The Blue Screen of Death

[Sketcher]

Insurrection's playing on Syfy right now. During the scene with the collector Picard and Ru'afo are clearly playing against a giant blue screen. What was the reason for this being left alone? Did the effects not work out? What was the blue screen supposed to end up being?

 

[Tiberius]

You can actually see the bluescreen?

 

[MrJ]

They ran out of money because they spent too much on that kids CGI pet, thing.

There were other expensive elaborate scenes that were filmed and had SFX done but were cut from the film. Like a scene where Data threw a few Sona off a cliff, caught a flying transporter tager robot, manually fired transport tags at the falling Sona, and they were beamed up just before they hit the ground.

Another expensive scene that was cut, were Data flew the Captains Yacht back to the Ba'ku planet as the ship broke up around him.

And the alternate ending where instead of blowing up, Ru'afo became younger and younger until he ceased to exist.

All of these scenes were filmed and had their special effects mostly finished, before they were cut from the movie. So for the obligatory fight scene between Picard and the Bad Guy, they didn't have enough time or money left to finish it. So they just left the blue back ground and just hoped that anyone left watching the movie had turned their brains off and didn't notice.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I think they just thought the blue looked good. But, I too kept thinking that it looks like a blue screen without the FX added.

 

[lurok]

Sirtis hilariously points it out to an embarrassed Frakes on the INS DVD commentary.

 

[M-Red]

I would have actually preferred this ending:

And the alternate ending where instead of blowing up, Ru'afo became younger and younger until he ceased to exist.

It seems much more like Trek.


As for the blue screen....yeah. That happened. Oddly though, it's not one of the things that bothers me about INS. I can hand wave it away by the shape of the Collector itself. Or at least that's what I've always done.

Maybe the Son'a encased the cylinder with some type of blue material that serves some function but just happens to look exactly like a Hollywood blue screen? It's a try...

Anyway, it's a minute problem in the grand scheme of things with INS.

 

[Aldo]

I think they just thought the blue looked good. But, I too kept thinking that it looks like a blue screen without the FX added.

Does Frakes comment on it at all?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

They ran out of money because they spent too much on that kids CGI pet, thing.

There were other expensive elaborate scenes that were filmed and had SFX done but were cut from the film. Like a scene where Data threw a few Sona off a cliff, caught a flying transporter tager robot, manually fired transport tags at the falling Sona, and they were beamed up just before they hit the ground.

Another expensive scene that was cut, were Data flew the Captains Yacht back to the Ba'ku planet as the ship broke up around him.

And the alternate ending where instead of blowing up, Ru'afo became younger and younger until he ceased to exist.

All of these scenes were filmed and had their special effects mostly finished, before they were cut from the movie. So for the obligatory fight scene between Picard and the Bad Guy, they didn't have enough time or money left to finish it. So they just left the blue back ground and just hoped that anyone left watching the movie had turned their brains off and didn't notice.

The hyperbole in your last sentence aside, it sounds reasonable enough, but what are your sources for this?

 

[MrJ]

The hyperbole in your last sentence aside, it sounds reasonable enough, but what are your sources for this?

I read it in an article in some entertainment magazine back in the late 90's or early 2000's. It was either Berman or Piller explaining why Insurection failed.

Most of Insurrections budget was spent on building the Ba'ku village. As well for the digital effects, ILM was busy with other projects so they had to use a less competent special effects company. Truth be told, Insurrection wasn't the only Trek movie to have scenes that were expensive to film and had a lot of special effects in them get cut from the film.

TFF had the "Rock Monster" cut from the movie after they spent a lot of money to build the very complicated costume.

Generations was supposed to open with Scotty and Chekov watching Kirk do some orbital skydiving. And Kirks death had to be re-filmed at great expense after test audiences didn't react well to his original death were Soran just shot him.

It's kind of funny how the worst Star Trek movies had the most scenes cut from them after they were filmed.

 

[22 Stars]

^ not surprising at all, when its right on the page, the film comes together with minimal effort. But when its not right, everyone has to pull and chop to try to shape the project into something watchable.

Everyone involved with FC has talked about how they just shot the script and everything seemed to just 'work'.

 

[inflatabledalek]

I'd just assumed it was supposed to look like that, but that the people involved hadn't properly thought through what anyone who knew even the slightest thing about effects work would think about a massive blue walled set.

 

[MrJ]

Everyone involved with FC has talked about how they just shot the script and everything seemed to just 'work'.

In the case of First Contact, it almost didn't work, the original script had Picard on Earth helping Cochrane, repair and fly the Phoenix and falling in love with Lilly, who was a reporter or something. And Riker was on the Enterprise fighting the Borg. At almost the last minute, Moore realized that Picards place was aboard the ship, so Picard and Rikers roles were switched. Unfortunately FC was the only TNG film where the Captain actually captained the ship in battle, resulting in the "exciting" climaxes of Generations, Insurrection and Nemesis.

 

[MrJ]

Almost every problem with the TNG movies can be summed up with a single sentence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PrPn_0P1os

 

[newtontomato539]

The TOS Prime movies deleted scenes should have been in the movies.

The TNG Prime movies deleted scenes should have stayed on the cutting room floor except for:

Generations TOS scenes
INS de aging scene

 

[Trekky0623]

Everyone involved with FC has talked about how they just shot the script and everything seemed to just 'work'.

I've read that apparently Frakes got the nickname "Two-Take Frakes" because of his directing style on First Contact, i.e. the takes just seemed to work with minimal effort.

 

[carey011]

The hyperbole in your last sentence aside, it sounds reasonable enough, but what are your sources for this?

I read it in an article in some entertainment magazine back in the late 90's or early 2000's. It was either Berman or Piller explaining why Insurection failed.

Most of Insurrections budget was spent on building the Ba'ku village. As well for the digital effects, ILM was busy with other projects so they had to use a less competent special effects company. Truth be told, Insurrection wasn't the only Trek movie to have scenes that were expensive to film and had a lot of special effects in them get cut from the film.

TFF had the "Rock Monster" cut from the movie after they spent a lot of money to build the very complicated costume.

Generations was supposed to open with Scotty and Chekov watching Kirk do some orbital skydiving. And Kirks death had to be re-filmed at great expense after test audiences didn't react well to his original death were Soran just shot him.

It's kind of funny how the worst Star Trek movies had the most scenes cut from them after they were filmed.

I like the topic. Thanks for sharing.

 

[lurok]

Sometimes less is more. Many great directors haven't feel the need for multiple takes.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The TNG Prime movies deleted scenes should have stayed on the cutting room floor except for:

Generations TOS scenes
INS de aging scene

Nah, but a short version of the Data/Picard toast scene from "Nemesis" needed to be there to bookend Data's death.

 

[Indysolo]

So where's the enterprising fan who will complete these blue screen shots and put it on YouTube?

Neil

 

[SeerSGB]

So where's the enterprising fan who will complete these blue screen shots and put it on YouTube?

Neil

I oftened wonder what would work best in those shots. Maybe a shot of the supports and undersides of the collector panels as they unfurl