Chernobyl (HBO)

[kerbiloid]

Plastic windows in 1986 look nice.
But where are the split systems?

Edited May 27, 2019 by kerbiloid

[kerbiloid]

From a Game of Thrones forum

Spoiler

 

[tater]

On 5/27/2019 at 8:48 AM, kerbiloid said:

Plastic windows in 1986 look nice.
But where are the split systems?

?

(sorry if I'm being obtuse)

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, tater said:

?

There were no plastic windows in USSR, 1986, only wood+glass, with flies/shutters for air.

Spoiler

As well as split systems.
Both were too expensive, started appearing late 1990s - early 2000s.

And the residential buildings in the movie are full of modern plastic windows.
Where did they take them in 1986? How did they even know about them?

 

Also, any modern building (especially with these plastic windows without the flies) is also full of split systems and paraboiic antennas.

Spoiler

How did they hide them when filming? Made the habitants unmount them all?

Upd.
(I had strange feelings, looking at those small square holes near the windows in the movie.
Exactly where the  split system pipe enters through the wall on this photo.)

Edited May 29, 2019 by kerbiloid

[tater]

Oh, ductless, split heat pump systems. Gotcha. I even own one of those, lol.

As for the plastic... not much they could do, assuming they were filming someplace actually inhabited (short of making all the buildings CGI).

 

[kerbiloid]

4 minutes ago, tater said:

As for the plastic... not much they could do, assuming they were filming someplace actually inhabited (short of making all the buildings CGI).

Yes, that's clear. I'm mostly shocked by the splits/conditioners disappearing.
As one can see on the photo, the small holes are not by design, they are self-made for purpose.
And in the movie, there are pipe holes, but no conditioners themselves.

Edited May 29, 2019 by kerbiloid

[tater]

16 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

And in the movie, there are pipe holes, but no conditioners themselves.

Wow, I'll check that out, I didn't notice that.

Spoiler

 

I know those pipe holes well, actually. My downstairs was not on the rest of the heating system, and I had a split put in there when we first got the house. Later, we remodeled those rooms, and attached it to the rest of the heat/AC with some difficulty, and removed the split. So we're watching TV down there on a flat screen (we bought a new TV, our first that was not a CRT), and I hear this odd ticking/scratching noise. I thought it was the DVR, then realized it was coming from the ceiling. It was mice. I started swearing, and I told my wife, "I told them to seal the holes in the wall from the ductless unit, I bet they didn't." Went outside, and the holes were there (now hidden behind a built in bookcase the width of the room, so the mice got in, and went over the top into the ceiling).

I put traps outside near the holes, and caught  ~5 mice by the next morning (they had to leave for food, most were juveniles) When I was sure I'd not have dead ones stinking up the house, I sealed the %#$@%$# holes myself.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2019 by tater

[Cydonian Monk]

12 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

I'm mostly shocked by the splits/conditioners disappearing.

They shot the Pripyat apartment block scenes in Vilnius, Lithuania. Maybe they don't have A/C there? Or just found a few blocks that don't have them? From the satellite / aerial photos I just looked at they certainly don't look to have split systems like in your photo. 

Edit: According to my maps app it's also 55 °F there right now, whereas it's almost 90 °F here in Houston......

Edited May 29, 2019 by Cydonian Monk

[kerbiloid]

8 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

They shot the Pripyat apartment block scenes in Vilnius, Lithuania. Maybe they don't have A/C there? Or just found a few blocks that don't have them? From the satellite / aerial photos I just looked at they certainly don't look to have split systems like in your photo. 

Hm... I don''t know, never been to Lithuania.

[sh1pman]

Looks like the show got the rating that has never occurred on this planet before.

Also:

Edited May 29, 2019 by sh1pman

[Pthigrivi]

23 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

From a Game of Thrones forum

  Hide contents

 

Luwin was amazing as that apparatchik.

[lajoswinkler]

On 5/27/2019 at 4:48 PM, kerbiloid said:

Plastic windows in 1986 look nice.
But where are the split systems?

Where did you see plastic windows? You mean plastic window frames or panels themselves? I haven't seen any of it. I don't understand how can one analyze the material by looking at it in the distance on a video clip...

[kerbiloid]

8 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Where did you see plastic windows?

Almost everywhere.

8 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

You mean plastic window frames

Frames. I have no idea about the panels. They are called "plastic windows" here.

8 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

I don't understand how can one analyze the material by looking at it in the distance on a video clip...

Not only me. Others, too. They just stand out.

Spoiler

Real windows and balconies in 1986.

Spoiler

Edited May 30, 2019 by kerbiloid

[tater]

Oh, I see, they have enclosed the balconies after the 1980s.

Got it.

[kerbiloid]

11 minutes ago, tater said:

Oh, I see, they have enclosed the balconies after the 1980s.

Got it.

Not just enclosed, but enclosed with these smooth standard window packages.
While in 1980s everyone was enclosing it with usual wooden planks and glass in his personal manner.

Edited May 30, 2019 by kerbiloid

[tater]

2 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Not just eclosed, but eclosed with these smooth standard window packages.
While in 1980s everyone was enclosing it with usual wooden planks and glass in his personal manner.

Yes, but now I can see how it would be so obvious to people used to the way they looked.

[kerbiloid]

3 minutes ago, tater said:

Yes, but now I can see how it would be so obvious to people used to the way they looked.

Spoiler

True old style

Chaotic mess of random materials.

