Assuming it's a window and not a viewscreen.
TMP: Director's Edition
- Thread starter DeafPoet
- Start date
Assuming it's a window and not a viewscreen.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
A SERIES of viewscreens, don't you mean? Or is the whole wall a viewscreen, including the parts separating the window areas? If so, it represents tech that looks a SERIOUS cut above the viewers elsewhere, like on the bridge. I don't think they're at the 'technology unchained/unleashed' level GR fancied for TNG.
Methinks you're wrapping Diane Duane TOS novel-level tech into TMP, as in the tables that pretend they're wood until instructed to do otherwise in THE WOUNDED SKY.
ARIDAS, thanks for the pic and the post. That is the pic I recall from ENTERPRSE INCIDENTS mag (I still have a copy of it, physically cut and pasted into a mockup for an old book proposal)
I'm beginning to regret divesting myself of so much old reference material ... I haven't had a copy of that CFQ covering ST II-IV since '92 (cut it up to help illustrate aforementioned proposal), and there are probably various bits I'm starting to forget myself.
Anybody know if Preston Neal Jones has gotten anywhere with getting Pocket or anyone else to publish some of his 1600 pages on the making of TMP, the stuff generated for the never-ran CFQ TMP cover story? Last I heard he was going to approach Pocket, right before his book on the Laughton film came out, then nothing since. At this point it'd be great to see some of that with an addendum covering what has happened with the film SINCE its original release. Also, it'd be great to see more in terms of Wise interview about what he was intending back then.
That's a matter of opinion, and there's no right or wrong here. To me, the initial flyovers still give a fantastic sense of its vastness and mystery, but getting to see its full shape later on helps put the closer shots in perspective. It's already been established how huge it is, and very effectively, so I don't think seeing it full-length later on takes away from that.
That wasn't "added." Those shots were storyboarded for the original film back in 1979. The only reason they weren't included in the film then is because there wasn't time to complete them.
Hell, I had no conception of what V'Ger's physical vessel looked like from the theatrical version. It wasn't until I saw a drawing in an article about the DE that I finally "got" what it was supposed to look like. Even the graphic on the viewscreen suggests the vessel's actual appearance. If it can be viewed from Earth at that point in the movie, it's dramatically appropriate...I'd say even necessary...for the audience to see it. Show, don't tell.
I know there are more than a few dissenters out there, but I much prefer the TMP DE over the theatrical version. Yes, there's give-and-take, but overall I think the DE is more the film we were meant to see in '79 but for Paramount's impatience. The DE is longer in running time than the theatrical version, but because of the better editing it feels shorter and has much better pacing. The remastering of the film also shows us how much colour and detail TMP actually had that many of us had forgotten due to watching faded reruns.
I know the majority of folks prefer TWoK, but as a whole I think the TMP DE is the best Star Trek film to date. It has vision, ambition, has aged well and better than any of the others and resonates well with the original series. TWoK has energy, roller coaster pacing and some decent character moments, but the rest is dumb as a brick and it has next to no vision or ambition.
I can't recall the source -- maybe the Cinefex article, maybe something else contemporary with the film -- but I recall there being a debate within the production team about showing Vejur in its entirety. The belief was that not showing the entire thing added to its sense of utter mystery. The cloud, the way the Enterprise makes these looong passes over it, revealing the shape in disconnected bits -- all of it was calculated to disorient you and lead to a rather dramatic reveal near the end. Or not. That was the big question. If my memory's not mistaken, one of the ways it was storyboarded was with the cloud dissipation set off against a full moon. Very horror movie-esque. Another had it happen against the sun, eclipse-style.
I know I have storyboards somewhere of people gathered in a very futuristic "town commons" in San Francisco, looking up and pointing at the sky as the giant Vejur weapons appear over the planet. The point being, you've seen what this thing can do, you've been mystified and awed, it's shown itself to you as it prepares to strike, now these emotions are going to be turned into dread as you see it set up to do this to Earth.
It was all very calculated, and the importance of the big "reveal" to the process was debated. IIRC, the decision was made that it slowed the ending down, and might prove to be anticlimactic.
Before i watch Director's Edition(2005), i ranked TMP behind TWOK, TVH and TUC but now it has steadily went up and now is my favorite Star Trek film. When i grew older i found TMP to be better and better. Its was the only TOS movie that had grandeur and big screen cinematic feel to it.
