The latest installment of Star Trek warps into theaters this weekend, compressing decades of canon into an action-oriented thrill ride. Regardless of whether or not you like what J.J. Abrams has done with the franchise, he has left an indelible lens-flared mark on it. Among Trekkies like myself, there is a game going around capitalizing on Abrams' flare for flare. Let's play Drink Into Darkness.
Lens flare typically occurs when you film an intense light source, and some of that light reflects and ricochets off the imperfections of the camera lens. It's easy to create when shooting something like the Sun, but you can also induce it artificially with extra lights and mirrors. Abrams admits
that he used extra flashlights and mirrors to create the numerous flares in 2009's Star Trek. In fact, he used this technique so many times that he created his own meme
. To play the ...
