Sci-fi fans won’t know his name, but they’re undoubtedly conversant in his work.
Neville Page is a reputation synonymous with inspired creature design and original concepts for movies like “Avatar,” “Cloverfield,” “Super 8,” “Prometheus,” and in “Star Trek’s” cosmos collaborating with directors J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin on “Star Trek” (2009), “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013), and “Star Trek Beyond” (2016), then onto TV gigs for “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard.”
Having applied his talents for conceiving Hollywood monsters and aliens for greater than twenty years, and being seen as a judge on the SYFY TV series “Face Off,” Page is an amiable and accessible personality who’s at all times amped to encourage a neophyte or regale fans with revealing anecdotes from working with the film industry’s most notable talents like Abrams, Ridley Scott and James Cameron.
“Star Trek: The Art of Neville Page” by writer Joe Nazzaro is a brand new hardcover retrospective showcasing Page’s “Trek”-centric work that was just released from Titan Books. This deluxe 192-page volume examines the artist’s exacting process, fortified with detailed illustrations plus an exclusive foreword and afterword by award-winning filmmakers, Alex Kurtzman and Michael Westmore.
Related: Star Trek streaming guide: Where to observe the Star Trek movies and TV shows online
Space.com spoke to Page regarding his distinctive contributions to “Star Trek,” his earliest associations with creator Gene Roddenberry’s brainchild, and the way the franchise helped shape his life and profession as this latest book saluting his imaginative creations in the ultimate frontier arrives.
“It’s somewhat nostalgic,” Page tells Space.com. “I used to be born in 1965 and having moved from England to Chicago after I was five years old, I used to be watching quite a lot of ‘Star Trek.’ I’ll always remember the episode, ‘Devil within the Dark,’ with this creature [The Horta] that looked like a rock and it might slowly crawl on top of individuals and flatten them and leave a giant red potato-chip shape. That one really messed me up and I had recurring nightmares of that creature chasing.
“So there’s nostalgia for me and it’s really fun to be a component of my childhood and contributing to contemporary ‘Star Trek’ fans in addition to latest fans, and hopefully not traumatizing them. ‘Star Wars’ got here out in ’77 as everyone knows and I wanted every part in my life to be ‘Star Wars.'”
But fate would eventually step in to steer the rising superstar designer away from that galaxy far, distant and right into a daring latest job when he was given the chance to work on 2009’s “Star Trek” reboot via director J.J. Abrams.
“It form of fell into my lap,” Page recalls. “We might finished ‘Cloverfield’ and the subsequent production for him was ‘Star Trek’ and he asked if I desired to be a component of it. Experiences I had on ‘Cloverfield’ were so wonderful and the chance to proceed working with J.J. was very exciting to me.
“I’d finished ‘Avatar’ with James Cameron but that was all under a roof drawing pictures on the Howard Hughes stage where the primary motion-capture stages were arrange. It doesn’t feel like a movie set since it’s people in mo-cap suits and gray boxes and wire frame shapes of things. Being on J.J.’s ‘Star Trek’ where it was massive sets was such a thrill. I made it a degree of occurring every set wherever he was and be available for him. The immersion of that production modified my interest in film a fantastic deal. I began off designing one thing for J.J., then it rolled into doing background aliens and Romulans and other creatures and characters.
“Then there was the subsequent ‘Star Trek’ feature after which one after that, after which ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and dealing with Alex Kurtzman. ‘Star Trek’ became an enormous a part of my life and it was essential that I actually understand the world of the franchise that I’m in. As my responsibilities grew, so did my investment of time to find out about production, the fans, and the canon. The fans are vocal and loud in way, and also you’re learning about their demands.”
Legendary artist H.R. Giger and Academy Award-winning makeup genius Rick Baker were two powerful influences on Page’s impressive profession to this point, and there appears to be an organic integration of their spirit in every part he focuses his imagination on.
“Rick Baker was an inspiration before I even knew I desired to do what I’m doing,” says Page. “I stumbled upon a Fangoria book at a Chicago garage sale. In it was a picture of Rick Baker with one in every of his sculptures and I believe it was Mr. Hyde. After I saw that picture of the clay sculpture it had a profound impact on me in that I had no idea a human being could do something like that.
“My influences to be a makeup artist was very early, but as a child from Chicago, where does one go to do it? Years later working on aliens and having met Rick, the connection could be very different, but I’m still a fanboy who remember this incredible stuff he was doing. His influence through me on ‘Star Trek’ is that I’ve watched and paid attention to his work for a few years. Anytime you observe one other artist doing their craft, in case you love them that much, it is going to seep in.”
That brings us to Page inadvertently channeling the ghost of H.R. Giger on “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 1 where the production required a selected Klingon armored torchbearer spacesuit, even when it was only seen on screen for lower than a minute.
“I did it with no intention of getting Giger’s work influence the design,” he recalls. “I’m wondering if it’s just my admiration of his work on ‘Alien’ and the entire biomechanics thing. It was interesting to me when people would see the design and say ‘That is very Giger.’ However the influence was actually an ammonite fossil. It had a bronze material finish and it’s an organic repeating pattern. If you happen to take a look at Giger’s work, that is something he’s done a ton of. The Klingon thing began with a Klingon skull. I had ridges that worked their way down the back of the pinnacle and into the spine.
“Having worked on ‘Prometheus’ where my job was to play in Giger’s sandbox, I’m pretty conversant in designing a Giger aesthetic versus what I used to be doing that had Giger ‘elements’ in it. I used to be really happy with that Klingon torchbearer spacesuit. It became very personal because there was no time to police what I used to be doing and it meant that I used to be allowed to use ‘Star Trek’ research and provides it a twist, which is what your design job is. Every inch of that suit was thought out, not only when it comes to function, however the iconography and metaphor and the narrative behind it.”
“Star Trek: The Art of Neville Page” is accessible now at bookstores and online outlets.