Blueprint conundrum or not

POSTED BY: ManiacNumberOne
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 20:55
VIEWED: 33904
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KNIGHTNAVRO

Friday, April 11, 2003 6:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Noocyte:
More on scale (ah, the male preoccupation with size... ) do folks have thoughts on my belief that the pull-back (River/Simon EVA) shot from Bushwhacked is a pretty bang-on illustration of Serenity's scale? Is anyone else slavering messily and embarassingly at the prospect of seeing those exteriors from "Trash" (see, as he deftly avoids the spoiler!)?!?

I've tried to figure out just how long/wide/tall Serenity is, but she seems to change in size from episode to episode. My methods aren't exactly scientific (they consist of measuring a person standing neaar Serenity then measuring Serenity, but I can get a length anywhere from 60-100 meters. My pick for the best shot to establish scale is the shot in Train Job where Serenity rises from the crater in the teaser.

Taking a look at Bushwhacked...
From that shot, I'd say Serenity is about 150m long. That's only an eyeball estimate, so I could be off. I had forgotten that shot; thanks for pointing it out.

MANIACNUMBERONE

Friday, April 11, 2003 7:51 PM

I have 3 small problems before I can post what I have finished.

First, the hallway between the engine room and mess hall has proven to be a small problem. In different scenes, I have seen the hallway that leads off the main hallway appear in different positions. For example...

When, after Kaylee tells the crew about Rivers' prowess with a gun and she and Simon are about to kiss in the hallway in question, it appears that the offshoot hallway is right next to the door to the mess hall...because Book comes right around a corner out of the mess hall to interrupt them. Yet, in an earlier episode, when Mal hits Simon for calling him an Alliance sympathizer, the offshoot hallway is not where previously mentioned (right next to the doorway of the mess), instead it is halfway down the main hall. Feel free to help out here.

Second, I am having trouble reconciling the exact position and number of passenger quarters. I have 2 potential scenarios in mind. One with quarters in a pyramid setup on each side of the ship (12 rooms,) another with one room on top of another (8 rooms.) Any help there would also be appreciated.

Third, there are some doors that exist that go to places I haven't seen yet. Those will have to remain as undetailed areas.

Stuck on 85%

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Who's winning?
I can't really tell, they don't seem to be playing by any civilized rules that I know.
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TALLGUY

Friday, April 11, 2003 9:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by KnightNavro:

I've tried to figure out just how long/wide/tall Serenity is, but she seems to change in size from episode to episode. My methods aren't exactly scientific (they consist of measuring a person standing neaar Serenity then measuring Serenity, but I can get a length anywhere from 60-100 meters. My pick for the best shot to establish scale is the shot in Train Job where Serenity rises from the crater in the teaser.

As an overall measurement of our girl, I'd say that's not a great shot. My reason is because there is so much distortion because of the perspective of the shot. It might give you an allright estimate of the size of the cockpit, but the cargo bay on back would be distorted.

Unless you're talking about the long shot and not the one of Mal & Co standing in front of her.

Also (and I have NO verification on this whatsoever) I THINK they rebuilt (or at least modified) the model of Serenity after the pilot. I don't have anything handy, but her underside is much longer (and more consistant with the interior) in later eps (Safe being a great example) than in Serenity or any of the footage FROM Serenity used in later episodes.

Bill
"We all know I'm the funny one."
"You ain't all that funny."

KNIGHTNAVRO

Friday, April 11, 2003 10:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TallGuy:
As an overall measurement of our girl, I'd say that's not a great shot. My reason is because there is so much distortion because of the perspective of the shot. It might give you an allright estimate of the size of the cockpit, but the cargo bay on back would be distorted.

Unless you're talking about the long shot and not the one of Mal & Co standing in front of her.

That's the one I'm thinking of. I imagine perspective is a major problem with my attempts, but I'm not going to break out a calculator and start going through trig formulas I can barely remember. It's best to choose shots where the characters are standing very close to the ship. I've looked at a couple of the shots where they are leaving through the main cargo doors, since that's about as close as you can get.
I figured it would give a decent picture of at least the dimentions of the cargo bay. If you can nail down the dimentions of one prominint part of the ship, there's a great shot of Serenity toward the end of the episode that can be used to scale the rest of the ship (or you could use some of the pics floating aroudnd this site or...).

TALRIUS

Sunday, April 13, 2003 3:37 AM

Let me not help you Maniac.

Quote:
Originally posted by ManiacNumberOne:
First, the hallway between the engine room and mess hall has proven to be a small problem. In different scenes, I have seen the hallway that leads off the main hallway appear in different positions.

I don't see what you mean here. It looked the same length to me, but I could be wrong. I'll have to check and get back to you on that.

Quote:
Second, I am having trouble reconciling the exact position and number of passenger quarters. I have 2 potential scenarios in mind. One with quarters in a pyramid setup on each side of the ship (12 rooms,) another with one room on top of another (8 rooms.) Any help there would also be appreciated.

It appears to be 8 rooms. One stacked on another. The original script said Serenity could hold 12 passangers. However that doesn't mean there are 12 rooms.

Yet go back and see Jaynestown. The opening scene with Simon and Kaylee talkin' about cursing. There will be a ariel shot of the dorm from the ladders in the back. If you look over Simon and River's bunks (Where Kaylee and Simon are talking.) you'll see that the second level dorm pods don't have two shoji doors, just one.

Confused yet?

Quote:
Third, there are some doors that exist that go to places I haven't seen yet. Those will have to remain as undetailed areas.

