abstract
| - Time for a history lesson, kids. Y'see, even back in the days when woolly mammoths trudged through the streets of Hollywood, scenes still took place in areas where a full film crew would be impossible. One of the most popular and common varieties of such a scene was when the characters were driving, either for a car chase or for a leisurely chat. Obviously, directors couldn't have their whole camera crew perched on the hood of a moving car being driven by someone more concerned with staying in character than with watching the road. Thus, "rear projection" came to be, wherein the moving background was filmed separately, then projected onto a screen behind the actors, who sat in a mockup of a car and acted as normal. This was also known as a "process shot". Unfortunately, rear projection can cause a number of problems. These included the steering of the driver clearly not matching the movement of background, a conspicuous lack of wind or movement on the part of the passengers, and a noticeable difference in film quality between the live actors and the pre-filmed backdrop. Rear projection essentially fell out of use with the advent of the Chroma Key, which nonetheless kept some of its problems. It was finally was sealed up with the prevalence of computer graphics. Used nowadays, rear projection or poorly done chroma key is mostly considered a Special Effect Failure. The title is a reference to how they always end up looking like Conan (O'Brien, not the Barbarian) driving his desk. Has almost zero overlap with the typical activities of the Desk Jockey Examples of Driving a Desk include:
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