Adam Savage gets up close & personal with the ST:TOS USS Enterprise Filming Model

[Christopher]

would love to go see this in person someday.

I got to see it when I was in DC 6 years ago, after the previous restoration.

Hunh -- it just struck me that over my lifetime, I've gotten to see the Enterprise model in three different display configurations at the NASM -- the original hung-from-the-ceiling display on a high school trip sometime in the '80s, the display case at the back of the downstairs gift shop in 2010, and its current place in 2016.

Looking at that 2010 photo on my blog, it's amazing how inaccurate the previous paint job was.

 

[publiusr]

Warp drive may yet be a ways off—-but flexible display screens would the the ultimate nacelle caps.

Get the moving parts out and put dome/screens on with a pattern like what we saw from TV. The little white flashes which are artifacts of filming could actually live now. The rotating mechanism would be in a separate display.

 

[Christopher]

Get the moving parts out and put dome/screens on with a pattern like what we saw from TV. The little white flashes which are artifacts of filming could actually live now. The rotating mechanism would be in a separate display.

For model-builders, maybe, but it wouldn't be very authentic for the restored museum piece, since it would just be a 2D surface effect.

Also, you wouldn't want a flexible screen, you'd want a rigid one that was made in a dome shape to begin with. You can't distort a flat screen into a hemisphere without creases or seams.

 

[Saul]

He also did a video with the (not) Enterprise C. Wonder what happened to the real Enterprise C model.

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[David cgc]

He also did a video with the (not) Enterprise C. Wonder what happened to the real Enterprise C model.

Auctioned off separately. There are details in this thread: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/enterprise-c-filming-model-up-for-auction.312587/

 

[Tomalak]

An obvious question that has only just occurred to me - why did they need to build a giant eleven foot model?

That kind of detail would never have been visible on TVs in the sixties, especially after a few passes through an optical printer.

They could have gotten away with something half that size, which would have been much easier to transport and film.

Obviously I'm glad they didn't - I saw the Enterprise at the Smithsonian a few years ago and it was absolutely stunning in person.

 

[Christopher]

An obvious question that has only just occurred to me - why did they need to build a giant eleven foot model?

That kind of detail would never have been visible on TVs in the sixties, especially after a few passes through an optical printer.

They could have gotten away with something half that size, which would have been much easier to transport and film.

It wasn't "gigantic" by the standards of the time. The Seaview in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea had 8-foot and 18-foot miniatures, although a miniature interacting with water can't be too small. The Discovery model in 2001: A Space Odyssey was 50 feet long, apparently. Back then, you needed to go large if you wanted a detailed model. Especially if you wanted it to have interior lighting or mechanics.

 

[Tomalak]

Sure, but the Discovery was designed to be seen on large screens. Interesting point about the Seaview - I wasn't familiar with that. As you say water is a big giveaway for scale.

The eleven footer is larger than the movie Enterprise model or anything built for TNG.

Contemporary science fiction television series (Lost in Space, Gerry Anderson, Doctor Who) had models a couple of feet across, which was sufficient for the average black and white television screens of the time. And indeed the original three foot Enterprise model was used on screen a number of times, not least in The Cage.

It's rather wonderful that Star Trek went with a feature-scale ship. It speaks to the ambition of what they set out to create nearly sixty years ago.

 

[Christopher]

Sure, but they were for feature films, designed to be seen on large screens.

It's not like all TVs back then were the dinky little black-and-white things I grew up with. There were larger, more expensive color sets that could get a clear picture as long as the broadcast signal was strong enough.

Not to mention that it wasn't unusual for American TV episodes to get recut into movies for overseas theatrical release. The possibility of doing that for ST may have been incentive to make the FX good enough for the big screen. I think Roddenberry flirted with the idea of expanding the ST pilot to feature length if he didn't sell the series.

The eleven footer is larger than the movie Enterprise model or anything built for TNG.

You wouldn't expect a 1960s portable cassette player to be as compact as a 1980s Sony Walkman. Those models were made using more advanced techniques, constructed from fiberglas and plastic and the like, allowing greater detail at smaller size. The TOS ship was mostly wood. Make a wooden model too small, and you can't achieve the same level of detail, because wood has grain. Also, lighting and electrical components were larger in the '60s, so you needed a bigger model to fit them in. There were probably also advances in cameras, lenses, and lighting techniques that better conveyed the illusion of size in a smaller miniature.

Contemporary science fiction television series (Lost in Space, Gerry Anderson, Doctor Who) had models a couple of feet across, which was sufficient for the average black and white television screens of the time.

The Jupiter 2 was 4 feet across, and it represented a much smaller, less detailed ship. The largest Eagle miniatures on Space: 1999 were 44 inches; again, though, they represented much smaller ships than the Enterprise. Moonbase Alpha was a 12-foot-wide model.

And indeed the original three foot Enterprise model was used on screen a number of times.

For distance shots, yes. For close-ups or shots of the ship flying in close to the camera, you needed the 12-footer. Indeed, those shots where the Enterprise starts out as a dot in the distance and grows until it fills the screen, and then flies off into the distance again, were achieved by aligning and dissolving between shots of three different miniatures of different scales.

 

[Johnny Luck]

Man, just the little details that never occur to me about the model that's so mind blowing like it's construction, they only filmed it from the starboard side so it's not fully detailed, the complexity of it's paint job to satisfy the camera, etc. Simply amazing.

Yes, I think it'd be better to display it on a type of floor stand versus hanging in the air. I hope to see it some day. For standing before it would be inspiring and humbling.

