New Star Trek Film Honored At Location Awards October 20, 2008
by Charles Trotter , Filed under: Star Trek (2009 film) , trackback
The new Star Trek is seven months away, but it is already picking up awards. The California on Location Awards, which honors location professionals for excellence while working on location in California, held their 14th annual ceremony last night and three Star Trek location department members were among those nominated. TrekMovie has the results plus some words from the nominees.
Epic Trek gets noticed
TrekMovie has reported before about how JJ Abrams Star Trek has used more locations than any previous Trek film. The location managers on the film fanned out to find spots to stand in for Planet Vulcan, Starfleet Academy, an Iowa Farm and many more spots both alien and terrestrial. Apparently this work got the notice of the industry as Star Trek picked up three nominations at this year’s COLAs. Supervising Location Manager Becky Brake was a finalist in the category of “Location Professional of the Year for Features” for her work on the film, while Kathy McCurdy and Scott Trimble were both up for "Assistant Location Manager of the Year for Features". Unfortunately, Brake lost her nomination to a tie between Douglas Dresser for Fired Up and Gregory Alpert for Frost/Nixon. However, McCurdy ended up winning in the "Assistant Location Manager" category, with Trimble being named a runner-up.
TrekMovie.com contacted Kathy McCurdy, who had this to say about the COLAs:
It was an honor to be nominated for Trek, let alone to actually win. The other two finalists, Scott [Trimble] is one, are both great at their jobs so it was an extra special experience for me to be included in that group. The movie was my all time favourite work experience. The crew [was] fantastic and friendly and fun and that all starts from the top. We were so lucky to work with JJ Abrams. The 14-15 hour days don’t feel like work when Scott Chambliss is your Production Designer. He is so inspiring to work with. Scouting for him and JJ was so fun because they are so creative and open to cool locations you find for them. They were supportive and appreciative of our whole department. Part of the reason it was my favorite work experience is that it was a chance to work with literally some of the best in the business, in each department. What a treat. Saving the best for last, we had the best locations team from our coordinator to the bosswoman herself, Becky Brake. She is the perfect boss – she gave our whole team the latitude and support to do our jobs properly and she has a great sense of humour, a necessity in our line of work! A finer group of folks doesn’t exist and it was such a pleasure and an honour to work with them. I’m the luckiest girl in the world.
TrekMovie.com also talked with runner-up Scott Trimble, who had this to say:
I am very happy about the contributions that both Kathy and I made to this film. It can be extremely tough to shoot such big movies in Southern California, particularly with all the confidentiality needed with this kind of film, but through a lot of planning and teamwork we pulled it off. The whole thing could not have been done, of course, without the leadership of our Supervising Location Manager, Becky Brake, as well as the rest of our Location Department. Plus, we had the support of the extremely talented group at Bad Robot Productions and Paramount Pictures.
Trimble also added:
I’ve been a Trekkie for as long as I can remember, so working on this film was a dream come true for me! I am very excited about the many creative contributions that I made in regards to finding and securing the amazing locations that you’ll eventually see in this film.
Trimble and McCurdy were also nominated as part of the “Location Team of the Year for Features” for the film Hancock, but they lost to the team from Eagle Eye (which, ironically, was executive produced by Star Trek writers/exec producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci). Both Trimble and McCurdy previously won a COLA as part of the location team for Transformers, while Trimble and Brake won as part of the team for Mission: Impossible III, also directed by J.J. Abrams and written by Kurtzman and Orci.
For more information on the COLAs, see CaliforniaOnLocationAwards.com. For more news on who won at this year’s COLAs, see The Hollywood Reporter. You can see the full list of finalists here.
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Comments»
Let’s hope the movie’s storyline lives up to the locations!
Congrats to the team and JJ for doing their part and keeping production in the LA area, “the entertaintment capital of the world”.
I got your location. How about the Enterprise for a Location.. FTW!!
I will boycott the film if the proper look of Iowa is not achieved by some cheap California locale. I’d better not see palm trees or distant mountain ranges.
