TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray

[trevanian]

Again, it's unlikely there ARE any elements to recomposite.

The first season of The Next Generation used raw elements made for TMP. Even the new making of documentaries shows some of the visual effect shots done for TMP in their raw form.

I don't know about the doc stuff, but 1st season TNG's lifts were just stock lifts, not elements, at least the ones I remember. the approaching spacedock stuff in the binar show according to Cinefex involved pasting the -d OVER the Ent, and the San Francisco matte shot in the show with the bugs in Remmick was just a blown up or panNscanned version of the same shot from TVH.

The only original element stuff I'm aware of is some TIN MAN footage, a couple seconds' worth of TMP, and even there it is hard to know where it came from -- it could have been extra frames cut from a longer pre-final print so they seem new but were already on hand.

There's actually support for that in TWOK, inasmuch as it has an extended version of the same 'looking up at the spotlight thingie on the underside of the dish' shot that was in TMP, but the quality looked just as bad as the rest of the stock shots in TWOK (which is to say in the theater all that stuff looked like a dupe, contrasty as hell - not as evident on homevid, but that doesn't change anything else in the argument.)

But if you could provide a precis of what they say on this doc, I'd find it of great interest. Especially if it contradicts the stories from EEG/Apogee.

 

[Harvey]

The first season TNG Blu-Ray features a few seconds of the Klingon cruiser raw elements that were re-used from TMP as well. But some elements remaining is hardly indicate of them all remaining.

 

[Maurice]

The first season TNG Blu-Ray features a few seconds of the Klingon cruiser raw elements that were re-used from TMP as well. But some elements remaining is hardly indicate of them all remaining.

I'm curious how you know it's a raw element.

 

[trevanian]

Yeah, I thought that klingon ship element in TNG had perhaps been rotoscoped off the the stock shot ... it has a kind of odd shiny look to it, at least as I recall it in its low-definition TNG-era form.

 

[Harvey]

The first season TNG Blu-Ray features a few seconds of the Klingon cruiser raw elements that were re-used from TMP as well. But some elements remaining is hardly indicate of them all remaining.

I'm curious how you know it's a raw element.

Perhaps I'm speaking beyond my technical knowledge (essentially, none), but the documentary includes footage of the model against a blue screen. Perhaps Trek Core has a screen capture of this?

EDIT: Not blue screen, against black. Here's the image. Here's another.

(Is it perhaps not stock at all, but a new shot?)

 

[Maurice]

Interesting. It looks like a TMP shot, to be sure. The angle and lighting matches.

It's not impossible that some elements survived, but as above I've heard tell that a lot of the elements were junked by Trumbull's group. The Klingon ships were shot by Apogee, though.

 

[trevanian]

This is getting kind of interesting. (in an arcane way for most, but even so ... )

Dykstra's operation was essentially a bluescreen one, and nearly all of his TMP ship stuff was shot against bluescreen ... BUT the opening shot of the three cruisers was not, because they couldn't get bluescreen behind the model for the full range of the move. They had to shoot it frontlight/backlight, which is how Trumbull shot nearly all of his stuff. The pics you linked to -- clearly the same angle as the opening TMP shot -- are against black, which is how I THINK you'd shoot the beauty pass when doing frontlight/backlight.

edit addon: I just checked and I don't have contact info for Dykstra or Roger Dorney, who was Apogee's optical guy. I do have an email for Doug Smith, who shot that opening w/ the klingons, but he has been at Rhythm & Hues, which if you folks know anything about the VFX industry, is the latest in the long line of sudden collapses (they failed to make their payroll last week, after three studios thought about bailing them out, but fought amongst themselves about whether it was better to keep them solvent or to let them crash and pick up the pieces.) The VFX industry is almost like retail in some ways (all the bad ways.) Anyway, I don't think he'd be in the mood to try to recollect on this, not this week anyway.

If I find I do have contact info for any other key Apogee folk (not all are still alive), I'll try to get some more info. Damn, am I now going to have to netflix the extras on TNG season 1?!

 

[MCKurland]

Perhaps I'm speaking beyond my technical knowledge (essentially, none), but the documentary includes footage of the model against a blue screen. Perhaps Trek Core has a screen capture of this?

EDIT: Not blue screen, against black. Here's the image. Here's another.

(Is it perhaps not stock at all, but a new shot?)

No doubts about it. That's the exact shot, all right.

 

[Maurice]

You're replying to a message that's over four years old. FYI, the moderators discourage us from reviving old threads.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How fucking DARE does anyone revive this thread and get our hopes up.

 

[RColtrane]

AAAARRRRRRRRGH!!!

McCoy: What the hell is the matter with you??