Westheimer Company

The Westheimer Company was an optical visual effects (VFX) house, operating from 204 S. Bedford Dr. in Beverly Hills, California. It was founded by its namesake Joseph Westheimer in 1955, the company was incorporated four years later on , and was later contracted to provide what was at the time called, special effects, or opticals, for all three seasons of . As this production was the most effects laden television show of its day, Westheimer was the first of the extra effects companies that was brought in early in the first season, to alleviate the workload on its primary effects vendor, Howard Anderson Company. The Westheimer Company started work on the third episode, , after Howard Anderson Company became backlogged on the effects heavy episode . The Westheimer Company was brought in on the strength of their work they had previously done on the science fiction series The Twilight Zone and would continue working on the Original series for the remainder of its run. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st. ed., p. 143)
The Westheimer Company was nominated twice for an Emmy Award for Special Classification of Individual Achievements for its work on in and . Twenty years later Westheimer was reacquainted with the franchise as it provided additional VFX for , as well as titles and opticals for .
Among the employees at The Westheimer Company who were involved with Star Trek was Joseph M. Wilcots, later becoming an Emmy Award-nominated cinematographer, and Richard Edlund, who later became a multiple Oscar-winner. A later employee was the Star Trek award winning VFX supervisor Ronald B. Moore, who got his break in the motion picture industry at Westheimer's.
None of Westheimer's production staff, including Westheimer himself for that matter, were ever individually credited for their contributions to the Original Series, instead being officially credited collectively under the company name. 
Outside the Star Trek franchise, the company provided special effects for numerous television series, including The Twilight Zone and The Big Valley, prior to Star Trek. Indicative of the contemporary, 1950s, early 1960s, television status of VFX was, that the company was not officially credited for these productions, notwithstanding the fact that they were, especially in the former case, an important element in the productions. Later, after Star Trek the company also started to work on major films, such as Star Wars V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Founding owner Westheimer operated his company for thirty years. The company's last recorded credit is "End Titles, Optical Effects" for Love Hurts (1990), but the company's status became afterwards reported as "dissolved", most likely due to the long illness and ultimate death in 1998 of its founder, Joseph Westheimer. 
== Staff ==
Staffers involved at the time of the production of Star Trek were among others,
* Richard Edlund – Effects and Optical Compositor
* Barry Hyman
* Hubert Nichols –Assistant Effects Cameraman 
* Joseph Westheimer – CEO, Director Effects and Optical Compositing 
* Joseph M. Wilcots
== Credits ==
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== Emmy Award nominations ==
The Westheimer Company, received the following Emmy Award nominations in the category "Special Classification of Individual Achievements: Special Photographic Effects" for their work on Star Trek:
* Emmy Award nomination for Star Trek: The Original Series, sole nominee
* Emmy Award nomination for Star Trek: The Original Series, shared with Howard A. Anderson Company, Vanderveer Photo Effects, and Cinema Research
== Further reading ==
*"Out-of-this-world Special Effects for 'Star Trek'", Rae Moore, American Cinematographer, October 1967, pp. 715-717
*"Where No Show Had Gone Before", Jan Alan Henderson, American Cinematographer, January 1992, pp. 34-40
*"Special Visual Effects", Daniel Fiebiger, Cinefantastique, Vol 27 #11, 1996, pp. 64-75
==External link==
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Category:Visual effects companies
Category:Emmy Award nominees