Star Trek 2: The Behind-the-scenes Production of Swear and Shout

After the release of Star Trek Movie, executive producer gene roddenberry Leigh wrote his own sequel: Klingon people went back to the past through eternal guards (an intelligent device that can travel through time and space in the original series of TV series) and prevented the assassination of President Kennedy; As a result, the crew of the Enterprise also went back to the past and repaired the revised timeline. Paramount executives rejected this version, arguing that the performance of the first film was lackluster, and the slow shooting progress and Rodenberry's constant revision of the script also led to a film budget of up to 46 million US dollars. Therefore, Rodenberry was pulled out of the production layer of the second film, and in Shan Er's words, he was "promoted" to a courtesy position as an executive consultant. Harvey Bennett, the new TV producer of Paramount, was appointed as the producer of the new Star Trek movie. According to Bennett, he was called in front of Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael eisner and others and asked if he thought he could make a better movie than Star Trek (Bennett had publicly stated that he thought Star Trek movies were "boring"). When Bennett gave a positive answer, Charles Bruden asked, "I can only give you $45 million at most. Can you do it? " Bennett replied, "where I am, this money is enough for me to make five such movies."

Bennett realized that he would face many challenges when making a new Star Trek movie. For example, he has never seen the Star Trek TV series before. So Bennett carefully watched every episode of the original Star Trek series. After thoroughly understanding the TV series, Bennett found that there was no real villain in the first movie; After watching the episode of Space Seeds, he decided to let Khan play the villain in the new movie. Bennett formed his production team before the script was finalized. He put his college alumnus and commercial TV director Robert Sarin in charge of film production. He gave Sarin the task of making Star Trek 2 quickly and economically. Bennett also hired Michael Mino as artistic director to provide artistic direction for his films.

Bennett wrote his first film project "Star Trek II: The Battle of Generations" in June, 5438 +0980, 65438 +065438+10: Kirk went to a distant planet to investigate a rebellion, only to find that his son was the rebel leader. In fact, Khan was behind the scenes, so Kirk and his son joined forces against the tyrant. Later, Jack B. Sowoz, a veteran Star Trek enthusiast hired by Bennett, rewrote his outline into a screenplay for filming. Before the writers went on strike 198 1, Sovaz finished the first draft of the script. Sauvage's draft is called Omega Syndrome, which includes the plot of stealing the ultimate federal weapon "Omega System". The weapon in the Sowoz draft is considered too negative, so Bennett hopes to replace it with something progressive. "It should be as groundbreaking as the gene recombination technology of our time in the 23rd century," Miner recalled. Therefore, Miner suggested Bennett to replace the device with the "Planet Earth" tool. At the meeting the next day, Bennett hugged Miner and announced that he had saved Star Trek. In order to bring biblical power to weapons, Sovaz renamed "ω system" as "creation device".

Because many fans were dissatisfied with Spock's death after the script leaked, Sovaz postponed the incident in his new draft 198 1 in April. In the original setting, Spock died in the first act of the script, and Bennett compared his sudden death with the premature death of janet leigh's role in Psycho. In this draft, Kirk confronted Khan face to face for twelve pages. A male character named "Savic" is also introduced in this version of the Sowoz draft. After the movie Shoot started, Samuel A. Peeples, the screenwriter of Where No One Has Been, was invited to write the script. In his draft, Pierpus replaced Khan with two new villains: Sorkin and Mali; These two strange powerful individuals almost accidentally destroyed the earth. But the play was not accepted because it was considered inappropriate. At that time, the deadline for the start of special effects production (special effects production needs a detailed perspective based on a complete script) was approaching. Karen Moore, executive director of Paramount, recommended nicholas meyer to Bennett. He once worked as a screenwriter for 7% solution and directed the film Tracking 100. Moore thinks he can help solve the script problem. Like Harvey, Meyer had never seen Star Trek before joining the production team. He intends to list the parts in the first draft that have been affirmed by the crew: "It can be a role, a scene, a main plot, a secondary plot ... and dialogue"; Then take the list as the basis of the new script and integrate all the excellent elements in the first draft. In order to eliminate the fans' prediction of Shi Boke's death, Meyer faked the character's "death" in the simulation training of Kobayashi Maru in the first act. Due to the special effects company's requirement that the complete script must be submitted within 12 days, Meyer completed the script on time without signature and remuneration, which surprised the actors and producers. Meyer compared his play to Horn in Space, because he added a lot of naval and Grand Theft Auto styles to it. (hornblower was the inspiration for Rodenberry and Shaner to make Star Trek, but Meyer didn't know it at the time. ) Meyer's foresight in the film left a deep impression on Sarin: "He took all factors into account and made our work suddenly clear." Gene roddenberry didn't agree with the words about the Navy and Captain Ahab Khan in the script, but the crew almost completely ignored his opinion, and the producer still hasn't finalized the script.

