I ran a search here and couldn’t find a topic about this, but if it’s been covered I’d appreciate a link to the discussion.
Anyway, it’s been bugging me more and more to see pilots wearing helmets that seem to be lit from the interior. I understand the idea behind exterior lighting, like a miner might use, but wouldn’t interior lighting just cause glare and otherwise obstruct vision?
Is it like this just for the camera, or am I missing something?
That’s it. To see the pilot’s faces. It’s also a call back to the original show.
RDM did address the issue in one of his BSG podcast commentaries… it’s really for the camera… "It’s TV. What can I say?", he justified…
If you’ve run out of GWC podcasts to listen to (like that’s possible :p),
go back and listen to RDM’s commentaries… the whole lot of it :eek:
Once this season is over and I’ve checked out The Plot I plan to start all over, watch each episode, and listen to any available podcast from GWC/RDM after each.
You see this sort of cheat a lot in TV and movies. I was watching an X-Files episode once (sorry, Sean), where they were wearing containment suits, and they had beauty lights inside their helmets, too. It happens in Stargate and Star Trek as well. Good thing they didn’t have that for Darth Vader. That’d’ve been creepy.
So the camera man can easily see their faces on a dark set (supposed space in a viper). Nothing special just a clever solution to a lighting problem.
And because it just looks frakkin’ cool. 
Real Reason: To see the actors faces.
My Own BS Reason: Colonial Aesthetics, like cut corners.
As CylonMatrix said, Ron did address it briefly in one of his podcasts. Without the light the helmet just looks blank on camera, you can’t see their face. In real space the light would prevent them from really seeing anything.
I think one of Richard Hatch’s Battlestar novels states that the light is a side effect of a force field projected by the helmet that keeps air inside it.
I thought so. I mean, I figured it was for TV lighting, but I was pretty sure it would wreck your vision, too. Like having the lights on in your car when driving at night.
Thanks, everyone!
The original 78 series had the viper pilot Egyptian helmets light up around the face plates as well…probably a carryover from that production design.
Thanks for reading
Actually, the original series helmets didn’t HAVE faceplates. They had openings where you would expect a faceplate to be … but they didn’t actually have any glass or plexi in them.
YEah I forgot there were actually no faceplates and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century used a similiar setup I think, though I don’t think the helmets were lighted.
Thanks fo reading
It does minimize the reflections issue.
This is really why.