Lighting in Captain Kirk's quarters, and other things...

[PhuketAussie]

Hello,

At last, the time has come to start building my Enterprise Desk/workstation.

I have much of the wood that I need to start building, just gotta buy the primer grey and other paints that I need. I'm not going to follow my concept exactly, as I've done some rethinking since drawing this, but it won't be far off. Mainly, I've chosen to put it in a different location in the room, so the cabinet and wedge table will be flipped opposite, with the table swung inwards more like the original design, but perhaps not as much rake. The I'm not going to have an opening anymore under the monitor, which was intended to be a place to store the keyboard and mouse, they instead will be kept in the cabinet instead when not in use. However, I am considering sloping the table more in style of the various work stations on the bridge, in which case I might embed the keyboard into the sloping black top, and also embed a trackpad, if I decide to take that direction. Opinions? The open shelving shown on the right of the monitor will be a glass fronted display with various models showing some basic design specifics, as if this is a designers workstation. I've ordered online a 43" LG UHD TV which should do the job nicely, that was the final design piece, now that I've ordered that (just waiting on delivery) I can define the actual sizes of everything. I got it 55% off!

I don't think I'll stop there though. I'm now seriously considering completely redecorating the office room in full Star Trek TOS style to complement the desk. I'm interested in adding a custom futon for reading/sleeping, styled to complement the design of Kirk's bed. I intend employing tiny-home concepts of design regarding storage space as well, to increase the practicallity of the room.

I already have a long bookshelf in the office which is woodstained, which I intend to keep, though I might paint out everything but the top primer gray to make it fit in better. I'm I go this far then I will also consider adding the internal framework as shown in the concept design below that I found on the internet.

The framework should be easy enough to create. The set-builders for the fan series Star Trek Continues used a lot of polystyrene foam for things such as this. The purple paint above should also be easy enough to match, but, are the purple sections of the walls illuminated with pruple lighting? Some photos I've seen indicate that they might be, but is that just the studio lighting, or is it an actual design of the room?

Can anyone tell me where I can find the redish orange fabric used to cover the bed?

My office has windows with wind up curtains in it. So I think they can be blended into the design firstly by placing the lower horizontal bar covering the top of the curtain, like crown moulding, only the full width of the room like shown above, and by using the same fabric used on the bed to replace the existing green leaf pattern curtain fabric. Any thoughts?

I'm really excited to get moving with this. I welcome any thoughts, ideas, critique, on this project. My aim isn't just to satisfy my love of Star Trek, but mainly I see in the set designs immense practicality for making the most out of my small office space.

 

[PhuketAussie]

I realised there is no lighting, it was just the overhead studio lights overilluminating the sets.

 

[Apollo]

That fabric is custom made, you will have to get in on a run

Can anyone tell me where I can find the redish orange fabric used to cover the bed?

 

[PhuketAussie]

That fabric is custom made, you will have to get in on a run

Thank you

 

[Krel]

Back in the 60s, NBC was really pushing to get more color into their shows, because of the color TVs. All their shows had colored lighting projected onto the walls, even "Dragnet".

David.

 

[PhuketAussie]

Back in the 60s, NBC was really pushing to get more color into their shows, because of the color TVs. All their shows had colored lighting projected onto the walls, even "Dragnet".

David.

Thanks for that, very helpful!

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Back in the 60s, NBC was really pushing to get more color into their shows, because of the color TVs. All their shows had colored lighting projected onto the walls, even "Dragnet".

David.

I know it was to take advantage of color in television but I kinda wish that would come back to TV. I think the original series is still incredibly watchable in no small part to how it looks, how vibrant and colorful it all looks. It makes watching it fun.

 

[Retroneon]

The colorful lighting really added dimension to those plain TOS walls! I've wondered how the TNG sets would look with the same lighting treatment.

The studio tended to avoid showing overhead fixtures for Starfleet interiors. Because most of the sets never had ceilings.
In TNG, spotlights can be seen over wall decorations. But the ceilings are mostly bare. Which doesn't explain where all the dramatic contrast lighting comes from. Perhaps the fiction could have depicted adjustable point light units that are too small to discern. Like if each pixel of a LED panel had a fiber-optic strand that could be angled.
It was only in Enterprise that visible point light units became the mainstay. The practical idea being that dramatic illumination comes from the set itself. It also fit with the non-minimalistic look of the era.

