The Optical 001 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, Daren Dochterman, Cinefex 1

The Optical MP3

In our premiere episode, we talk about Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Alien, chat with Daren Dochterman, VFX Supervisor on Star Trek: The Motion Picture — Director’s Edition, I admit my 2001 shame, and we ask: just what is an “optical,” anyway?

Sponsor

• Cinefex magazine — The journal of cinematic illusions.

Features

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director’s Edition)
• What is an “optical”?
• Alien

Guests

• Daren R. Dochterman, VFX Supervisor on Star Trek: The Motion Picture — Director’s Edition. Sites: betafive.com, blog.darendoc.com, and Star Trek Phase II
• Ron “AAlgar” Watt and Matt Rowbotham, of the Post Atomic Horror podcast
• Tom Schmidt, Art Director and VFX Artist, heading Percolate Digital

Music

All tracks by Digital Droo:

• 0:34:50 — Wake Up Sweating - Active Lancer Original Soundtrack
• 1:09:25 — La La’s Theme - Beginnings
• 1:26:50 — Looking for a Sign (Active Lancer Theme) - Active Lancer Original Soundtrack
• 2:02:45 — Minor Things - Beginnings

Research Materials

• Cinefex 1 — March 1980
• Cinefex 2 — August 1980
• The Making of Star Trek The Motion Picture by Susan Sackett
• Chekov’s Enterprise by Walter Koenig
• The Book of Alien by Paul Scanlon and Michael Gross
• Wikipedia: Optical effect and Optical printer
• Revisiting Cinefex (1): Star Trek and Alien, and Revisiting Cinefex (2): Empire, Greg Jein and Star Trek by Graham Edwards
• Making the Alien, Inside Alien, Alien Studio Production Report, and Alien Model Build — The Narcissus by Gavin Rothery

More bits

• The Handheld Mathematics of Geometer Ron Resch, who designed the iris-like V’ger Maw.
• Ron Cobb’s Alien Icons
• “Hey Really Giger” on SuperEgo and the installment where the “Hey Really” joke actually happens at the 3:16 mark
• Trinity & Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie
• You Are My Lucky Star — Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in Singin’ in the Rain

As ever

• The Optical theme by Digital Droo
• The Optical “aperture” logo by Mike Gower