As we reported on Friday, more than 75% of the behind-the-scenes bonus material produced for the Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray release has been locked away into retailer-exclusive packages. Between several brick-and-mortar stores, online streaming services, and Apple’s iTunes Store, there’s over three-and-a-half hours of additional features waiting to be explored.
Here’s a preview published by StarTrek.com, advertised as part of the Blu-ray package… but in fact, it’s a clip from “Rebuilding the Enterprise”, a featurette included ONLY in the Target-exclusive release package.
There’s so many different VAM packages out there, it seems that even the official site can’t keep it all straight – so let’s see if we can’t clear this mess up, starting with the video exclusives.
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Video VAM, Group I: Target ExclusivesThese first six featurettes runs about thirty minutes in total and are carried on additional bonus discs by Target stores in the US, by Sainsbury’s in the UK,
Update (Sep 10): What a mess! We received the German 3D Blu-ray “Super-Set” today and unfortunately must report that the content is exactly the same as the standard US release. Paramount Germany’s official press-release for this set incorrectly stated that the Target Exclusive VAM would be included along with the full-sized IMAX aspect ratio presentation. None of these releases are reported to include the iTunes “Enhanced Commentary.” |
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The Voyage Begins… Again (2:29)This short piece illustrates the ramp-up to Into Darkness, where director JJ Abrams and writers Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof each speak briefly about the difficulty in finding where to begin the sequel’s story. Also shown is the cast’s return to the Star Trek sets, where it’s clear that their time apart since 2009’s production has done little to reduce the camaraderie between the actors. . . . |
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Mr. Spock and Mr. Spock (4:15)It’s always nice to see Leonard Nimoy on screen, and this feature centers around his transformation from human to Vulcan – as well as his friendship with fellow Spock actor Zachary Quinto. The second half of the video follows Nimoy to the Bad Robot studios, where he and Quinto rehearse (and then film) his Into Darkness appearance, on a cozy bluescreen stage away from the main production. It’s clear from this piece that all of the crew are beyond pleased to have him involved with their second film – and Nimoy seems just as glad to be there. . . . |
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Rebuilding the Enterprise (5:30)Instead of spreading the Enterprise sets across different stages, the Into Darkness construction team built the entire ship on one enormous, interconnected set, all on one stage. This allowed for many more lengthy camera shots following the characters around the ship, rather than forcing separate takes to be combined in editing. Production Designer Scott Chambliss takes time to point out improvements in the use of electronic on the sets – clearer screens, smoother animations, and super-bright rear-projection systems to create the illusion of curved in-wall control monitors. After boasting that the 2009 captain’s chair was protected from theft (unlike several other captain’s chairs in Trek production history), he also points out several off-the-shelf, modern-day items used to create futuristic components around the ship. . . . |
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Vengeance is Coming (4:27)The oversized Vengeance warship was designed by the writers to be a deliberate perversion of everything good about Starfleet: a ship built for destruction, as part of Admiral Marcus’ plan to put the Federation on a war footing. Believe it or not, the Vengeance sets are actually a massive redress of the Enterprise – another parallel with The Wrath of Khan, where the Enterprise and Reliant shared the same bridge! After all of the filming was completed on the Enterprise bridge and corridor, the Into Darkness construction teams took about six weeks to completely repaint and modify everything into the impressive dark black sets used in the Vengeance segments. . . . |
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Visual Affection (9:02)As suggested by the title, “Visual Affection” digs deep into the world of visual effects used in Star Trek Into Darkness, everything from virtual volcano eruptions to the creation of dozens of “digital doubles” – CG replacements for actors through the use of motion-capture photography. Another interesting segment reveals the construction of a complicated turbolift scene, faking the journey between decks of the Enterprise. A funny moment is included when JJ Abrams is reviewing a potential design for the Vengeance display consoles, and the artist who created it managed to misspell just about every single word on the graphic, sending the whole production team into fits of laughter. The final segment centers around the ending Spock-vs.-Khan brawl, showing off just how large the futuristic version of San Francisco really is – not just what you see on-screen, but buildings set “behind” the camera to keep reflections and lighting effects looking realistic. . . . |
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Kirk and Spock (5:34)Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are interviewed about their characters’ personal journeys through the film, starting with a brash, reckless Kirk and an emotionally-unavailable (pardon the pun) Spock who truly doesn’t understand what it means to be the friend of a human. Zachary Quinto: “This movie is about Kirk truly understanding what it means to be a Captain, and Spock truly understanding what it is to be a friend.” Christopher Pike’s death is meant to serve as a catalyst for change in both men, causing Kirk to question his own abilities as a leader, and Spock to more fully understand the human condition through the mind-meld at the moment of Pike’s death. This is also where THE SCENE is addressed: Kirk and Spock’s final conversation through the engine reactor door. Writer Roberto Orci: “The difference [between STID and Star Trek II] is in Wrath of Khan, that scene was the punctuation to the end of a friendship. In this movie, this a realization to Spock that [he and Kirk] ARE friends.” |
