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ESSAY
Previously
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Published on the
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Mike Adamson |
THE 2001 CONNECTION
By Mike Adamson
In the mid-1960s Gerry Anderson's
organisation was the most sophisticated and forward-moving producer of
special effects, arguably, in the world.
The effects team for Star Trek, originated in 1964, was struggling with
complex bluescreen process work, enormous models (Enterprise was built
at various scales, one 11.2 feet long, see Sides (1996) for the mammoth
reconditioning of this classic model; the largest was 14 feet), glass
paintings and rotoscope to create comparitively minimal effects (huge
for their day!), in fact in the very early planning days Paramount had
budgeted on one new bluescreen process shot recorded per episode!I have
no reference on this, but Whitfield (1968, p371) mentions 20 optical
shots in an episode (being viewscreen, trasporter, phaserfire, ships and
planets) as a fantastically heavy load that almst crippled the show.
Compare this with the complex effects-based sequences Derrek Meddings
was creating as early as Stingray and maturing in Thunderbirds, with
episodes of the latter often exceeding 100 FX shots required. Perhaps
the different approaches are not comparable, but the results tend to
speak for themselves: in one the effects are a secondary (though
crucial) supporting element in a live-action, usually closed-sets,
drama, while in the other the effects sequences often comprise
functional story units.
Thus it is not surprising that when in 1965 MGM commissioned the late
Stanley Kubrick to produce a radical new science fiction film
(then-working-titled Journey Beyond The Stars (Agel, 1970, p1)) the
great director looked around for the most competent effects production
unit in the world. Given that the project was mounted in the UK, using
the Elstree and Shepperton stages (the first day of filming (December
29th, 1965) was on Shepperton H Stage, at the TMA-1 excavation, the same
stage which just over a decade later was to host the Rebel fighter
hanger for Star Wars and the Mothership exterior for Close Encouters,)
there is also no surprise that Gerry Anderson was consulted early as a
possible effects contracting source.
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