Director's Set Kit Sketch, Playtime (205)

Up today on the seaQuest MPS Blog is a Director's Set Kit Sketch from the second season's Playtime.  I do not own this piece, but found the image somewhere online.  I do not remember where it came from right now, so if it belongs to you, say something and I will give credit, link to your site, etc.

Playtime was another acceptable, not too good but not too bad second season episode.  It does feature one of the common issues with the second season, which is that the show is called seaQuest, but most of the action in this one takes place on land.  In the episode, the seaQuest receives a child's voice message asking for help and is sucked into the future.  In that future, there are only two people left, because of an epidemic and the fact that everyone started relying on computers.  The computer that controlled everything was Centsys, which was the thing that brought the crew to the future.  The computer wanted the seaQuest crew to destroy it, so that the remaining couple would have to work together, rather than just playing computer games.  Video games that feature giant robots that fight each other through the abandoned cities.  Of course, there is no discussion about the genetic problems of this Adam and Eve situation.

Director's Set Kit Sketch of the Centsys computer terminal with a VR video game chair on the bottom left.

And here is how it was realized in the episode

This comparison shows that it was pretty close between what the set designers gave the director to plan out their shots and what was finally realized on set.

Below the jump, a few more shots from the episode.




The Centsys terminal for Playtime was shot on location at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida.  This campus has a series of art installations buildings called Child of the Sun designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Playtime heavily featured the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, including this establishing shot of the outside of the chapel.

And numerous internal shots with the huge Centsys terminal inside

There are two interesting thing about this computer, the size and the wires.  Today, we are used to thinking about computers getting smaller and smaller, yet on seaQuest this computer was a huge installation that did not even have a widescreen flat panel.  Also, the glowing wires are something I am sure a designer would not do today, because of the ubiquitous nature of wireless internet.

The seaQuest MPS Blog will return on Monday with seaQuest Canadian Action Figure Week.