CIS Hollywood was the visual effects (VFX) company responsible for the Special Video Compositing on all seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the first six seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, and the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise. They also produced special effects for Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis.
Founded in 1984 by Robert C. King and Joe Matza, as Composite Image Systems, CIS Hollywood pioneered the process known as pin-registered film-to-tape transfer, which allowed for multiple visual elements to be composited into a single image. They initially worked only on television programs and commercials but by the late 1980s, the company had begun doing effects work for feature films. Besides three of the Star Trek films, other film projects which the company has worked on include Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Coneheads, True Lies, Batman Forever, Waterworld, the Stuart Baird-directed Executive Decision, Eraser, Scream, Contact, Titanic, Deep Impact, Rush Hour, Cast Away, Charlie's Angels, the Planet of the Apes remake, X2 (X-Men 2), The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, The Bourne Supremacy, Van Helsing, Constantine, X-Men: The Last Stand, and the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, of which the 2022 third one, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides became the last recorded contribution of the company.
The company went out of business in 2011 as a direct result of the malaise (see CreativeCow article link below) that was affecting the Hollywood VFX industry in a severely adverse manner at the time. [1]
Employees[]
- Ernie Camacho – Digital Compositor
- David Kervinen – Visual Effects Illustrator
- Don Lee – Visual Effects Editor/Special Video Compositor
Star Trek credits[]
- TNG:
- Season 1 – Special Video Compositing (as Composite Image Systems)
- Season 2 – Special Video Compositing (as Composite Image Systems)
- Season 3 – Special Video Compositing (as Composite Image Systems)
- Season 4 – Special Video Compositing (as Composite Image Systems)
- Season 5 – Special Video Compositing (as CIS Hollywood)
- Season 6 – Special Video Compositing (as CIS Hollywood)
- Season 7 – Special Video Compositing (as CIS Hollywood; in "All Good Things..." Don Lee received credit instead of the company)
- ENT:
- Season 1 – Digital Optical Effects
- Star Trek films
- Star Trek Generations – Digital Video Effects (as CIS Hollywood)
- Star Trek: Insurrection – Additional 2D/3D Graphics (as CIS Hollywood)
- Star Trek Nemesis – Special Visual Effects (as CIS Hollywood)
External links[]
- CISHollywood.com(X) – defunct official site
- CIS Hollywood at the Internet Movie Database
- VFX Crossroads: Causes & Effects Of An Industry Crisis, Part 1(X) and Part 2(X) at CreativeCow.net(X)