Film Effects of Hollywood Film Effects of Hollywood , or FILM EFFECTS of Hollywood , Inc . as its proper denomination read , was a ( in the 1960s still referred to as " " or " opticals " ) , founded and operated by Linwood G . Dunn , which provided visual effects work for the first two seasons of the original " Star Trek " production , . When the production of the regular series was green - lighted in 1966 , after the approval of the second " Star Trek " pilot , Associate Producer Robert Justman and Post - production Supervisor Edward K . Milkis , soon became aware of the fact that production of the VFX , required on a week - by - week basis , for the series , the most effects - laden television show to date , went far beyond the capacities of the company hitherto responsible for the effects , the Howard Anderson Company . In order to alleviate the work pressure on Anderson , and to keep production on track , they contracted virtually every other independent VFX house in existence at the time to also work on the show ; the Westheimer Company , Van der Veer Photo Effects , Cinema Research and Film Effects of Hollywood . ( " " , p . 262 ) Dunn recalled the specifics of the contract with Desilu , " " We negotiated two flat weekly fees , one for use of equipment and another for supervision . Desilu would also cover the actual cost effects production expenses such as salaries of labor personnel , and anything else actually required to get the effects shots done . I chose the personnel and Desilu paid their salaries . That way , if there were script changes or changes in design or execution of shots , that was okay because Desilu was covering all costs on a weekly basis as we went along . They could have flexibility in making changes and we didn ' t have to worry about about the changes making the work profitable . The only problem was that they were always late getting the sequence to us to work with , so we usually went into overtime to get the shots done in time for airing and they had to cover the overtime costs . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol 27 # 11 , p . 71 ) Though Film Effects worked on a wider range of visual effects for the show , including a multitude of psychedelic light effects , often seen by the ' s crew on the viewscreen , the most signature effects they provided were the exterior shots of the starship studio model s , especially those of the " Enterprise " models . The company , located on North Highland Avenue , Hollywood , was more spacious and better suited to handle , in particular , the large eleven - foot model , than Anderson was . It was exactly the production of footage of the latter which was the reason why Film Effects was brought in as the second additional effects company to work on the series , starting with the eighth episode , the first episode that required extensive new footage of the eleven - foot model . Until then the series had made do with the footage already shot by Anderson , supplemented by a small amount of additional footage of the small three - foot model . Anderson , already backlogged on the visuals production for , which was still in post - production when production of " Balance of Terror " started , desperately needed the help . ( " " , 1st . ed . , p . 205 ) Behind - the - scenes footage of the company ' s effects work was , albeit circumferentially through Lincoln Enterprises , safeguarded for posterity , especially for " Balance of Terror " , and Virtually all exterior starship footage , especially those of the large " Enterprise " model seen in seasons one , after " The Corbomite Maneuver " , and season two , were shot at Film Effects , stock footage of which used extensively in the third season . Notable exceptions were , the footage shot of the three - foot " Enterprise " model for , and the footage shot of the Deep Space Station K - 7 model for , which were done at Anderson ' s , not Film Effects . During this time Director of Photography Jerry Finnerman closely cooperated with Film Effects , serving , together with Milkis , as the primary liaisons between the company and Desilu . According to lore , the on a week - by - week basis hired company , was eventually released from providing effects footage for the third season due to budget cuts , the few later new starship exterior shots ( such as with the new Klingon D7 class model ) , again done at Anderson ' s . Even though Dunn has hinted at a somewhat troublesome cooperation due to studio eccentricities , the studio itself appeared to have had some serious bones to pick with Film Effects themselves , ultimately coming to a head over the course of April 1967 , the pre - production stage of the second season of the " Original Series " . Justman reported in that month in a memo to Roddenberry , " " On April 4th when we had a meeting with the fellows of Lin Dunn ' s outfit , we insisted at the time that they please get down to work and turn us out the 19 shots we