Russell Earl Russell William Earl is a co - visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic . He oversaw effects production on ' s on ILM ' s end , while lead supervisor Roger Guyett managed the effects at Paramount Pictures . Earl has worked under Guyett on most of his film projects for ILM . Both of them received an Academy Award nomination for the visual effects work on " Star Trek " , which they shared with Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton . In Earl , Guyett , Kavanagh , and Dalton received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Special Effects for their work on " Star Trek " . Earl was not a fan of " Star Trek " while growing up , but thought the script for the 2009 film was " great " and that seeing J . J . Abrams take on the characters made him " a bit of a fan . " Earl oversaw Asset Development and Look Development on the film . Early career . Before joining ILM in 1994 , Earl did traditional miniature modeling for at Berkshire Ridefilm in Massachusetts , working with ' s special photographic effects director , Douglas Trumbull . Like the " Back to the Future " films on which it is based , the ride also starred Christopher Lloyd ( Kruge in ) . Earl ' s earliest film work was as a digital artist on two hits released in June of 1992 : Paramount Pictures ' " Patriot Games " and Warner Bros . ' " Batman Returns " . He again worked with Doug Trumbull as a digital compositor and model maker for the Luxor Hotel ride " In Search of the Obelisk " in Las Vegas , Nevada , which Trumbull produced and directed . ILM career . Earl joined ILM as a digital effects artist and technical director ; his first project with the company was the acclaimed , Academy Award - winning drama " Forrest Gump " . Some of his early credits included " Dragonheart " ( featuring Dina Meyer , Brian Thompson , and the voice of Sean Connery ) , " Mars Attacks ! " ( featuring Paul Winfield ) , " Deep Rising " ( starring Famke Janssen ) , " Deep Impact " ( featuring James Cromwell , Denise Crosby , Mark Moses , Tucker Smallwood , Kurtwood Smith , and Concetta Tomei ) , and the 1999 blockbuster " Star Wars : Episode I – The Phantom Menace " . Some of Earl ' s more recent credits include serving as technical director on the 2001 Michael Bay film " Pearl Harbor " ( featuring Pat Healy , Glenn Morshower , Randy Oglesby , Leland Orser , John Pyper - Ferguson , Steve Rankin , James Saito , Raphael Sbarge , Cary - Hiroyuki Tagawa , and Michael Shamus Wiles ) , as a digital artist on " Harry Potter and the Sorcerer ' s Stone " , as a sequence supervisor on " Men in Black II " ( featuring Jack Kehler , Michael Rivkin , and Michael Bailey Smith ) and " Pirates of the Caribbean : The Curse of the Black Pearl " ( featuring Lee Arenberg , Michael Berry , Jr . , Vanessa Branch , Greg Ellis , Zoe Saldana , and Guy Siner ) , and as a computer graphics supervisor on " Star Wars : Episode III – Revenge of the Sith " . " Star Trek " is the second film Earl has worked on that was directed by J . J . Abrams . The first was 2006 ' s " Mission : Impossible III " , which featured a cast that included Simon Pegg , Jeff Chase , Greg Grunberg , Tracy Middendorf , Ellen Bry , Bruce French , Tony Guma , and the aforementioned Michael Berry , Jr . Earl ' s work on this film garnered Earl a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction , Fantasy & Horror Films ( shared with Roger Guyett ) and a nomination from the Visual Effects Society Awards ( shared with Richard Bluff ) . " Star Trek " was also Earl ' s third film project written or co - written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci , following " M : i : III " and the 2007 blockbuster " Transformers " . Earl was nominated for Academy Award for his work on " Transformers " , which he shared with three of his visual effects crewmates , including Scott Farrar . Earl and Farrar also won a Visual Effects Society Award and a Saturn Award for " Transformers " ( the latter award shared with Shari Hanson ) .