STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
Behind the Scenes
ROBERT ABEL & ASSOCIATES

The Abel group
On the left, is Richard Taylor.
Richard started his career by producing rock concert light shows.  Later, he became a cameraman at Robert Abel's and soon moved into directing dazzling  high-end commercials, picking up several 'Clios' for his efforts.  I enjoyed working under him after he became the SFX Art director for ST:TMP.  After that, he pioneered in computer imaging, directing many of the very first CG commercials and continued his innovative explorations into TRON and beyond.
On the right, is Con Pederson.
Con started as a writer & animator.  After W.W.II, he became involved in the space program, working with Werner Von Braun and eventually was hired by Walt Disney, contributing to the Tomorrowland segments of the Disneyland television series.  Con then became a visual effects pioneer as a Special Photographic Effects Supervisor for "2001: A Space Odyssey".  He eventually came to Robert Abel's where I was able to appreciate his insights during meetings as pictured above.  After TMP, he continued in the field and went on to do the HBO miniseries: "From the Earth to the Moon" with Tom Hanks.  And continues beyond.
Yeah,... that's me, in the middle
with a sketch pad on my lap.


In my position as a concept designer, I was too busy to be aware of the problems Abel was pushed into by an impossible effects schedule imposed by the studio.  It wasn't actually impossible for the level of effects that was ultimately employed, but Abel was excited by the challenge of creating effects that had NEVER  been seen, and with the ingenious help of these two men (along with some forrty-odd other men & women), he would have made Star Trek: TMP into a MAJOR visual milestone.  Abel's V'ger-on-the-bridge-sequence, to name just one, was developing into something wondrous that would have had people talking about it today; all before CGI.  Abel was accused of not producing any footage when, in fact, I saw a great deal of footage that was shot in the process of developing those special effects.... that will never be seen.

I survived  by being one of a handful of people who were chosen by Doug Trumbull, to continue with the project when he was given the responsibility of completing the effects work for ST:TMP at another facility.


More later...