Peter Lauritson is the Supervising Producer on
Enterprise. In this 2002 interview, we caught up with him to find out how what kind of new challenges
Enterprise presents.
Could you please describe your job? I'm the supervising producer in charge of all of the post-production on the show, which includes sound, music, visual effects, and editorial. I supervise all of those areas. I have a lot of good help, but I'm involved in all that.
When did you start working on Star Trek?
I was working as the head of the television post-production department here at Paramount. I had always liked Star Trek and when "Star Trek II," the film, was being developed at one point they were considering doing it through the television department so I got involved with some preliminary work on "Star Trek II." And then I was in the pipeline of the studio development, of course, so when I heard that they were going to do a new series of was very interested. And, it came at a time when there was a lot of new and interesting developments in the post-production area so I offered my services on Star Trek: The Next Generation and they took me up on it. That was 1986.
When did you start working on Enterprise and did it conflict with the ending of Star Trek: Voyager?
Yes, we were finishing Voyager when Enterprise was being developed so a lot of us were wearing two hats at that time.
What kind of challenges does a new show like Enterprise present?
We are always trying to move forward with new technology and so forth. Any new television series is birthing a new baby, we really try to — of course we have the experience of the other series behind us to guide us — but we're trying to create a whole new thing. The interesting part about this one is we're going backwards in time so it's kind of a retro approach. But what I find interesting about this series is that it's closer to our reality and I think everybody is responding to that all the way down the line. Everything's in its developmental stages and so are we. I think the effort is to try to do something that's prior to Kirk, but that doesn't mean it can't be very cool and very new to everyone. We've created the digital model of our new ship, Enterprise, and it's the most highly-detailed digital model we've ever done. And that goes for all the new devices that are going to become present — as well as a completely new soundscape. We have to create all new sounds for the ship and new environments and so forth and we're trying to encourage a little bit of experimentation with new elements in terms of music as well. We're creating something completely new and it affects all areas. As far as the visual effects, we are able now to do more interactive spatial environments and we're utilizing CGI characters much more. We've scanned every member of our cast so that we can do some stunts and put them in some environments that humans wouldn't be very comfortable in and so forth. There are new things like that that we're doing that challenge us.
Digital technology is amazing nowadays.
It really is! When we heard about the new series coming toward the end of Voyager, one of the benefits was that we were able to experiment a little bit with some shots in order to kind of prep ourselves for this new thing. I don't know if you're aware, but in one of the last episodes of Voyager ["Renaissance Man"], we create a CGI character of the Doctor and we created a CGI character of Torres that ran up the side of the wall and did a flip on the ceiling and came down. It worked out pretty good, so we were more comfortable with going into this new series knowing that we could do more of that kind of thing.
Were there ever any episodes, going back to Star Trek: The Next Generation, that you thought, "Oh boy, I could have used this back then —"?
Many! Many, many, many.
At what point do you become involved with the episode?
Right from the start. They give us the script — actually I'm on the "hot list," we call it — so I get the preliminary story outlines so we know what's coming down the road. And then I get a preliminary draft and a first draft. Right there, if I spot something that's perhaps beyond our capacity, or I see something that could benefit from something that the writers might not be aware of in terms of our capacity, I speak up and give some input. When we do have a first draft, my team and I put figures to it — we identify all of the visual effects shots in the script and we break it down and budget it. Then we have a meeting and discuss how to accomplish the effects and, quite frankly, some are more complex than others and it then becomes a decision as to whether we have the time in production to do it properly. Production time is very expensive and we have certain shows that need to get completed in seven days and we may put more energy and dollars into episodes that are going to be sweeps episodes. We have to balance our season out that way and some things get dropped because they're a little too complex at times.
What other departments would you say you work most closely with?
The art department, make-up department and the wardrobe department — almost all of them!
Is the pace of doing film vs. television much different?
Oh yes, very much so. The thing about television is that we do move at a much faster pace, but we're able to experiment a little bit more, too. Whereas in a feature, when you commit to do a particular kind of effect, you really have to get it perfect. You want it to be absolutely perfect for that film, so you invest more money and time in it. On a television show we move at a faster pace, but we have more opportunities to hone things. For example, where we committed to doing a couple shots in that Voyager episode where we used CGI characters to a much bigger degree than we ever had before. It turned out pretty good, but it wasn't perfect. It could have been better. In television, we are able to say "well you know what, that was pretty good. We'll get another shot at it; we'll be able to do it better in the next show." That's the nice thing about television. We do have to move at a faster pace and we don't have the same budget and so we still like to challenge ourselves. Some things are just too expensive for television to do in a particular way. We do things now and find a moderate approach where we might shoot some elements on film but we lean on the computer, and computer generated materials, to do things that on a feature would be done with large-scale miniatures and fifteen high-speed cameras. That's the difference.
Do you have a preference between TV and film?
They're different animals and I love them both. Seeing and hearing the work on a big theater screen is wonderful and I wish we could see more of our television work that way, but it's for television.
You directed a couple of TNG episodes?
Yes. And I actually got to direct a Voyager last season. I did that "Lineage" episode. That's a wonderful thing to be able to do as well.
Is that something you like to dip your hand in occasionally?
Yes, absolutely.
Are you looking forward to seeing Enterprise on the TV screen?
Absolutely! It's gearing up to be the best one we've ever done. Everything is clicking.
You said you liked Star Trek. Did you have a favorite Star Trek show out of all of them?
I have liked all of them. I guess I have a bit of an affinity to the Next Generation because it was such a new thing for all of us and it holds a little bit of a special place in my history so, I guess, if I had to choose, I would probably have to say that that one has been my favorite so far.
What about an episode. Any episodes stand out?
"Inner Light"! That was my first directorial effort and it turned out to be one of the favorite TNG episodes.
One of the ones people quote all the time as being one of the best.
Yeah. It was quite an experience.
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