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Howard Anderson - Visual Effects designer

Shooting the Enterprise
  Shooting the original Enterprise model.

The principal one we had was the large, full scale model that Dick Datin built for us. And that was about eleven foot from tip to tip. The dome itself was probably about five foot across.

The only other model that we had in those first two years of pilots was a little one that Matt Jefferies made that was about four or five inches long that was just a very simple, straight-forward model. We used that first before we ever finished the big model to do some shots - run-bys, to get speed and those test shots, two years lat were used in the main title.

When we shot the little model, we were able to do that in a clean run on a lathe bed that we had built. But nearly all of the work that we did, all of the photography work that we did on the Enterprise was stop-motion work. The Enterprise was stationary and the camera moved in.

Meatball stars
  What look were you going for with the model shots?

We were aiming to get a sense of speed and the size of the Enterprise. So we had wide angle lenses very close to the miniature when we did the moves by it. The other method of attaining that speed, of course, was the moving stars. And they were just as much or probably more trouble and – took more experimenting than any of the rest of the problems that were presented to us with doing Star Trek.

I don’t think anybody had seen moving stars before or stars moving at the speed of light. That took a year or two to develop. We tried everything that would look right on it, but as soon as anything moved close to camera, of course, stars looked like meatballs, so they were not at all what was necessary and the resolution of the tiny dots on film was more than than you could see on television, so we finally evolved a method that took us a long, long time. It was a toughie.

Lighting a flying hotel
  Making the model more detailed.

I think he had a concept of it being essentially a flying hotel. When we first photographed the Enterprise in its very early stages, the large model, there were only running lights on it. There were no lights within the dome - the bridge, up on top. That was opaque at that time. We gradually got lights inside, and put lights around the rim, but lit from the inside.

It was made out of fibreglass and it would get very hot when we kept the lights on, so we found that we had only a very short period of time to leave the lights on to get them up to the right level and have them on. And particularly up in the dome and the bridge.

Pioneering visual effects
  It took two years to get all the effects right.

We photographed a lot of the material a dozen times for approval. Every night we’d run [it for] Roddenberry and he would say ‘yeah, let's have this … faster and smaller... A little bigg a little different’. He was very critical, but he was also real right in what he wanted.

As it eventually turned out, everything that we were able to achieve for him, the flights, the movement of the stars and of the ship and the transporter shots, all of the exotic work that was involved in visual effects at that time and that was really a very primitive era – back in the ‘60s, there had been very few visual effects shows that had any quality that was up to what he was expecting on Star Trek.

Using toys
  Not all of the models were specially made.

There was a company that built a three foot model of the Enterprise put it on the market, you could buy it at any model store and what have you. So it became quite a tool. One of those models we assembled and put lights in it and used it for a few shots. Much later - that was probably in the second year of the series.

The Enterprise library
  To make life easier, Howard’s team assembled stock footage of the Enterprise.

We shot all of the models and did the optical compositing of the models with the moving stars at different speeds and little different angles and each shot was identified and numbered and put in what they called the library.

The transporter we could not library because it was different on each shot. And we did save a lot of the phaser shots that were developed. Once we did the photon and the phasers, we were able to put those in many other shots.

The tail-lights
  How were the tail-lights made for the Enterprise?

The pods that are supposed to be the drive… those two pods were solid, originally. We carved into that and mounted the plexiglass red hood on the outside of it and then inside of that we had a colour wheel that just sparkled. It worked out okay.

Pride
  What did you think of your effects when you first saw them?

It was just a job as far as we were concerned. We came in every day, did our job and went home every night. We weren’t creating any lasting images.

We were doing My Favourite Martian at the same time and that seemed to have a lot more exciting stuff to do in it than Star Trek every week. It’s funny.

Design classics?
  What was it about the ship designs that made them so successful?

Difficult question. Both the Enterprise and the Klingon are uniquely designed ships that appeal to the mind because they look like they like they could work.

You look up in the night sky even now and you’ll see a 747 coming in for a landing and it looks just like a Klingon ship at night. It’s one of those just one of those marvellous things that that Matt Jefferies created. It just works. It looks good, it looks like it’ll fly, it looks like you could be there. Everything looks like it works.

The original model
  What happened to the original model?

The original model was sent to Paramount when they finished with it. They had it libraried, or at least stored there. But it was very fragile. The paint chipped off and the wood deteriorated and by the time we finished the shooting the model head, the dome, was warped. And it was not in very good shape.

About 1995 we got a call from The Smithsonian Institute that they wanted the original of the Enterprise if they could get it, but they finally worked with Paramount, and we helped a little bit at it and they rebuilt a total new Enterprise. And that is in the Smithsonian Institute as of today.