knight rider online

ya know, i never really liked the use of the minature sets and cars, etc. in the later seasons. i am sure it was probably due to budget reasons, as the Dukes Of Hazzard did the same thing in later seasons...

i was just curious if anyone here knew the "official" reason why they went to minatures and also if anyone cared to discuss their opinions/feelings on those certain scenes i know we KIIT fans can spot a mile away...

thanks for sharing...

Knight Rider used miniatures all along, in certain areas where they were not willing to lose a rather expensive Trans-Am, or in areas where KITT did things that no normal car couldn't really do without a miracle. In the modern day, we have replaced it with Computer Animation, but back then, and as it has been in a lot of action series, miniature models were the only real and feasible way to go.

KI

Trust Doesn't Rust: Is it me, or does that car that goes over the cliff (supposedly KARR) look nothing like a black Trans Am? lol

It has headlights for pity's sake!

definately agree with you on your post...safety is first and foremost on any set. i guess im saying that they did not take much time to shoot those scenes in a convincing way. today's filmmaking also uses minature sets, etc... but they are shot with varying film rates and shutters to make the minature scene look more realistic, but of couse filmmaking has advanced since then. but still, those scenes were kinda painful to watch. being in the video/film industry kinda makes you aware of these subtle scenes.

thanks for the reply...

Sith wrote:Trust Doesn't Rust: Is it me, or does that car that goes over the cliff (supposedly KARR) look nothing like a black Trans Am? lol

It has headlights for pity's sake!

It's actually footage from an old movie called "The Car"

Now THERE is something even more irritating than the slightly badly shot minature models...reused stock footage.

KI

lol oh my... you realise you've shattered the illusion of KR totally for me now?!

*goes through videos of KR looking for Herbie*

I think this footage is reused in "Forgive Me Not" when Kitt goes to help Micheal trying to save Micki.

It's a little bit weird to use this one twice. One for a destruction scene, the other for a "rescue" scene.

marctronixx wrote:being in the video/film industry kinda makes you aware of these subtle scenes.

They weren't subtle enough, as a kid watching it originally I could tell they were using miniatures, way too obvious even for someone like me who as 6 at the time.

the UGLIEST miniature had to be the one they used for sinking into quick sand in Goliath Returns and into the acid pit in Junk Yard Dog

DBZ KITT wrote:the UGLIEST miniature had to be the one they used for sinking into quick sand in Goliath Returns and into the acid pit in Junk Yard Dog

you are beginning to feel my pain...

Sith wrote:Trust Doesn't Rust: Is it me, or does that car that goes over the cliff (supposedly KARR) look nothing like a black Trans Am? lol

It has headlights for pity's sake!

Yeah it was a '57 chevy.

The MAIN reason they used model cars in the Dukes in the later seasons was for the fact they had wrecked close to or over 300 '68-'69 Chargers for the show. The car was rare to begin with back then and Warner Brothers about put the poor car on the extinction list. I heard a while back that a guy found one of the first season Chargers from the Dukes in a junk yard in Georgia where the first season was filmed. The studio had filled the rear with concrete and the crusher couldn't do anything with it. They filled the back to ballance the car, since the engines were so big.


During my Dad's hunt to restore an old Dodge Muscle car he found some Chargers, but elected to restore a '73 Cuda and '72 Challenger. Granted they were in better shape than the Cuda he found, but they had been rigged with electric switches to start the car just like you would a NASCAR stock car.

Dave

I figured that everytime KITT toppled over like in "Big Iron", I thought it was a miniature. It's funny how they film it. Micheal would be badly injured if he was in KITT. He dosen't wear seatbelts like we do.

i honestly think the knight rider models were much better than the dukes of hazzard models, those sucked....

the only really cheesy models from KR i remember was in Kitt vs karr when kitt falls down and rolls over after supposedly blowing up karr and going through the wreckage, woops

in "knight of the phoenix" i swear i saw a wire hanging the trans am model when kitt jumps the semi

and in goliath, when kitt rolls over, the bottom of the car is clearly flat plastic and very bad


but as i said before, none of these are as bad as the dukes of hazzard models (i was and am still a dukes fan, i watched more dukes than kr groing up, but i think the special effects in kr were better)

it definetely looked like the TA was 'hanging" there when he was jumpin over the truck in the pilot. which is probably why they pulled the shot away so quickly.

i always found that sequence to be somewhat fishy but i couldn't put my finger on it...well done!

Skav

pdennis93 wrote: the only really cheesy models from KR i remember was in Kitt vs karr
when kitt falls down and rolls over after supposedly blowing up karr
and going through the wreckage, woops . . .

That's odd . . . I don't remember KITT rolling over after blowing up KARR in
that episode. IIRC, KITT just landed safely on the ground, the right way up.

Play the footage back one frame at a time. During the collision and added explosion, you can clearly see kitt topple over and land inverted to the bottom left of your screen. You can actually see it playing normal if you look. One of many boo boo's they made during the shows run. If you wanna be really picky, you will notice KARR's nose is no longer two toned painted when the bumper is laying out in the debris either.

David Whiteheart wrote:

Sith wrote:Trust Doesn't Rust: Is it me, or does that car that goes over the cliff (supposedly KARR) look nothing like a black Trans Am? lol

It has headlights for pity's sake!

Yeah it was a '57 chevy.

Like knightimmortal said, it was footage from the movie "The Car" and it was definitely NOT a '57 Chevy, it was a modified 69-71 Lincoln Mark III



http://www.javelinamx.com/carstars/tvcar2.htm

ah, so the dvd is out?? I might check into it cos i didn't mind the film. already own it on VHS.

Skav