had ordered composited on the " Enterprise " . There was to be no need for any further delay and the shots could be done well , because of the fact that they [ " Film Effects " ] were no longer under pressure in turning out individual shows for us . " " For some reason the ordered 19 " Enterprise " shots proved to be too much even for Film Effects as an exasperated Justman reported two weeks later to Roddenberry on a tape recording , " " Today is Wednesday , April 19 , 1967 . Eddie Milkis and I have just returned from the cutting room where we ran two composited blue backing shots of the U . S . S . " Enterprise " . Don Weed from Lin Dunn ' s outfit had told us that he had composited four shots , but only sent two over because the other two weren ' t any good and he wanted to re - do them . . . We ran both shots in the cutting room with " [ film editor ] " John Hanley " " . Lamenting , Justman further elaborated in detail on what he specifically did not like about the two shots he was presented with : " One shot was the " Enterprise " entering frame from Camera Left and proceeding across Frame and exiting out Camera Right . Photography on the " Enterprise " was fine , but there were no moving stars in the shot , so the " Enterprise " appeared to move through Frame very slowly . This shot will only be usable after it has been printed down a bit and some blue added so the ship does not flare . We have asked for this shot top be composited also with moving stars , so we can get an impression of much greater speed . Hopefully , the printing down of the shot will also have the effect of eliminating the Matte area , which is apparent around the Miniature . " Now , let ' s go on to the other shot we saw tonight . This was a shot of the " Enterprise " entering from behind Camera Left and heading away from camera at a fairly good clip . There were no moving stars in this shot . The " Enterprise " was too light in color . It jiggled like crazy after it had entered and continued its erratic movement until it stopped in the B . G . " [ Background ] " and just hung there for a while . When questioned about this shot on the phone this evening , Don Weed said , " " Well , the fault lies with the original material " " ! This was said to Eddie Milkis , as if we had furnished the original material and he [ " Weed " ] just went ahead and composited it because that ' s what he had to work with . Nothing was mentioned about the fact that he shot the original material for us . Certainly something should have been said when the original Blue Backing shot was selected as to whether it would composite correctly or not . Additionally , it struck him as a rather novel idea that there should be moving stars in the shot . Evidently , all the experience that Don Weed has accumulated during the past season has been phasered out of existence . If this is the case , he hasn ' t learned a thing and neither has anyone else over at Film Effects of Hollywood . " At the present time , I am quite morose . I can see many thousands and thousands of dollars going down the drain – in addition to many days and nights of sweat and toil and heartache . I am in hopes that the balance of the 19 shots will be useable . Certainly 50 % of what we saw tonight is unusable . I will have to wait until I have seen more material before I go ahead and do anything . However , if what I have seen and heard today is any indication , we would completely incompetent as film makers and creators if we continued our association with Film Effects of Hollywood . " The rather acid parting remarks Justman made bode ill for Film Effects , and Weed , the primary liaison between Desilu and Film Effects , having made himself unavailable to the studio over the following week , only served to aggravate matters as far as Justman was concerned since Weed steadfastly refused to answer urgent calls from the latter during that period . Only five days later Weed chimed in again . Justman recorded : " Today is Monday , April 24 , 1967 . Don Weed showed up about 10 : 00 a . m . and we ran six more of the 19 shots he is compositing for us . . . We saw 5 of various " Enterprise " Fly Bys . One of the shots had some jiggle motions in it , which we shall have to cut away from , and one of the shots had a speed - up and slow - down as the ship headed left to right and exited frame . The one in which the ship exited frame can be fixed by judicious snippings of frame on its slow movement sections . None of the shots that he delivered to us had any moving stars . . . One of the shots has a problem with stars bleeding through the body of the ship . . . [ " Remark : an effect shortly after known as " blue - spill " in VFX cinematography " ] The one thing missing in the left to right Fly Bys that you will note is that the model was originally photographed and was panned in and out of frame , instead of being dollied in and out of frame [ " Remark : as Anderson Company had done " ] . This