;-D
I don’t quite follow what this award is for. Huray locations!?
I will also boycott the film, but only if the effects and the sets are TOO realistic. Star Trek has always been about cheap cardboard cutouts and styrofoam rocks. If I don’t see strings holding up the (badly constructed paper mache) ships, I’m walking right out of the theater.
=p
#5 Sebastian Meyer — I had a description of the awards in my original draft but it didn’t make it into the final copy, I guess. It’s explained at the official site for COLA, linked at the bottom of the page. Basically, the awards honor location professionals, production companies, and public employees for professional excellence while working on location in California.
I went to the site but I still don’t understand what the award is *for* exactly. Apparently it doesn’t have anything to do with the locations in relation to the movie.
It’s for professional excellence. It recognizes movies that were shot in the prior year. The nominations come from the California Film Commission offices since they know a bit of what went on behind-the-scenes, and then the awards are chosen by a panel of judges. [this all according to Scott Trimble]
Basically, it’s honoring those who did excellent work in securing and managing locations for their respective projects and how they worked with other members of the film crew. It’s not just movies they recognize, but that’s the focus of this article. :)
For the record, I would like to give a hearty congratulations to Mr. Trimble, Ms. McCurdy, Ms. Brake, and everyone who was nominated at this year’s COLAs.
Uh did you know that currently we’re not able to film movies ‘off world’ so yea…they have to actually shoot them somewhere on this planet. Prob Calif..duh
An awards ceremony for best locations?
Sheesh, what’s next, an award for best kraft food services?
Hollywood really likes to reward itself, doesn’t it???
Maybe they should spend less time on this stuff and more on making good films!
Lol, what is this article about? I can’t tell.
:(
Fascinating.
They should use Arcosanti for a city of the future – THAT would be incredible!
Let’s hear it for land!
Listen, it may be easy for those of us outside the industry to make light of such an award, but it represents something very real; people doing very hard work, usually under tight deadlines and budgetary considerations, all for the sake of making us believe what we see on the movie screen.
The award is given for talent, professionalism and dedication to their craft. Location managers are just as responsible as the actors and director for the overall look of a film. The right locations, well-managed, elevate a film’s reality; and on the production side, when these people do their jobs well, a film comes in on time and at (or under) budget.
It may seem trivial to the average film-goer, but this award recognizes excellence in an important aspect of the filmmaking process. I’m sure that recipients often find that the award brings them greater notice and prestige, allowing them to work on bigger and better projects. To a film director or a producer, an in-demand Location Manager is just as hot a commodity as an in-demand actor.
Location work can be an arduous and fatiguing process, and these people are charged with keeping the momentum up on multi-million dollar film projects. Just because their work goes largely unnoticed by the general public doesn’t make it any less crucial or important. So make fun of it if you feel you must, but think about this; if you should ever be recognized for outstanding work, how would you feel if someone scoffed at it as essentially meaningless?
Did the review of the new “Destiny” novel just vanish?
YAY!
This is great!
haha. Now Star Trek has awards.. before its release.
So you can brag to people. “My movie already has awards!”
Not bad, at all. Let’s hope that this film wins awards after it is released, too. Really, this film OUGHT to be, by far, the best in the franchise. It certainly has that potential, at least. When you think about it, this film has an estimated budget of $150 million. That’s staggering. The film that many hold, so far, as the best in the franchise, TWOK, had a comparatively puny budget: $12 million! Trek XI is certainly going to look better that anything we have seen, so far, in the franchise. With a great story and acting, it really ought to be better than TWOK. We shall judge for ourselves, in a few months…
Congrats to Becky, Kathy and Scott!
And I did not know that there is a “location” for the engine room, and not a dressed soundstage… hmm.
Location Awards?
How about…
The Belchies (for best catering on a movie set)…
The 75th Annual Honey Wagon Honors…
or…
The Yankers Award (for grips)
Hollywood never tires of its status as a snake eating its own tail.