Meyer added and changed some elements in Star Trek in order to show his expected naval style within the budget. For example, he added details such as clock, boatswain whistle and brighter lights and signs to the enterprise. In order to save the cost of setting design, Joseph Jennings, an art designer, used many props left after the filming of Star Trek. 64% of the films were shot in the same scene. The Bridge of Wang Xinzhi and the "Bridge Simulator" at the beginning of the film actually only slightly modified the Bridge of Enterprise. The Klingon warship bridge in the original series was transformed into a transfer room and a torpedo cabin. By reusing the models and films left by the first film, Wrath of Khan saved a lot of money. The original starship model was also used as much as possible, and it was modified to show the new structure. The office station in the earth orbit that appeared in the Star Trek movie was also reversed and slightly modified as the space station of Regula I star. Many elements in the cancelled Star Trek: Phase II, including bulkheads, railings and scenery, were taken down by photographers for use. One of the main concerns of designers is to make the letter hope easy to distinguish from enterprises. Bennett unexpectedly agreed to take Wang Xin's preliminary design as the final design of the ship.

Robert Fletcher, a designer, was hired to redesign clothes for the role, and he proposed a brand-new scheme. Fletcher used "rotten colors" to design clothes, and used fabrics slightly different from solid colors. "They are not the common colors you see today, so they mean a different era." Meyer doesn't like Starfleet uniforms in TV series and Star Trek movies, hoping to make some changes, but for budget reasons, he can't completely abandon his previous designs. The dyeing test of the fabric shows that the old uniform has three colors: blue gray, gold and crimson. Fletcher decided to use deep red because it is in sharp contrast with the background. This design has been used until 1996' s Star Trek 8: First Contact. In the first design, the black collar of the uniform is very stiff. At Shalin's suggestion, it was changed to a high lapel, and jacquard thickened jacquard fabric was used as the seam. The practice of filling soft cotton yarn in the contour area makes the clothes have relief effect, and the soft cotton yarn is pressed in by air pressure through the hollow needle. At the time of filming "The Wrath of Khan", the machines for making jacquard thick jacquard fabrics and their supporting special sewing needles were still very rare, and Fletcher only found one needle for the clothing department. Fearing that the needle would be lost or damaged, a worker in the clothing department took it home for safekeeping, but Fletcher mistakenly thought that the needle had been stolen.

For Khan and his associates, Fletcher made them a suit completely different from the uniform of Starfleet. He thinks that exiles will try their best to make clothes out of materials they can find. Fletcher mentioned: "I think Khan and his party are exiled on a planet without any basic equipment." They must get supplies and clothes from the spaceship. Therefore, I tried to make them wear spliced furniture and electronic equipment on the spaceship. It is worth mentioning that in order to show Montalban's muscles, Fletcher designed Khan's clothes to be very open. Fletcher is also responsible for designing the work clothes of Regula I-Star scientists and practical and comfortable civilian clothes for Kirk and McCaughey.