means there is no changing perspective and we have a slight loss in believability due to the fact that aside from the flashing lights there is no discernible within the model itself . When Anderson photographed the model , he dollied past it so that there was a change on the perspective between the two power pods and various other structural members of the model . This gave it an illusion of life , in that further away portions of the model moved passed us more slowly than the foreground portions of the model . One added thought . Don Weed was going to give us an estimate on how much the Opticals were going to cost on by the end of last week . He took the script with him the early part of last week and was going to get a budget up on it . We haven ' t heard anything yet . " Transcripts of his taped recordings , no doubt shared with Roddenberry at the time , made it all but clear that Producer Justman was more than ready to say his goodbyes to Film Effects , actually effected a very short time after , as exemplified in a subsequent , otherwise undated handwritten note , which read , " " Discussed all in person with Gene who agreed we should drop Lin Dunn ' s optical house ( Hollywood Film Effects ) and do business elsewhere with other optical houses that could deliver what we needed on a timely basis and a price that we could afford . " " ( " " , pp . 18 - 35 ) Most ironically however , Justman ' s misgivings about Film Effects notwithstanding , no further eleven - foot " Enterprise " model footage was ever to be shot afterwards by any of the other effects companies , and " all " footage shot by Film Effects by then was yet to be used throughout the remainder of the original series ' run . Film Effects of Hollywood ' s work on " Star Trek " was nevertheless nominated for an Emmy Award once , when Linwood G . Dunn was nominated in 1967 for " Individual Achievements in Cinematography " , together with Darrell Anderson and Joseph Westheimer . None of Film Effect ' s production staff , including Dunn himself for that matter , were ever individually credited for their contributions to " The Original Series " , instead being officially credited collectively under the company name . General history . Linwood Dunn , a pioneering innovator in the field of VFX , founded his company in 1946 , as he found his talents in increasing demand , not only by RKO Pictures , the company he usually worked for , but by other production companies as well , and he operated his company besides his work for RKO . His company specialized in VFX and optical printing services , including adapting foreign film standards to US standards and the handling of large format films , but served as a research house as well , for the development of cinematographic equipment and techniques , including that of the , a VFX device , Dunn had developed into a practical piece of cinematographic equipment . RKO Pictures went out of business in 1957 ( formally ending its existence in 1959 , and with its Hollywood facility , incidentally , adjacent to the Desilu lot , both now part of the Paramount Pictures lot ) and from then on Dunn exclusively operated his company , which was strengthened as Dunn managed to firstly lease RKO ' s special effects department , before definitely acquiring its assets when formal bankruptcy was declared two years later . Productions the company has provided VFX work for in the first two decades of its existence , included the movies " Topper " ( 1953 ) , " On the Beach " ( 1959 ) , " Inherit the Wind " ( 1960 ) , the acclaimed " West Side Story " ( 1961 ) , " The Searching Eye " and " Kiss Me , Stupid " ( both 1964 ) , " In Harm ' s Way " , " The Great Race " , and " Ship of Fools " ( all three 1965 ) , the 1966 movies " The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming " , " The Bible : In the Beginning . . . " , and " Hawaii " , as well as the entire run of the television series " The Forest Rangers " ( 1963 - 1965 ) . After " Star Trek " the company continued to provide VFX services to Hollywood productions , such as " Airport " and " Catch - 22 " ( both 1970 ) , " The Devil ' s Rain " and " " Wonder Woman " " ( both 1975 ) , " Sgt . Pepper ' s Lonely Hearts Club Band " ( 1978 ) , and the science fiction movie " The Shape of Things to Come " ( 1979 ) , as well as the 1978 science fiction television series " Project U . F . O . " . The movie " Alligator " ( 1980 ) was Film Effects of Hollywood ' s last recorded credit . In 1985 Film Effects of Hollywood ended its existence when Linwood Dunn sold off his VFX company to Francis Ford Coppola in order to retire from active effects work . Coppola dismantled the company and utilized the production assets to revitalize his own production company , American Zoetrope . Film Effect ' s old location was until recently the seat of Fuji Film Motion Picture . Staff . Staffers involved at the time with the production of " Star Trek " were , among others :