Is it just me or does Season 4 look a little different?

[Planet of the Daves]

I've been watching Season 4 of Enterprise recently and I've noticed that it looks somewhat different. I understand Manny Coto took over as showrunner after the third season and changed it up but visually there's something just a bit off.
For one thing, it looks like a soap opera. The resolution is sharper and I'm guessing that they jumped to digital cameras at this point. Maybe not. Does anyone agree that it looks cheaper because of this?
Also, there are a lot of close shots of talking heads. I'm really noticing this and I wonder if anyone has any idea why this is?
It's the same crew including the directors so I wonder why it appears so different.
A great example is the bar scene in "Home" when Phlox's presence causes a fight. It looks very much like a soap opera.
Strange..

 

[Reanok]

They filmed the fourth season with High definition cameras and they had their budget cut to make the fourth and final season the number of episodes were cut down to try and save money .I really liked season 4 except for Tatv.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Yeah, your guess is right, they switched from film to digital and had to change how it was shot.

Though personally I prefer the look of the fourth season, mostly because they added a bit of colour to the bridge set and made the series look less monochrome and murky.

 

[Planet of the Daves]

Yeah, your guess is right, they switched from film to digital and had to change how it was shot.

Though personally I prefer the look of the fourth season, mostly because they added a bit of colour to the bridge set and made the series look less monochrome and murky.

Yes, I definitely agree that the show benefited from more colour! That's one of the many reasons I love TOS!

 

[FederationHistorian]

They switch from film to digital, due to budget cuts. The budget was halved from $1.7M to $800k per episode.

It's not a coincidence that everything looked cheaper in S4. It was and had to be.

 

[Jayson1]

It does come off kind of jarring when watching on Blu Ray. Lots of weird camera zoom ins and camera movement because they felt the need to fill the screen instead of I guess putting it on the disks in widescreen .

 

[sonak]

They switch from film to digital, due to budget cuts. The budget was halved from $1.7M to $800k per episode.

It's not a coincidence that everything looked cheaper in S4. It was and had to be.

And yet season 4 was probably the best of the show. Maybe without the bigger budget and special effects to fall back on, the greater focus on writing and story development made the difference.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

And yet season 4 was probably the best of the show. Maybe without the bigger budget and special effects to fall back on, the greater focus on writing and story development made the difference.

Enterprise never had enough of a budget to rely on spectacle to make up for poor storytelling and by my recollection season 4 seemed to use just as many VFX shots anyway.

I think the main reason for season 4's good writing is that they had really good writers by that point. The guy who wrote Similitude was now running the show, the guy who wrote Twilight and co-wrote Dead Stop wrote a whole third of it, plus Star Trek novelists Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens had joined the series.

 

[SCE2Aux]

Season 4 definitely looks different, and you can tell where they're saving money. The virology lab in Cold Station 12 looks a bit naff, but the worst of it was the Vulcan council chamber, where the window looks onto a nearby wall showing a painted sky!
Is it my imagination or does season 3 also look more saturated compared to the look of the first two seasons? Not as much as season 4, but still a bit more vibrant. As far as I'm aware, they also go to 720P for vfx on the third season which is also a nice visual boost.

 

[Planet of the Daves]

"...a bit naff." Hehe I take it you're from the U.K?

 

[SCE2Aux]

"...a bit naff." Hehe I take it you're from the U.K?

Cor blimey, I've been rumbled!

 

[Planet of the Daves]

They switch from film to digital, due to budget cuts. The budget was halved from $1.7M to $800k per episode.

It's not a coincidence that everything looked cheaper in S4. It was and had to be.

Wow! I knew that the budget was reduced but I had no idea it was that much! That is crazy!!

 

[Planet of the Daves]

Cor blimey, I've been rumbled!

Haha! That's so funny! I had to look up the term rumbled though. Never heard that one!

 

[Delta Vega]

Never noticed to be honest

 

[sonak]

Enterprise never had enough of a budget to rely on spectacle to make up for poor storytelling and by my recollection season 4 seemed to use just as many VFX shots anyway.

I think the main reason for season 4's good writing is that they had really good writers by that point. The guy who wrote Similitude was now running the show, the guy who wrote Twilight and co-wrote Dead Stop wrote a whole third of it, plus Star Trek novelists Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens had joined the series.

Those are good points. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are great writers.

 

[mswood]

Yeah, your guess is right, they switched from film to digital and had to change how it was shot.

Though personally I prefer the look of the fourth season, mostly because they added a bit of colour to the bridge set and made the series look less monochrome and murky.

Personally I really felt the color changes added to the bridge were out of place. One of the smartest things I thought that Enterprise did was provide a different color palette to the bridge versus TOS. It help highlight how far removed time wise the show was from TOS. It was for myself one of the distractions of season 4.

 

[SCE2Aux]

Personally I really felt the color changes added to the bridge were out of place. One of the smartest things I thought that Enterprise did was provide a different color palette to the bridge versus TOS. It help highlight how far removed time wise the show was from TOS. It was for myself one of the distractions of season 4.

I didn't mind the addition of colour to the bridge, but I think a little more time getting the colours right would've been worth it: By season 4, they had blue uniforms, a blue floor, and blue handrails and doors. None of the hues really matched, so it looked a bit chaotic. If it were possible to match everything to the same hue of blue, but varying the saturation and/or brightness so the uniforms were the most saturated/brightest (so the characters pop out of the background), and floors the least, that might have worked better.

Personally, I feel like making the floors, handrails and doors a darker gunmetal grey (rather like the grey floor in the bridge 'pit' in seasons 1-3, but slightly darker still) would've been the smarter choice. It would've added contrast to the bridge set, but avoided the difficulties in matching hues up.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

They filmed the fourth season with High definition cameras and they had their budget cut to make the fourth and final season the number of episodes were cut down to try and save money .I really liked season 4 except for Tatv.

Everyone likes the show except for TATV

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I've been watching Season 4 of Enterprise recently and I've noticed that it looks somewhat different. I understand Manny Coto took over as showrunner after the third season and changed it up but visually there's something just a bit off.
For one thing, it looks like a soap opera. The resolution is sharper and I'm guessing that they jumped to digital cameras at this point. Maybe not. Does anyone agree that it looks cheaper because of this?
Also, there are a lot of close shots of talking heads. I'm really noticing this and I wonder if anyone has any idea why this is?
It's the same crew including the directors so I wonder why it appears so different.
A great example is the bar scene in "Home" when Phlox's presence causes a fight. It looks very much like a soap opera.
Strange..

HD cameras, reduced budget, new show runner (Manny Coto) should address everything.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

They switch from film to digital, due to budget cuts. The budget was halved from $1.7M to $800k per episode.

It's not a coincidence that everything looked cheaper in S4. It was and had to be.

I dunno, I think S4 looked just as good as S3. The only parts of S4 that looked cheap was some of the CGI shots, but really that was it. Even then, the CGI only looked cheap in a "plastic-looking" sense. I just shrug it off as TV-grade CGI and enjoy the show for what it is.