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Ronald B. Moore

Revision as of 18:17, 15 November 2013 by Sennim (talk | contribs) (→‎Career outside Star Trek: grm.)
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For characters named for Ronald B. Moore, please see Ronald B. Moore (disambiguation). For the Star Trek writer and producer, please see Ronald D. Moore.

Ronald "Ron" B. Moore is a visual effects (VFX) coordinator and supervisor who worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the movie Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. In a smaller capacity, Moore has made, as a script supervisor, uncredited contributions to other Star Trek movies as well, breaking down scripts for the VFX requirements and budgeting them. They included Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, on which he and long-time friend Dan Curry also shortly worked as supervisors on one single VFX scene, and Star Trek: First Contact, his last Star Trek movie involvement. (Flying Starships, pp. 77, 90) He also worked as VFX supervisor on the 1996 video games Star Trek: Klingon and Star Trek: Borg. His work on Star Trek, spanning eighteen years, earned him the five Emmy Awards and eight nominations, supplemented by a Visual Effects Society Award (VES) as well as an additional nomination.

As VFX coordinator, Ronald Moore was brought in as the third VFX staffer, after Gary Hutzel and Robert Legato, in 1987 to work on the production of the new Star Trek: The Next Generation television show. After the production of the pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", it was soon realized that the new show was the most VFX laden television production of its day, much like its illustrious predecessor, Star Trek: The Original Series (and of which Moore was a big fan), was in its. A fourth senior VFX staffer was deemed necessary to alleviate work pressure, and Dan Curry was brought in, partly on recommendation by his friend Moore. In order to streamline and increase production efficiency, the four were paired in two teams to work on alternating episodes, Moore being paired with his friend. The 16th first season episode, "Too Short a Season", was the first episode Moore and Curry worked upon as a team. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 3rd ed., p. 31) The format worked so well, that it has remained in use for the entire subsequent run of the Star Trek television franchise, though the boundaries between the two teams became a lot more fluid during the later seasons of Deep Space Nine, Voyager as well as Enterprise.

In his autobiography, Ronald Moore has confessed that he found working on the new Star Trek show a frustrating experience at first, early in the first season. Partly this was due to his own visions as a fan of The Original Series that did not, in his view, correspond with those of the producers of the new show. Repeatedly venting his frustration, Moore recalled, "Rob [Legato] called me aside one day and told me that he had never worked with anyone who had quit as many times as I had." (Flying Starships, p. 104) Properly chastised by the wake-up call, Moore managed to change his mind-set, professionally distanced himself from his fan-views and has thoroughly enjoyed his tenure on the franchise ever since.

After having already been given the opportunity to flex his muscles as VFX supervisor on the earlier The Next Generation episodes "Hollow Pursuits", "Identity Crisis", and "The First Duty", Ron Moore was permanently promoted into that position at the start of the sixth season as the third VFX staffer to hold the title, after Robert Legato and Gary Hutzel (who became the fourth VFX supervisor on that occasion) moved over to work on the new Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television show, and after Dan Curry was promoted to the newly conceived senior position of VFX producer.

Near the end of season seven Ron Moore became one of the relatively few senior VFX staffers to serve on a Star Trek motion picture feature as well, while the television franchise was in production, when he was offered a position as VFX supervisor on Generations by Producer Peter Lauritson. Moore was fully aware of the fact, that if he accepted he might end up without employment within the franchise when the movie project ended, but jumped at the chance nevertheless. Upon conclusion of the movie project, Moore indeed very nearly found himself without gainful employment within the franchise. Yet he was asked to join the Voyager production team as VFX supervisor in order to fill the gap Robert Legato had left, when the latter had shortly before decided to leave the franchise. Pairing up with Michael Backauskas, and thereby forming Voyager's second alternating VFX team, the sixth season one episode, "The Cloud", was Moore's first contribution to the new series. Moore was again asked by Lauritson to work as VFX supervisor on the subsequent feature, First Contact, but this time, after some preliminary budgeting work, opted to stay on with Voyager. David Takemura subsequently took the position on the movie production in his stead.

Moore appeared in the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages..." as Commander Ronald Moore on a computer screen. He is a member of the "Enterprise Blues Band" that writes and performs songs about Star Trek, and which has performed on numerous Star Trek conventions. The other members are Vaughn Armstrong, Richard Herd, Steve Rankin, William Jones and Casey Biggs. Moore plays the electric guitar. There are many in-universe references about Moore throughout the series including a noted comedian in the episode "The Outrageous Okona", R.B. Moore, and Captain Moore.

Moore provided his knowledge as digital artist and VFX consultant on several episodes of the fan-made internet series Star Trek: New Voyages (2006-2011), where he worked with Trek alumni Marc Scott Zicree, Michael Reaves, James Cawley, Jeffery Quinn, Doug Drexler, Kevin Haney, Koji Kuramura, Philip Kim, George Takei, Grace Lee Whitney, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, John Carrigan, Iain McCaig, Michael Okuda, James Van Over, Daren Dochterman, Denise Crosby, Leslie Hoffman, and Tom Morga.

Upon the request of GE Fabbri's editors Ben Robinson and Tim Leng, Ron Moore kept a diary during the entire production of Voyager's sixth season episode, "Fury", which was published in its entirety as a two-part article in Star Trek: The Magazine. In December 2012, Moore published his autobiography, Flying Starships (and in which his "Fury" diary was reprinted), which was entirely centered around the work he had performed on Star Trek, during his many years of involvement with the franchise.