Meyer also hung a "No Smoking" sign on the bridge of the enterprise. He recalled: "Everyone lost his temper about it […] I explained,' Why did they quit smoking in the future? They have been smoking for 400 years. Do you think they can quit in the next 200 years? This logo appeared in the first scene of the film, but in the final editing of the film, all the other scenes were cut out. Meyer added and changed some elements in Star Trek in order to show his expected naval style within the budget. For example, he added details such as the ship clock, the boatswain whistle and brighter lights and signs to the Enterprise. Joseph Jennings, an art designer, used a lot of props left after the filming of Infinite Space in order to save money on scenery design. 64% of the films were shot in the same scene. The Bridge of Wang Xinzhi and the "Bridge Simulator" at the beginning of the film actually only slightly modified the Bridge of Enterprise. The Klingon warship bridge in The First Generation was transformed into a transfer room and a torpedo room. Because of reusing the model and film left by the first film (including the film of the enterprise docked in the space port), Swear Howl saved a lot of money. The original starship model was also used as much as possible, and it was modified to show the new structure. The orbital office complex that appeared in infinite space was also reversed and slightly modified to become the space station of Regula I star. Many elements in the cancelled Star Trek: Phase II, including bulkheads, railings and scenery, were taken down by photographers for use. One of the main concerns of designers is to make the letter hope easy to distinguish from enterprises. Bennett unexpectedly agreed to take Wang Xin's preliminary design as the final design of the ship.

Robert Fletcher, a designer, was hired to redesign clothes for the role, and he proposed a brand-new scheme. Fletcher used "rotten colors" to design clothes, and used fabrics slightly different from solid colors. "They are not the common colors you see today, so they mean a different era." Meyer doesn't like starfleet uniforms in TV series and Infinite Space, hoping to make some changes, but for budget reasons, he can't completely abandon his previous designs. The dyeing test of the fabric shows that the old uniform has three colors: blue gray, gold and crimson. Fletcher decided to use deep red because it is in sharp contrast with the background. This naval design has been used until Star Trek VIII: Contact of the First Kind (1996). In the first design, the black collar of the uniform is very stiff. At Shalin's suggestion, it was changed to a high lapel, and jacquard thickened jacquard fabric was used as the seam. The practice of filling soft cotton yarn in the contour area makes the clothes have relief effect, and the soft cotton yarn is pressed in by air pressure through the hollow needle. At the time of filming Sweat Roar, the machine for making jacquard weft-inserted flannel and its supporting special sewing needle were still rare. Fletcher only found one needle for the clothing department. Fearing that the needle would be lost or damaged, a worker in the clothing department took it home for safekeeping, but Fletcher mistakenly thought that the needle had been stolen.

For Khan and his associates, Fletcher made them a suit completely different from the uniform of Starfleet. He thinks that exiles will try their best to make clothes out of materials they can find. Fletcher mentioned: "I think Khan and his party are exiled on a planet without any basic equipment." They must get supplies and clothes from the spaceship. Therefore, I tried to make them wear spliced furniture and electronic equipment on the spaceship. It is worth mentioning that in order to show Montalban's muscles, Fletcher designed Khan's clothes to be very open. Fletcher is also responsible for designing the work clothes of Regula I-Star scientists and practical and comfortable civilian clothes for Kirk and McCaughey.

Meyer also hung a "No Smoking" sign on the bridge of the Enterprise. He recalled: "Everyone lost his temper about it […] I explained,' Why did they quit smoking in the future? They have been smoking for 400 years. Do you think they can quit in the next 200 years? This logo appeared in the first scene of the film, but in the final editing of the film, all the other scenes were cut out. The main shooting date of the film starts from19811.9 and ends at 1982 1.29. The Wrath of Khan has more action scenes than the previous one, but the production cost is less. The filming process was supervised by the Paramount TV department, not the drama department. The respected TV producer Bennett's budget for the production of Wrath of Khan is 1, 1, which is far less than the $46 million of Star Trek movies. The budget of the film was less than $8.5 million at first, because the films of the first two weeks left a deep impression on the film side. Meyer tried to reduce the production of large and expensive scenery props through lenses and some clever methods. For example, when shooting scenes at Starfleet Academy, photographers use forced perspective to make the scene look bigger by zooming in. In order to present the illusion that the elevator Enterprise is moving on every floor, when the elevator door is closed, the parts in the corridor rotate, which makes people feel that the elevator is really moving. Background devices (such as computer terminals) are mostly rented, not repurchased. Some design props, such as redesigned phase guns and communicators, were rejected by Paramount executives, who thought they only needed to use props from Star Trek movies.

