The Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) has launched the latest episode of their “Walkthrough” YouTube series, highlighting Canadian contributions to the Star Trek franchise.
“Walkthrough of Star Trek” offers a behind-the-scenes look of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season, exploring lighting, camera techniques, and visual storytelling used to bring the series to life.
CSC says many viewers may not realize that nearly every Star Trek series has been shot by Canadian cinematographers, with productions primarily based in Toronto. The organization says from Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds to the upcoming Starfleet Academy, members of CSC have played a critical role in shaping the visual identity of the franchise.
They include Philip Lanyon csc, whose franchise credits include 11 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, six episodes of Star Trek: Picard, Season 1 of Star Trek: Star Fleet Academy, and four episodes of Star Trek: Ivory Tower, slated to air next year.
“It’s a huge honour to be able to share all the hard work that goes into creating an episode of Star Trek, a show that has such a rich history and so much meaning to many people,” said Lanyon. “To be able to pull back the curtain for just a peek behind the scenes, I hope is inspiring to other cinematographers and anyone who is interested in movies and television. Something I find endlessly fascinating is this magic trick that is filmmaking, you have all of these very skilled technicians coming together with genius technology, built to solve problems and refined over decades, the result of which is the seamless illusion of another time and world.”
“A show like Star Trek: Discovery is a great example of modern cinematography techniques combined with an aesthetic that our audiences understand, born and developed from a lineage of Star Trek shows over the past 60 years,” Lanyon continued. “Star Trek works at the extremes, from bright highlights, stars, suns, explosions, and thousands of lights, to the extreme darkness of space. You have dynamic moving cameras, and all the colours in the universe in infinite combinations, so you are always pushing the look and what the camera can capture while being highly sensitive to the scenes, story, scripts and the performances. This combination of seamlessly creating technical visuals that serve a deeply human story is ultimately what cinematography is all about.”
Other Canadian cinematographers who’ve contributed to multiple Star Trek series include Maya Bankovic csc, Chris Mably csc, Glen Keenan csc, Colin Hoult csc, and Tico Poulakakis csc.
CSC says their work has reinforced Canada’s position as a leader in high-end sci-fi production, with the Walkthrough series serving as both a technical deep dive and a testament to their impact on the industry.
Other productions featured in CSC’s Walkthrough series include crime drama anthology series, Accused, and DC Universe superhero series, Titans.
