franchise-star-trek-tng-technical-manual1

1.3 GENERAL OVERVIEWStar Trek: The Next Generation uses an enormous number of special visual effects, far more than even most movies. Atypical episode wiiihave fifty effects shots, while some episodes have had more than two hundred! Even more amazing is thateffects fora typical episode are produced in just a few weeks on a budget that is a fraction of a movie's. Star Trek visual effectssupervisors Rob Legato and Dan Curry are in overall charge of these weekly visual, budgetary, and scheduling miracles, underthe aegis of producer Peter Lauritson. These guys are constantly juggling an incredible number of projects at the same time,ably assisted by visual effects coordinators Gary Hutzel and Ronald B. Moore. To date, over five hundred spaceship shotshave been created for the series, which may make the Enterprise the most photographed spaceship in the history of televisionand motion pictures.Model photography for our first episode (which became stock footage) was done up at LucasfUrn's Industrial Light andMagic. New model shots for episodes are done at Image "G" in Los Angeles by motion control programmer Eric Nash andstage technician Dennis Hoerter under the direction of Legato and Curry.The complex job of compositing the model elements into a seamless illusion of a starship in flight is accomplished at ThePost Group by visual effects editors Peter Moyerand Pat Clancey. (Fred Raimondi, Stan Kellam, and Don Greenberg servedin these positions during our first three seasons.) They also do our transporter effects with the help of assistant editor RayClarke. Phasers, photon torpedoes, and similar effects are created by animator Steve Price on the Quantel "Harry" electronicpaintbox system. Another key element of our visual effects is the work of Don Lee, Price Pehthal, and Kevin Cox at CompositeImage Systems, responsible for the sophisticated bluescreen effects and the precision transfer of film images to videotape.The use of this computerized video technology is the key to producing such an enormous amount of work on such a tightschedule. In contrast, the traditional methods of film optical effects can cost many times more. More important, it would beimpossible to complete the work in the extremely limited time available for post production.Matte paintings such as the city scape on the Klingon home planet from the episode "Sins of the Father" are produced bySyd Dutton and Bill Taylor of Illusion Arts. These paintings are often supplemented with such touches as moving clouds ortiny people seen in windows. (Bill Taylor also wrote the song "Benson, Arizona" from the cult s-ffilm Dark Star.; Special filmanimation effects such as the "energy entity" in "The Child" have been provided by Dan Kohne. Maury Rosenfeld (currentlyof Planet Blue) has contributed Mirage video animation programming.Other important players on the Star Trek visual effects team include associate producer Wendy Neuss and post productiondepartment staffers Wendy Rosenfeld and David Takemura. Visual effects are an important part of Star Trek, and weare fortunate to have such a strong team creating magic on a weekly basis.U.S.S. ENTERPRISEGALAXY CLASS • STARFLEET REGISTRY NCC-1701-DUTOPIA PLANITIA FLEET YARDS, MARSFIFTH STARSHIP TO BEAR THE NAME • LAUNCHED STARDATE 40759.5UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETSSTARFLEET COMMANDAdm. Gene RoddenberryAdm. Rick BermanAdm. Michael FillerAdm. David LivingstonAdm. Robert H. JustmanAdm. Peter LauritsonAdm. Susan SackettENGINEERING GROUPCapt. Andrew ProbertCapt. Herman ZimmermanCapt. Richard JamesCapt. John M. DwyerCapt. Jim MeesCapt. Cari L. ThomasCapt. Richard McKenzieWARP TECHNOLOGIESDEVELOPMENT GROUPCapt. Robert LegatoCapt. Daniel CurryCapt. Gary HutzelCapt. Ronald B. MooreCapt. Wendy NeussCapt. Richard Arnold...to boldly go where no one has gone before."ADVANCEDTECHNOLOGIES UNITDr. Rick SternbachDr. Michael OkudaYARD ENGINEERSCapt. Gregory JeinCapt. Dana White1.3.9 USS Enterprise commissioning plaque located on the Main Bridge