 

[Tallguy]

Indeed, those shots where the Enterprise starts out as a dot in the distance and grows until it fills the screen, and then flies off into the distance again, were achieved by aligning and dissolving between shots of three different miniatures of different scales.

I'm just going to go with a neutral "I've never heard that before". I have always understood that all of the "woosh" shots in The Cage and the opening credits were the 3 foot. You're saying that there were three Enterprise models built for the Cage.

Man, just the little details that never occur to me about the model that's so mind blowing like it's construction, they only filmed it from the starboard side so it's not fully detailed, the complexity of it's paint job to satisfy the camera, etc. Simply amazing.

The part that blew me away was at 7:07.

You can see where the pennant used to be on the unfinished left side! At one point it was at least a little more finished. I'd heard rumors but this was evidence! My understanding is that the reason they went to the "right side only" approach was for lighting and in The Cage it was not lit (and as far as Datin was told was never going to be).

 

[Christopher]

I'm just going to go with a neutral "I've never heard that before". I have always understood that all of the "woosh" shots in The Cage and the opening credits were the 3 foot. You're saying that there were three Enterprise models built for the Cage.

Who said anything about "The Cage?" I wasn't talking about "whoosh" shots, I was talking about the extended shots in the series where the ship slowly approaches from or recedes to the vanishing point, the kind of shots that frequently opened or closed an episode.

 

[Tallguy]

Well, for example the shot that closed out Where No Man Has Gone Before (and was one of the most re-used shots in the series) is all the 11 foot second pilot version. The one with the vents on the back of the nacelles. It's an uninterrupted shot and it's only the one model. The running lights continue to blink through the entire shot. They never filmed another version of that shot with the series version of the ship with the domes on the backs of the nacelles. (Although there are two versions of the shot in Where No Man.)

I'm certainly open to learning a new thing, but I've never seen or even heard of a TOS shot where they transitioned between two miniatures. They did lots of other camera tricks to add motion or to increase distance. For instance, the first shot of the Enterprise in Where No Man is slid sideways in the frame at the start of the shot.

 

[Christopher]

Well, for example the shot that closed out Where No Man Has Gone Before (and was one of the most re-used shots in the series) is all the 11 foot second pilot version. The one with the vents on the back of the nacelles. It's an uninterrupted shot and it's only the one model. The running lights continue to blink through the entire shot. They never filmed another version of that shot with the series version of the ship with the domes on the backs of the nacelles. (Although there are two versions of the shot in Where No Man.)

Again, I wasn't talking about the pilots, but about the series proper.

I'm certainly open to learning a new thing, but I've never seen or even heard of a TOS shot where they transitioned between two miniatures. They did lots of other camera tricks to add motion or to increase distance. For instance, the first shot of the Enterprise in Where No Man is slid sideways in the frame at the start of the shot.

Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read about that effect. I thought it might have been the in-depth article on TOS effects in Cinefantastique's Trek 30th Anniversary issue, or the "Out of This World Special Effects" article from American Cinematographer in 1967, of which I have a photocopy. But I just checked them both, and it wasn't mentioned.

 

[Tallguy]

Again, I wasn't talking about the pilots, but about the series proper.

Right. But there are no shots of the Enterprise flying away into the distance from the series proper.

There are shots of the ship flying towards the camera made during the series but none of them start that small (compared to Where No Man) and they're all also clearly a single model.

 

[Christopher]

Well, I don't know now. I remember reading that they did that, but I can't confirm that my memory is accurate. I could be misremembering the part of the Cinefantastique article where they mentioned using the three miniatures for different distances -- the 11-footer for close-ups and the 3-footer and 4-incher for successively more distant shots. Maybe I forgot that they were talking about separate shots, not a continuous one. Alternatively, maybe it's something they did for the Enterprise-D in TNG and I'm getting it mixed up with TOS.

Still, the point remains that they needed the 11-footer for the shots where the ship was close to the camera, since the 3-footer wouldn't have had enough detail and would've been too obviously a miniature at close range.

 

[publiusr]

The third model was probably the AMT outside the K-7.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/TOS_studio_models
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Constitution_class_model_(original)

And the little metal pendant type in Catspaw…
So there were at the very least four models.

 

[Christopher]

The third model was probably the AMT outside the K-7.

No, the third model mentioned in the Cinefantastique article was the 4-inch model discussed here (quoting said article): https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Constitution_class_model_(original)#Three-_and_four-inch_models Although it looks like Howard Anderson was misremembering about the model's use.

The AMT models didn't start showing up until season 2. Since they were plastic model kits, they were pretty flimsy and probably didn't last long. (I remember how easily mine came apart when I was a kid.)

 

[David cgc]

Alternatively, maybe it's something they did for the Enterprise-D in TNG and I'm getting it mixed up with TOS.

I believe that's the case. The rubber-band warp-speed effect in TNG was done switching from the six-foot model to the two-foot model (with the transition at the point where the flash of light coming out of the nacelles was brightest). The method you're describing of transitioning from one model to another model to another would be pretty sophisticated in terms of the alignment and coordination required, and most of the times a hand-off like that was done even into the '90s, something would come in front of the screen to hide the transition (like the flash from the warp engines, or a light pole in a shot in Back to the Future II of the DeLorean landing and then driving down the street).

 

[Christopher]

The method you're describing of transitioning from one model to another model to another would be pretty sophisticated in terms of the alignment and coordination required

Yes, you're right. Thinking about it, it probably would require motion control to align the shots.

I knew about the slit-scan warp effect, but I was talking about a more basic shot of the ship starting out at the vanishing point and approaching the camera at sublight. My impression is that that shot involved dissolving from a smaller to a larger model, though this conversation has proven that my memory is unreliable.