Richard Edlund Richard Edlund , was a multi - award winning and nominated ( including several Academy Award s ) cinematographer who has specialized in the various aspects of the creation of ( VFX ) , encompassing the development of equipment with which to produce them with . Inducted into the " American Society of Cinematographers ( ASC ) " , he has had a long and distinguished career in the field of VFX , spanning nearly five decades and resulting in a multitude of highly successful motion pictures , and which has netted him 13 Academy Award , 11 Saturn Award , 1 President ' s Award , 4 BAFTA Film Award , 2 Emmy Award as well as 1 Sitges Award wins and nominations . Around 1965 , Edlund got his first professional employment through , what became his life - long friend and mentor Joseph Westheimer ( who came across Edlund ' s resumé at the Hollywood unemployment office ) at his company The Westheimer Company , where he was enabled to further hone his skills as a VFX technician , title designer , and producing inserts and opticals ( a widely used term for VFX at the time ) . As it so happened the very first project he was assigned to professionally , was . Edlund recalled years later what his duties entailed , " " Mostly what I was doing was beaming guys in and out , though I did rotoscope the original " Enterprise " for the opening credits . It was the only " Enterprise " flyby they had for at least the first season , and they used it over and over – speeding it up , flopping it left for right . . . Talk about a show with no time or money . That was one of the things that made me uniquely qualified when " Star Wars " came along . " " Though Edlund has downplayed his role somewhat , he did made a noticeable contribution in the form of his design and execution of the Companion effect in the second season episode . ( ) Apart from this , he also " ( . . . ) did the original title design for Star Trek , that they now reused in the latest movie – a kind of corny , angular type style . " The title fonts were in use for the regular series episodes , and devised after the production of the second pilot . Edlund stayed in Westheimer ' s employment until after the start of the third season in 1968 , having also worked in the same capacity on the contemporary television shows " The Outer Limits " , " The Twilight Zone " , " The Addams Family " ( for which he also served as hand actor for Thing in the title sequence ) , " Burke ' s Law " , " Wild , Wild West " , as well as several television commercials Westheimer was involved with . Early career . Hailing from North Dakota , Edlund was interested from an early age onward in photography , and has acquired a basic knowledge of cinematographic techniques and systems , while serving in the U . S . Navy and subsequently , after he left the service in 1961 , during his stint at the University of Southern California . ( " Cinefex " , issue 2 , p . 7 ) . Upon graduating from the University , he started his professional career with his contributions to the " Original Series " . In 1968 Richard Edlund left Westheimer to work free - lance as a still photographer and promotional filmmaker for a number of prominent rock groups , during which time he developed his first piece of hardware , a portable guitar amplifier he called the " Pignose " . In 1974 he joined the new VFX company Robert Abel & Associates ( RA & A ) . While there , he was an integral part of the team that worked on the ground - breaking opticals for the commercials of the era , the company was involved with , among others for the beverage 7 - Up and the clothing brand Levis . An artistic difference of opinion with Robert Abel over the acquirement of a sophisticated piece of cinematographic piece of equipment , Paramount Pictures ' VistaVision optical printer ( last used for " The Ten Commandments " ) , made Edlund decide to resign in 1976 . Though Edlund had resigned , he did not leave in animosity toward the head - strong Abel and retained his respect for him as was evidenced in 1978 , when Edlund tried to help out Abel . Abel ' s company was by then deeply involved with the production of , but he was not aware that he was running head - long into a fatal confrontation with the Paramount executives , due to the fact that he was spending far too much of the studios time and money designing and building a massive , interlinked and centrally - controlled camera and optical printer combo unit , while trying to re - invent the process as he did so , running massively over budget and over time in the process . Edlund repeatedly tried to make Abel aware of this , " " I admonished him to keep it as simple as possible , because when the release date ' s breathing down your neck something ' s going to happen – it always does – and the more complex the system the more difficult it ' s going to be to fix and keep shooting . I don ' t know if Bob misinterpreted my meaning , but the end result was so overcomplicated it couldn ' t respond to changes without two days of re - programming , even though the problem might be something as simple as the magazine on the camera needing more clearance to avoid hitting the spacedock model . " Edlund ' s admonishments fell on deaf ears though . The ILM years . Upon quitting RA & A , Richard Edlund was not long without gainful employment as he was already sounded out , through John Dykstra , whom he had met at RA & A , by George Lucas to work in the fledging VFX company Industrial Light & Magic ( ILM ) , becoming one of its fourteen founding members . As part of Dykstra ' s VFX filming crew , he was partly responsible for beefing out new techniques , such as , to be used extensively for that company ' s first motion picture , ( 1977 ) . The production earned him ( and the others of his crew ) as well as the company the very first of the many Academy Awards for VFX that were to follow . Upon completion of " Star Wars " Edlund continued working for Dykstra on the productions of the pilot of the original " Battlestar Galactica " series ( 1978 , earning him and Dystra their first Emmy Award ) as well as the movies " The Manitou " ( 1978 ) and " The China Syndrome " ( 1979 ) . Edlund , however , did not follow Dykstra when the latter went on to form his own VFX