TrekCore is reporting new photos of a massive green screen set for Star Trek Beyond being constructed in Kent Hangar Field, Vancouver.
UPDATE: See the sets…. froooom spaaaaaace!
Vancouver residents Bob Glassford and Chris van Cauwenbergh did some exploring around Kent Hangar Field, a location famous for big film shoots (like Tomorrowland, Rise of The Planet of the Apes, Godzilla) and discovered a huge green screen set under construction for Star Trek Beyond. Check out the photos below.
Obviously, there is no word yet on what exactly will be taking place in front of these green screens. You’ll probably have to wait until Summer of 2016 to find out. What we do know is that Trek is no stranger to these kinds of big CG shoots. Check out this behind the scenes vignette of what it was like to film in front of the huge green screen set for the barge scene in Star Trek Into Darkness.
UPDATE: The sets, from space!
In true Star Trek fashion, we felt it was necessary to get a satellite’s eye view of the Star Trek Beyond sets in Vancouver. Pretend the Enterprise wants to spy on a pre-warp civilization, but all of their 24th century sensors are offline so they resort to the bone knives and bear skins technology of the 21st century. So we scoured the US Geological Survey’s satellite imagery database in search of some recent imagery of the place. To our shagrin, the Landsat-8 satellite acquired an image of Kent Hangar Park just three days ago, on July 16th. We downloaded the huge file, some magic happened (our satellite imagery guru processed it for us, being sure to photoshop out any secret government facilities or aliens), and voi la! This hilariously low-resolution (at least for our purposes!) image appeared:
Image LC80470262015197LGN00 courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
The ridiculously extreme zoom in of the Star Trek Beyond sets… from space!
You can see what are likely the wooden structures in the last photo above. They appear as three beige blobs. You can try and convince yourselves that you see the green screen, too, but since they are situated mostly vertical, it’s unlikely they would show up in an image of this resolution.
When we said these things were big, apparently we weren’t kidding. With a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, that makes these three wooden structures pretty large. They each clock in around 60 meters (about 200 feet) in diameter.
The green screens on the cranes looks to be something new. Looks to be for quick set changes and camera placement.
The plywood structure appears to be a cave/maze sort of set.
“From spaaaaaaace!” Ha! Love it. Glad things are kicking into high gear.
Spock: Captain, the Blurrian race was once more advanced than our own, but a cataclysm reduced their civilization to the indistinct level we see around us.
Kirk: what could have caused it?
Spock: My tricorder indicates residual effects from a lawsuit against the ruling Blurrian, Robin Thicke.
“See the sets…. froooom spaaaaaace!”
LOL
Good to see another lavish production. What is the huge wooden thing going to be?
Great!
Although its curious as to why the U.S Geological Survey is taking photos of Vancouver, B.C.
It’s green.
Wow, green screens and a skateboard park.
I can smell the popcorn now–as I watch this movie after renting it from the $1 rack.
Somebody must be a graduate of the George Lucas film school.
@6. My guess is because there is geology outside US borders. My more serious guess is that there is growing concern that the Cascadia Subduction Zone is capable of producing a big enough earthquake that additional study is required.
@9. Phil,
“there is growing concern that the Cascadia Subduction Zone is capable of producing a big enough earthquake that additional study is required.”
TIL something new, thanks for the info.
Cool set photos, also does anyone know if the photo, at the bottom of this link is real ? http://ca.ign.com/blogs/scottc…
Sorry, here is the whole link.
http://ca.ign.com/blogs/scottcollura/2015/07/17/why-dont-the-star-trek-movies-go-to-comic-con/?abthid=55a9aef5e7798b8c54000012
RE: Star Trek Family – No, that’s Quinto’s head with Idris’ face.
I like that they are still doing their green screen shoots outside. JJ was right in that respect; you can’t recreate sunlight in a studio. I’ve seen many an effects shot ruined by cool and incongruous lighting on the actors.
Hopefully, “Tomorrowland” hasn’t cursed the location.
This “Trek” needs to rake in the bacon, AND make up for the last one being a steaming pile of crap.
It must be hard for movies to be made these days with out people trying to spoil the movie and whats in it , way before its even finished filming.
stay out ! ,let them do their job,,
@12 Star Trek Family
No way, that’s a photoshop of Idris Elba’s face onto a photo of Zachary Quinto.
