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

Complete show notes (with links) at http://opticalpodcast.com/episode/001

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

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