Though their duties and work were on par with that of colleagues Rob Legato and Dan Curry, neither Ron Moore nor Gary Hutzel received official credits for their efforts on the first two seasons of The Next Generation. This was partly due to Hollywood union regulations, partly due to studio policies, and partly due to the lack of space and time on the credit roll at the end of a show. Nevertheless the omission was rectified from season three onward, as a grateful Moore has later elaborated upon, "But in TV you only have so much time at the end of the show. Getting your name there is not easy. At the beginning of TNG only Rob Legato had a visual effects credit. Rob went to bat for Gary and I. He eventually got us credits in the shows. It was nice of him to do it. There are so many people who worked on the show that didn't get credit. People whose contributions were essential to the shows received no on-screen credit. It is not always fair. I believe Rob even offered up to give credit on an episode and give it to someone else but the idea was rejected." (Flying Starships, p. 124)

Due to the close similarity in names, Ron Moore was often confused with writer Ronald D. Moore, who started working for the franchise in 1989, and the confusion was not restricted to outsiders only, as Ron B. Moore gleefully recalled, "When Ron D. started working on TNG I even got his first paycheck. I did give it back to him but pointed out that he should be careful, as I know I would have no problem cashing his checks. I never got another, but am still hoping I do." (Flying Starships, p. 78) The confusion even persisted as late as 1993, when Moore was credited as "Ronald D. Moore" for his work on "Gambit, Part II".

Career outside Star Trek

Born and raised in southern California, Ron Moore has from an early age onward developed a keen interest in photography, which he has pursued vigorously during his high school years as well as during his two year stint in the US navy as a photographer's mate on the submarine tender he served on. After his stint in the Navy he enrolled, against the wishes of his parents, in the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California (which was the Alma Mater of his later colleague Gary Hutzel as well, as it was of Dana White) and graduated with a major in Motion Picture Production. Having graduated in San Diego, Moore remained there and enrolled in the National Radio Institute, learning the technical aspects of building electronic equipment such as televisions and radios. As technician he landed his first job at the electronics company Cohu, building televisions and cameras.

An avid reader of the professional journal American Cinematographer, Ron Moore soon realized however, that this path taken led him away from his dream of working in the motion picture industry, and he took the gamble of quitting his job and moving to Los Angeles to find gainful employment in the industry. Not being a member of any of the motion picture industry unions, Moore had a hard time finding such, but eventually managed to land a job in 1978 as a driver at the Westheimer Effects Company, the very same effects company that provided much of the VFX for The Original Series, a fact not lost on the excited "Original Series fan Moore. While his job only entailed delivering finished shots to customers, Moore ingratiated himself as much as possible in the company by learning as mush as possible about the effects business, whenever he was able to, which eventually paid off when Joseph Westheimer promoted him to optical lineup technician, which prompted Moore to definitively settle in Los Angeles, bringing over his wife Barbara from San Diego. During his years at Westheimer's, Moore made uncredited contributions to the television movie Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park (1978, his very first motion picture work), The Muppet Movie (1979) as well as the television series The Love Boat, Charlie's Angels and Project U.F.O..

Between 1981 and 1984, Ron Moore worked for a succession of effects companies and further honed his skills as a VFX technician. Companies he worked for during that period were Freeze Frame, Modern Film Effects (where he met and befriended Dan Curry) and Universal Opticals.

In February 1984, Ron Moore started working for Richard Edlund's company Boss Film Studios as one of that company's first employees when Edlund started his company as "Boss Film Corporation" only one month earlier. Moore would remain in Edlund's employment until he was hired in 1987 by CBS Television Studios to work on The Next Generation. While at Boss Films, he worked as optical lineup technician on the fantasy film Ghostbusters (1984, earning him his first official credit), the science fiction film 2010, and the horror comedy Fright Night (1985). As a visual effects editorial consultant Moore worked on the horror sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), the fantasy film The Boy Who Could Fly (1986), and the science fiction film Solarbabies (1986). Other credits include the fantasy adventure Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and the romance Moonstruck (1987).

During his years at Boss Films, Ron Moore served as a member on the voting board of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the organization responsible for the Emmy Awards. While there, he was one of the members who successfully lobbied for "visual effects" to be split of from the former non-descript "Art Direction" category into a category onto its own. Years later he served for four years in a similar function on the board of directors of the Visual Effects Society, the organization responsible for the VES award, of which Moore has been a recipient.

In 2006 he worked as VFX producer for EntityFX on the action remake Miami Vice, followed by the action comedy Rush Hour 3 (2007) and the television drama series Kings (2009) for which he received his third VES award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program in 2010, shared with Brian Vogt, Craig Weiss, and Niel Wray.

More recently Moore worked as free-lance VFX coordinator on the fantasy blockbusters The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012). The two films also feature Trek alumni Billy Burke, Michael Welch, and Jeff Imada.

Star Trek credits

(This list is currently incomplete.)

Star Trek interviews

Star Trek awards

Art Codron, Dan Curry, Ron Moore and Liz Castro winning their Emmys in 2002

Moore (2nd right) winning his 2002 Emmy Award with colleagues (l-r) Codron, Curry and Castro

Emmy Awards

Moore received the following Emmy Award wins and nominations in the category Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series:

Visual Effects Society Awards

Moore received the following VES Award win and nomination in the categories Best Visual Effects in a Television Series/Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series:

  • 2003 VES Award nomination for the episode "Shockwave", shared with Dan Curry and Elizabeth Castro.
  • 2005 VES Award win for the episode "Storm Front, Part II", shared with Dan Curry, David Takemura, and Fred Pienkos.

Bibliography

External links

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