After the Moon Hoax: SKYLAB

[ProperGander]

SKYLAB : SPACE STATION I - 1970's NASA Space Station Educational Documentary

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJb2yjtDYaY

Check out the special effects at 16:36 or so. The astronauts can run in circles like in the scene from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. How is this possible? It is not. There is no force that pushes the astronaut back towards the apparent floor after his foot and pushed away from that surface. The other odd thing is how after a time, they are then unable to run on the surface and instead float as expected. This would then be some kind of composite with wire work and perhaps put together with the multiplane camera system. Some kind of camera rig and/or wire set up would be used to shoot the footage of the actors.

[NotRappaport]

This would then be some kind of composite with wire work and perhaps put together with the multiplane camera system. Some kind of camera rig and/or wire set up would be used to shoot the footage of the actors.

That sequence appears to be both:

1. played at a significantly slower speed than it was filmed at to give the illusion of an extended period of apparent weightlessness during what is actually a short (and well-rehearsed) sequence of stunts. Watching it at 1.5x or even 2x speed looks more natural.

and

2. Filmed aboard one of NASA's high altitude (non-civilian) "vomit comets". Between the planes being cleared to travel to a much higher altitude than the 33,000 foot ceiling of the civilian-accessible Vomit Comets, as well as the crew being trained to handle g-forces as high as 9.0 (civilian version doesn’t induce more than 1.8 g’s on it’s occupants), they probably attain at least 40 consecutive seconds of weightlessness (in contrast to the civilian’s 25 seconds).

This is why any footage of unambiguously non-cgi weightless experiments are always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS offered in only short snippets.

[roastrunner]

Regarding the time limit of weightless footage, it's worth noting that after the Space Shuttle came into service (1981) we started seeing longer weightless footage. Sometimes as long as 100 seconds. This is in the pre-CGI era still. They may have used the Space Shuttle to get longer shots. The Shuttle has three rockets and there's no reason to assume they didn't work. While it never went into space, it could probably blast itself upwards from low altitude with huge thrust, and shut its engines off. This would produce a weightless environment for the rest of the upwards trajectory, the apex, and the descent back down. This could give NASA the ability to film 100+ seconds of weightless footage. In other words, the Space Shuttle may have just been a production line of improved vomit comets. There were over 100 Shuttle launches (probably) and each of them could have been used for multiple staged filming sessions until it ran out of fuel and had to land. This is just conjecture but it seems reasonable. (NOTE: I can't find any weightless shuttle-era footage on NASA's archive site right now. They've completely redesigned the site since I last visited it. I saw 100 second unbroken shots previously though. Pretty much everything they have now is the newer and insanely fake looking harness / green screen technique.)

[Kham]

pre-CGI era

-roastrunner

Are you suggesting that moving images before CGI were unable to be faked or manufactured? How do you explain ANY entertainment in the form of a movie that was pre-CGI?

[patrix]

pre-CGI era

-roastrunner

Are you suggesting that moving images before CGI were unable to be faked or manufactured? How do you explain ANY entertainment in the form of a movie that was pre-CGI?

Like this from 1957? Go to 5m35s


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXt30Ing3Kk

[roastrunner]

I'm aware of many non-cgi techniques for low or zero gravity simulation. This one is my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auQwaeee89o (NASA moon gravity simulation done with a sideways camera and angled bungee chords). Also i like hunchback's suggestion that they had underwater filming with a lifelike Buzz Aldrin mask over an actor with hidden air tubes. And Kubric's tricks could be as crude as a glass sheet with a pen stuck to it moved in front of the actors. None of them look like a vomit comet though. When you've watched as much archival footage as I have, you can instantly tell when the simulation is real zero-g, and when it's not. Compare this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2CZ0jRStEI (notice each shot is 30 - 40 seconds) to the Russian movie above (or the horrendous newer ISS videos) and the difference is obvious

Regarding the 30 second limit (prior to the Shuttle) there's one trick I've seen to get a longer shot - they start the film while the plane is ascending, with the actornauts strapped in to their chairs, and having them unstrap and float around some time later when the descent begins, all in one shot, for a total of a minute of unbroken footage. Clever stuff.

Btw, Disney was doing zero g effects even before that Russian flick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXIDFx74aSY&t=20s (16:44).