The model of Enterprise was renovated before shooting the space scene-darkening the bright hull and making it more detailed. Compared with the newly-built Wang Xin, special effects personnel and photographers don't like the Enterprise because it needs eight people to assemble the model and must use a forklift when moving. In contrast, the letter hopes to be lighter than the enterprise and the internal wiring is not so complicated. Both starships were shot in front of the blue screen with special film without recorded color, so that the crew could add special effects or other films after shooting. If any part of the hull is blue, the spaceship displayed on the screen will have holes; Therefore, the gaps between hull structures must be repaired frame by frame.

The barren desert of Cetacea α-V was filmed in Paramount's largest field 8. The scenery there is 25 feet from the ground, covered with wooden mats and poured with tons of colored sand powder. Painted circular panorama surrounds the whole set, and several large industrial fans are used to create sandstorms. This kind of shooting makes the actors and the film crew miserable. The spandex environmental protection clothes worn by Koenig and winfield are impenetrable, and the two actors must send signals through the microphone when they feel stuffy. Shooting equipment must be wrapped in plastic to prevent mechanical failure; Some people in the workplace should also wear boots, protective masks and work clothes for protection.

The scene of Spock's death was filmed for three days, during which no visitors were allowed. Originally, Spock's death could not be changed, but the filming changed Nimoy's original plan. He asked Shi Boke if he could return in the following films. However, at that time, the scene of spiritual fusion had been filmed, and in this version, Kelly was not the first person to know the development of things. When shooting the scene of Spock's death, Shaner didn't agree to separate Shi Boke from Kirk with transparent glass. He wanted a translucent partition between them so that people could only see the outline of Spock, but his proposal was rejected. At Spock's funeral, Meyer hoped that the camera could follow the torpedo like Spock's coffin, thus showing the scene of the torpedo sliding into the launcher through a long track. But the photographer thought that if so, the whole set would have to be rebuilt, so Sarin suggested using a mobile camera car in the pipe trough and controlling the camera with an arm frame. The idea of Scott acting in amazing grace was put forward by james doohan.

At the screening, the audience was very dissatisfied with Spock's death. So Bennett changed the ending to be more exciting. At the end, the scene of Spock's coffin soft landing on a new planet was added, and Nimoy's monologue at the end of the film was added. Meyer opposed this practice, but ultimately failed to stop it. Due to the limited time, the shooting scene of Shi Boke's coffin was chosen in a corner overgrown with weeds in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and a smoke blower was used to create the effect. Shooting lasted from noon to evening, until the staff realized that there was no time to shoot again.