There she is!!!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31621699@N03/?saved=1
the Enterprise as landed
The engines look right from the trailer, but the klingons are sure making their ships bigger these days.
glad they went with the movie look!!!!
Blue warp engines? Sine everything else about the ship looks the same.. And since the uniforms look just about the same.. And the majority of the bridge(in my opinion).. Why wouldn’t they keep the warp engines red/orange?
Gosh, I think that is the first slightly negative thing I’ve ever said or thought about this movie thus far. I’m am still looking very forward to it though! The Klingon Ship looks exactly how it should(again, in my opinion).
1: I agree totally.
nearly every profession has awards sponsored by their professional association. How ignorant can you be to mock the awards or the winners? Whether you are “white collar” or “blue collar” I believe if you’ll take your head out of your *ss and look at the nearest bulletin board where you work, you’ll find your profession also has some way of encouraging excellence.
@ 25 & 26: Basically, the picture is so small and the quality is so bad that you really can’t make out any details. It could be from the movie.
But it could just as well be a quick and dirty Photoshop job. The lighting seems strange, with this extreme burn-out around the bridge and the left side of the saucer.
I’ll grant you that the nacelles look similar to the USS Kelvin picture.
29: I’m guessing, if it is a real pic… That it was probably taken with a cell phone.. Which could explain the small size, the slight blurryness, and the ‘burn-out’ around the bridge. Try taking a picture of something on your t.v. It’ll appear brighter than what it actually is.
Fatman Bruno is out there. he can’t be bargained with. he can’t be reasoned with, and he absolutely will not stop, ever, until he has a real picture of the Enterprise!!!
31: So, are you saying that you did do that photoshop job?
no I didn’t create the enterprise image, I am just not so sure about the picture until anthony gets back to us concerning the validity of the image…
Is it real anthony…. or is it a FAKE!!!
Charles Trotter: Thanks for the article. Being in the business myself, I understand the challenges involved in location scouting and location shooting. Kudos to Brake, McCurdy and Trimble for their work.
[25] Bruno, that pic is so terrible its almost good.
this is much better…
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg178/judexavier/STXINCC-17013View.jpg
I say the photo is real. It can be downloaded and resized on your ‘puter.
I think the photo is fake. Look at the teaser trailer carefully: the ship’s registry number and name are not in the same place on the teaser Enterprise as they are in this photo. Close to the same place, but they do not look the same.
FAKE. Nice pic, but I really think it’s just a PhotoShip…uh, Shop..
#24 and others
That design was posted on this site weeks ago and was debunked as fake, if I recall.
#14
Mr. Trotter, don’t despair. I understood the content and meaning of this article right away ;)
pretty sure that image is new, maybe the artist impression (35 fakesteve) is old but I stand by the photo being new….
I agree the Klingon ship seems a little to big but if this is fake you’ve got to hand it to them its got all the details that we have seen in the last week
Bruno, while that image was uloaded to flickr today, the artist got the Kelvin design wrong.
The Kelvins Secondary Hull is ABOVE the saucer, the Warp Nacelle below it. Hence the BLUE deflector dish, and the RED Bussard Ramscoops.
#18 described it perfectly.
These three people deserved a lot of credit!
It takes an enormous amount of effort to take movies out on location. There’re all the tons of equipment, trucks, and trailers, and there’s also government red tape (city, county, state, national) where everything is controlled in every minutiae.
Also, they’re dealing with the real-world, not a Hollywood backlot. Not everybody WANTS a big movie shooting in their area. It takes a LOT of people skills to be able to pull these things off.
And that’s all talking just logistics. They also have to find the places that LOOK like what they need for the film. Creatively, this can be very challenging too!
Its fake!
Where are the fins on the nacelles?
Why is the lighting so inconsistent?
And the deflector dish looks like it was taken out of the Motion Picture!
