StarTrek: the Wrath of Fake Lens Flare

[Sevo]

The new StarTrek film is a good film. But Abrams went completely insane on the fake lens flare to the point that the Enterprise bridge scenes are difficult and sometimes physically painful to watch. Not only is it annoying, but it gets in the way of the story he's trying to tell. Unless of course the story he wants to tell is: Look, I Got a New Toy!

The story he wants to tell is: This is a cheapo 70's TV production. The real flaw is that he expresses that by applying postpro fake lens flare to his otherwise shiny, if not slippery CGI production with far too many wide views, where he'd have got much closer to the original effect (at one tenth of the budget) by doing it all head shots in a coarsely painted and lit cardboard set, filmed in reversal and cut directly off the original in a somewhat dusty room, with the tech crew as stoned as the actors.

Sevo

[jhogan]

The story he's trying to tell: It's a grim future for cinematographers in space- no coatings, no aspherical elements, no matte boxes...

[PenGun]

It's not a good movie. I give it 3 BE or 3 times as good as Battlefield Earth.

Just aquired an HD version of the Lawrence of Arabia restoration. A wonderful movie full of good acting and amazing photography. Nothing recent even comes close.

[Mark Sawyer]

This is in the same universe wherein ships operating in a vacuum have to bank into a turn like an airplane. It's all done because somebody thinks it looks cool.

You know, I think you're onto something. I'm beginning to suspect that these Star Trek movies are just made up, and all that stuff never even really happened...

(I think it's about time somebody put a lens-baby or Holga lens on a movie camera...)

[dsphotog]

[QUOTE=Mark Sawyer;469290]You know, I think you're onto something. I'm beginning to suspect that these Star Trek movies are just made up, and all that stuff never even really happened...



Just like the Moon landing !

[AFSmithphoto]

Lens Flares? Did it not bother anyone else in this forum that Leondard Nemoy was well out of focus in the "I am not our father scene?"

[Kevin Crisp]

I liked the movie well enough, and I've been watching Star Trek since the original episodes were aired for the first time. The lens flare didn't irritate me so much, but there were certainly a lot of shots where things were out of focus in a context that made it look like a mistake. Faces were out of focus many times in the movie.

[nathanm]

That's nothing, I hear the next movie is going to have wicked cool effects like Drop Shadow, Beveled Edges and Page Curl! Sweet!

[Kevin M Bourque]

I'll take paper mache rocks over arty lens flare any day. Just don't beam down in a red shirt.

Dammit, I'm a doctor, not a cinematographer!

[Glenn Thoreson]

Haven't seen the movie but the effects couldn't be any worse than some certain TV series' where everything was shot in the dark.