KOTJ Nitpick

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KOTJ Nitpick

Post by K.I.T.T » Sat Sep 21, 2002 6:30 pm

It may just be me but.....When Michael and K.I.T.T are hit by the Juggernaut, Bonnie rush's over to them both and Michael seems to have a very big gash on the top right of his head. But latter when Devon inspects K.I.T.T in the semi it has moved to the left

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Post by K.I.T.T » Sun Sep 29, 2002 1:32 pm

Well i just love this episode, i had to watch it again and noticed yet another Nitpick.
While K.I.T.T is in SPM for the first time the cam is positioned on Michaels door..you can clearly see that they are in the normal KITT because the rear spoiler is at is original position.
A little too picky but hey its my few pence worth [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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Post by Newcastle knight » Sun Sep 29, 2002 1:50 pm

yeah, its always like that if you watch, everytime KITT is in SPM and the camera is showing michael inside, you can usually see the back of the car, and its not the SPM car. guess they couldnt get the camera equipment on the SPM car ?

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Post by K.I.T.T » Sun Sep 29, 2002 1:57 pm

LOL...darn i missed it every time then! lol
I think it was just laziness, for when they next show KITT "buttoning up" he's in normal mode..lol [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

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Post by Skav » Sun Sep 29, 2002 5:53 pm

They got very lazy in season 4. the majority of the driving sequences were just stock footage used from previous episodes. virtually every driving scene in Voo Doo Knight was from KOTJ or some other ep.

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Post by KITT431 » Sat Dec 21, 2002 8:14 pm

That is because NBS(I believe) gave KR a very small budget and they did not have the money to create new stunts.

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Post by Skav » Sat Dec 21, 2002 8:42 pm

doesn't seem like they had enough money for gas so they could film new normal driving scenes either.

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Post by knightimmortal » Sat Dec 21, 2002 10:49 pm

And I think you are talking about NBC....??

But in reality, they had over-extended themselves with the SPM gadgetry, and towards the end, they used primarily recycled footage.

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Post by Skav » Sat Dec 21, 2002 10:58 pm

Hmmmm...the SPM sequences, when executed, never lasted that long. anywhere from 50 seconds to 2 mins. i don't think it was overdone in the series except for KOTJ where it was used 3 times so i don't see how they over extended themselves.

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Post by knightimmortal » Sat Dec 21, 2002 11:04 pm

By creating the car. It over-extended their budget. Remember, it was a $250,000 job. That was the average yearly budget for many of those shows at that time.

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Post by Skav » Sat Dec 21, 2002 11:34 pm

Wow, and the fact that most people absolutely despise SPM! What a waste of money!

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Post by Karan » Sat Dec 21, 2002 11:35 pm

did it cost the production team $250,000 just to get KITT installed with all the SPM additions only? or does that include filming it as well and other costs involved in the various SPM sequences

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Post by knightimmortal » Sat Dec 21, 2002 11:40 pm

That was the price for SPM alone. Because they didn't just fit the cars up with the SPM modifications, they basically re-created at least four different cars up to be able to represent SPM, of which there were only a few sequences, because it was expensive on time to film them. (Which is why you see the same sequences for the most part, over and over again.) There was the car with the working hydraulics and no engine. There was the convertible, and two others that I can't remember right now.

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Post by JL » Mon Dec 23, 2002 9:17 am

Newcastle knight wrote:yeah, its always like that if you watch, everytime KITT is in SPM and the camera is showing michael inside, you can usually see the back of the car, and its not the SPM car. guess they couldnt get the camera equipment on the SPM car ?
There were a couple of times that they got it right ("The Wrong Crowd" is the only one I can think of), but generally they didn't. Part of this was probably because the SPM car they'd take on the road had a regular steering wheel that allowed Hasselhoff and the stunt drivers to have more control when driving the car at high speeds. I guess they didn't want the round steering wheel to be visible (while, OTOH, they had no qualms about showing KITT with a first-season dash half the time during the third season :P).
knightimmortal wrote:By creating the car. It over-extended their budget. Remember, it was a $250,000 job. That was the average yearly budget for many of those shows at that time.
Are you sure? IIRC, the classic Star Trek had a budget in the ballpark of $175,000 per week, and that was around 20 years prior... :?:

That's not to say that building the SPM and convertible KITTs didn't eat up a lot of money...

