Roddenberry Prods. docu. series from 500 hours of BTSover 20 years

[jefferiestubes8]

Roddenberry Treks behind the scenes
Creator's son to host DVD set of unseen footage
May 19, 2009
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003974.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&query=roddenberry

The Toolbox library consists of interviews with cast and crew, as well as behind-the-scenes material shot over the past 20 years, starting with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and progressing through the three other spinoff series that followed.
more than 500 hours of previously unseen footage.

Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, the son of late "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and CEO of Roddenberry Prods., will appear as host of the DVD set, which will showcase the archived material in high-def.

ChristopherPike first mentioned it that it was on Trekmovie this month.


While this material will surely be in standard defintion 4:3 video I will figure that Toolbox Productions will do additional new retrospective interviews in High Definition as well as "Rod" Roddenberry's hosting.
It is highly doubtful that they will gain access to Paramount's original camera negative from 1987-2004 to telecine to HD any of the canon shows to actually show old footage in HD. The only exception being Enterprise 2001-2005 outtakes which were telecined in HD for editing.
This shows that the original camera negative is in storage though from the TNG series (and most likely DS9 & VOY).
It is highly doubtful there were high definition video cameras on a Star Trek set before 2001 shooting behind the scenes footage an nobody shoots 16mm as behind-the-scenes footage since the mid-1980s.
It is possible they had shot some 16mm interviews with Roddenberry that they plan on transferring to HD though. I mentioned the idea of 16mm interviews from 1960s with Gene Roddenberry I'd love to see. It's also possible that in granting interviews with people like BBC that Roddenberry was able to use it after so many years such as these 3 projects.
It will probably be a 4-6 hour documentary series or else a 2-hour documentary for each series TNG, DS9, VOYAGER, ENTERPRISE totalling 8 hours.
It mentions DVD so it is obviously a direct-to-video Blu-ray/DVD release.
Hell they know they could make it a 12-hour series and fans would buy it and not be bored.

 

[ChristopherPike]

While I'm flattered, I'm sure it must have already been picked up by as a TrekToday news item. It's more than ten headlines back that's all. The DS9 crowd have also got very excited about it in this thread.

From the perspective of somebody who's dabbled with fan-edits and tribute videos, that's a mind boggling amount of material. How much of it could be genuine cut or alternate scenes I wonder. I'd be half tempted to construct a narrative around so much unseen footage. Something more epic given it crisscrosses TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT, than a clip-show like Shades of Gray. Remember Star Trek's only one done during the second season of TNG?

I'm very excited about this project as a documentary nevertheless and Rod Roddenberry being given the reins of an official Star Trek production.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I would think you'd want to put a narrative around that footage. It just sounds too unwieldy otherwise.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I would think you'd want to put a narrative around that footage. It just sounds too unwieldy otherwise.

More a fictional narrative, than a factual one. Hence the clipshow comparison and final sentence. I was more focusing on deleted character moments. But of course, a majority of behind-the-scenes footage means a detailed "making of" look, which as I say is equally good.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Well, as much footage as there is, I would try to construct a basic narrative to sort of run through the major points of interest. Sort of a two or even three, four hour trailer, if you will. And then I would just have the rest of the footage available as a supplement.

I don't know. I could be reading this whole thing wrong and be completely off base.

 

[Maurice]

I gotta wonder about the legality of this. Behind the scenes footage is one thing, but there is still tromping into copyright territory if you're showing too much of some intellectual property you don't own.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

'Trek Nation' trailer

Roddenberry has finally finished the film and today Roddenberry Productions has launched a new promotional website along with a new trailer.

[Running time :2:30]

For the past few years Roddenberry and director Scott Colthorp have been hard at work distilling all the footage into a film, and that work is now done.

Roddenberry Productions is currently looking for distribution.

http://trekmovie.com/2010/04/06/rod...n-documentary-finished-watch-the-new-trailer/

Trailer looks good. It's one-type of documentary. It touches on a lot of things. Looks like they are saving the special '500 Hours of previously unseen video footage' for the film itself and not in the trailer...

I gotta wonder about the legality of this. Behind the scenes footage is one thing, but there is still tromping into copyright territory if you're showing too much of some intellectual property you don't own.

I think they are talking more about how the show started and it's impact on the world. Similar to the 2 hour documentary: How William Shatner Changed the World (2005).


This will sell well on Blu-ray and DVD world-wide.
Cinema release? I don't think it would do too well commercially.

 

[Anji]

I hope the kid gets a chance to get his movie distributed. He seems like a pretty nice guy, just like his dad.