You and your prop master seem to miss the point I try to make about the door.
(Yes from enginering point of view it's 'different', but that was not my main point.)
My point is if you you have no door, don't land and teleport, but teleport from the sky. That way you don't have to tell your audience there is no door.
The problem isn't teleporting without door. It's landing and teleporting. It feels like using an airplane to drive from Amsterdam to Rome: the logic seems off.
So that needs explaination, while when it flies there you don't have to tell the audience it has wheels as well.
(And even if there was a door, it doesn't mean you need to show that door, or that the model ship needs to have a door as well.)
It's not about a lack of imagination, it's about storytelling.
Usually if a SF movie needs to give a lecture about the designs of a spaceship it takes viewers away from the story. So less lecturing means more time for story.
There is a difference between story and backstory.
Your story will and must be influenced by your backstory (and you got plenty of backstory, I can tell), but don't let it get in the way of the story by trying the explain every detail of the backstory.
Teleporting while not on ground level doesn't conflict with your backstory (I guess) AND saves you explaining why they are teleported over a distance of 3 feet instead of using a door. (Which isn't there, which means you need to explain it.)
Talking about imagination:
you say you have only one shot of the teleport (of 5 people, btw, instead of 3).
I suggested before, and The Murph does the same: skip that shot.
Show the ship 'dropping a beam' in the forest. Cut to the shot right after the teleport shot.
Your DP shot a rather useless, or at least a very difficult, shot with too much movement. 99% chance it will always looks fake with any background movement. Actually when you succeed in matching the movement, it will look like a picture moving around, because it's hard to pull off the parallax effect you need for this.
I'll show you what I mean, but first I need to do some other things.
You think to literall about this scene to find a solution beyond the footage you have.
I know it's hard to ditch a shot: I find it hard as well.
Actually for the community project one of the best composed shots I shot with my unit will have to be ditched to preserve continuity. Sad but true...
(Yes from enginering point of view it's 'different', but that was not my main point.)
My point is if you you have no door, don't land and teleport, but teleport from the sky. That way you don't have to tell your audience there is no door.
The problem isn't teleporting without door. It's landing and teleporting. It feels like using an airplane to drive from Amsterdam to Rome: the logic seems off.
So that needs explaination, while when it flies there you don't have to tell the audience it has wheels as well.
(And even if there was a door, it doesn't mean you need to show that door, or that the model ship needs to have a door as well.)
It's not about a lack of imagination, it's about storytelling.
Usually if a SF movie needs to give a lecture about the designs of a spaceship it takes viewers away from the story. So less lecturing means more time for story.
There is a difference between story and backstory.
Your story will and must be influenced by your backstory (and you got plenty of backstory, I can tell), but don't let it get in the way of the story by trying the explain every detail of the backstory.
Teleporting while not on ground level doesn't conflict with your backstory (I guess) AND saves you explaining why they are teleported over a distance of 3 feet instead of using a door. (Which isn't there, which means you need to explain it.)
Talking about imagination:
you say you have only one shot of the teleport (of 5 people, btw, instead of 3).
I suggested before, and The Murph does the same: skip that shot.
Show the ship 'dropping a beam' in the forest. Cut to the shot right after the teleport shot.
Your DP shot a rather useless, or at least a very difficult, shot with too much movement. 99% chance it will always looks fake with any background movement. Actually when you succeed in matching the movement, it will look like a picture moving around, because it's hard to pull off the parallax effect you need for this.
I'll show you what I mean, but first I need to do some other things.
You think to literall about this scene to find a solution beyond the footage you have.
I know it's hard to ditch a shot: I find it hard as well.
Actually for the community project one of the best composed shots I shot with my unit will have to be ditched to preserve continuity. Sad but true...