If you want your ceiling to go the TNG route, look up "stretch ceiling", which involve stretching a plastic membrane. Or add minimalistic recessed track lighting.

For your application, perhaps consider the luminaires by Modular Lighting Instruments. Specifically the ones named after TOS characters!

Kurk

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[Starbase101]

Just wanted to say, this thread was one of my inspirations for starting my own remodeling project! Really looking forward to seeing this develop! (subscribed)

I think the purple in Kirk's quarters was physically painted rather than done with lighting:

Reach out to trekkerguy for the red/gold checkered fabric - he's got another run being made right now of the replica fabric. I'm holding out for the yellow/gold version if he does a run of that for the wall panels.

 

[Krel]

I think the purple in Kirk's quarters was physically painted rather than done with lighting:

The problem with painting the wall purple, is that it limits how they could have reused the set as another set without repainting the wall twice. Once for the new set, and a second time so they could use it as the original set. Of course that wouldn't have stopped them if they knew they weren't going to need Kirk's quarters for a while.

David.

 

[Starbase101]

Looking at the sharp edges between the purple and gray in multiple photos, it certainly doesn’t look like it was done with lighting - especially when there are highlights and shadows cast on it by actual lights.

 

[PhuketAussie]

I've almost finished watching through the entire three seasons, and I'm convinced low that the effect is just from lighting, not paint. there are some episodes where the upper walls look more grey than they do purple, and what purple you can see appears to be projected lighting of some kind. if I go ahead with dressing up my walls in studio Style then I think I'll do my own variation of the lighting by running a strip of purple led lighting along the top of the curved beam that runs along the wall, and cover it with some foam diffuser to reduce the immediate hardness of the light. any opinions on this interpretation and approach?

 

[PhuketAussie]

Just wanted to say, this thread was one of my inspirations for starting my own remodeling project! Really looking forward to seeing this develop! (subscribed)

I think the purple in Kirk's quarters was physically painted rather than done with lighting:
View attachment 1375069

Reach out to trekkerguy for the red/gold checkered fabric - he's got another run being made right now of the replica fabric. I'm holding out for the yellow/gold version if he does a run of that for the wall panels.

I think you'll find that this photo is of reproduction sets for one of the two high quality fan made YouTube versions. the purple here, in my opinion, appears to be exaggerated compared to the original sets.

 

[PhuketAussie]

I think it's worth noting that the set photos we often see these days are of the reproductions for the fan made versions, and I frequently see inaccuracies in these sets.

 

[Bloop]

Just wanted to say, this thread was one of my inspirations for starting my own remodeling project! Really looking forward to seeing this develop! (subscribed)

I think the purple in Kirk's quarters was physically painted rather than done with lighting:

The pic referenced there is a reproduction, not an original set photo. It's from the fan series Star Trek Continues:

Exclusive: ‘Star Trek Continues’ Fan Series Premieres At PHXCC – Michael Forest Guest Stars [PHOTOS]

A quick Google image search found that picture. Plus, I also found this page, with pics showing the original. It does show that the purple sections are indeed from paint, not light:

Captain Kirk's Quarters on the Original Series U.S.S. Enterprise


Here's a few pics that show the purple wall sections (the site has bigger pics):

But there are shots where different lighting is used depending on the scene and episode - you can also see the greenish light used in the previous two pics.

Here's a pic showing purple light projected in the background, which probably added to the confusion of the wall colors:

Anyway, just thought I'd share. Also, the hues and saturation presented on screen in any TV show or movie are obviously very contingent on the lighting and the post-production color grading, so it's important to remember that when trying to match colors IRL. In addition to being very colorful, they definitely seemed to push the saturation for the final output on those original episodes, as was previously mentioned. I've seen other threads here on the RPF (models, costumes, etc.) where people have to decide whether they try to match colors based on the real-world items or try to represent how they looked on screen in whatever lighting they plan to display the items.