Spoiler

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by kerbiloid

[tater]

The only way to do this in the show would probably be to paint over the plastic ones, and perhaps apply even paper (printed/painted to look like wood, etc). Had they used water based paint, they could wash afterwards.

They likely figured most people in the West would not notice (and they were right). I know someone who had one of the Terminator movies filmed on their property. The studio totally changed the look of part of his facility, but after filming, they made it look like they had never been there (at some serious cost). It all depends on their budget, I guess.

[lajoswinkler]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

Almost everywhere.

Frames. I have no idea about the panels. They are called "plastic windows" here.

Not only me. Others, too. They just stand out.

  Hide contents

Real windows and balconies in 1986.

  Hide contents

Um, that's just enclosure and can be done using wood. And you can't tell it's plastic. I've seen these things made from wood when PVC enclosures were too expensive.

The error is that any facade modification could not be done back then. We can say all we want about socialist countries (and most would be justified), but the city communal services paid great attention at the uniformity of buildings' facades. People destroying that occured after socialism fell and crisis (or wars) started. I'm speaking from personal experience. Control loosened up and people slowly started turning buildings into circus. And now there's a whole little economy around this - legalizing procedures for the crap one built while no one was looking. The amount of money twirling around this is amazing.

These are first hand personal experiences. I live in such country and had to deal with this excrements.

[Kerbart]

4 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

(...) but the city communal services paid great attention at the uniformity of buildings' facades. People destroying that occured after socialism fell and crisis (or wars) started. I'm speaking from personal experience. Control loosened up and people slowly started turning buildings into circus. (...)

Not everyone appreciates uniformity though, and while architects my applaud the consistent look, people who live in such buildings generally care more about the living quality than about its architectural qualities (even, or especially? frank Lloyd Wright buildings were victim to that).

In my hometown an ugly factory was torn down in a blue collar neighborhood agter standing empty for many years, and the empty space was converted into a grassfield, until the town had figured out what to do with it. The locals enjoyed their fresh, green view while that lasted.

Eventually an artist was commissioned, who erected a large brick wall, “as a tribute to the industrial, factory character of the neighborhood.” Somehow, the inhabitants, cultural savages as they were, did not see it that way.

My point: who lives in a building might have a different view on how things looks vs the quality of living than the zoning board has, although that’s mostly the boeard to blame, as they should have provided some guidelines.

But I can imagine it looks like an ugly circus if you live across it and have to look at it.

[kerbiloid]

5 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Um, that's just enclosure and can be done using wood. And you can't tell it's plastic.

I can't tell if it were in Florida or if it were the only such window.
I live all my life in such places, and this is absolutely impossible picture for 1980s-1990s, even close. Even in early 2000s it would be called "euro-renovation".
You can see again the local style before the plastic windows became the mainstream.

14 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

We can say all we want about socialist countries (and most would be justified), but the city communal services paid great attention at the uniformity of buildings' facades.

On main streets of big cities. This is/was prohibited but... Happily, the farther from the city center - the easier.
And as you can see on the real Chernobyl photo above, there are no enclosures at all.

19 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

These are first hand personal experiences. I live in such country and had to deal with this excrements.

These are my personal experiences, too. I live in such places all my life, and it's much better to live in circus than with opened balcony and without a conditioner and plastic windows.

[kerbiloid]

Wow. If I'm not mistaken, in s01e04 they found a real Mi-6 (carrying the Joker). So nice.

[lajoswinkler]

Just to further point out to the mess of the postsocialist societies. This is what one of the morons in a nearby town did to an apartment skyscraper to get a better view from his balcony.

 

Thankfully, to prevent any damage  to the facade wall, he installed two flimsy beams.

Can you imagine the mess of the society that doesn't give a rat's ass about someone who starts cutting a concrete wall on a skyscraper with a diamond saw?

Oh, and there's those enclosures. One used black, one used white, one used gray, but nobody used the same one.

[lajoswinkler]

23 hours ago, Kerbart said:

My point: who lives in a building might have a different view on how things looks vs the quality of living than the zoning board has, although that’s mostly the boeard to blame, as they should have provided some guidelines.

The point of the story is that society raised in an atmosphere of obedience backed up by fear learns nothing, and when the stick is gone, will turn into its worst. Of course, even during the system everyone learned to wiggle through it by bribery and threats. This miniseries is a lot more about the rotten system and the society which breaks the law anytime someone doesn't look. You aren't allowed something? Offer some money. That's how the things worked.

 

Even though such societies were advertised with pride, it was the fear of getting imprisoned, tortured or killed if one broke the law. Thus people haven't learned that you don't do bad stuff because of the punishment, but because it's a bad thing in general. Completely opposite of scandinavian societies, for example.

 

After the system would fall apart, it was snatch time. No regard for anything. Stealing, destroying. Selected mobsters working with law enforcement, exchanging drugs and money, sometimes getting even more powerful than the town officials. It's a total mess and this circus with the facades is just a visible tip of the iceberg of all the horrible things that happen beneath. I live in such place and it's not even among the worst examples.

Edited May 31, 2019 by lajoswinkler
phrase correction

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

1 hour ago, lajoswinkler said:

 

He puts two struts, what's wrong? Everybody here was doing this in space rockets!

P.S.
Interesting, do they hold the upper part of the building, or hang up the lower one.

1 hour ago, lajoswinkler said:

Can you imagine the mess of the society that doesn't give a rat's ass about someone who starts cutting a concrete wall on a skyscraper with a diamond saw?

The concrete is strong. He just had no choice, otherwise which saw should he cut it with?

Edited May 31, 2019 by kerbiloid