RDA is colourblind!

C

catgirl

Canadian, eh?!
Joined
Feb 21, 2002
Messages
71
I was reading a transcript from a time that RDA appeared on Vicki Gabereau, and he stated that he is colourblind. Did you guys know that? I thought that it was kinda funny, especially when Vicki said that that "explained his lime green sweater" (it was actually light blue) he looked down and said "they told me it was blue-ish!" Everyone cracked up. I think that it's so cool how Jack and Richard have the same sense of humor. I think that RDA is much better Stargate than on MacGyver. On Stargate, he can be himself. That's what makes the charcter so great.
I guess I got a little off subject there, eh? Oh, well. You can post to either or both points. By the way, the "eh" was showing of my Canadianism.

Catgirl ;) (meow)
 
This is a minor male disability that I never think to pay much mind to. That came back to bite me in the ass (almost) on a theater job I had in Michigan in 1992. I sent one of the younger guys off to cut some gel ( that's colored plastic that's used to color the lights on stage and TV ) and he came back a bit later with a question about colors and I had one of those "duh" moments where I couldn't get my mind around why he'd have to ask me such a question. As a ligthing designer and a woman, I was living in the reality that "you see color as... color" and it didn't make sense that someone would need to ask what a color was. "Well, I'm color-blind" he evenually explained. I was so floored. It would have been somewhat a bother to have to rebuy gel if he'd cut the stuff incorrectly. But he had done fine. He'd followed the numbers on the sheets. But I can only think now that I gave him quite a challenging job and likely more than he asked for on his stint on the lighting crew. :D I asked him how he'd managed to cut the gel and he said "I just matched numbers and the grey shades." His type of colorblindness renders certain colors in varying shades he percieved as "grey" shades. But, I dont' think we can ever know what such men with color-blindess perceive. (And I got into an argument with my sister about art and color-blindness/perception this December.)
 
Oh I didn't know that..they thing about his sweater was funny!
 
color blind

And there are different levels of color blindness. the most common is red-green, followed by blue-yellow, then pastel and then total color dysfunction - everything's shades of grey.

Also, it's been proven genetically that guys 'see' colors differently than women, but men see silouette better than women. [The male 'hunter' vrs the female 'gather'. He has to make a snap determination if the outline is prey food or dangerout. She has to be able to tell fine gradations of colors in plants and such for food, medicine, etc].

Probably the mane reason guys don't go out with us when we get fabric, pick colors for paint, etc. My husband, for example, can't tell the difference between off-white, ecru, cream and light taupe... even if I put the paint color swatches right beside each other.

But he can see a deer outline at 500 meters and drop the buck in one shot.

Of couse, he's also ex-Airborne Infantry and Special Forces... he has to have good eyesight. :}

Rowan
 
Wow, what a response!! I don't know what type of colorblind RDA is. That would be neat to find out. That stuff about men vs. woman colour perception was really awsome. Does anyone know what type of colour blind RDA is? Oh well. I wonder if he ever has trouble on the set because of that. Like putting on the wrong costume or something. But I guess even if he has severe colourblindness he would still be able to distinguish between different shades.

Keep posting!!

Catgirl;) (meow)
 
For any colorblind actor, the thing the crew would have to do for them is make sure floor "marks" (ie. where to end up standing for this or that shot) would have to be different enough for him to know which one is his. (ie. if red-green colorblind you wouldn't use them as tape colors for marks)

Another thing might be that you can't give such an actor a instruction to stand under X color light. You'd have to put a mark down.

That's two directorial/ technical things that come to mind.

And yeah, probably the costume department watches him like a hawk.


The color perception thing Rowan mentions is sort of odd in the light that most of the set designers and set painters I schooled and worked under were men. Maybe they just be unique men!
 
Color perception

Color perception can be a trained thing. Like we both agree to call a certain color 'goose turd green'. {yes, I've 'worked the lights'}. Now, no matter what that color may work out if you ran it through a frequency meter, we've both agreed to cal that color a certain name.

That's how a lot of this stuff works. We learn to compensate as we grow up. I've met a lot of guys who didn't realize they had color vision problems until they joined the military and wanted to go on into a specilized program, like electronics, and found out their color vision was off.

After have two eye surgeries to correct my crossed eyes as a kid, I should not have had any 3d vision or depth perception to speak of. And technically, I don't, but I learned to compensate - my brain learned to take the stimulus it was getting and 'create' a 3d percived image.

RDA probably have more of a perception disability than actualy color blindness, but I don't have the man's medical records. he copes and does his job well. That's what counts in the long run.

Rowan [who had two friend: one an electrical engineer and one a cartoon artist - both totally blind to the entire color spectrum. they coped.
 
Re: Color perception

Originally posted by Rowan
Color perception can be a trained thing. Like we both agree to call a certain color 'goose turd green'. {yes, I've 'worked the lights'}. Now, no matter what that color may work out if you ran it through a frequency meter, we've both agreed to cal that color a certain name.
Click to expand...
I am worried for my little niece, every color is "yellovw." I'm seeing this process in action, and I'm praying all our "Here's a red block" starts connecting that somewere between perception and language. She's almost two years old! Then again, she lives in a bright, sunny world if everything is yellow. That sounds sort of cool.

