Why the New ‘Starfleet Academy’ Series Had to Abandon Anamorphic Lenses to Prepare for Launch
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, the director of photography for Paramount+’s new series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, spoke during an IndieWire roundtable discussion about his distinct visual approach to launching an entirely fresh chapter in the 60-year-old franchise.
Reflecting on the challenge of honoring the spiritual essence of the Star Trek universe while carving out an independent identity for a new generation of cadets, Maddox-Upshaw revealed that he deliberately broke away from conventional sci-fi cinematography standards. He explained:
“In sci-fi environments, everyone naturally gravitates toward anamorphic lenses, hyper-crisp images, cold aesthetics, and long telephoto lenses like a 300mm. But I pushed back and said, these are young adults and teenagers who need to learn the core meaning of camaraderie and intimacy. Consequently, we needed lenses that would make the environment feel much more intimate, allowing the characters to easily share the frame together in joint compositions.”
To establish this visual contrast from the legendary eras of original franchise icons like Spock, he crafted a warmer color palette for the cadets’ training days at the academy. This dynamic palette gradually shifts toward colder, crisper tones as the cadets are deployed on deep-space missions across the galaxy, seamlessly combining various color tonalities to capture this new generation’s brave transition into the vast, dark depths of outer space. The series is currently streaming on Paramount+.