I actually blame Paramount suits for sloppy work when TMP came out in 1979. They didn't have a clue what they wanted, a movie or TV series.
They also starved the other Star films that came after f.e. TWOK, TSFS and TVH with very low budget and were made by Paramount television devision.
I actually blame Paramount suits for sloppy work when TMP came out in 1979. They didn't have a clue what they wanted, a movie or TV series.
They also starved the other Star films that came after f.e. TWOK, TSFS and TVH with very low budget and were made by Paramount television devision.
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
DS9Sega said:
Something that could have looked vaguely like this, had someone been desperate enough to rotomatte a million frames:
The nice part of this painting is that the original TMP production crew could have done this in 1979, either with rotoscoping with the miniature footage, or just getting a matte painting of the room.
In any case, both would have spared audiences from the presentation of a 23rd century women's restroom with easy-access cannabis gardens.
The God Thing said:
That was Richard Taylor's philosophy on the subject while RA&A was still the visual effects contractor. On the other hand, when it came to the most dramatic way to finally show V'ger in its full glory, it is hard to beat Robert McCall's proposal.
TGT
NOTICE TO EVERYONE ELSE: It's a concept painting. Even the 1979 crew knew that V'ger wasn't really bigger than the fucking Earth. It's just an idea for V's presentation.
(Just trying to avoid the inevitable drone of the Retard Brigade.
)
Well, Andy Probert tells me that they tried to get the production to reshoot a few of the shots in the Lounge in front of a bluescreen so that they could matte in the larger set beyond (which is the basis of the Lounge layout in the Polar Lights kit), but that the production wasn't about to do reshoots of that scene.
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
That was precisely why Robert Wise cut out the scene where Decker informed Kirk of the entity's 78 kilometer length, as that would have needlessly contrained the visual effects designers when storyboarding the climax.
TGT
The God Thing said:
That was Richard Taylor's philosophy on the subject while RA&A was still the visual effects contractor. On the other hand, when it came to the most dramatic way to finally show V'ger in its full glory, it is hard to beat Robert McCall's proposal.
TGT
That's the image I was hoping to see the DE contain a version of.
Ah, now I remember. I have The Art of Star Trek and I've just opened up the page where the floorplan for that setup is shown.
My book and I will be right back with that shortly.
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
LOL! Are you kidding me? Michael Matessino didn't even know that those black squares behind Scotty in the space office complex set were bluescreen viewports (blacked out by MGM's optical department) when I e-mailed him back in early 2001 with an offer to turn over to Sharpline Arts all of my ST:TMP-related production documentation, little knowing that the project had been "completed" over a year earlier.
TGT
DS9Sega said:
The God Thing said:
That was Richard Taylor's philosophy on the subject while RA&A was still the visual effects contractor. On the other hand, when it came to the most dramatic way to finally show V'ger in its full glory, it is hard to beat Robert McCall's proposal.
TGT
That's the image I was hoping to see the DE contain a version of.
Looking back, that scene was weird. They took that storyboard and did the exact opposite.
The God Thing said:
LOL! Are you kidding me? Michael Matessino didn't even know that those black squares behind Scotty in the space office complex set were bluescreen viewports (blacked out by MGM's optical department) when I e-mailed him back in early 2001 with an offer to turn over to Sharpline Arts all of my ST:TMP-related production documentation, little knowing that the project had been "completed" over a year earlier.
TGT
I didn't even notice that the set had windows. Damn, I am blind.
Anyway, here's Andy's original concept's for integrating the built set with what Hal was supposed to build.
I'm half tempted to just cut the book up and scan the whole thing for all time, because I have no idea how the glue is still keeping the book in one piece.
The rocket launch painting and the smiling flower are pretty sweet too.
The whole feel of the sketch gives off a trophy room vibe...
Imagine some of the things would would be in there if that was the case:
* The M-113 Creature
* Nomad
* M-5
* The Dog with the corn cob shoved up it's butt.
* Gav
* Some Tribbles
* Mugato
The possibilities are endless!
The whole feel of the sketch gives off a trophy room vibe...
Imagine some of the things would would be in there if that was the case:
* The M-113 Creature
* Nomad
* M-5
* The Dog with the corn cob shoved up it's butt.
* Gav
* Some Tribbles
* Mugato
The possibilities are endless!
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
The sarcasm in your post was so intense it BSODed my computer.
What episode was that one in?
TGT
Similar threads
