# Man from U.N.C.L.E. swish-pan decoded at last **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2013, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896 "2013-09-15T07:48:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/21 "2013-09-16T02:57:20Z")
Anybody got a sample of this transition from the series? I can’t say I’m familiar with that “whip pan”, and my youtube-foo isn’t finding one. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/22 "2013-09-16T03:34:43Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Anybody got a sample of this transition from the series? I can’t say I’m familiar with that “whip pan”, and my youtube-foo isn’t finding one. I assume he’s talking about something like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AP8zfKKFVIE&list=PL6BDA3BECEAC001FF#t=141), but I’m not familiar with the series, and I’m not sure that imagery fits what the OP linked to as the first frame. ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/23 "2013-09-16T03:36:18Z")
[Look here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZuErXLfQlM) The standard UNCLE swish/zip/whip or whatever you call it is right near the end before the guest star listings. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/24 "2013-09-16T04:29:35Z")
All I can see are moving circles and lines. How does one capture the individual frames? Can it be done from YouTube type video, or only from the DVDs, or only from VHS? Or…? ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/25 "2013-09-16T05:16:10Z")
I think you need either a DVD or a type of file, such as .avi, you can play on your computers. Some media players let you step forward and backwards from frame to frame, making it simple to zero in on a particular instant. You can’t tell by watching the moving image, but I assure you Fritz is in there. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/26 "2013-09-16T05:41:26Z")
> [@Vashbul](#): > > You can’t tell by watching the moving image, but I assure you Fritz is in there. How many examples did you examine? More than one, I hope. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/27 "2013-09-16T07:58:34Z")
> [@Vashbul](#): > > I wanted to check out “The Arabian Affair” because it traumatized me as a kid. In it, Thrush (evil organization bent on world domination) develops a machine called a vaporizer - but it’s not the kind you put Vicks Vap-O-Rub in. The have a peasant chained to a wall, and they turn on the machine, and the room fills up with foam, then they blow the foam out and the chains are still there but the guy is gone. That one really gave me nightmares. > > Well, watching it again, I was appalled at how shoddy the whole sequence was. It’s just a lot of soap bubbles, like the kind Peter Sellers unleashed in “The Party”. I guess tragedy really does repeat itself as comedy. Funny that you should mention that vaporizer thing; I was also remember being very freaked out by that as a child. Nice to know I wasn’t the only kid traumatized by that. _Man from UNCLE_ was my favorite show when I was 8 years old. When it was released on DVD a few years ago, I revisited it and was shocked at how cheap-looking it was. Great job on analyzing the swish-pan, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/28 "2013-09-16T18:22:58Z")
My guess is that they recorded that effect on a piece of videotape that previously had that Fritz Weaver thing on it, and didn’t notice that a little bit of it was still there. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/29 "2013-09-16T20:42:14Z")
Now…can anyone decipher the “spin pan” used at the beginning of the '60s Batman episodes? ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/30 "2013-09-16T21:28:20Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > My guess is that they recorded that effect on a piece of videotape that previously had that Fritz Weaver thing on it, and didn’t notice that a little bit of it was still there. Film. They used film, kid. It might have been someone’s inside joke, but unless you had a film print and a way of viewing individual frames, you weren’t going to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/31 "2013-09-16T21:34:35Z")
> [@AtomicDog](#): > > Now…can anyone decipher the “spin pan” used at the beginning of the '60s Batman episodes? You’re welcome to try. SmartDeblur (what I used to clear up the bottom example of the UNCLE frame) is a great forensic tool for bringing out details in blurry photos, though i don’t know how well it will do on a spinning image. The results may be full of artifacts, but it can show stuff you never would have suspected was there. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/32 "2013-09-17T03:16:46Z")
> [@Vashbul](#): > > I don’t know if they actually invented it, but they sure whaled on it and made it a signature thing. > > Later on, “Batman” gave us the “swirl pan”. > Then George Costanza came up with the “swish and swirl” pan. > Badonka-donk. Just so long as the swirl is counter clockwise. ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/33 "2013-09-17T03:44:10Z")
Even I don’t get that one. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/34 "2013-09-17T03:44:55Z")
imdb trivia says that the original pilot was shot in color – perhaps that was a credits test-frame that somebody picked up off the floor, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/35 "2013-09-17T04:19:40Z")
> [@Vashbul](#): > > Film. They used film, kid. > > It might have been someone’s inside joke, but unless you had a film print and a way of viewing individual frames, you weren’t going to see it. I’m going to venture that it was a splicing error between two pieces of film, one that had the title card you found, one with the swish pan. so one erroneous frame of the previous scene got attached to the swish-pan film segment and stuck that way. You didn’t answer my previous question: how many of these swish pans did you examine for the first frame? If the answer is “one”, then I’m skeptical that (admittedly awesome) frame is found on many or more than one MI transition. It’s a cool find, but let’s keep things scientific. ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/36 "2013-09-17T09:14:31Z")
I did say that all the pans from “The Arabian Affair” were the same, and that the same pan was used in the black and white (though according to IMDb it was shot in color) pilot. So I reckon it was used hundreds of times and there’s virtually no chance they didn’t intend for the Fritz frame to be in it, else they would have fixed it. But I suppose no one’s talking, fifty years on. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/37 "2013-09-17T17:32:40Z")
I have submitted this bit of trivia page to the IMDb trivia page for “Man From UNCLE.” Unfortunately, there is no way to attribute trivia to discoverers, so I can’t give you credit there. But, if it shows up in the next couple of weeks, you’ll know it’s because of you. ---
**Author:** ![LD50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@LD50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LD50)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/38 "2014-04-02T00:17:11Z")
Hey! I was watching this episode 15 minutes ago and found it by accident as I was doing a slow frame advance at that point. Then searched ‘fritz weaver uncle’ and found this thread. Interestingly, you don’t always hit that Weaver frame. I found I had to hit play, then pause and do frame by frame to find it again. I’ve been doing this for lots of the episodes cuz it’s fun to find goofs. Like film crew people ducking out of frame here and there. ---
**Author:** ![LD50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@LD50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LD50)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/39 "2014-04-02T00:45:23Z")
BTW, I found the same frame in all same wipes in that episode. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896/40 "2014-04-02T00:46:19Z")
I’d guess it’s a frame from **this series** : > **[Espionage (TV Series 1963–1964) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056754/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_117)** > > Espionage: With Victor Platt, Martin Lyder, Maxwell Shaw, Alan Tilvern. An anthology series telling different and unrelated stories of espionage set in many countries and historical periods. A joint British–American production with NBC and MGM involvement, produced the year before _ **Man from UNCLE** _ debuted. Seems the only thing missing is Sam Rolfe’s involvement. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-from-u-n-c-l-e-swish-pan-decoded-at-last/668896.md?page=3)