Originally posted by Rowan
After have two eye surgeries to correct my crossed eyes as a kid, I should not have had any 3d vision or depth perception to speak of. And technically, I don't, but I learned to compensate - my brain learned to take the stimulus it was getting and 'create' a 3d percived image.

RDA probably have more of a perception disability than actualy color blindness, but ... Rowan [who had two friend: one an electrical engineer and one a cartoon artist - both totally blind to the entire color spectrum. they coped.
Click to expand...
It's funny you should mention the surgeries, I haveta meet you in September, I had the lazy eye corrective surgery at age three. Which after I posted last night I started to think about eye dependancy. Because of the post-surgery practice of putting a patch on the stronger eye and nine years of sight thearpy, I became left eye dependant. I'm right handed. I didn't think that was normal. So, technically I think I'd have trouble really aiming a gun correctly. I'd be temped to use the left eye and I suspect that don't usually work because of the cross-body twist to use left eye and right hand. I also tend to put all my video and still camera viewfinders up to my left eye.

When rewatching the season one DVD's I was was a bit floored to suspect that RDA also puts all his binocs and stuff to his left eye. I mentioned this to my sister and she and I argued about whether it was an "actor thing" (she don't even follow the show one-fifth the way I do, so why we argued this point is beyond me) but it got me thinking that it's rather strange that I noticed it. And then I'm wondering what is the story about that? Is in an actor thing, or are there lots of right handed people that do this?

And lastly, I guess anyone can cope with color perception challanges, shall we say, if they can bounce the results of artistic endevors off of a few friends. :D
 
color and things

The little one may have just decided the entire world is to be called 'yellow'... it may not be a physical thing. But that's deffinately and MD's call.

I can relate. I wore a patch for 5 some years before they decided to jsut 'do it'. I had both corrected in 5th grade and then the reight readjusted in 6th [really screwed up my learning math as I missed a chunk of basics during that time]. I am deffinatly left eye dominate but right handed. Each eye has matured into a seperate focal distance and clarity. [Man, if you don't think that was fun trying to get good field protective mask inserts for my mask so I could even see, let alone shoot over the years in the Army.] I aim left eyed so I do like Rick does - lean my head further over the stock.

One eye is also more light sensitive than the other, although I've always been a bit more light sensitive since having measles and chickpox in the same month as a kid. Probably sunburning my corneas a couple of times hasn't helped. <sigh>

And yes... the Army knew I was 'broken' when they got me... I just got a bit more broke over the years. Hey! No expects to get shipped off to their first war when they're in their 40's. :eek: I *did* get lucky with 'Storm', though. Sometimes a person focus, etc will change during aging. When I went to a 'real' optician to get a perscription for my mask inserts [I felt it really *was* necessary to be able to hit what I shot at in this case], contacts and glasses, my eyes had changed enough I didn't need to wear anything. Much better situation in the desert.

But the military issue sunglasses [pink turtleshell plastic frames] *really * sucked. There's a reason they're called 'RPG's for the women [Rape Prevention Glasses] and 'BCG's [Birth Control Glasses' for the guys. :blush:

Row < who had her eyes re-done Dec of 1999 ... and then went and dug in the desert of Israel for a month the next summer.
 
So it's possible to do shooting as a leftie-rightie. I've only had experience with a cheap painball gun and I tended to be a sort of a from the hip spray aimer. Sort of shot off a few paint balls to find out how far off I was.

I conducted a little experiment with my family. I had good fun asking my family what eye they put viewfinders up to over the Easter weekend. Apart from the observation that the off center design cameras may encourage having people use the left eye, I found my father and sister use the left eye. They said they could use right but it was disconserting to even sit and think about the answer. Those moments where the brain kinda stalls wondering "what kind of question is that?" are so precious.

It occures to me too that the question of which eye RDA was using would be moot if they used regular binocs instead of them weird ones. :D And life wouldn't be the same if they stayed so true to the Army side and put him in funky pink tortise-shell sunglasses. The bug-eye ones are amusing enough IMO.
 
Eyes...

Oh, you get so you adapt with different focal distances [just ask the guys who do my eye test for my drivers license. ;) ]. With bonocs, I just use the eye thats most in focus.

As for shooting, well, even out of practice I can still pop a balloon moving in the wind at 50 meters with a single shot AR-15 [the single shot version of the M-16 - civilian model]. But I've always been a good shooter. Never scored less than 'Expert' with the military rifle at the time [went from M-1 carbine to M-16] and sidearm [Colt 45 cal to 9mm Beretta].

Dad taught me how to shoot... starting at 3. ;)

Row
 
I'll have to look closer when I see him using the binoculars, or when he uses that neat little telescope. Hey, how about on Touchstone where he uses the periscope! I'll have to look at my tape again, though whatever eye he put it on may have just been a matter of his position under the window.

Catgirl;) (meow)
 
Well, that explains why he doesn't mind the Stargate military stint. Olive green and black works well for him.
 
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