Tom Servo's head in the live shows - a question

The ‘foggy glass’ Tom Servo they use when in front of a green screen bugs me more than I would like. I know it sounds petty.

For those who have seen the live show, is his globe clear or foggy? Does anyone know what it will be like on the Gizmoplex shows? I just need to know if I need to get used to it, or just not worry about it in the advertisements.

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I’m trying not to let this kind of thing get me down too much. It is a bummer that they’re having to make all these very visible compromises in the new season, but on the other hand these are the kinds of adjustments that allowed them to come back at all and have completely creative control. I’m optimistic about the season (and the future of MST3K in general) and just really hope that the compromises don’t detract too much from the final experience. And who knows, maybe if cash flow ends up being good on the Gizmoplex they’ll be able to kind of build back up in potential future seasons.

Change is always a problem for fans, especially long term ones, so I’m bracing myself for the inevitable onslaught of people complaining about all of this once the episodes start releasing.

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A photo posted in one of the KS updates showed only frosted globes, and there has been some discussion that those clear globes are unavailable now, or at least very hard to come by.

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I thought I read somewhere that the frosted globes work better with green screen than the clear ones, and that was the reason for the change. A few people have posted photos from the show and they do seem to be frosted globes there too.

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Overthinking this, I think, but here goes.

Looking through a clear glass sphere, the background will be slightly distorted. Obviously this will not work with a green screen, because there’s nothing actually there to distort. You might not consciously notice that it looks off, but subconsciously you will, and it will just look wrong.

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Yep, the frosted globe works better for how the live show is performed currently and also for how Season 13 is being filmed.

Think of it like a new hairdo - Tom is embracing the distinguished greys of middle-age…

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Absolutely. Even if there were issues getting clear heads for Tom they’d need to figure out a solution for this issue anyway, and going with frosted is an easy fix. It’ll keep annoying people, but there’s really not a good way to deal with shooting something clear in front of a green screen that doesn’t involve a huge amount of extra work in post production.

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Hi Tim! :wave:t2:

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There is precedent for fresh Servo haircuts…

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Hello!

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That’s true! Rebecca just got me a shirt with a field of Servos on it and one has that slim head. I wondered for a while why one of the Servos on my new shirt was a bong until I remembered that episode.

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Slim-Headed Servo will never not look just… weird for me.

(Also: The fact it’s in a different shade of red definitely gets my OCD going)

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Along those lines, I’m hopeful we’ll see a slicked-back Crow this season.

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Honestly whether they’re different husks or not the bots have enough of their own minds to change their looks. Whether they’re capable of achieving them without assistance, that’s kind of unclear. But I think it’s better that than any of the subjects doing it for non-emergency reasons

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I’ve worked professionally with Green Screen for the last 10 years. The amount of work that would go into making a clear glass head look good, if it is even possible, would be in the 10s of hours for the season.
I’ve worked with video from actual professionals (it was a group out of Las Vegas that does lots of promos for acts there) that had a glass of water in it. The actor picked it up and moved it to another table. We ended up having to go frame-by-frame to remove the green from the glass. I think the shot was like 40 seconds, I took more than 2 full days to get it to look ok. Not great, ok. I clearly wouldn’t use it for a TV series or anywhere it would be seen in HD.

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I’m just gonna’ say it. I prefer my Tommy-boys with clear domes & the occasional question of why, if his head is clear, we can’t see through it when he’s watchin’ the movie… However, I accepted right away that the frosted domes were probably much easier for technical aspects of the show :slightly_smiling_face: See?!? I’m (close enough) middle-aged, and I can adapt. Progress!

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The turkey day marathon announcement gives you a taste of what it’s going to look like.

For those saying it’s because of Green screen, did they use green screen prior to this? Why the change now?

Also, OP mentioned a lot of changes in this new era, what are all the changes?

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I like it. I think it’s HQ sativa smoke.

If you stuck some googly eyes on him, it might freak me out.

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I admit I find it hilarious when MSTies complain about ‘changes!’ because everything on the show changed in the initial 10 year run.

New host, new Mads, new settings, new bot voices. It’s always changing.

Which may also explain how it can keep coming back from the dead.

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All right. Now we should collect more fan theories about why Tom’s head is opaque instead of clear. So far we’ve got “Old Age” and “Pot.” Both good proposals, but I’m wondering if there are more out there.

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