In the process of shooting, the producer also specially considered the post-special effects synthesis. Television screens that replace computer monitors have been specially calibrated, so their refresh rate will not cause horizontal stripes in movies. Because reprinting the film with an optical camera will lose some resolution and image quality, in order to make up for this, 65 mm or VistaVision film is used for continuous pictures taken in real time. Then, the larger film is reduced to smaller film by morphing the lens, and finally the film picture in Panavision format is obtained. With only a short time left to complete the special effects script, Jim Veilleux, the special effects director, cooperated with Meyer, Jennings, Sarin and Miner to transform the abstract words in the script into images on the mirror. At the same time, in order to avoid taking the old road of Star Trek movies, the special effects script of Wrath of Khan strictly limits the special effects shots to prevent them from getting out of control and causing budget overruns. There is a detailed list of special effects, light effects and their duration needed in the film. By the end of the sixth week, the producer had determined the basic appearance and structure of most special effects; Five weeks later, special effects shots have been integrated into the film. Industrial Light Magic (ILM) is responsible for most special effects and some new models. Wang Xin is the first unconstitutional Federation starship in the whole series. Because the script needs to cause serious damage to Xinhe Wang Enterprise, Industrial Light Magic has developed a series of technologies to draw damage on the model without causing physical damage. Before the model was sent to the blue screen for formal shooting, the wide-screen camera fixed on the tripod head had set the shooting trajectory according to the motion of the virtual object. The damage suffered by the enterprise is realized by sticking some colored or peeled aluminum pieces on the surface of the model to make the model. The damage of the phase gun to the starship is realized by stopping the grid. In addition, the script also requires the complete destruction of the letter hope, so the Industrial Light Magic also made a larger model to shoot its explosion.

Without the help of computer models, the battle of Mutara Nebula is a major difficulty in making special effects. The vortex nebula is actually made by pouring a mixture of latex and ammonia into a cloud tank filled with salt water. In order to show the fast motion of the nebula, the film was shot at a speed of 2 frames per second. The ever-changing colors in the nebula are actually all kinds of colored light entering the cloud box through the color filter. The animation department of Industrial Light Magic is responsible for light effects such as aurora. The picture of the starship was taken on a solid background and synthesized into the image by keying technology. The lens of model separation and explosion shows the image of Wang Xin's damaged engine compartment.

The scene of Terrell killing and evaporating a scientist with a phase gun consists of two images taken separately. First of all, winfield and other related actors perform in this scene; This film will be used as the background part of post-synthesis. Then cover the background with a blue curtain, and the actor John Vargas begins to perform his reaction after being shot in the opposite direction. In post-synthesis, the phase gun beam is added to the background image. As Vargas was hit, his body quickly disintegrated and disappeared into the air. Every frame of the image fits Vargas's position very well.

The Wrath of Khan is one of the earliest films that use electronic images and computer graphics to speed up production. Evan and Sutherland (a computer graphics company) made a vector picture displayed on the screen of Enterprise, and the starry background of the movie title. Industrial Light Magic has made a great technological achievement in this film: the image of their creative device for transforming the barren planet is the first image made entirely by computer-generated graphics technology in the history of film. The original idea of this shot is just to turn the stone in the sealed cabin into an experimental animation of flowers. However, Ye Wei suggested expanding this image into a creative effect on a planet. Paramount agrees with this more striking way of expression and hopes that its way of expression will be different from traditional animation. After reading a research report submitted by the computer graphics department of Lucasfilm Company, Ye Wei gave them this task. The drawing team has made great efforts in the details of animation; An artist also deliberately ensured the authenticity of the stars in space-the space background in the image is almost exactly the same as the background seen from the stars several light years away from the Earth. Animators hope that this animation will win business opportunities for their studio. Jerry Goldsmith composed music for the first movie "Star Trek Movie" and achieved excellent results. But Bennett and Meyer hope to use another style of music in The Wrath of Khan. Joel Sill, Paramount's vice president in charge of music, introduced james horner to Bennett, Meyer and Sarin, and thought Horner was qualified for the job. Horner said: "[Producers] don't want to use the previous soundtrack, and they don't want to use the john williams soundtrack (Star Wars, john williams is the Star Wars soundtrack). Generally speaking, they hope that the soundtrack will change and become more modern. When asked how to get the job, Horner replied: "The producers like the music I wrote for Sirius Black and have heard the music I wrote for other projects. I think, as far as I know, they are interested in my versatility. I wanted to get this job, so I met them and we all hit it off. My music left a deep impression on them, and that's how it happened. "Horner met the requirements of the producer and agreed to start work in mid-June 1982+0.

