For the 2.5 people here who may actually be interested in the subject, ST:TMP's original visual effects designer, Richard Taylor, has recently posted on his website several television commercials and logos he directed during the 1970s while at Robert Abel & Associates. As some of you may know, RA&A was the original visual effects contractor for the film until they were replaced by Douglas Trumbull et al, ostensibly for being unable to supply any usable VFX footage for the production by March, 1979 (although Andrew Probert is one of several former RA&A staffers who claim otherwise). Anyhoo, these spots may give a few of the more imaginative/unhinged denizens of the TrekBBS.com movie forum a faint indication of what TMP may have looked like had RA&A been retained: 1. 7UP "Bubbles". 2. 7UP "Uncola". 3. Braun "Micron II". 4. Levi's "Brand Name". 5. Kawasaki "Ultimate Trip". 6. CBS "1976 Election Night". 7. Hilton "Logo". 8. ABC "Logo". 9. Columbia Pictures "Logo". If nothing else, these clips and other like them would have been what Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg viewed before selecting RA&A to form (it has been rumored) the nucleus of an in-house visual effects group that would have enabled Paramount to compete with ILM, Apogee and Universal Hartland on Post-TMP film projects. TGT
Yeah, the Braun shaver's entrance seems to have inspired the Klingon ship's flyby at the movie's beginning.
Re: Richard Taylor posts a few of his RA&A ads/logos! ST:TMP Actually I was thinking of the arrival of spocks shuttle and it's docking with the bridge of the enterprise.
Re: Richard Taylor posts a few of his RA&A ads/logos! ST:TMP It's really a shame they killed RAA. I think that had the producers not fucked it, that they would have made effects go in an entirely different direction than we art at today. And that Trek would have been in the forefront of that. Also, TGT, did you notice this bit from the probert page you link to: That last part... It seems a little ominous. There is defiantly an implication there that he is hinting at. Like that his work was either destroyed by the execs or that he can't legally show anyone for some reason.
Re: Richard Taylor posts a few of his RA&A ads/logos! ST:TMP Some of what they had planned looked very interesting from the bits that have been published in the Art books and other articles ("Star Trek: The Magazine"). Had TMP not been rushed to a release date, think of what it could've been like. Abel's version of V'Ger island from the production illustrations looks really interesting and organic.
ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) Indeed. Here a few examples of RA&A V'ger concept artwork courtesy of Mr. Taylor: The earliest sketches: A rendering of the camera and miniature to photograph the pulsating, undulating interior surfaces of the entity: A motion-control camera rig for an "over the nacelle" shot for the NCC-1701's penetration of the alien spacecraft: Here are a couple of concept paintings executed by Tony Smith, then a professor of fine arts at the University of Utah (Taylor's alma mater): Near-final V'ger entity: Final approved V'ger entity: A storyboard tile by David Negron demonstrating a possible visualization of V'ger's transcendence: More later. I have a hot date with a frozen pizza. TGT
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) I always loved that one. If I ever do a Lightwave model of the V'ger craft (something that's been on my "one fine day" list since TMP: DE came out), the first picture I do will be one inspired on that. I already have the picture in my head.
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) OK, as amazing as the effects work was on TMP as is... This stuff shows just how much more amazing it could have been.
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) I suspect that the best possible artistic outcome for the film would have occured had the studio accepted the recommendation made by Doug Trumbull in August, 1978. Namely, that his team take over the miniature photography and matte painting duties on ST:TMP - two disciplines Trumbull would have been extremely well acquainted with considering that he had just completed the visual effects for Close Encounters of the Third Kind the previous year - while leaving animation and compositing to RA&A. Truly the best of both worlds. Even better, no Sharpline Arts crawling out of the sewer two decades later with their bastard DE. Oh, and here are a few more David Negron storyboards: The NCC-1701's penetration of The Intruder: The abandoned Kirk/Spock EVA: The Voyager 6 Island: A mock-up of the V'ger exterior fabricated to test various lens and filmstock combinations: TGT
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) I was just thinking about that when I posted before actually.
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) TGT, are these some of the pictures that used to be available in that Cinepixel online interview with Richard Taylor? If so, I'd love to see more (I used to have them saved, but I don't know what happened to them)!
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) Says the guy with The Director's Edition CG Enterprise and CG Vejur as his avatar. Neil
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) Amazing artwork,i've never liked the transcendence ending that we saw.I thought it was dull,the ilia probe footage started it well,but when V'ger evolved it was a bit flat imo.
Re: ST:TMP - Richard Taylor (Image Intensive!) I am so very happy to see some NEW stuff from the Abel/Taylor era, ESPECIALLY that study model pic. Any chance you might bestow a few more shiny illustrations on us (you got a full set of ASTRA 'boards from Taylor, didn't you?) The only real problem I see with the Abel stuff is that the area the Enterprise got stashed in was WAY too much like the 'ear' in FANTASTIC VOYAGE. Seemed very horizontally oriented. I'm basing that view on this art, but even moreso on the vague memory of a STAR TREK bubble gum card that showed a wide view of the 'trench' for the abandoned spacewalk. This was the big part leading to the memory wall, though history seems to call the two sets 'memory wall (in MAKING OF TREK, I'm pretty sure they are budgeted as two separate sets, but I won't swear to it, just remember that it was more expensive than any of the other constructs.) I'd really like to see some of the filmed tests of the 'bridge probe' that were done under Con Pederson's auspices ... I talked to a guy named Steve who worked there and he said that the bridge probe was going to be a kind of dimensional light sculpture, which sounds a lot cooler than the blob we wound up seeing. Also, on a tangentially related matter ... just got a line on the guy who was going to be the cinematographer on IN THY IMAGE (who also shot fx pyro on STAR WARS and DP'd TRON.) Anybody has any questions about the Phase II test footage he filmed for Bob collins, just shoot 'em my way and I'll try to work them in if i get an interview with him.
Re: Richard Taylor posts a few of his RA&A ads/logos! ST:TMP I think Quicktime is in utter shock at those, because it cut out during the Levi's clip. That stuff is phenomenal, really the same kind of quality we get from most commercials today... ..Except these make more sense and they use most of the color wheel. That's more than a little ironic in 2007, where people shop frantically for high-end HDTV's, just to come home to watch "gritty" shows with less than six or seven main color tones for everything, including variations of tan.
Re: Richard Taylor posts a few of his RA&A ads/logos! ST:TMP So insanely true, and not just tv shows, too many features have got the color bleached or dialed out of them as well. The selective use of color control is one thing, but the wholesale obliteration of imagery is seriously damaging my ability to appreciate a significant percentage of film and TV from the last several years (it is even worse than the fast shutter/ no blur thing, though the two seem to go together.) I'd love it if somebody shot a western and it looked like BUTCH CASSIDY (as in, blue skies and human skin tones.)