Stuck on 85%

Yeah, I know. There are two doors flanking either
side of the food containers on the port side of the galley. Across the galley next to the counter there appears to be a room back there too. There are two doors on the top tier of the cargo bay against the back wall that lead some where. (Inara leaves this in Bushwhacked. All we know is that it runs Starboard to Port.)There is a room just across from the infirmary. (Book leaves this room in Serenity when Simon races to the infirary.) The dorm has ladders leading to no where. There is a space behind the Infirmary. And last but not least the mysterious room below the bridge. I think I've adressed all of them?

So yeah there is a whole hell of a lot of our precious Serenity that's still unknown.

KNIGHTNAVRO

Sunday, April 13, 2003 5:44 PM

It may seem like a cop-out, but some of those mysterious door may not lead anywhere important. They may be for maintnence and to access the ship's systems. Of course, if you see anybody coming from one of these doors, they probably aren't maintnence, but it could explain a couple.

And I'm leaning toward 8 passenger dorms, but there's no way to be sure.

ZENCAT

Sunday, April 13, 2003 7:11 PM

delurking...

Reading this thread with enthusiasm - I've been waiting for Serenity blueprints since the beginning. Thanks for undertaking this project! I can't wait to see the finished product!

I have nothing, alas, to add to logistics of the layout, but there's something I'm including in the Serenity in my head, because I think it's utterly cool. It's a system that converts waste (including anything organic, like *ahem* human waste) into fuel oil, carbon, minerals, water, and harmless gas. Whatever reclaimed resources Serenity couldn't use, the crew could sell - there have to be backwater places that use oil for fuel, carbon's useful, and the minerals are good fertilizer. It would be a steady, though perhaps small, income stream. And the machine is small enough to tuck neatly underneath a corridor or somewhere. It's the perfect thing to have aboard a ship like Serenity - rather than dumping waste into the void, convert it into something useful/salable. It's not sci-fi, either - the machine exists already and is in use. If you're interested in how it works, check out the latest issue of Discover mag, or online at changingworldtech.com. (No, this is not an advertisement - but when these guys go public, I'm buying stock.)

I'm such a tech geek.

KAYTHRYN

Sunday, April 13, 2003 9:51 PM

I’m posting this on a few threads because I don’t quite remember what thread this discussion started at.

Alrighty- this is for you fans out there who are trying to figure out Serenity’s dimensions... or anybody else who‘d like to look. I’ve set up a little web page, or site, or whatcha thingy, with some screen caps of Serenity. If everything goes according to plan more pictures ( interior shots of Serenity, and characters) will be up soon. If you’ve got some nice pictures of Serenity that I don’t have up, you can e-mail me and I’ll try to add them in too.

Here's the address-
http://moonhopper.0catch.com/Serenity%20page1/11.txt

P.s. I apologize in advance for the remedial looking page and any errors- I tried to teach myself html a few days ago and so far it’s not going so well.

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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle

LJB064

Monday, April 14, 2003 4:12 AM

Maniac:

On your first question, I think Book is coming around the corner from the Mess-Engine Room corridor, not directly from the Mess. Everything I have been able to find places that spur corridor (connecting to the "back stairs") smack dab in the middle of the Mess-Engine Room corridor. I think you're safe if you put it there.

On the question of the passenger dorm rooms, I spent a lot of time this weekend looking at eps to try to figure this out. The position and orientation of the bay holding the passenger rooms has been bugging me for a long time. This weekend, I realized that there are actually two bays of passenger rooms, running backward to port and starboard at angles about 30 degress from the centerline.

The starboard bay (where River and Simon have their rooms) has two ladders midway down (to serve upper berths). This is the one we usually see. I believe it has a total of seven rooms.

The port bay (where Book's room is) only has a ladder next to the inboard wall. (In both cases, I am not counting the ladders that run up the walls at the end of the bays). I believe the port bay has five rooms - which would give us our magic number of 12.

Slap me if I'm behind the curve and you guys already have all this.

If by chance this is a new thought, I'll be happy to give support. As a quick start, I'd say look at (i) the beginning of The Train Job when Book tells Mal that he considers Simon to be brave, and (ii) the spot toward the end of Jaynestown when River says "keep walkin' Preacher Man" - both give an establishing shot showing that the dorms are accessed by going through a wide archway at the back of the common area. Just beyond the archway, on the midline of the ship, is a louvered wall, sometimes backlit. The two bays run back on either side of that. The best placing sequences are (i) in Jaynestown, when River brings back the pages from Book's Bible - she walks aft along the port wall, and then veers further to her right to reach his room (first outboard room in the port bay), and (ii) in Bushwhacked, when Inara comes down the back stairs and veers left (to Starboard aft) to go to River's room (first one behind the outboard ladder in the starboard bay). You also get a good placing shot right down the starboard bay when Mal calls Zoe to the bridge when the Reaver ship first shows up in Serenity.

Keep Flyin'

Birdman

NOOCYTE

Monday, April 14, 2003 11:29 PM

LJB064 (??);

I had the same impression of the aft Spur corridor (good nomenclature). Pretty much dead center between the mess and the engine room.

As for the passenger dorms, your description makes heaps of sense, and I'll be looking at those sections of the eps with new eyes. Actually, this portion of the ship has always been a bit of a cypher for me, which is why I haven't really weighed in on the dorm conversation. Thanks for the description!

Keep flyin'!

Department of Redundancy Department

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