J.J. Abrams: 'Star Trek' won't look like a green-screened movie

From /Film:

On Friday afternoon, JJ Abrams and the cast and crew of Star Trek sat down with TrekMovie.com to field questions from the fans. Here are the informational highlights:

* The first movie trailer first will “hopefully be in theaters early to mid summer.”
* Production is scheduled to wrap the beginning of April 2008.
* Long time JJ Abrams’s collaborator and fried Greg Grunberg WAS gonna be in Star Trek, but had to bow out because he is attached to another movie. JJ jokes “Who knows, maybe he’ll be a tribble.”
* They are anticipating about 1000 visual effects shots.

But the most interesting bit of the chat was JJ Abrams talking about how he wants the film not to look effects heavy:

Quote:“My goal is to make Trek REAL — that is to say, not have it be camp — not have it be phony — not have it look like a scrap of green screen was used anywhere,” says Star Trek director JJ Abrams. “Of course, this is Star Trek. We’re using every trick in the book. But WHEREVER WE CAN, we are shooting on sets — either built on sound stages or expanding upon found locations. This is important. What this means is that the movie won’t have that ‘actors performing in a blue or green void then placed in front of a spaceship set’ feeling that makes me insane.”

“One of our really talented designers recently commented online how we shot on a green screen set and what a shame that was, since we could have built something incredible. And she was right — for that one scene, which will last for maybe thirty seconds on screen, we built only pieces and were surrounded by green. But that is the exception. We can’t build EVERYTHING, and need to make this film on a budget (partly because that’s the $ we have, and partly because I want the studio to see Trek as viable!). The Enterprise will be a combo of the physical and the virtual. A photo is forthcoming!”

Read the full shat on TrekMovie.