In keeping with the naval style of the film, Meyer hopes that the music can show the atmosphere of sailors and Grand Theft Auto. Washington post called this style "echoing the exaggeration and lament in the original music of john williams's Star Wars and Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek." Compared with the theme song running through the whole film, Khan's main theme has a strong sense of impact sound, and with the cooperation of other music, it can better express the rage of the characters. Horner also wrote a theme song for Shi Boke to highlight the death of this character: "Spock's theme song makes him no longer a collection for people to play with, but a real flesh-and-blood and spiritual individual."

The Wrath of Khan is Horner's first film as the chief music composer. He spent four and a half weeks composing music for the film. He composed 94 orchestral pieces for this film, which lasted 72 minutes. Horner also used electronic synthesizers to add effects to music: at that time, many sci-fi movies, including E.T. Alien and Mutant Monster, preferred to use traditional orchestral music, but stayed away from synthetic music. Meyer gave Horner a lot of advice when composing music for the movie: As a classical music fan, Meyer can accurately describe the effect and sound he wants to show in the movie. Because the length of the film special effects editing has changed, Horner must also modify some fragments in the soundtrack to adapt to the change of the film scene length. Later, Horner collaborated with James Cameron to compose music for Titanic and Avatar, and created many famous works. My eternal heart is an example. His unique understanding of science fiction is also reflected in Avatar. Death, rebirth and aging are recurring themes in The Wrath of Khan. While writing the script, Meyer stumbled across the connection between Shi Boke's age and his death: "This will be a story that will make Spock die, so this will be a story about death. After a short leap of thought, you will realize that this is still a story about old age and friendship, "Meyer said. "I don't think any (other first drafts) scripts are about old age, friendship and death." Spock's sacrifice symbolizes death, while the creation device symbolizes rebirth. In keeping with these two symbolic meanings, Meyer hopes to name the film "The Undiscovered Country", which is taken from Shakespeare's description of the death of Prince Hamlet in Hamlet. But when the film was edited, he changed the title without his knowledge.

The Wrath of Khan continues the tradition of many movies, that is, adventurers must experience symbolic or literal death before they can be reborn. Spock is Kirk's shadow. They represent two opposing sides of human beings and jointly symbolize a divided hero. Spock represents an absolutely ideal individual, who is completely logical and always correct; Kirk, on the other hand, represents a real human being full of emotions, prone to make mistakes and often puts himself in a helpless situation. At the end of the film, Spock's sacrifice made Kirk realize the spiritual rebirth in the traditional concept of reincarnation. In the first half of the film, Kirk once thought he was old and felt more and more overwhelmed; But in the last scene, Kirk felt "younger." Kobayashi Maru test forced its participants to face a hopeless situation, but Kirk admitted that he won by modifying the program. So, Savikko once said, Kirk, you have never faced death. For Shi Boke, his solution to this losing situation is self-sacrifice, so that Kirk will face death after winning by cheating and let the role grow. The right images and sound effects express the theme of death and aging incisively and vividly, and also indicate rebirth; Spock is the first protagonist in the film, and his voice echoes at the end of the film. In the early position at the end of the film, his coffin also follows the same trajectory to the Star of Creation.

In order to further show the aging of the characters, Meyer added many details to the film. After McCaughey gave Kirk a set of reading glasses as a birthday present, Kirk's displeasure with his birthday was further strengthened. In the script, Kirk is 49 years old, but Shaner is not confident that he can play Kirk at this age. Bennett remembers that Shana was hesitant to play Kirk, who was half a year old, but felt that she could still be competent for the young Kirk with makeup. Bennett convinced Xia Na that he could perform appropriately at this age like Spencer Tracy; At that time, the producers didn't know that Xia Na and Qu Sai had cooperated in the Nuremberg trial (196 1) and liked the actor very much. Meyer hopes to show Kirk as a Sherlock Holmes character, and he will lose weight day by day without corresponding stimulation; For Holmes, his stimulus is to explore the case; For Kirk, his excitement is Ad Astra.