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Post by knightimmortal » Mon Dec 23, 2002 12:39 pm

When you are spending it on just one item, and not even figuring in the amount of payroll, and other special effects, it takes it sort of waaaay out of the league of Classic Trek's payroll, and remember, Trek got cancelled as well. ;)

The SPM car never went at high speeds, but they did need it just for the control, period.

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Post by Skav » Mon Dec 23, 2002 12:54 pm

When the car was in SPM, some of it...well, maybe even most was just having the footage sped up by the camera.

This was evident in earlier episodes of season 2 such as Brother's Keeper where KITT going up in the car park lot was also sped up footage.

I read somewhere once that stated the car went nomore than 50 mph and the rest was just trickery to make the car look faster.

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Post by Michael Pajaro » Mon Dec 23, 2002 1:17 pm

The SPM car was an expensive lump-sum purchase, but budgeted out over an entire season it's "only" around $10,000 an episode. If you take out one stunt and destroy a few less cars each week (notice the fewer turbo boosts in season 4?), it's not too difficult to make up that money. SPM was an expensive prop (sorry KITT!) but would still be less than a typical single episode of a 1980s series.

In theory it made for good publicity advertising the "quarter-million-dollar car", but it wasn't enough to bring back viewers.

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Post by K.I.T.T.2002. » Tue Dec 24, 2002 4:11 pm

What really annoyed me more than anything about Super Pursuit Mode was when KITT 'transformed' the angles were all the same. it would have been far better had they had shots of KIIT cruisin' along when he converted. it would have looked a lot more believable had the producers done this instead of the same stuff over and over again!!!! :?

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Post by knightimmortal » Wed Dec 25, 2002 11:26 pm

Michael Pajaro wrote:The SPM car was an expensive lump-sum purchase, but budgeted out over an entire season it's "only" around $10,000 an episode. If you take out one stunt and destroy a few less cars each week (notice the fewer turbo boosts in season 4?), it's not too difficult to make up that money. SPM was an expensive prop (sorry KITT!) but would still be less than a typical single episode of a 1980s series.

In theory it made for good publicity advertising the "quarter-million-dollar car", but it wasn't enough to bring back viewers.

Mike
I am not saying that the budget killed Knight Rider, I am saying that they over-extended themselves with the budget, the concept, and in general the writing. The budget is what kicked them over the edge, but it was a combination of that. Or are we going to do everything in our power to rip this apart too?

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Post by Michael Pajaro » Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:29 am

knightimmortal wrote: Or are we going to do everything in our power to rip this apart too?
Knight Rider got me very interested in the business of television. Everything I said is valid. I am just trying to share my persepectives and interests with the board.

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Post by knightimmortal » Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:57 am

Knight Rider got me very interested in everything Knight Rider, and what I said was valid as well, so I have to make the same statement. I am just sharing my interests and knowledge with the board as well.

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Post by Michael Pajaro » Thu Dec 26, 2002 11:19 am

Actually, some of the information you posted was incorrect. You said that the $250,000 cost of the SPM car was more than the yearly budget for many shows of the time. That simply is not true. I'm not attacking you, I'm not insulting you, I'm just correcting the facts. Yes, the SPM car was expensive. But by putting it in perspective ($10,000 per episode spread out over an entire season) I'm trying to show that it wasn't the mega-budget-busting purchase that some people think.

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Post by knightimmortal » Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:21 pm

Yes, Mike, I am sorry. Me wrong again.

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