Can anyone provide the article that details this or maybe some storyboards, etc.? There should be some evidence since this type of effect would have to have been carefully planned out (including budget-wise vis-a-vis the Ba'ku village) prior to live action photography; VFX-wise I don't think you would just shoot blue walls in the background and then deal with it later. The plain blue panels in the background struck me as an incomplete effect as well back when I first saw the film in the theater, but I've thought about it since then and wonder if this is really true. Can someone experienced in VFX technology of the day (circa 1997/1998) comment on this? Back then wasn't bluescreen used mainly for miniature photography (ships, etc.) and greenscreen used for CGI-composited background effects (like what would have been used for the collector)? For example all of the behind the scenes stuff from Phantom Menace seems to show greenscreen being used for the elaborate CGI backdrops. Also, in many shots the walls are partially obscured by smoke; how would that have affected the process? I can't think offhand of a case where practical smoke or other diffuse effects were effectively used in conjunction with blue/green screen (unless they also were CGI). IIRC there were other blue elements in some shots that probably would not have been there if a bluescreen effect had been planned (you could correct for it but why?). Even Frakes' photography (the motion, the camera angles, the focus, etc.) just doesn't seem consistent to me with that type of effect, as with Lucas' (apoprychal) claim that in 1976 he planned to matte a slug-like creature over the live actor playing Jabba the Hutt in the deleted hangar scene in Star Wars. In that case, other than Lucas' claim no supporting documentation of this intent exists (and there's a TON of production documentation for that film) and VFX experts have commented that the live action was not shot in a way that would in any way facilitate that effect using 1976/1977 VFX technology (and it arguably looks pretty awful even with modern CGI). There was a luminous blue motif used on the So'na ship as well, so I wonder if it really was just planned that way -- not that it wouldn't have looked cooler to see the collector's fins (ever-so-slowly of course) deploying during the fisticuffs.
I believe that there are, in fact, storyboards in the behind-the-scenes book for Insurrection. Edit: For the Ru'afo growing younger and younger ending that was cut.
Blue was used for optically done compositing/mattes because chemically it was the easiest to remove (and had high detail/fine grain) and also was far away from flesh tones. Green has been used for digital compositing/mattes because it has the high lumanence value (in RGB) and because digital cameras sampled the green channel twice as often. Because it's brighter green screen shots need way less lighting than blue screen shots, which makes it preferable for live action, too. Nowadays it depends on a shot by shot basis. I believe Phantom Menace still used blue screens often because it was still shot on film.
Greenscreen was commonly used from about TRUE LIES onward, for film projects as well as others. What is of interest in this case is that if you look at shots from making of INS, the collector set utilized GREENSCREEN at the bottom. Why put bluescreen around the sides if you have greenscreen at the bottom? NO REASON WHATSOEVER. So the blue was an 'artistic' choice, albeit a sucky one, just like all those cookie-cutter hex shapes all over the Son'a ships. The notion that any effects comps were cut due to cost issues are ludicrous, since Par was willing and able to spend between 7 & 12 mil in the last few weeks before release to fix the perceived faults, driving the budget up from the 58mil that Berman started admitting was the ACTUAL cost as soon as they saw the movie wasn't going to do the business that would let them say it cost 65-70mil. I tried to send this stuff and a much more detailed breakdown in a PM, but that didn't work, destroying about 15minutes worth of writing, hence this brief ONETIME appearance. You may now resume without fear of interruption. If ATARI has more tech questions, try PMing me. I still check in and respond to messages on an occasional basis.
I haven't heard the Frakes/Sirtis commentary in a while, but I recall the tone being pretty jocular. I expect her ribbing him about the look of the collector and his reaction has more to do with his embarrassment over the bland production design than any plans that were aborted due to the production budget.
Blue screens were used at least as recently as the latest film: http://www.movieweb.com/news/star-trek-filming-at-california-state-university-northridge And on VOY: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Rise_blue_screen.jpg
But I agree that the blue of the collector set was just a crappy artistic choice given, as noted earlier in the thread, there are blue glowing bits all over the Son'a sets.