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Video VAM, Group II: Best Buy ExclusivesThis second grouping of video features appears to be available only from Best Buy stores in North America. While the Canadian release will include these extras on a bonus disc, the features are available through Best Buy’s CinemaNow streaming service when the Blu-ray set is purchased in the United States. We’re no fan of CinemaNow – we voiced our displeasure at the video quality back when the first season of Enterprise was released on Blu-ray – and unfortunately, there looks like there won’t be any physical offering of these contents in the US at all. As of this writing, however, CinemaNow is offering the entire thirty-minute exclusive VAM content for free to anyone in the US. This may be intentional, or it may be a mistake fixed by tomorrow – we don’t know. If you want to watch ’em, I’d recommend you do it as soon as possible. |
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Down With the Ship (6:09)When the Enterprise artificial gravity system begins to fail as it falls towards Earth, it tosses the crew all around the corridors and other areas of the ship – and just about every part of that was actually performed in-camera for the Into Darkness shoot. Between hanging from a rotating section of scaffolding, flailing around on the floor of the sets, a section of corridor built wall-side down, and strapping Anton Yelchin (Chekov) into a wire rig to yank him through Engineering at top speed, it’s clear that a lot of technical expertise went into the production of that sequence. . . . |
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Unlocking the Cut (5:10)Editors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon get footage from the set withing 24 hours of the first day of shooting, so they (along with their team of assistant editors) have to jump into their jobs right away when production begins. This piece highlights two distinct changes that occurred between shooting and editing. Originally, Kirk is standing over Spock as Pike dies, and he watches his mentor die. By rearranging it so that Pike dies while Kirk is out of the room, the audience is more closely aligned with Kirk’s state of shock when Pike’s fate is revealed. It’s also revealed that the bar-room scene – where Pike and Kirk talk over drinks – was shot after primary production on the film had concluded. The editors determined that an additional scene was needed between Pike and Kirk to balance out the dressing-down in the Admiral’s office, so the Bad Robot team built the set right at their studio and filmed it to fill that hole in the story. The feature also follows Zoe Saldana (Uhura) to the Bad Robot audio stage, where she is shown recording ADR dialogue for her Klingon language lines on Kronos. . . . |
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The Sound of Music (and FX) (5:27)The first half of this segment centers around composer Michael Giacchino and his development of Khan’s theme, as well as having to make musical rewrites when scenes come back from the editors cut in a totally different way than for how the score was originally written. Sound designer Ben Burtt describes several different sounds used to enhance the realism of the film – from wind and crowd noises and Klingon disruptor fire to turning plastic phasers into metal weaponry through the use of incidental sound effects. . . . |
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Aliens Encountered (6:50)Bookmarked by a look into Zachary Quinto’s daily transformation into his role as Spock – with each hair in his Vulcan eyebrows put in place one at a time – this piece covers a wide variety of makeup techniques used to create the multitude of alien species seen throughout Into Darkness. One particularly interesting segment revolves around the twin Caitian women found in Kirk’s bed: it turns out that their long prehensile tails were not CG creations, but were actually mechanically-controlled creations of the prop department. Chris Pine’s hilarious reaction upon first encountering the ‘living’ tail is something that really needs to be seen by everyone. . . . |
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NIF: Home of the Core (4:32)The National Ignition Facility at Livermore Labs served as the high-tech stand-in for the Enterprise warp core, and Star Trek Into Darkness was the first film ever permitted to film inside this highly-guarded research facility. To protect the sensitive equipment from accidental damage, the production team actually hired a group of NIF engineers and scientists to appear as background extras in the film – only people who actually knew what they were doing were allowed to touch any of the control systems! The feature also takes a brief look at all the plant-on labels and stickers created to turn the real-life equipment into Starfleet-issue technical systems. . . . |
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Safety First (2:26)This hilarious final feature centers around Simon Pegg’s practical joke at NIF, where he convinced several members of the cast that they would need to wear a special “neutron cream” to protect their bodies from “neutron damage” coming off of the main laser reactor. Perhaps the best portion comes when it’s revealed that Benedict Cumberbatch was convinced to sign a waiver about the use of neutron cream – and that he hadn’t actually looked through it until he was asked to read it aloud on camera! |
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So What’s Up Down Under?Just as we were preparing to publish this article, we received a copy of Paramount Australia’s press information for their Into Darkness Blu-ray options:
Looks like those rumored exclusive features – deleted scenes, outtakes, and a roundtable interview segment – were just that: rumors. Everything seems to line up with the US-based options, so that’s one less purchase you VAM fanatics don’t need to worry about. |
Coming soon: the iTunes Enhanced Commentary is more than just audio,
and it’s the best feature yet… but can you handle the download?
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