FAKE FAKE FAKE
[42] yo, DKS! that image is of amazing quality… I wonder how many spies lost their lives while smuggling this precious jpeg out of ILMs high security vaults…
In Hollywood you can win an award for just about anything!
Fakesteve,
And I was a bridge extra:)
AND THIS IS TO ALL YOU TREKKERS! NOT JUST FAKESTEVE! HEAR ME OUT:
STARGATE IS B-E-T-T-E-R!!!!! OKAY? HUH? OKAY?
GATER 4 LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!!
So, DKS!, did they let you keep that red miniskirt?
*clenches fists*
OH I WEAR IT ALL THE TIME!!!!!
UR KLINGON WIFE CAN’T WEAR IT AS GOOD AS I DO!!!
Think about it, people. J.J. Abrams and co. wanted to make as great a new “Star Trek” movie as possible. Well, the LOCATIONS are vital to that.
It’s got to be a hard job to find alien landscapes, futuristic places, spaceships, etc. You need to have a tremendous amount of knowledge and research skills, a creative eye, and the ability to actually get the permits to shoot at such places once they’re chosen.
You joke about giving an award to anybody, but, really, these guys truly deserve it. Their work is right up there with the costume designers and make-up artists and art directors who already get Oscars and such.
Did you notice Trimble’s comment about having been a Trekkie all his life? Plus, he’s worked with Abrams before. Those are GOOD things. The more Trekkies working on this movie, the better! They know their stuff.
OK geeks. Let’s focus.
The article is about an award given to the quality of work a production crew does on location. Their professionalism and treatment of the locale are taken into consideration. No big-time Hollywood types generally get the award. It’s recognition for the backline folks.
Now that Enterprise picture. This may clear it up for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qKcJF4fOPs
Darn, it’s Vreenak again.
He gave me my name!
Fakesteve,
I apologize for my outburst.
No Problem, DKS!…
just go easy on the capslock ;))
My previous post (#38) should have been directed at #35, not #24…
The link given in #35 has been posted here before and it’s a fake, as I recall. The image as posted in #24 is anybody’s guess…
Well I hang my head in shame, I almost believed the image was geniune.
so apologies for getting myself and the crowd in a frenzy…
I’ll go back to searching the web for that one moment of glory (slow day at work)
[54] Silberauge, I never said that these illustrations wre the real deal…
they don’t try to be a fake image, they are an artists interpretation of the details visible in the teaser plus comments of people who said they were in the loop… did I make myself clear?
[55] Come on, Bruno, that was fun ;))
Having had a second (and third etc) look at the image… could this be the work of Gabe? the angle of the Enterprise is very similiar to that video he made recently….
# 56 apologies to you, Mr. Fakesteve, but if you read my post you will notice I never assumed you were implying these images were real… I simply stated they were not for clarification purposes to prevent those not “in the loop” to think they were. BTW, my name, kind sir, is not Silberauge ;)
[58] Ha, Silvereyes, my apology to you! I slipped by accident in my mother tongue, like always when I get agitated ;))
Clearly it’s a fake since the Klingons do not appear in the film!!! Plus the klingon ship is not in scale with the Enterprise(it’s too big), I don’t think that ILM would make such a simple mistake.
As fans of Star Trek, we really should celebrate any and all successes that the franchise achieves.
These people do the unglamorous heavy lifting behind all the glitz and glamour to make sure we’re entertained. So it’s great that their professional efforts are recognized by their industry.
Congratulations are in order, not a bunch of snarky remarks!
#59 You are most kind. Auf wiedersehen (if I assume your mother tongue correctly).
[61] but cellojammer, as you can see up at post 22, I congratulated!
[62] my pleasure, Silvereyes, hope to see you out there again soon!
STAR TREK NOMINATED FOR “BEST FILM” OSCAR. DELAYED UNTIL 2012.
Hollywood. “Star Trek,” The much-rumored next film in the popular franchise, has been nominated for the coveted “Best Film” Oscar for 2009. This, despite the fact that its release has been delayed a further three years due to Paramount Pictures’ pending merger with GM, Chrysler, Wal-Mart, South Africa and Radio Shack.
