saw the $60-grand clip. I'm not sure what to say about it. We've come a long way since "The Starlost" which tried to use the same production formula. All the best.
Click to expand...

What means "production formula" in this context. I'm not really movie-making savvy.
 
"The Starlost" (one of Whipsnade's most hated sci-fi series) used primitive video blue-screen effects to cut down on costs. 70s "Doctor Who" did the same thing for specific scenes. Too numerous to cite all of them, but they're pretty obvious to the viewer.

In the late 80s Sony and a few third party members came out with primitive "green screen" kits (green was being used more often than Blue) for Hi-8 and 8-mm consumer video cameras. Hi-8 never really caught on as a pro-format, but hobbyists loved it. And, as a side note, the number of "UFO" sightings caught "on film" (read that as video) skyrocketed. Go figure. Anyway, one of the results was for both pros and hobbyists to use green more than blue as the extract color of choice.

"Green Screen" in video-ese refers to "chroma-key" background, where the entire background where an actor or news anchor stands is painted a very luminescent color of green (I think TV meteorologists still use this), and the waveform monitor which acts as an intermediary between the camera and the video deck is told to recognize all colors but "green" (I think some camera's may have this ability). So when you see someone walk onto the stage, everything that is green is filtered out.

I hope that helps.
 
Oops, I almost forgot.

When "The Starlost" went into production it looked like a very cheap sci-fi series. Allegedly the author of "City on the Edge of Forever", Harlan Ellison, was so angered by the cheapness of the production team and producers, that he changed his pen for the series to Cordwaiter Bird (or something odd like that).

There's a few illegal uploads on Youtube of the Starlost, but if you've seen Doctor Who, then you know the kind of production values I'm talking about....and presumably a lot of us have seen 70's Doc Who.
 
Blue Ghost said:
In the late 80s Sony and a few third party members came out with primitive "green screen" kits (green was being used more often than Blue) for Hi-8 and 8-mm consumer video cameras. Hi-8 never really caught on as a pro-format, but hobbyists loved it. And, as a side note, the number of "UFO" sightings caught "on film" (read that as video) skyrocketed. Go figure.
Click to expand...
Obviously the aliens were very interested in the green screen process and were trying to figure out how the technology worked.


Hans
 
Blue Ghost said:
...When "The Starlost" went into production it looked like a very cheap sci-fi series. Allegedly the author of "City on the Edge of Forever", Harlan Ellison, was so angered by the cheapness of the production team and producers, that he changed his pen for the series to Cordwaiter Bird (or something odd like that). ...
Click to expand...

There wasn't anything alleged about it. He exercised his contractual rights to the utter dismay of the producers and became Cordwainer Bird as far as the credits were concerned. It's a name he uses whenever he thinks someone took his writing and made a mess of it. Means, "Shoemaker to Birds," which I guess is his way of expressing that he made a work of fine craftsmanship for someone who can neither use nor appreciate the work. Name shows up here and there - at least one episode of The Flying Nun.
 
Carlobrand said:
There wasn't anything alleged about it. He exercised his contractual rights to the utter dismay of the producers and became Cordwainer Bird as far as the credits were concerned. It's a name he uses whenever he thinks someone took his writing and made a mess of it. Means, "Shoemaker to Birds," which I guess is his way of expressing that he made a work of fine craftsmanship for someone who can neither use nor appreciate the work. Name shows up here and there - at least one episode of The Flying Nun.
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, they changed the ending so much it destroyed the rest of the story line he had written. Around ten years ago I read his take on it, the word 'upset', doesn't cover it from what I read.
 
"The Starlost", to me, was a very interesting show, and had a real intrigue about it, but more or less by the nature of the kind of show that it was; sci-fi in a particular setting. The show didn't live very long, but it ran for most of a full season.

Today's technology is a little more up to date and robust compared to 1970's chroma key. So it'll be interesting to see what comes of it.
 
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