Final Frontier special effects

[FormerLurker]

That's because the wall between the hangar deck and the hold was closed in TFF.

 

[Galileo7]

It did. Smaller and a different design.

 

[Smellmet]

I'm talking width not just the design it looked like it was only two shuttlecrafts wide, the one in TMP looked the size of a factory.

 

[Galileo7]

I'm talking width not just the design it looked like it was only two shuttlecrafts wide, the one in TMP looked the size of a factory.

Yes, that is why I wrote smaller...

 

[STR]

The model may have been shot on film but the compositing against the starfield was done at NTSC resolution, and Generations was facing such a huge effects budget crunch (primarily due to the crash sequence, which as I recall took several weeks to film) that all they could pay ILM to do was a quick and dirty upscaling job.

Edit: For that one cruising shot of the D.

Well, the producers though it was a quick and dirty way to save money. As I recall (and I could dig up quotes if needed) it turned out so much work needed to be done to the TNG flyby (apparently the film was in bad shape) that going with a new shot would have maybe been a few hundred dollars more and taken less time overall.

 

[KelisThePoet]

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I like the shuttle landing scene without the shuttle. It gives us (the viewers) a perspective roughly analogous to that of the heroes, wrested out of sleep, blinded by the light and slightly disoriented. It gives more of the feel of being present for a shuttle landing than a simple effects shot of some model touching down.

 

[Smellmet]

Well, the producers though it was a quick and dirty way to save money. As I recall (and I could dig up quotes if needed) it turned out so much work needed to be done to the TNG flyby (apparently the film was in bad shape) that going with a new shot would have maybe been a few hundred dollars more and taken less time overall.

Interesting. Are we talking about the shot of the D cruising from the rear, camera slightly underneath? If so, I always thought that shot looked less 'crisp' than the other visuals.

 

[STR]

The one during the captain's log reading? Yes. That was the only reuse of TNG footage that I'm familiar with. I don't dispute the assertion of there being two more sequences from the separation, but I don't recall it.

They completely repainted the 6 foot model for GEN, and the sep shots had the new paintwork, AFAIK.

 

[Smellmet]

Makes sense now. Always thought that looked slightly more ropey than the other shots of the D. It's still better than every single effects shot in TFF though.

 

[Green]

I wonder why they didn't re-use more stock movie shots (from 1-4) in TFF. They re-used a lot of shots from TMP in TWOK -- to little complaint. And they had a lot of shots of the BOP from 3 and 4.
This would have given them fewer new shots to manage and with more time and attention they might have been less awful.

I find the notion that using a spotlight to fill in for the shuttlecraft was "clever" or acceptable both laughable and absurd. It screamed cheap, lazy and behind the eight ball from day one. Sure they cut corners in 2-4, but the corner cutting didn't show up on screen as ridiculous jury-rigging.

 

[Smellmet]

I wonder why they didn't re-use more stock movie shots (from 1-4) in TFF. They re-used a lot of shots from TMP in TWOK -- to little complaint. And they had a lot of shots of the BOP from 3 and 4.
This would have given them fewer new shots to manage and with more time and attention they might have been less awful.

I find the notion that using a spotlight to fill in for the shuttlecraft was "clever" or acceptable both laughable and absurd. It screamed cheap, lazy and behind the eight ball from day one. Sure they cut corners in 2-4, but the corner cutting didn't show up on screen as ridiculous jury-rigging.

The shot of the Enterprise leaving spacedock at the end of TVH would have been a nice one to re-use. I'm surprised they didn't use it in TUC, let alone TFF, it's one of my favourite shots of the E, and among the best visuals in TVH. Then again, assuming the other effects remained more or less as they did in TFF, it would probably have looked out of place.

 

[Vger23]

The biggest issue with TFF was that Ferren's group seemingly had no idea how to deal with motion control and properly film the models. They were lit, matted and shot HORRIBLY. The model shots from TOS actually look more realistic and kinetic than the moving shots of the Enterprise in Star Trek V. There are scenes in the film where it literally looks like they took a photograph of the model and moved it across the screen (warping away from Nimbus, and everything of them headed toward and into the barrier). Some of the static stuff looked great (Enterprise with the Moon, Enterprise over Sha-Ka-Ree).

I liked the hand phaser effects, I liked the shuttle crash. I even really liked the Great Barrier (love how you can see it out the windows getting progressively bigger during that observation lounge scene). I always thought the storm wave in "Catwalk" from ENT looked a lot like the Barrier.

 

[Smellmet]

The biggest issue with TFF was that Ferren's group seemingly had no idea how to deal with motion control and properly film the models. They were lit, matted and shot HORRIBLY. The model shots from TOS actually look more realistic and kinetic than the moving shots of the Enterprise in Star Trek V. There are scenes in the film where it literally looks like they took a photograph of the model and moved it across the screen (warping away from Nimbus, and everything of them headed toward and into the barrier). Some of the static stuff looked great (Enterprise with the Moon, Enterprise over Sha-Ka-Ree).

I liked the hand phaser effects, I liked the shuttle crash. I even really liked the Great Barrier (love how you can see it out the windows getting progressively bigger during that observation lounge scene). I always thought the storm wave in "Catwalk" from ENT looked a lot like the Barrier.

Yeah the barrier getting bigger through the windows was a nice effect. I forgot about that one. It was subtly done but very effective.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Enterprise by the moon is a beautiful shot..and the shuttle approaching it was a great FX shot too.

 

[Nebusj]

Yeah the barrier getting bigger through the windows was a nice effect. I forgot about that one. It was subtly done but very effective.

All those window and view screen shots, with the footage done by ... I forget what, it's been ages since I listened to the commentary track ... but all those were great. It may have been done to save money, but it looked natural. And it let the cameras move around easily, keeping what should have been static talky scenes from looking boring.

There's a lot that's hard to defend in the spaceship shots, but whenever they got to practical effects they nailed it.