Director JJ Abrams defended the film, and used the nomination to announce that “Star Trek XII” will be released in 2011 as originally intended, nine months before “Star Trek XI.”
“We are honored that the Academy has chosen to honor “Star Trek” with a “best film” nomination. It’s still in the final ‘tweaking’ stage, and we’ve got 80% of the FX done. But it should be worthy of its Oscar nod”
Abrams then added,
“Star Trek XII has a Mugatu.”
Someone has got to tell me what’s all the fuss about this Mugatu white gorilla thing… Sure he’s cool, has attitude and a million dollar snarl and in my book makes him a great party guest and with a couple of drinks one could even think of him as cuddly and I dare say attractive but I feel I’m missing something more to this character…
Guys, please keep all comments related to the article. Any further comments regarding the Enterprise image will be deleted.
#34 falcon — You’re welcome! :)
#38 Silvereyes — Thanks! :-D
Silvereyes:
I think you nailed it. The ladies love his horn, by the way.
He also poops absolutely everywhere, which means you’ll be shampooing his white fur pretty much daily.
Listen to chuck and next guy that posts a fake image of the Enterprise claiming it is real gets banned….that stuff really bugs me. This is an article about locations
Slow news days… I got such a rush from the pictures and now this… Gurgle gurgle gurgle…. Oh for a pic of the big E… Come on people what are we doing this to poor Aaron for? Oh the pain the agony… I need more more more. Yes I know that is the plan but still!
By the way how does one win an award for work on a movie before it is out??? So odd.
They need to rename their awards. “Cola” in Spanish (slang?) means “ass” (rear, rump, gluteus maximus) or “tail.” I wouldn’t go bragging that I got me some “COLA” award.
Could have sworn I saw a Gorn in that picture!!
Its great that they’ve received recognition for their work but shouldn’t the movie at least be released before honors are bestowed??/
Just wonderin…
Wow. This gets a ton of posts, and the book review gets like 8.
#72 Horatio — The COLAs recognize location work that was done within the past year, regardless of whether or not the project has been released or aired to the general public. Star Trek is not the only unreleased film that was honored; Frost/Nixon, Milk, Land of the Lost, Fired Up, and Valkyrie haven’t been released yet, either. But the location work for those movies is already complete and it was done with what the commission sees as professional excellence and that’s all that matters. :)
#73 Enterprise — Anthony and I were just discussing that on the phone. It is kind of sad because the book reviews and previews are really well-done and informative. I think a lot of people are reading them, it’s just that fewer people are commenting for some reason. Also, it should be noted that only about half the comments here actually relate to the article; the rest have nothing to do with the story but are actually commenting on an obviously-fake Enterprise image.
@60:
I don’t recall anyone saying that Klingons would not appear in the film. I’m hoping to see some, even if they’re not the focus.
Yeah, I just skim through the comments. Love the site, though. I agree it needs a forum.
I congratulate the location crew from Star Trek for this honor! Its definitely a good sign when the filmmaking community in general recognizes Star Trek, beyond space opera fluff or something like that.
I’m quite happy that this movie is in the hands of Abrams, who insists on things being as real as possible when it comes to locations. It could be much worse: Paramount could have let someone do the movie who was nothing but about the bottom line, spend as little as possible and do stages for the places in the movie.
Instead, we have real buildings and locations for a lot of this movie, and I think that will lend it a ton of credibility, blowing away people’s conceptions about Star Trek as being “fishing line and styrofoam rocks”.
It’s great to hear the new movie getting recognition.
Congratulations !!!
Is the claim that this film uses more locations than any previous Trek film really accurate? What about STIV:TVH? Almost that entire film was on location. And even Insurrection, love it or hate it, had a lot of location shooting.
It’s sad to see so many people making snide comments about the location awards. THANK YOU to all the location scouts who work so hard to make this movie and every other film and TV show look so great! I’m glad they have a specific award for a much-underappreciated group of filmmakers.