# 15. SirMartman – July 20, 2015
” It must be hard for movies to be made these days with out people trying to spoil the movie and whats in it , way before its even finished filming.” — SirMartman
There’s nothing “these days” about it. In the 1980s, we knew Spock was dead prior so the filmmakers felt they had to address it by changing the sequence of scenes in the script:
”Then, there was a simulator sequence that I liked. That was in the middle of a draft, and so I put it at the beginning. I remember, I was sitting with Harve Bennett in one of the Paramount projection rooms. I was sitting behind him. By this point, we had been getting letters from a lot of people who were very alarmed at the prospect of Spock dying. I remember I got one that said “IF Spock dies, you die.” I was mumbling to myself about these letters, while we were waiting for the projectionist to thread up something, and I said, “Yeah, we should kill him in the first scene. Kill him in the simulator sequence.” Harve whirled around and said, “That is brilliant.” So we suddenly killed him in the opening scene. Otherwise, he always died at the end. But “killing” him at the beginning sort of disarmed the audience, so they forgot that’s what the movie was about.” — Nicholas Meyer, director and screenwriter of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
http://www.startrek.com/article/exclusive-interview-part-ii-nicholas-meyer-on-directing
With modern technology, current filmmakers have it a lot easier in being able introduce such changes inexpensively at anytime of the production, even in post.
This is actually a strong sign of cheaping out, because I know that at least two of the three movies cited as having shot there – GODZILLA and TOMORROWLAND – utilized the new inflatable greenscreens (first employed & deployed on ZILLA), which are a real breakthrough in terms of safety, flexibility and reliability. You’re not at the mercy of the elements such as wind being more likely to blow your greenscreen away. By way of comparison, GAME OF THRONES, which also uses a huge amount of exterior greenscreen and some blue, tried to get by with the old fashion ones and had the whole thing disintegrate on location, which was something of a setback and a pricey one at that. GoT switched to the inflatables after their location disaster, and fifth season went a lot smoother as a result.
17 dis,
Part of it is whether or not your story is strong enough to survive revelations beforehand. Now if SIXTH SENSE had had its plot blown beforehand, I think the whole movie implodes. But back on the fourth TERMINATOR, when the original end was leaked, they panicked and changed things, at no small price, and I think they wrecked what was not that awful of a movie (I know that is a minority view, but based on one watch of the dvd, I really actually liked a lot of it, though the original ending would have been much better and more engaging and provide a lot more options for Bale as an actor in sequels we never got, since he’d’ve essentially been playing a different character imitating Connor instead of Connor himself.
I wonder how much money they are saving by shooting in Canada. Whatever it is, I’m glad they are doing it.
I’m still hoping beyond hope that a smaller budget on this third movie forces the film to be a more character and dialogue driven movie, with the only action relegated to space battles. I’ve had enough fisticuffs, space jumps, and phaser fights.
Who is this, Idris Elba
that everyone keeps speaking of, ive never even heard of him
@21: Idris Elba is a black British actor, mainly known for his BBC series Luther. He also played Heimdal on Thor.
He was Stringer Bell on THE WIRE, geez, the guy is incredible. Also he was utterly wasted as the skipper in PROMETHEUS.
I know what it is. It is the lair of Idrs.
I liked that photoshop image of Elba.
I also like Elba toast!
24, elba test
Then you may like the action climax of PROMETHEUS.
@21. Mike Krukow,
As Smike & kmart said, Elba is a famous British actor who was the lead in ‘Luther’ & played a major role in HBO’s The Wire. The leaked Sony emails showed they were considering him to play James Bond.
MSN interviews Idris Elba about Luther
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4GzSgX4jK4
Idris Elba on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoHNjmIlaQ4
…i like those greenscreen crane buggies! sweet! =D
…it does kinda look like a wooden half-pipe with smooth lips =P
…nice work on the satellite photo @nalysis! =D
Nothing wrong with spoilers at all.
Sofia sporting a “long, white ponytail”. This reminds me Daenerys Targaryen.
I want very few leaks. These pics aren’t leaks to me.
Post 31. Leon
There’s no point in hiding it. Someone’s gonna get to leak a spoiler
Okay I know who he is now. He was in a movie where he played an escaped convict, in the movie, no good deed
Idris Elba also starred in “Pacific Rim”
A massive Green Screen set .
Its obvious,it’s THE TRIBBLE HOMEWORLD!
Hey I can dream can’t I?
20. Mad Mann – July 20, 2015
I believe the combined British Columbia & Canadian tax rebates for the money spent on Canadian soil is 49%.
