Newly composited shots of the TOS Enterprise

That is true for many films but unfortunately it does not apply to TOS; those effects shots look terrible.

 

I haven't seen that movie yet....Thanks, that gives me something additional to look forward to.

Maybe it's seeing the original TOS and then the revised effects. Some things are improved, but the Enterprise looks....off.

 

Well Rogue One has a significantly higher budget and is newer, so that would be the difference.

 

TOS-R was a decade ago on a shoestring budget. A bit unfair to compare it to a recent blockbuster with state of the art effects and some of the best talent in the business!

 

But that's a far cry from the 2006 TOS-R fx, I'm sure you'd agree.

Edit: I came in very late with this brilliant insight.

 

Yes, of course there is no comparison but the sad fact is the TOS effects are lacking.

 

Happily the original effects are all present and correct.

This is kind of a moot point now. They are what they are. The elements simply don't exist to recomposite more than a tiny handful of shots like the videos in this thread. Short of shooting new footage with the model in the Smithsonian, or CBS deciding to completely remake the CGI again, we're stuck with the imperfect originals or the imperfect replacements.

 

Here is a video of the pilot Enterprise model recomposited!

 

Had it ever been composited before?

 

"It's not a window!"

 

The only problems I have with the original TOS effects (don't get me started on the new stuff) was the fact that we didn't see many other space ships in the early episodes except for the Romulan craft and Khan's sleeper ship! Plus the earth or similar type of planet was wrongly visualized to be like an atlas globe, even the seas were the wrong colour to boot!
JB

 

No, it was never seen in the series. It's a great shot but at the end you see the camera shadow and the miniature wobbles. They certainly could have used the beginning sequence but they didn't

 

That's what I thought. So it this is a "composite" not a "recomposite. "

 

Honestly, the only problem on the physical models is that they are on lower mm film stock than the live action film itself in the series as shown. I don't know if it was 16 mm or what, but that's why it often looks the way it does, blurry and all. As this shows, other than some of the camera tracking in relation to the background images, the 60s effects are perfectly fine.

 

Actually, the miniatures were shot on higher quality film stock than the live action because they knew the film would degrade when it was re-photographed for the composite shots. Some of the film is blurry but those shots were pretty much not used. Some of the element shots on the "Vault" discs are stunning and in great quality considering the age of the film and however it was stored in for the last 50 years.

 

My method of editing video is crude and consumed much time. Are you prepared to assimilate it?

I'm indebted to everyone responsible for the compositing and posting. I've been intrigued by that shot since I first saw a still in Asherman's Compendium in 1981.

The cue used in the YouTube video "ENTERPRISE Pilot Shot", "Star Date", made me think of "Crippled Ship", which is the piece that begins Act II. A few minutes (?!) on the intrawebs led to the linked video. As it happens, the unused shot times out pretty closely to what was used in the film.

 

Looks great, except for that one big blobby star.

 

Part of the problem is focus pulling on a model where the DOF (depth of field is low), especially when the camera is dollying towards or away. The low DOF is the most common giveaway that something is small, because we all know what big objects look like at any appreciable distance: the whole thing is always in focus.

 

One of the most fascinating revelations from the effects footage from the Roddenberry Vaults was how the planet orbit shots were done. I always assumed the effects crew laid down curved track. The raw footage from these discs indicates that the track was straight and the physical model was rotated by a stagehand cranking a mechanism that rotated the model on its support pylon. The documentary about the show's effects was worth the price of these discs for me!

 

I agree 100%