On another note, #73 Enterprise posted “Wow. This gets a ton of posts, and the book review gets like 8.” I don’t think it’s a problem with the review itself; as Charles pointed out, the reviews are well done. I think it’s just that the fans on this site have all but lost interest in the post-Nemesis TNG world and would rather read about location scouting for the new TOS film than read about more Borg/ENT/TNG stuff. Maybe it’s just me…but the lack of comments on that post seems to agree.
#75 Spock with a Crowbar — Klingons are indeed in the film, as TrekMovie.com has previously reported.
80 – Klingons are likey not in the film. There was one quote, I think from Anton Yelchin about Klingons (he probably meant Romulans), and that was it.
Klingons should be in the movie. They’ve been in every Trek movie. They’re a staple.
STAR TREK
Klingon No. 6 “I should be in every Trek movie! I’m a staple!”
Kirk: “What?” What the hell does that mean?” Spock?”
Spock: “A staple is an ancient metallic device usually employed to fasten sheets of paper together, especially when each sheet portrays significant and associated content.”
Kirk: “And this…Klingon…is a staple?”
Spock: “I plead the Fifth in this one”
It’s come to this.
I guess most everyone missed the point of this award. Please take note ofthe fact that it is the “CALIFORNIA on Location Awards”. This is not the film industry patting itself on the back. This is the State of California patting them on the head, and saying “Nice doggy. Stay. Stay…”
As far as havin’ Dax as a Cap’n in “Mere Mortals”, I think that can be an acceptable point in tha’ fiction iffa tha’ characterization be handled ina manner that…
Oh, bloody hell! I’m tha’ wrong bleedin’ thread!
So sorry…
Location, location, location….
Arrrrrrr….
I think it’s extremely re-assuring what this award implies.
Some of the best Trek episodes were shot on location.
-Miri
-Arena
It gave the episodes more realism. As was mentioned before, a lesson Mr. Lucas didn’t pay attention to in HIS prequels. The Tattoine footage in Star Wars episode 4 was fantastic. It felt completely real.
Just to digress somewhat, I took that picture someone made of what the new Enterprise “might” look like according to the trailer, and mixed it with the original. When you see the 2 together, the differences aren’t too bad.
http://tinyurl.com/create.php
Spockboy I think you meant this –
http://tinyurl.com/6ngntc
Thanks Rick!
Miri one of the best? Uh, no.
Location for me is what helps make the film believable. I’m happy for them, that they won this. It gives me yet one more reason to see this opening night and probably over that weekend a few times.
#88
looks like the orginal series version didnt have a bridge on top like we all thought…lol.
#81. OneBuckFilms — We’ve already confirmed there are Klingons in the film. See the link below, which states “TrekMovie.com has learned that the new Star Trek movie will indeed include Klingons.” In addition, I’ve been in contact with actors who have played Klingons in the film, including T.J. Storm.
http://trekmovie.com/2008/02/01/yelchin-sees-klingons/
#85 Captain Dunsel — That’s, um… one way to look at it, I guess. :-P
You’re right, though, Hollywood has nothing to do with this.
Location, Location, Location !
Vasques Rocks….
Anyone ?
Anyone ?
Bueller ?
Bueller ?
I think the Vasques rocks location is being given a ‘lifetime achievement award’ at these awards. :)
I’m curious about cities. What semi-urban landscapes did they use? I don’t think there’s a substitute for BLADE RUNNER-style location shooting. The SW prequels looked purdy, but they did not feel real or urban.
I think you can put this issue on a list with plastic foreheads and non-Humanoid aliens in listing the most significant flaws of Star Trek: The Enterprise always seems to discover and solve problems in rural or small village environments–even though, by Prime Directive, they should only be touching down on planets with minimum standards of technology.
Vasques Rocks?
Spock’s home on Vulcan?
Vulcanss’ last ‘green’ spot?