@32
Minor spoilers are fine.
You mean with all the technology – satellites
and camera’s costing in the millions that’s the
best photo that can be achieved ? Its laughable!
@Marquette
It’s laughable to be able to spot something that’s 15 meters wide from 705 kilometers away and through atmosphere? No, it’s awesome. Also, I’ll point out that this is not the highest resolution satellite imagery available. It’s not even the highest resolution satellite imagery that’s available for free. The Landsat-8 satellite isn’t typically used for such small things, it’s used to study regional processes. And, it’s awesome at what it does. We used that image because it’s the only freely available imagery of the site of interest taking at the right time (4 days ago).
I think it’s a testament to NASA and the USGS that they make this kind of data for free, just days after it was acquired.
The photos were taken by civilian satellite, not military satellites such as Keyhole series which has much higher resolution.
RE U.S. GEO SURVEY, probably Phil is right (and it’s sad to think of losing that beautiful area to a horrible earthquake), but I kinda like to think that while making the observations some fan on the team said, “hey, do you think that might be sets for the new Trek movie?” And another scientist fan said, “let’s get a shot of it” ….
Based on what Herbert said, maybe before the ST crew leave they can pour some concrete and make skateboarding park ;-)
20 Mad Mann, I hope you are right. Crossing my fingers that this will come true! More character and science, less action!!
I don’t see the need for seeing sets from space.
I didn’t think so. I was just curious. I also thought maybe they used photo shop.
We’ll see better security in place when it starts to take shape.
Good to see production progressing. :)
I enjoy “leaks” that invite speculation. I hate leaks that specifically reveal plot turns and twists. The bad thing is, one never knows what kind of “spoiler” is at hand until they read it. At that point, it’s either “Wow, wonder what that is all about…looks interesting….” or “Really? they just gave away the ending? ”
Having said that, these pics are the types of spoilers I love. Just hints of what is to come, without revealing anything.
Loving the spy shots from orbit, how fun is that? Good work Trekmovie!
More from Pegg interview with Sydney Morning Herald.
=========================
Simon Pegg Quit Writing Star Trek Several Times, Was Always Convinced To Return
In an interview with Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, Pegg, an accomplished screenwriter of beloved quirky, genre-bending comedies, discusses how he had to be talked off the proverbial ledge from his current task, titled Star Trek Beyond.
“I quit like three times, I think. Every time, J. J. Abrams said, ‘Oh come on, Simon …’”
In the recent months since his scriptwriting duties for Beyond were revealed, Pegg has been rather vocal about the difficulty of the adjustments he had to make as a writer…
Yet, for all the temporary moments of doubt, he did accomplish his textual task, even to the point that about 45 pages needed to be trimmed off the finished work.
Pegg elegiacally recalls one of his early starring/scribing efforts in the U.K. television series Spaced:
“Funny, I remember there was a line in Spaced about certainty. I said, ‘As sure as eggs is eggs, as sure as day follows night, as sure as every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is shit …’ – and I am now writing Star Trek 13. I think I would have been apoplectic with the irony of it all, you know. And I love thinking about that, the circularity of having been a fan of these things as a kid and now being part of them. And I feel very lucky and I feel – in my quietest, most private moments – proud of myself.”
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Simon-Pegg-Quit-Writing-Star-Trek-Several-Times-Was-Always-Convinced-Return-72674.html
Enterprise crew selfie :)
https://instagram.com/p/5XcipPi5sb/
I’ts certain good to see that things are moving along with the new movie.
The unusual curving says that it’s alien to me.
A new interview with Pegg
============================
‘Star Trek Beyond’ script needed to be finished at warp speed, says Simon Pegg
As soon as he was enlisted to co-write the script for “Star Trek Beyond,” Simon Pegg says he realized he needed to move forward at warp speed.
“It’s been a very truncated process because the timeframe was a lot shorter than we’d normally have,” Pegg, who does double duty on the franchise as the actor playing the Enterprise’s engineer Scottie, tells the Daily News.
“It’s really forced us into action; you make use of the time you have.”
“And I’ve got to say the Star Trek Wikipedia, Memory Alpha, which is online, has been so helpful. If you need to know what’s inside of a photon torpedo, there it is online, because there are so many dedicated fans out there who have such a vast knowledge of the universe and the minutia of it.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/simon-pegg-star-trek-script-article-1.2298914