concept art and set photos!

[trevanian]

Q: You worked with Production Designer Scott Chambliss on this film. What's he like to work with?
Interesting. He is a designer who looks for inspiration online. Every week he would find something that we should incorporate. He doesn't have a classical design education so designing something new is not really in his vocabulary. He is a very nice guy, I just don't think he should do Sci-Fi.

And yet he designed two Star Trek films that are beautiful to look at and have a realism to them; they don't seem as design as the old Trek productions.

I can't think of a single Chambliss Trek set that works at all -- the lighting and glass make for a glare-intensive work environment, which is the exact opposite of what you need in a control room. I think the KELVIN bridge was a little bit better in that regard, but still a real miss in terms of credibility.

If your idea of realism is contemporary pipe fittings, then I guess they won't be able to improve on this, but it sure ain't mine.

And that doesn't even get into the ugly factor. How they can take Saarinen inspiration for some structures and still have them come out so uninspiring just blows my mind. And if they had to use existing modern day stuff to shoot in, I'd have said shooting several of Calatrava's architectural marvels would have gone a long way toward seeming like a real exciting future.

In another thread here last week, I posted a bit from an interview I did with Chambliss shortly before 09 came out, and based on what he said and what I then saw, this concept art guy sounds dead on target. Ballsy as hell to go on the record though.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I love the Nibiru stills.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Ugh. Belker's designs are fuglier than the Vengeance.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Maybe this was a Klingon starbase?

 

[TheCutestofBorg]

That might actually work better as a Borg ship with mods.

Speaking of the Borg: was is just me or did the STID-creative team try and fuck with our fan-minds with the reveal of the Vengeance's drydock? At first glance it looked so much like an old-Trek Borg-ship - to me at least.

I could not agree with you more. It looked like a super detailed and exact replica of what a borg ship should look like. In fact when I first saw it I thought OMG its the funkin Borg.
If they end up going with the borg in the next film they need to use that exact design, except on a larger scale. Make it so large and detailed that you could fly up to it and get lost on the surface. Make the Borg ship so large and slow moving that they dont even care that you are checking them out and seem like they dont even notice you...

 

[Maurice]

Unused Klingon ship concept art by Harald Belker, who worked for a time on STID

Well, those are just terrible.

 

[beamMe]

I don't think that guy even tried to come up with something.

 

[BillJ]

I don't think that guy even tried to come up with something.

What exactly can you come up with when your instructed by your boss to put three towers together?

 

[F. King Daniel]

The more I look at it, the more I like it. It kinda reminds me of a old sten machine gun.

That said, it doesn't look Klingon at all. Although maybe if the Klingons reverse-engineered technology from the Narada...

 

[starburst]

That might actually work better as a Borg ship with mods.

Speaking of the Borg: was is just me or did the STID-creative team try and fuck with our fan-minds with the reveal of the Vengeance's drydock? At first glance it looked so much like an old-Trek Borg-ship - to me at least.

Didnt cross my mind, looked just like something covered in camouflage netting to me to hide what was inside, probably has some sort of sensor jamming technology similar to the torpedoes.

 

[publiusr]

Now what I would do would be to have antenna farms all over it, to break up the outline--a Borg listening post. We saw Lore and the asymmetrical Borg renegade ship, and the modified Earth ship from ENTERPRISE that had the antennas on it, for that high tech look.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I don't think that guy even tried to come up with something.

What exactly can you come up with when your instructed by your boss to put three towers together?

Something like this alliance ship from Firefly: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTPy4YZkUi2ZoMxpBgvLv6fAQpHnFRaQgmM4AKBepbYpLwgY4yx8Q

 

[BillJ]

I don't think that guy even tried to come up with something.

What exactly can you come up with when your instructed by your boss to put three towers together?

Something like this alliance ship from Firefly: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTPy4YZkUi2ZoMxpBgvLv6fAQpHnFRaQgmM4AKBepbYpLwgY4yx8Q

Which is ugly as sin and doesn't resemble anything Klingon.

 

[trevanian]

I don't think that guy even tried to come up with something.

What exactly can you come up with when your instructed by your boss to put three towers together?

Something like this alliance ship from Firefly: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTPy4YZkUi2ZoMxpBgvLv6fAQpHnFRaQgmM4AKBepbYpLwgY4yx8Q

As much as I love FIREFLY, this 'train spikes in space' thing was seriously lame-ass.

 

[DEWLine]

There's the trefoil and Geoffrey Mandel's "Klinzhai" alphabet...

 

[TheCutestofBorg]

Are there any concept art or screengrabs of the Vengence hanger? Or will I have to wait for the BluRay to get a good detailed look?

 

[publiusr]

For such a big ship you don't see much of a shuttlebay.

I would actually have made Vengence larger. With layers of different apature shuttlebays stacked on atop the other..

 

[Silanda]

For such a big ship you don't see much of a shuttlebay.

The ship's purely designed for blowing things up. Less shuttles = more space for torpedoes, IMHO anyway.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been an art book for the new film. Did the last one not sell well?

 

[Kpnuts]

For such a big ship you don't see much of a shuttlebay.

The ship's purely designed for blowing things up. Less shuttles = more space for torpedoes, IMHO anyway.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been an art book for the new film. Did the last one not sell well?

The first one was released a fair few months after ST09 was in cinemas, hopefully a STID one will be coming soon

 

[M'Sharak]

For such a big ship you don't see much of a shuttlebay.

The ship's purely designed for blowing things up. Less shuttles = more space for torpedoes, IMHO anyway.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been an art book for the new film. Did the last one not sell well?

The first one was released a fair few months after ST09 was in cinemas, hopefully a STID one will be coming soon

I think it came out on the same day that the DVD was released, last time around, so mid-November might be a likely time to look for a new book.