American Cinematographer - January 1992 - 82

To counter

some

of the

difficulty, Rush and his crew have
tapped their collective ingenuity.

A How-To Guide for

"We've created some equipment,
such as long, 2 1/2-foot snouts for

The Next Generation of TV FX

750 soft

In

helping to create the world of Star

Trek's next generation, the show's ef¬
fects teams have tried to embellish
some of the more traditional visual tricks
associated with the Enterprise and its
crew. What follows is a brief guide to
the effects that give Star Trek its inter-

galactic appeal, courtesy of visual ef¬
fects supervisor Robert Legato.
The Transporter: "It's not too terribly
different from what was originally done;

just fine-tuned it a bit. Basically, you
shoot someone standing there, roll
some footage and have them step out.
So now you have two pieces of fi Im that
you can use for a cross-dissolve, where
you fade the person out. On top of that,
shot on film, are some sparkle elements
we

and

some

animation streaks. We make

one-frame, soft-edge rotoscope matte
of the person. Inside of this matte we

a

insert the sparkles and the animation
element. It goes from a full body of

sparkles down to where the heart would
be in the body, sort of like an afterlife.
We program a wipe on the switcher to
shrink down and leave only this little
area. Every new transporter we do is
based on the same concept, with slight

The Holodeck: "The Holodeck is
where a lot of the blue screen work
comes in. It's supposed to appear like
a

very real environment-a jungle set,
London streets - and while the

or

very long snout, you can tailor
the light to do the job. We have
them for 4Ks and 2Ks as well. Part
of the challenge and creativity of
this job lies in finding ways to
one

person is still standing there we'll
cross-dissolve away and you'll see that
the person is standing in this kind of grid

modify and design equipment."

projection

sometimes foiled by the script-or

Usually the Holodeck
presents some kind of outlandish situ¬
ation where the character is looking out
over a valley or something; we shoot
that blue

room.

screen

and add

a

matte

Rush's brainstorms

are

by a zealous director. "Some of the
directors like to do 360-degree
shots, and I think any cameraman,
I don't care who he is, finds that the

something

job becomes infinitely more diffi¬
cult when all of his hiding places
are taken
away," he says. "I get a

Enterprise itself: "The Enter¬
prise is a four-foot model which we
shoot in Hollywood at a place called
Image G. We shoot it on 96, and it's
fairly consistent with ILM and all the
other places; you shoot multiple passes
of the same ship to do the individual
lights or different exposures. The en¬
gine lights will be a brighter exposure

certain amount of satisfaction out of

painting,

or a miniature, or
shot in smoke."

The

with

some

diffusion

on

it and the cabin

lights will be dimmer. We just shoot
them individually and composite them
all later. The motion control system in
our

setup is very good for speed, and

finding unforeseen hiding places-
working from up high, or in front
of furniture. I haven't had a shot yet
that I couldn't do; that's not to say
that we haven't modified the shots
a

little bit

or

made

some

adjust¬

ments to make them workable.

Sometimes, I'll let a director know
that I can get the shot, but also that
if he wants it he'll have to pay for it
with time. Frankly, though, I often

imagine myself in the director's
position, and I just don't want to
hear someone telling me 'It can't be

dripping at a very high speed, with a lot

we're able to preview a move using the
video tap on the film camera and play
it back at real time. The motion control

of diffusion and

systems, for this type of work on a track,

have a very

don't

really go over four or five frames
Normally you'd have to do it
on a time-lapse video recorder, play it
and instantly play it back to see it in real

want to do with the camera, and we

time. That's how we can do the amount
of work we do. I think my record is

notes from the directors about

variations for different cultures and so
on. In one particular case we shot water

it had this
glowing, strobey kind of look to it."
a

strobe,

so

a

Phaser Blasts: "These

are

the only

things where the animation itself is
generated on a Harry Paintbox. We
shoot the scene on film and then it goes
into a video suite, where they're able to

hand-draw frame

by frame

on

the D-1

tape. We also have interactive glows
and various things to trick it out and
make it look right.
"It's the

same for photon
ship itself. After we
composite the shots, those are done
with the Harry. Sometimes we also use

blasts from the

it to clean up a

split-screen, or to paint
plugs."

out wires or wall

second.

something like eight ship shots in a day.
That's highly unusual; usually it's one
shot a day or one every two days, with
a day to program and a day to shoot.
This system expedites the process
while still giving us the quality we
want. We also have a sophisticated
little switcher that allows

us

to mix

previously composited shots with what
we're shooting on the stage, to get the
attitudes of the ship correctly."
-SP

80

lights - they allow me to
shoot a soft light and not contami¬
nate the set. I didn't invent them,
but we've built a few. If you have

American

Cinematographer

January 1992

done.'

"Very often, the directors
clear idea of what they

do it their
"With the

way," Rush submits.
lighting I'm usually
given more range. I'm rarely given
lighting. When planets are in¬
volved, I try to get a hook in my
mind from the script as to what this
planet might look like. If there isn't
a
very clear look described in the
script or if I don't get a hook from
it, I make one up and then I try not
to repeat myself. I might have an
idea, but if a director goes a differ¬
ent way, I need to conform my
objectives to his point of view. It's
not always a marriage made in
heaven, but very often it is. I believe
my job is to make the various di-
American Cinematographer - January 1992

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