From: Miriam.Ferziger@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDU ("Miriam Ferziger")
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: QL on USA
Date: 15 Sep 92 00:58:28 GMT


>In article <1992Sep14.120327.27440@dbsun.uucp>, meyer@dbsun.uucp (Don
Meyer) writes:

>  The door out of the imaging chamber is "manual".
>  No Handlink at first, and then a subtle one (no blinken lights).
>

Observer #6 (late Summer 1992), a Quantum Leap fan newsletter, has an
interview with Roger Dorney, one of the special effects creators for the
show.  There is a section on the Imaging Chamber door.  It's kind of
obtuse, but it helps explain why it was changed from a manually opened
invisible door to a remotely opened visible one:

[reprinted without permission--all typos are mine.  All bad grammar is
Dorney's:-)]

Bing:  How about when Al enters though the Imaging Chamber door?  What
exactly is that?  That's something a little different [from passing through
objects] isn't it?

Roger:  That started out, there's a little bit of history to it, because
actually most of the effects on Quantum, the original effects of Al passing
through anything was always kind of a blue screen shot, because it's too
labor intensive to do it as a roto[scope - a form of animation] shot.  But
the Leap kind of grew and also the Chamber door.  The first season the
Chamber door was supposed to be sort of an invisible thing, which in film
is a real bear.  It just is.  Anything invisible is really tough.  You can
hide matte lines and you can hide split lines and things like that.  But
this is supposed to, he was supposed to open the door and go, sort of pivot
around and and then close the door and there's nothing there anymore.  And
we went through that and it was kind of tortuous and there was no impact to
it.  And on one of those shows, way back when, on the first season, I
remember the shot--I don't remember the show--anyhow, we came up with an
idea:  why don't we open the door and see the future.  .  .  At the time
nobody thought about that room much.  I guess Don [Bellisario] had, but he
kept telling us, you know, it's a lot of bright light.  So I took him
literally and we just made a white door and in order to make that you had
to hand draw frame by frame where Al is so that the white is behind him.

<<possible minor spoilers below>>

The current handlink is rev 3 or 4.  Only once has a change in handlinks
been explained.  In The Great Spontini, Al beats the handlink to death when
Ziggy is unable to give him information at a vital juncture.  He decides he
likes the back up when it allows him to play a really pointless and funny
stupid hologram trick.  Presumably as the parameters of the project change
(i.e.  the [limited] ability to bring someone into the Imaging Chamber to
see/be seen by Sam), the abilities of the handlink need to change too.

Just my $.02
> Don
> meyer%dbsun.uucp@wupost.wustl.edu

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
              DISCLAIMER:                   | Miriam Ferziger
If any of the above fails to make sense, it | hf.zmf@forsythe.stanford.edu
is because I was born with a silver foot in |
my mouth and have a mind like a steel sieve!|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
QUOTE:  "Hey, you can have Dean on your *chest*." A QL crew member after
        buying a pin commemorating Dean's star on the Walk of Fame.

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