(Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica‘s mid-season finale, "Revelations," stop reading now and don’t watch the embedded video, which shows the bleak final scene. Also, this blog post’s original headline has been changed to protect the innocent — don’t read the comments.)
Darth Mojo, a blogger who works on visual effects for Battlestar Galactica, has posted before and after images of the wasteland Earth that the fleet found in the show’s stunning mid-season finale.
The desolate landscape, which capped the "Revelations" episode, took tons of heavy lifting by the effects department. "The location scouts couldn’t quite find the perfect post-apocalyptic city to film," Mojo writes, "so they figured we could just ‘add it in later.’"
Mojo also gives a little background on the establishing shot of the colonial ships just after the jump to Earth: He wanted the shot to give a "last, long, wistful look at the entire fleet, floating together in space; a shot that might make the audience sit back and reflect on what this family has been through and how proud we are that they’re about to cross the finish line."
Because of the shot’s length, Mojo writes, he figured it would end up on the cutting room floor. But executive producer Ron Moore like it, and most of the scene made it into the episode.
"It’s moments like that which make working on this show such a pleasure — everyone ‘gets it’ and people are rewarded — not chastised — for thinking outside the box and trying something different," Mojo writes.
And that’s what makes BSG special, even if the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences doesn’t get it when it comes time for the Emmy Awards ( Galactica got screwed out of a best drama nomination again this year).
"BSG VFX: Revelations": Darth Mojo
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