Trivia and observations:
the close-up flyby of the logo on the ships (Valley Forge, etc.)
seem to be strongly reminiscent of, or more to the point seem to have influenced, Glen Larson's close-up flybys of the various battlestar nameplates in "Battlestar Galactica". They are both Universal Studios productions after all. Was Larson influenced by Silent Running, or did the two studios use the same model houses and fx houses, and they just churned out similar looking stuff?
The two strike me as similar:
They seem to have been a very strong influence on Glen Larson's camera work on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica close-up flybys shots. They were both Universal pictures after all; probably used the same equipment, same technique -- just took an existing rig, lighting, etc. and bolted in different models. But what I'm wondering is, did they *copy* the idea, or was it rigging/a mechanical flyby that they just utilized ... something in me says it's more of the latter, that they took an existing mold and just utilized it, because it was convenient (to be creative would have cost
too much). This was done more out of necessity -- it was cheaper to utilize this existing thing. I mean, the lighting / quality of the film is exactly the same
...
Next, the 3 tv screens for each of the drones -- looked strongly like they may have influenced James Cameron and his display screens for all the marines in Aliens. It's possible, and even likely, since Silent Running came before all these. "Drone 1 ... Drone 2 ... Drone 3 ..." Just looks and seems too similar. Cameron probably had Silent Running as an influence. George Lucas did, after all.
Q: How did they make the robots walk in Silent Running?
"Trumbull ingeniously cast amputees to walk on their hands inside vacuformed robot costumes, making the drones (which Lowell nicknames Huey, Dewey and Louie) completely convincing and totally nonhuman-appearing automatons. In fact, they impressed George Lucas so much he based the look of R2-D2 on them when he made STAR WARS (and for my money the SILENT RUNNING drones are still cooler robots than Artoo)."
- from http://www.mania.com/silent-running_article_34821.html
