15-3 Star Trek IV Call Sheets and B-Tank Memories with Effects Artist Stuart Ziff
About this episode
Stuart Ziff shares insights and memories from the making of Star Trek IV, focusing on the B-Tank shoot and visual effects techniques.
The Trek Files welcomes back visual effects veteran Stuart Ziff for a firsthand trip into the making of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . This time, the documents are original production call sheets from April 1986, detailing the now-legendary "B-Tank" shoot where the Klingon Bird-of-Prey splashed down into San Francisco Bay with George and Gracie the humpback whales. Stu recalls the practical filmmaking wizardry behind the scenes: giant wave machines, lightning rigs, whale effects, and an enormous outdoor water tank built on the Paramount lot. Along the way, he shares stories about building a mechanical whale eye (for the wrong side of the whale), experimenting with blue dye for the tank water, and watching old Hollywood effects crews create movie magic in real time. Larry and Stu also circle back to Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Stu's experiences during the turbulent Robert Abel & Associates era, including a revealing memory involving a young Paramount executive named Jeffrey Katzenberg. It's a fond look back at the kind of filmmaking that required wind machines, carbon-arc lightning effects, scuba divers, towels, and "wetsuits for cast and crew." Plus: Stu discusses the new…
More episodes of The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
- 15-11 The Next Generation Before Picard
- 15-10 Star Trek II Retakes: The Scenes That Changed The Wrath of Khan
- 15-9 No Landing Gear Required - The Origin of Star Trek's Transporter
- 15-8 Rewriting Joan Crawford
- 15-7 Majel's Vision - Lwaxana in the 24th Century, Revisited
- 15-6 How an Official Star Trek Stage Show Nearly Reached Broadway
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