 

[Starbase101]

I've almost finished watching through the entire three seasons, and I'm convinced low that the effect is just from lighting, not paint. there are some episodes where the upper walls look more grey than they do purple, and what purple you can see appears to be projected lighting of some kind. if I go ahead with dressing up my walls in studio Style then I think I'll do my own variation of the lighting by running a strip of purple led lighting along the top of the curved beam that runs along the wall, and cover it with some foam diffuser to reduce the immediate hardness of the light. any opinions on this interpretation and approach?

I think this pic definitely sells the fact it was painted - note the silver tape on the purple section:

If the purple color was projected, 1 there wouldn't be such sharp lines along the gray edges (above and below) and 2 there wouldn't be a bright light reflection on the silver tape in a darker shadowed region of the purple area.

If these purple areas looked gray in some episodes (and it's in Kirk's quarters rather than some other crewmember's) then it could simply be another of the many "whoops" moments of the show where they forgot (or were too pressed for time) to repaint it purple before shooting.

 

[Starbase101]

I think you'll find that this photo is of reproduction sets for one of the two high quality fan made YouTube versions. the purple here, in my opinion, appears to be exaggerated compared to the original sets.

Yes, but why use paint on a reproduction endeavoring to be as accurate as possible, especially when LED lighting options are available now that didn't exist in the 60's? Even if the exact shade of purple paint is off-hue, I don't think they would have taken the trouble to paint it if the original wasn't painted.

 

[Starbase101]

I think it's worth noting that the set photos we often see these days are of the reproductions for the fan made versions, and I frequently see inaccuracies in these sets.

Yes, totally. I've had conversations with people involved in the making of the props for these sets who claim "expert" research has gone into the reproductions development. But when you directly compare some of the reproductions against screenshots from the actual show it's apparent that more "expert" research should have been done. A good example is the red alert wall panel lights I've been researching. They're sworn to be 6" x 14" with textured 3/4" fluted glass, but after a week's worth of diligent research and measurements taken from scaled screenshots from the actual episodes I find the panels to consistently be 6" x 12" with clear 7/8"~1" reeded glass. You cannot simply assume the repro's are accurate, even though overall they are "most impressive". However, I still believe from watching episodes that (at least during some point in time) the upper walls in Kirk's quarters were painted purple. This could have changed over the seasons, just as they changed the tunic fabrics and other elements.

 

[PhuketAussie]

Yes, totally. I've had conversations with people involved in the making of the props for these sets who claim "expert" research has gone into the reproductions development. But when you directly compare some of the reproductions against screenshots from the actual show it's apparent that more "expert" research should have been done. A good example is the red alert wall panel lights I've been researching. They're sworn to be 6" x 14" with textured 3/4" fluted glass, but after a week's worth of diligent research and measurements taken from scaled screenshots from the actual episodes I find the panels to consistently be 6" x 12" with clear 7/8"~1" reeded glass. You cannot simply assume the repro's are accurate, even though overall they are "most impressive". However, I still believe from watching episodes that (at least during some point in time) the upper walls in Kirk's quarters were painted purple. This could have changed over the seasons, just as they changed the tunic fabrics and other elements.

agreed. when I researched the mesh panels used under the workstations surrounding the Enterprise bridge I noticed that the mesh used on the fan made show was quite wrong, compared to photos of the original. I designed 3d printable mesh squares that could be glued together to make a single panel the non-screen-standard size that I needed for my of workstation build.

 

[PhuketAussie]

I think this pic definitely sells the fact it was painted - note the silver tape on the purple section:
View attachment 1375640

If the purple color was projected, 1 there wouldn't be such sharp lines along the gray edges (above and below) and 2 there wouldn't be a bright light reflection on the silver tape in a darker shadowed region of the purple area.

If these purple areas looked gray in some episodes (and it's in Kirk's quarters rather than some other crewmember's) then it could simply be another of the many "whoops" moments of the show where they forgot (or were too pressed for time) to repaint it purple before shooting.

yes, I appear to be wrong in my conclusion, thanks for the correction!