Into Darkness Catch-Up Part 3: Production and effects

Next stop on my round-up of Into Darkness related bits and pieces (see previous promotion and music articles). This time I'm looking at the filming and effects of the movie; which with a film so effects heavy required close coordination. There are some great articles starting to show up on this subject now the film is out, but the most comprehensive and in depth by far is FX Guide's fantastic coverage. FX Guide TV has a brilliant twenty-six minute minute piece talking with members of the effects team, discussing their work in detail, they also have an article going through film sequence by sequence exploring how they made it. Some of my favourite facts revealed include:

• They were considering filming the Nibiru scenes on location, but still wanted to do a red jungle. They did tests, with the idea in mind that they could use make-up and costume designs in false colours, so they could then change the colouring of all the footage to shift the foliage to red, and make the characters the normal colours again! In the end they just built a red forest, but cool idea!
• Also from Nibiru, the animal Kirk shoots, McCoy's "ride" is in fact the "polarilla" from Delta Vega in the first film, they just took the hair off! They call this version a "niborilla".
• There was an animator on set when the attack on Starfleet HQ was filmed. They used animation sequences they had already planned to control the lighting rig that shone practical lights into the set, where the ship would late be added with CGI.

CG Society has also posted an article looking at Pixomondo's work on the film, in particular looking at the Qo'noS sequence. The article talks in depth about some of the technical challenges they faced building the huge digital city the ships zoom through, and also includes some beautiful stills showing off the new Klingon Bird of Prey, like these:

 

The Guardian has also had a look at the production of the film, getting several members of the crew to comment on various aspects of their work. Their article includes all sort of factoids, my favourite is an insight into the Qo'noS sequence: Production designer Scott Chambliss noted:

Kronos has quite a classical influence. The quadrant of the city where the action takes place is sort of an interpretation of the Roman Colosseum, the warrens below the Colosseum floor.

For a less in-depth look at the production, Paramount has released a slightly longer version of the making-of promo featurette:



For more on the production of the film, the July issue of Cinefex is set to feature Into Darkness, and also has an excellent starship filled cover:

Finally, Simon Pegg tweeted this photo, showing off his brilliant shirt from the bar scene!

For full coverage of every aspect of Into Darkness, check out my Into Darkness guide page.