question about tv resolutions and old shows

I need a sanity check.

Anyone else with an 4K TV really notice the make-up everyone is wearing on TV shows from the eighties and nineties? I mean, the skin tones are eerily solid and way too flat (consistent?) for Troi, Guinan and even Worf, whereas Data and the Borg now really look like they're wearing pancake makeup.

...or am I going crazy?

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I did notice this on my brother's fancy TV, yes! It's even more pronounced if you watch TV from the 60s or 70s, but it makes sense that they were aiming for the clearest picture available at the time rather than thinking of high resolution of the future.

[seperis]

Oh good. I leanred stage makeup in high school but I had no idea they used that much for TV and not just plays.

[raine]

Probably not, given the way 4k TVs work, and the amount of makeup that was used then - I remember reading interviews with the actors who said the amount of makeup used made them break out with acne.

[seperis]

I believe it. Every so often I keep getting startled by the blush and eyeshadow on all the characters; I mean, I get why they needed it with earlier resolutions, but man, it's weird now.

[luminosity]

I remember reading an interview with Mary Tyler Moore. She talked about how thick and gummy the makeup felt, but the most awful thing was what they did to her hair in the Dick Van Dyke (b/w) show and her appearances pre-MTM. She said that there were so many different products in her hair, and that it was so stiff, that "those jokers" could (and did) hang clothes from the flip.

*boggles*

Edit: As usual, I'm right next to the point. The view is nice, though.

[aurumcalendula]

I don't have a 4K tv, but I've noticed that a bit when I'm vidding 90s stuff (and that's when I'm working from DVDs).

[seperis]

I feel way more affirmed. I was wondering if I was getting--weirder sight?

[bratfarrar]

Nope, not crazy. I've noticed that just when watching stuff on my higher-res laptop monitor.

[seperis]

It's surreal on shows I know as well as I know TNG. Every so often a close up happens and I just kind of "what is their skin? IS THAT SKIN????"

[bratfarrar]

Pft, yes--which is even more complicated with Data and the various aliens. (This comment is really a test to see if commenting via email works as advertised.)

[seperis]

It worked!

[bratfarrar]

Well, that's handy!

[lillian13]

Oh lord, yes. Even on my old crappy 1st-generation HDTV that I had for years.

[seperis]

See, my last TV was my 2010 plasma and my son's LED; while both showed differently, it wasn't this dramatic.

[kore]

I don't have a super-duper TV (Samsung 40 or 50" I think) but yeah, I also noticed this watching DVDs and Blu-Rays on that or even just on my laptop. As a kid I remember noticing that James Kirk was wearing foundation and eyeliner! (Sort of like David Bowie!)

[seperis]

YES AND SPOCK"S NOT SUBTLE GREEN!

[kore]

AND HIS NICE PURPLY? EYESHADOW

The thing I remember about TV lighting is that it is SUPER BRIGHT. If you get someone on TV who's now wearing makeup, they look horribly washed out and every single imperfection in their skin is highlighted. Add to that the makeup standard in the 1990s was already a heavy mask of foundation with a lot of contouring colour over that....

[seperis]

I remember in high school we went to regional in one act play and I discovered what real stage lights were like. My school's stage had lights sure but we did regionals at a high school with a dedicated full theatre and just doing the walk-through out of makeup we were sweating. That's when I realized why my drama teacher had our faces and necks brushed with baby powder once all our make up was on and I mean we stood still and held our breaths while someone from our crew used a giant brush from hairline to neckline.

(Someone = he was a senior, I was a freshman, and not breathing was not a problem for me.)

[vicki_rae]

Nope, not crazy. 4k exposes every pore and the stuff shot that long ago for low resolution broadcast TV looks like every foreground actor has a really obvious layer of inedible fondant.

[seperis]

THISS (THE FONDANT MAKEUP).

[green_grrl]

Movies on HD TVs look terrible, too—like, TV news or soap opera bad. 🙁 I hate it!

[seperis]

You mean the frame rate? That bothered me at first, but about two weeks or so of watching I stopped noticing. Now I notice the opposite; the older way seems too distant or something. Brains are weird.

[green_grrl]

But also, too...flat? Makeup too noticeable, fabrics too weird, lighting too obvious.

[gwyn]

You should be able to turn that off in your settings--if you google soap opera effect, you can probably find your model of tv. I still have my old plasma, and if I can ever afford one, I want an OLED tv (i'm fussy about movies, and blacks in particular, which most regular LEDs are terrible with), but the most important thing for me will be the ability to turn off that frame refresh thingie and get rid of that awful soap opera effect (it also contributes to the appearance of skin on old shows).

[green_grrl]

ty for this!

[sara]

I was on the TNG set during this period, and if the TV is reproducing what they were actually wearing, they will look very weird indeed. Data was absolutely wearing pancake makeup and it was a very off color that looked bizarre under natural light.

[seperis]

Data and the Borg are the most noticeable, Data especially. Any time they have close ups, it's very noticeably makeup and has some really odd patchiness and settling into the lines on his face.

The Borg could more get away with it, though; the patchiness/smeariness/weirdness works with the weirdness of Borg man-machine-mix.

[lovetincture]

It's not just you! We stayed at my in-law's house where they have a 4K television, and I couldn't believe all the makeup I could see! It was wild. Even on some of the newer shows, I can actually *see* the makeup on their skin.

[cathyw]

My understanding is that when HDTVs first came out makeup artists who'd worked in the '80s were like "nonononononoooooooooooopleaseno". so. you're not seeing things.

[icarus]

Technology: not always an improvement.

[trobadora]

Haha, OMG, I thought Data and the Borg and so on were wearing pancake makeup even back when I was watching on a small CRT TV. I shudder to think what it would look like on 4K!

[akamarykate]

I've noticed this even on a non-4K tv, and there's also...the matter of newspapers. I'm a fan of a late 90s show (Early Edition) that relied heavily on a guy carrying a newspaper around and reading articles in it. When they filmed it, they worked with the Chicago Sun-Times to mock up newspapers with the headlines required by the stories, and in some cases there were at least parts of the stories included in the shots, but because it was the 90s and no one really knew what was coming, they did a lot of recycling of content, or printing articles that had the appropriate lead sentences, which the character often read out loud, and were filled out by junk content about zoning meetings or whatever the Sun-Times people saw fit to cut and paste into the prop. Why bother, when the resolution wouldn't allow anyone watching to actually read the stories...

...cut to the late 2000s, when the first couple of seasons finally came out on DVD and anyone with the capability to freeze-frame could clearly read entire articles. Oops? Of course, anyone who was watching during the initial run understood what was going on, but I've heard some new-to-the fandom people scoff at "low production values" and wonder why the articles don't match up. Children, please. In my day we had blurry pseudo newspaper type that was never supposed to be in focus and we liked it, right along with plaid shirts, Doc Martins, Sarah McLachlan songs for extra special emotional episodes, and plots that would have fallen apart if anyone had had access to a cell phone.

[raine]

Or the Yellow Pages or 411 or..... ;-)