company , Apogee , Inc . , but instead opted to heed George Lucas ' invitation to rejoin ILM , for the production of the second " Star Wars " installment , " Star Wars : Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back " ( 1980 ) . Promoted to visual effects supervisor , an important responsibility for him entailed the restructure and rebuild of the nearly dismantled company . Edlund remained in the employ of ILM until 1984 , and while the company in those years had produced the VFX for and , Edlund was not part of either production team , having worked instead on the concurrent productions of " Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark " ( 1981 ) , " Poltergeist " ( 1982 ) , and " Star Wars : Episode VI – Return of the Jedi " ( 1983 ) . Forming Boss Film Studios . Though Richard Edlund " ( . . . ) never wanted to become a businessman " , he decided to go into business for himself , because he " ( . . . ) got into movies because I was a creative person . In order to do the visual effects I wanted to do , I had no choice than to become a businessman . " He left ILM in 1983 , after the completion of " Return of the Jedi " , to found his own company , initially called Boss Film Corporation , which , much like ILM , specialized in the production of VFX , the building and filming of studio model s in particular . The company ' s first contributions were for productions like " Ghostbusters " , " 2010 " ( both 1984 ) , " Fright Night " ( 1985 ) and " Poltergeist II : The Other Side " ( 1986 ) . In order to kick - start his company into higher gear , Edlund acquired Douglas Trumbull ' s VFX company , Entertainment Effects Group ( with whom he had already co - supplied the VFX for " Ghostbusters " , " 2010 " and " Fright Night " ) in 1984 , taking over its facility in Marina del Rey and incorporating it into his company to formally become Boss Film Studios ( or Boss Films for short ) in 1985 . For the next decade - and - a - half , Boss Films became a prolific VFX company that has provided the effects for many motion pictures , quite a few of them blockbusters , such as " Die Hard " ( 1988 ) , " Ghost " ( 1990 ) , " Batman Returns " ( 1992 ) , and " Starship Troopers " ( 1997 ) , to name but a few . As visual effects supervisor , Edlund himself was intimately involved with most of his company ' s 35 + productions . During this era Boss Films became a competitor of note to Edlund ' s former employer ILM . While the company was never contracted to work for the " Star Trek " franchise , many production staffers , especially model makers , who had worked previously on " Star Trek " ( like Bruce MacRae ) , or would later on work for the franchise ( like John Eaves ) , have at one time or another worked for Boss Films . Most of Gregory Jein , Inc . ' s staff , for example have done so , including Greg Jein himself , most notably for the 1990 feature " The Hunt for Red October " . One of Boss Film ' s earliest employees was later " Star Trek " visual effects supervisor Ronald B . Moore , who had already joined the company one month after its inception . Nevertheless , in 1996 , input of the company was required for one isolated incident . During production of the episode , Doug Drexler discovered that the Deep Space Station K - 7 model made a slow rotating motion in " The Original Series " episode . The eleventh hour discovery necessitated the hiring of Boss Film ' s Larry DeUnger to replicate the rotating motion . ( " " , pp . 44 - 45 ) Despite having provided the VFX for many successful movies , Edlund announced on 26 August , 1997 , the closure of his company , having stated , " " We ' re averaging about $ 20 million [ in revenue ] a year , and it ' s not enough to pay the lease , pay the staff and still make a profit . " " , having added later , " " I had to make $ 300 , 000 / week to keep the company going , which meant big projects footstep after footstep . Whenever I missed a step my reserves would be eaten up quickly . It was a precarious business , but creatively exciting . I kept it going for 15 years and In 1997 I closed the company gracefully . " " While the competitive environment undoubtedly played its role , it should also be noted that Boss Films adhered to the traditional way of producing VFX , and did not made the transition to newer techniques , most notably computer generated imagery , the way ILM did . Edlund had wanted to , but as he has stated , " " It was difficult monetarily to get into the CGI . The sad part was that this photochemical system that I had boot strapped and was worth $ 10 - $ 12 million , suddenly dropped to 1 / 10 of its value , while I had to again invest millions in workstations and software . In those days each workstation had to have a 9 gig stack , which cost $ 30 , 000 at that time . Now every little hobby camera has 9 gig . You basically had to amortize everything over a 10 month period . You couldn ' t keep up with it and by 1997 I got out . " " Post - Boss Film Studios years . Upon closure of Boss Films , Richard Edlund , continued working for awhile on personal title as a VFX supervisor on projects such as " Bedazzled " ( 2000 ) , " The Stepford Wives " ( 2004 ) , " Anamorph " and " Charlie Wilson ' s War " ( both 2007 ) , as well as on the mini - television series " Angels in America " ( 2003 ) . Not in the least discouraged by his experience with Boss Films , he co - founded with Helena Packer - Burnson ( with whom he had worked on the latter four productions ) in 2011 his second company " duMonde Visual Effects " operating out of New Orleans , Louisiana ( located there for the advantageous taxation climate ) , having produced the VFX for " 21 Jump Street " and " Bullet to the Head " ( both 2012 ) since then . A respected cinematographer , Edlund has served as Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ( Visual Effects Branch ) for sixteen years as well as having served on the boards of the American Society of Cinematographers ( ASC ) , and the Visual Effects Society ( VES ) . Throughout his long career Edlund not only produced VFX , but also made contribution to the development of the technological equipment with which to produce these , and two of his Academy Awards were " Scientific and Engineering " awards .