20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
14. Industrial Light & Magic's Help Was Sorely Missed During Production
There were several contributing factors to Industrial Light & Magic not returning for Star Trek V's effects. First, their A-team, as described by Shatner, was busy at work on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This would be the second time that production hurt Star Trek V. The B-team, in Shatner's words, were then more concerned with the effects on Ghostbusters II. This, he felt, meant that anything they could give to Star Trek wouldn't be their best.
Executive Producer Ralph Winter would later concede that there were other factors, including, what he felt, was poor treatment on the part of ILM. So, an open call was put out to the effects houses in Hollywood, though it was a small company based in Hoboken, New Jersey, who took up the call. Associates and Ferren, named for its owner, Bran Ferren, had been nominated for an Oscar the previous year for their work on Little Shop Of Horrors.
Their low-fi approach to effects delighted Shatner, who hired them on the spot after seeing a whirlpool effect that would become the Great Barrier. It quickly became apparent that the company was in over its head. They had a core of forty staffers, and Ferren was averse to blue-screen technology. Greg Jein Inc. and Peter Wallach Enterprises were then subcontracted for all blue-screen work on the movie. This, combined with an unexpected problem on-set, led to the poor results.