BEHIND-THE-SCENES : [DEADLOCK]
VISUAL EFFECTS

We shot Garrett against a blue screen for that. The wind was of course done by special effects, so wind generators, and then space outside was something we created in post [i.e. post-production]. And then we had a trace or rodoscope, the hole in the ship and then the space that Garrett would fall in, a blue screen, and then of course the light would change from one section to another as he was passing into space. We had to make sure that there was something that would change the light as he hit the new environment outside the ship.

picture shown very bright; in this particular screenshot from visual effects temporary footage, note the two different shades of blue screen

picture shown extra bright and very large in order to show up the harness that Garrett Wang is in

the death of Harry Kim, [Deadlock]

A simple shot like that that could take a few seconds of screen time might represent oh, two hundred man-hours.

Whenever we have a situation with the same actor playing two or more characters, reproductions of themselves, we work very closely with the director and the producers, for budgetary reasons, and of course with Marvin, so that we select the proper technique for each shot. Sometimes if they don't have to physically interact with each other, we'll do something as simple as a split-screen, where you'll have a stand-in play one version of the actor, and the actor plays the other, then we'll shoot one half of the scene and then the actor will go change their clothes if they're in a different costume, come back and then play the other half. And then we simply do a split-screen where we just paste one side with the other taken in proper sync. so that they look like they're in the same place at the same time.

this screenshot from the visual effects department's temporary footage shows exactly where the "split" in the split screen effect occurs

after finishing the split-screen effect, the footage might well be tweaked for lighting etc. and, as necessary, the insertion of other effects

finished result: Janeway and Janeway confer as they stand beside Voyager's warp core, [Deadlock]

I do not know if the tweaking of the coloration of the warp core gasses formed part of the post-production process in the case of the above split-screen effect, because it is Dick Brownfield, the show's mechanical effects supervisor, who is also responsible for certain lighting effects including the dazzling light show created by Voyager's colourful warp core (also the lighting behind the show's graphics panels, and much more). This page, which forms part of DESIGNING USS VOYAGER, describes how the warp core contents were decided upon and created. (unillustrated) Poe excerpt

If they have to physically interact sometimes we'll have a stand-in's arm touch the actor and then we have to make sure that they stand in the way it looks like the real actor's arm, and then the real actor would stand with their arm this way so that stand-in's arm touches the other actor. If they walk around each other they might have to cast a shadow. So we would have either another person or move a flag or some object in front of it to cast a shadow on the person. If they walk around each other we usually would have to shoot them against blue or green screen so that we could isolate them. And sometimes we'll shoot them both against green screen because one might have to pass in front of the other and come back around. It depends on the complexity of the shot.

note the black oblong around the righthand Janeway

[Deadlock]
finished result shown very bright so you can see the black oblong around the righthand Janeway has been removed

note what looks like a black area around the top part of the righthand Janeway; the black area will be removed

The most complex shots of that type are real-time motion control. That's required whenever the camera has to move, so if you're doing an elaborate dolly move then you would have to shoot one half of the shot, go back, and the camera has to do exactly the same thing at exactly the same pace. So then the actor will change, and we'll go back and re-rig that, and then we'll do what's called a clean plate and shoot the scene with nobody in it, so in case we have to replace something there with a clean background we have that piece of information so that we can do it.