Is there a symbolism that I’m missing, or does no-one on the SMALLVILLE show understand the most rudimentary concepts of observational astronomy?
Every (not dogmatically every, but mostly) time they show the moon in this show, it is a crescent or a quarter moon. The problem is, the scenes are usually at night, and the illuminated part of the moon is pointing up in the sky…which, if that was where the sun was located (as it would have to be to illuminate that side of the moon), would make it DAYLIGHT, which it isn’t.
I noticed that they did it again last night in the season premiere. Are they really all that stupid, or is there a meaning that is blowing past me? Shoot, they had the quarter moon in the sky at twilight, but the lit part was facing away from the horizon.
I’ll admit that while I like the show, I’m not a comprehensive devourer of Superman lore. There may be a reason for this, but I don’t know what it is.
I’ve never seen Smallville, but I have occasionally noted the same phenomenon in other shows. The producers presumably either don’t know or don’t care how inaccurate their portrayal is of the phases of the moon.
I’m gonna go with “Stupid” on this one, followed by a strong “Don’t care.” Producers are pretty ignorant of science in general, and they figure the rest of the viewing population is toom or they wouldn’t be watching the crap they put on TV!
Well, I’ll grant that it’s possibly “Stupid” or “Don’t Care,” but the show is starting its 7th season, and you’d think that someone would have noticed it by now (after all, I did). The show is pretty good quality otherwise, with good special effects and all, so it seems a bit bizarre to me that this particular point just fell through the cracks for this long.
Not that I’ve noticed, but it wouldn’t look any less ridiculous if you could. In the season premiere, there was a shot that was evidently supposed to be evening twilight (most of the sky was dark, but the horizon was a bit brighter…and plot-wise it seemed to be nightfall), but the lit part of the moon was pointing AWAY from the horizon (where the sun had recently gone down), not towards it.
Once, I could grant. A few times, I could envision. But six years plus?? Something dreadful is afoot, I fear.
Perhaps it’s meant to be a constant reminder that this is a fantasy universe, and the producers don’t want anyone to mistake a world with flying aliens for a documentary on midwest agriculture.
Otherwise, I got nothin’, either. I just thought somebody might know.
You know, that’s not even in my top 100 list of Things That Are Wrong With Smallville. All I’m asking for is a good-sized hammer and 15 minutes alone with the writers…
As for missed symbolism (though I really think it’s from shooting day-for-night):
Maybe the “dome” appears to the director/editor/whomever to be “flying up” like Superman, while the “bowl” appears to be “falling down.”
Related to this is one of my pet grips with cartoonists, who almost invariably show a crescent moon as a C-crescent, lit side to the left. Fine if you’re in the Southern hemisphere or are intending to show a scene just before dawn, otherwise not so good.
I’m having trouble parsing this as “day to night” shooting (although I appreciate all of the responses to this thread), because it still just looks so obviously WRONG. In fact, during this season’s premiere, there was a shot of the crescent moon during the day (pointing up, like it should be), which transitioned to a night shot (but the moon didn’t move/change). This has been going on for half a dozen years (this is Season 7).
I’m not going to debate with people who have arguments with the writing (I personally like the show, but I certainly respect people who are bigger fans–and thus more knowlegeable–of the Superman mythos than I, and therefore I won’t wrangle), but the moon thing has been going on for half a decade, and it is so terribly obviously wrong.
I knew there was *something *wrong with it, I just couldn’t figure out what it was! And frankly, I doubt it was a real moon, so I’m skeptical of the day-as-night theory - wouldn’t the moon move quite a bit while you were setting up your shot? And the point, last ep anyway, was that it was the SAME moon that other characters were, uh, mooning under. No way they shot all those scenes in different locations (or even with set strikes and resets) without the moon moving. And how common is a big beautiful daytime moon like that, anyway? I’m sure it was a CGI moon.
So, just to make sure my ignorance is fully eradicated, when you see the crescent moon at night, the lit part is down, yes? And if you see it during the day, it will be up? 32 years on this earth and 10 years as a pagan, you think I would have put that together on my own…
Odd that I didn’t notice that about the Moon, but the other night when I was watching the show, there was a dialogue scene between Clark and his hot alien cousin Kara, up in the barn, with a sunset behind them. A perfect sunset, right at the point where the Sun was bisected by the horizon, with a great golden pool of light spread out to either side. I thought, “it’s sheer luck if they got the take they wanted while they still had a perfect sunset; I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in front of a greenscreen.” The show is so effects-intensive, they probably don’t worry about what’s actually in the sky at any given time; if they want a Moon, they might just produce a Moon in post-production.
Yep, in REAL life, the lit part of the moon points towards wherever the sun is, so at night it has to point down towards the horizon. If you see it during the day, it will likewise point sunward, but that will be up in the sky to whatever extent.
I doubt that it’s a real moon, too; which makes it even more perplexing. If they are inserting it into the shots via CGI (which I think they probably are), why don’t they do it correctly? That’s what I can’t figure out.
As for perfectly vertical: I haven’t noticed it presented that way, but to be realistic, it would still have to be a daytime shot. A “perfectly vertical” moon at night wouldn’t make any sense.
I don’t know if we can expect the producers of “Smallville” to be more scientifically literate than the general public. I’ve spoken to people who were convinced that there’s a permanently “dark side of the Moon”. Don’t people ever just look at the actual sky and think about it?
You may have a point there, Baldwin, but it’s a really mind-boggling one. I remember a few years ago when I was leaving work with a coworker (who sported a college degree and seemed reasonably intelligent and educated), who expressed amazement that the moon was up during the day. It was a bit after 6:00 am in the summer, and the moon had risen before the sun.
She was of the opinion that the sun was in the sky in the daytime, and the moon was in the sky at nighttime. She also thought they were the same size and were both about 100 miles away.
This from a 40 year old college graduate.
I thought she was kidding, but evidently she wasn’t.
I’d be perfectly willing to grant that someone on the SMALLVILLE project didn’t know any better, but no one?? For six years?!?! That’s hard to swallow.
This isn’t correct, as you’ve stated it. The moon “points towards” the sun, not the horizon. And it points to the sun almost along along the line of the ecliptic. Sometimes it’s not clear exactly which way that is, and I’ve read some astronomers complaining that most people can’t properly pick out that line. So sometimes the moon does appear to point in the wrong direction.
OTOH, there are some directions the moon can’t point in. Unless the ecliptic goes straight up or down where you care, you can’t have the moon pointing that way.
I haven’t seen Smallville, so I can’t comment on the way they show the moon.
I said that AT NIGHT it has to point down toward the horizon (which it does).
That (to me) is a very bizarre contention. The lit part of the moon “points” towards the sun, since that is what is lighting it. If it is nighttime on a particular place on Earth, then the sun (by definition) is below the horizon, and thus the moon must point that way. If “sometimes the moon does appear to point in the wrong direction,” I don’t see how it can seem that way to anyone who understands how the moon is illuminated. The fact that it may appear that way to some people is not an argument. I used to work with a person who seriously thought that the moon and the sun were the same size and were both 100 miles away. Ignorance proves nothing. So, no…the moon does NOT appear to point in the wrong direction sometimes.
Yep: away from the sun.
That’s okay. How the moon is shown on the show (which I like, btw…the show, not the moon) has already been discussed.