David Takemura

David A. Takemura is a visual effects (VFX) artist, coordinator and supervisor who worked on , , , , and . He was also the visual effects supervisor for . His work on Star Trek earned Takemura two Emmy Award wins (both of which were in 1992), along with an additional three nominations, complemented by a Visual Effects Society Award in 2005.
A graduate of the University of Southern California, with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration (Marketing/Advertising), David Takemura's career took on an entirely different path, when he "heard that they were in pre-production for the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot episode. After interviewing with Robert H. Justman, I became one of the two production assistants [remark: Dana White being the other one] that started with the show that first season. Most of our responsibilities revolved around the office: answering phones, copying scripts, getting lunches, etc." His position on the new show was Takemura's first job after graduation. When the first season went into full swing, Peter Lauritson promoted him to post-production assistant/visual effects associate and assigned him to the two teams of Gary Hutzel/Robert Legato and Dan Curry/Ronald B. Moore, where he was able to learn the tricks of the trade. "David worked with both teams in various capacities and was instrumental in making it all happen", an appreciative Curry stated. (Cinefantastique, Vol 23, #5, p. 62) 
Takemura's opportunity for advancement came when Deep Space Nine went into production in 1993. The visual effects team of Hutzel and Legato were assigned to the new production, and, in order to fill the gap left behind by their departure for the remaining two seasons of The Next Generation, David Stipes, with whom Takemura was paired, was hired as visual effects supervisor and Takemura was promoted to visual effects coordinator. Upon the conclusion of the sixth season of The Next Generation, Takemura transferred to Deep Space Nine to start working on that series' second season, where he was paired up with Glenn Neufeld in the same position. During the fourth season of that series, Takemura was given the opportunity to flex his muscles as visual effects supervisor on two early episodes, and , a position he was permanently promoted into at the end of that season, and which he held for the remainder of his tenure at the franchise.
David Takemura was one of the few senior visual effects staffers of the television franchise who was also given a chance to serve as such on one of the . In Takemura's case it was , after Ron B. Moore declined the offer, where he served as the visual effects supervisor responsible for the scenes of the Borg torpedo attack on the town, the corridor phaser fight with the Borg, Geordi-Vision and Geordi's bionic eyes, the 1940s holodeck, and the landing of the at the end of the movie. 
Takemura, like Ron B. Moore, was one of the very few Star Trek staffers in any function (including, amongst others, Rick Berman, Peter Lauritson and Michael Okuda), to have officially served for the full eighteen years of the "Berman era" of the television franchise; but also having worked on all its series at one time or another, unlike Moore who missed out on Deep Space Nine.
His name appeared in an okudagram reference in the second season episode , where he was listed as a noted comedian. He later had an explosive, Takemurium lite, named after him in an okudagram in the fourth season episode , as well as a noted doctor, a Starfleet officer, and D. Takemura whose names can be seen in various episodes. In he and John Knoll were interviewed by Larry Nemecek for the article "Light & Magic" in the Star Trek: First Contact - Official Movie Souvenir Magazine.
After an absence of twelve years, Takemura rejoined the Star Trek television franchise in 2017 in a senior VFX position, that of (Senior) Visual Effects Coordinator for fifteen episodes of the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, in the process becoming one of the few most senior veteran television production staffers to do so. In doing so, and together with Star Trek newcomers Jason Michael Zimmerman and Ante Dekovic, Takemura filled the position left vacant by former Star Trek colleague Mitch Suskin who left the series in the pre-production stage in February 2017. Takemura himself however, did not return for the second season.
== Career outside Star Trek ==
While the Star Trek live-action franchise was still in production, Takemura also worked during its summer hiatus as visual effects supervisor on Jonathan Frakes' Star Patrol! (2000, with Lee Stringer), (2001), (2002-03), (2003), and the short film Air (2004). After the Star Trek live-action franchise was suspended indefinitely, he worked on the drama English as a Second Language (2005, with Paul Hill and John Hirota), the pilot episode of Secrets of a Small Town (2006, with John F. Gross), and (2006). He also worked on (2000) and (2000).
In 2007 Takemura joined the visual effects team of Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica as a visual effects coordinator. His work includes the television movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007), the mini series Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy (2008-2009), the television series Battlestar Galactica (2008-2009), the video production The Plan (2009), and the spin-off series Caprica (2009-2010) and Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome (2011). In 2008 Takemura won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series for the Battlestar Galactica episode "He That Believe in Me", shared with Gary Hutzel, Doug Drexler, Kyle Toucher, Pierre Drolet, Derek Ledbetter, and Sean Jackson. In 2013 he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Blood and Chrome, a nomination he again shared with Drexler, Hutzel, Toucher. Ledbetter, as well as with Dave Morton.
Takemura worked as director, writer and producer on the 2002 film World Inside Me with J.R. Quinonez and Maya Fujimoto and on the 2006 short drama Good Bad Karma with Jef Ayres.
Other projects as visual effects producer include (2007) and (2007-08) and as visual effects coordinator the pilot episode of (2008), (2009), and (2011). In 2012 Takemura again rejoined former Star Trek colleagues Drexler and Hutzel to work as visual effects coordinator on , helping the team to win another, 2013 Emmy Award nomination, though he himself was not among the nominees.
After Takemura had left the Star Trek franchise for the second time in 2018, he continued working as a VFX producer on and Evil.
== Star Trek credits ==
(This list is currently incomplete.)
* 
** – Visual Effects Artist (uncredited) (Season 2)
** – Visual Effects Associate (Season 3)
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** – Visual Effects Associate
** Season 4 – Visual Effects Associate (26 episodes)
** Season 5 – Visual Effects Associate (26 episodes)
** – Visual Effects Coordinator (Season 6)
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Visual Effects Coordinator
* 
** – Visual Effects Coordinator (Season 2)
* – Visual Effects Supervisor
* 
* – Visual Effects Coordinator
** – Senior Visual Effects Coordinator (Season 1)
* – Visual Effects Supervisor
== Star Trek awards ==
David Takemura received the following award wins and nominations:
=== Emmy Award ===
As Visual Effect Associate/Coordinator, Takemura received the following Emmy Awards and nominations in the category "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects":
* : nomination for the episode , shared with Gary Hutzel, Robert Legato, Michael Okuda, Don Greenberg, Erik Nash, Steve Price, Syd Dutton, Robert Stromberg, Bill Taylor, and Don Lee
* : nomination for the episode , shared with Robert Legato, Gary Hutzel, Patrick Clancey, Steve Price, Michael Okuda, Erik Nash, Syd Dutton, Bill Taylor, and Don Lee
* : winner for the episode , shared with Dan Curry, Ronald B. Moore, Erik Nash, Don Lee, Peter Sternlicht, Adam Howard, Syd Dutton, and Robert Stromberg
* : winner for the episode , shared with Robert Legato, Gary Hutzel, Patrick Clancey, Adrian Hurley, Adam Howard, Don Lee, and Dennis Hoerter
* : nomination for the episode , shared with Glenn Neufeld, Erik Nash, Joshua Cushner, Les Bernstien, Adam Howard, Patrick Clancey, and Don Lee
=== Visual Effects Society Award ===
* VES Award win in the category "Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series" for the episode , shared with Ronald B. Moore, Dan Curry, and Fred Pienkos
== External links ==
* 
es:David Takemura
Category:Production associates
Category:Special and Visual effects staff
Category:Emmy Award winners
Category:Emmy Award nominees
Category:VES Award winners