Lost: Season 5 (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

I agree that it looked like CG but considering that most shows wouldn't even attempt an all CG shot, you can't compare it to other TV shows. With shows like Battlestar Galactica where there's tons of CG, they're building CG models on a budget where they're going to able to keep reusing it over and over for the entire series. The sub was in one shot (and maybe it's in the next episode) so it's probably a miracle that they were able to spend the money to make it look as good as it did.

 

[JediFonger]

Lost has the worst CG production value. remember the polar bear fx?all of Lost's CG fx are terrible compared to BSG, where it's more seamless

 

[ScottH]

See, I thought it was bad enough where it would have been better had they not shown it at all.

 

[TravisR]

Once again, Battlestar Galactica is most likely budgeted to spend more money on their CG than Lost can. BSG can keep using their CG models but the polar bear or the sub or the freighter CG models are used a couple of episodes at most so they can't spend the same amount of money on the models as BSG can.

Not to mention that there's CG shots in Lost that you never notice.

 

[Josh Dial]

The other thing to consider is that shows don't always use just one CG production company, but rather multiples at the same time. Thus, while one group is doing the "sub" scene, another is doing the explosions in New Otherton. I'm assuming that less money was spent on the sub sequence, so the quality isn't as high.

Should the sequence been left out if the quality was poor? Probably not, because I'm thinking we were meant to see it pull away and submerge, so as to say "wow, they really are leaving..." I think it was a good decision given how much scrutiny the show is under (even on this forum)--I can see it now, someone posting "we can't know for sure that Sawyer and Kate and Juliet were killed when the sub exploded (note: I'm making this ALL UP!), because we didn't actually *see* them leave in the sub..."

 

[BrettB]

LOL, my wife also mentioned how crappy it looked. I didn't really notice because I was looking only at the top of the sub trying to figure out what was up with the yellow writing I had noticed in the shot of the sub at the dock. It looked like they digitally blurred out some writing.

 

[ScottH]

We didn't actually see Sawyer, Kate & Juliet leave in the sub. We just saw a sub leave the island. And do we even know it was the same island?

 

[Darren_N]

Yellow writing? Hmmm...Well, they are from Ann Arbor. It's probably just a University of Michigan Alumni bumper sticker.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

And spoil a 2 hour finale that I only have to wait 6 more days to see? No way. Lost has taken me to dinner and a show, put out the fine satin sheets, flower petals, and candles around the room. At this point, I'm going to let it score.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

And BSG ran shorter "seasons" with more lead-time before episodes aired. Sometimes it is a matter of just not having enough time to do another rendering pass or what-have-you before an episode has to be delivered to the network and you do the best you can. Babylon 5 had a couple of instances where the final FX weren't delivered until a few hours before the show had to be uplinked to the distributor, as well as a few that went out with known errors because there simply wasn't time to fix them before the deadline. (These were usually corrected by the time the episode was rerun the first time. One example was when part of a studio wall that should have been replaced by a virtual set was visible. Another was a mismatch between the name of a spaceship in the dialogue and the CGI shots of the ship because they entered the wrong name when they edited the blank model for the episode.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Holadem]

You slut.

--
H

 

[Charlie Campisi]

For all the anti-spoiler people, why do you still watch promos and allow them to disappoint you? You've been watching 4 seasons of the show. You're going to watch next week. You don't need the promo to keep you hooked for another 7 days. And ... you've had 4 seasons' worth of proof that the promos will ruin the surprise of significant events, or mislead you with a dream sequence or otherwise. Why bother to watch them? I gave all promos up years ago and have enjoyed my viewing so much more. Not saying that's right for everyone. Just curious why you'd still watch at this point.

 

[mattCR]

Damnit, and I was drinking milk!

I don't get into this show's deep babble like the thread, but this post is classic. I also enjoy avoiding the spoilers. Just bring it on.

 

[Matt^Brown]

Charlie I am with you. I gave up the promos when we first met Ben back at the hatch. He was eating cereal and telling the Losties how his story about the parachute might just be a trick. (Sound the loud music and dramatic sequence) What an ending to the show. I was so excited and could not weight until the next week but then right in the Promo we see the parachute and Losties. It completely ruined all the suspense that the show had just created.

 

[Jeremiah]

I don't see Richard running a con on The Others, the guy has not aged in at least 50 years, he doesn't need to run a con.

 

[NeilO]

The thing is, you are curious about the next episode, but you don't want any of the "cliffhangers" that were set up in the current episode to be spoiled. Sometimes they can put together a good promo that will be interesting and allow speculation as to what is really going on without it really spoiling anything. Other times, like the one for the season finale, they did a terrible job and gave away a lot more information than I wanted to see. I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises beyond what was in the promo, but I was disappointed.

 

[TravisR]

^ I had the same reaction but I get the feeling that what you're talking about is going to be something that takes place pretty early on in the episode.

 

[NeilO]

I hope so. If you watched ABC over the past few days you would have had a hard time in avoiding the Lost season finale promo.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Ron:

I have to disagree with you on that "spoiler"

I never for one second believed that any of the "present day" group was going to leave on the sub. That would make no sense in terms of the story. Dramatically the important point is that they intended to leave, but to me it was immediately obvious that something was going to prevent them from doing so and that they'd be on the island for "The Incident". The shot of the sub leaving the island was just a pro forma "moment of suspense" just like the apparent plot twist that pops up at the end of every act of every TV drama, right before the commercial break. So as far as I'm concerned there was no spoiler, much less a major one, because there was nothing to spoil. I would have known that Sawyer, Kate and Juliet left the sub even if there had been no spoiler. Because having them sail off and land in Ann Arbor in 1977 made no sense in terms of the plot. And I agree, they will bail out of the sub quite early in the episode, so there is time to develop the conflict with Jack - probably in the teaser, certainly no later than the beginning of act one.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Steve Y]

"Lost" trailers have never done what I think a good trailer should do: provide bits and pieces that do not mislead OR illuminate. Most movie trailers can't do it either. They either make the story look stupid ("pitting survivor against survivor, with explosions!"), or they give away major plot points off-hand. Usually both. Though my main criticism is that they aren't as well edited as the show itself. Television promos are just not intended for us super-fans!

I know WAAY too much about Wednesday's finale for my own good, but I'm still looking forward to it (in my defense, I was "hijacked" by a rogue post while scanning an otherwise innocuous online thread about the show, and before I knew it, it was too late.) Oh well. One of the hazards of seeking out various peoples' opinions about the show online!

The CG of the sub didn't bother me. It was such an evocative long shot (distracting, in some ways), and it lasted so long, so I think people had more of a chance to take a close look and criticize it.

The other night I had a really long dream about (my version) of the finale. I guess I've been contemplating this show too long.