I built one in my garage when I was in my early 20's.
I'm sure I have pictures somewhere. I'll look for them.
I think it cost me about $500

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

GREEN SCREEN is your answer. I saw a Star Trek spoof that blew me away a few years ago, and they did it very cheaply.

You should really take a look at this before you do your show. it will give you great ideas as to what you can accomplish on the cheap, and still look incredible.

http://www.youtube.com/energiaproductions#p/u/53/1GZ1vyJkcTM

They used to have a how too. but I couldnt find it. Maybe you can.

Myfilm"Shadow of Crime"
Trailer:
http://www.vimeo.com/4103913
Where to buy:Shadow of crime
https://www.createspace.com/288191

We discussed green screen v real sets awhile back, and the consensus was that the sets provided for a better working experience and hence gets better results.

CI, can you show me those pics you took way back when? I'm inspired. 🙂

Well, there's no debate about real sets providing better experience than green screen. The main problem here is obviously budget. The original poster was planing/hoping to rent empty space and use cheap props, which could most certainly look cheesy.

It is infinitely easier to perform inside a real set. It is much easier to block action and to frame shots when you see what the audiences will see. It requires a lot of very accurate imagination, both for actors, as well as for behind-the-camera talent, to provide good performance when so much stuff is missing. However, the primary benefit of green screen is that, with a little careful planning, you can achieve things that you wouldn't be able to, even with fifty times the budget. This is the ultimate difference, and it just may be the dealmaker/dealbreaker for the OP here.

But the point is how we can build a spaceship bridge. As I write this, I'm thinking of visiting the computer junkyard stores and the army surplus stores and getting all sorts of discarded equipment. I mean, if we set this during a war, the equipment has to be worn out.

That's exactly what we did.

My roommate who was the "production designer" even lined the
walls with huge pieces of styrofoam packing material he got from
a local motorcycle shop. Seem parts are shipped in the stuff and
they were glad to get rid of it.

I found the pictures, gotta scan them and then post 'em.

I've had some experience with spaceship interiors. I was fortunate to happen upon 10 truckloads of Video Game consoles. They had switches which lit up and made for an incredible control room, in TERRARIUM. The building of the spaceship is detailed in this documentary, A SPACESHIP IN THE BACKYARD:

http://www.vimeo.com/4108298?

(That doc is also available at my website, www.midnightsunent.com Look for the Special Features' DVD.?

I don't have a very good still of the 6 chairs and monitors, but you can see some of the buttons and controls in this Control Room shot:

Curved doorway:

Cryo-module:

I knew the set would be imperfect, so I made it black and offset that with the light colored uniforms worn by the crew. NASA ships have padding all over the walls, so I put it around the controls and monitors. To do this we bought soft foam sheets and cut squares of it. Each square was wrapped in black satin, from a fabric store. Just staple gun it to your walls and ceilings. You can also have vents and screens with lights shining from within. This will separate shapes from the black background.

On another movie, EXILE, I used greenscreen and compositing to create this cockpit:

Hexagon hallway:

Greenscreen was put in front of the windows. For the hallway, we used whiteboard from the hardware store. Lowe's and Home Depot often have sheets with different designs. I paid for all this stuff, so it was done quite on the cheap, but it does cost.

www.midnightsunent.com

Beautiful!!! I'm inspired. 🙂

Scoopicman, may I ask how much did the spaceship and sets cost?

BTW, as I watched the beginning of your documentary, I was wondering about the municipal permits. Usually, you can get them from the Film Office, and, these days, everyone is anxious to have you spend money in their locale.

I have extensive experience in building these things, for stage and screen.
If it's THE BRIDGE just like the Enerprise, that won't be really hard. But you will need some concept art, and some carpentry skills, as well as some basic artistic skills, and scavenging skills.

For any of us to be able to help, we will need to know the dementions of the room your building this in, and if it needs to be semi perminate or if needs to be torn down and put back together again. How much can you spend, Are we talking $100 or $10,000
also how long do you have to build this.

Myfilm"Shadow of Crime"
Trailer:
http://www.vimeo.com/4103913
Where to buy:Shadow of crime
https://www.createspace.com/288191

The 64 foot long(!) spaceship you saw in that cost $8,000 to build. That included the exterior which you can see in this pic:

You don't have to build something that big, maybe a third of that size. If I was just building a bridge, I would try to do it in my garage or living room. The advantage is it would be inside a weather resistant structure, so you wouldn't have to use heavy duty material. Padding could go on existing walls or 1/8" sheets that lay against the wall. Plus, no one would realize that a set was in there, so you could avoid the permit issue.

I have a neighbor who builds haunted houses in his backyard. They are 3,000 square feet in size and he never gets flack for it, because his yard is behind the house and not visible from the street. I live on a corner, so people can see anything big that goes up. Perhaps, between you and your friends, one of you has access to a large enough garage, yard or warehouse where this can work.

You don't need a permit to shoot on private property, but outside access depends on what kind of property (Home Owner's Association or not) you have access to. Permits from the film office usually require you to already have a million dollar insurance bond and workers compensation insurance. If you are shooting with a professional crew and shutting down city streets, then you would need that.

www.midnightsunent.com

As of this instant, I am thinking of modelling the bridge after a submarine. The bridge should be inside the vessel, for greater protection not anywhere near the surface.

I'll have to get some concept art, but my concern now is the cost of building a bridge.

Scoopicman - your friend must have a huge backyard, if he can build haunted houses (plural?) of 3,000 square feet each and put them in his lot.

Some random thoughts.

(1) If at all possible include a ceiling to make the set appear more complete. A trick they used in Aliens was to create a miniature of the ceiling and have it close to the camera so that the roof above the actors looked massive without having to actually be built or added in post. Of course you might need a new miniature for each camera angle.

(2) If you shoot through the windows (or a door) into the bridge (assuming it has a window) you can avoid having to create the entire bridge. This could be done with a fake wall or added with CGI in post. This also lends to a nice zoom in from the ship exterior.

(3) Do not forget lighting. If the bridge is mostly dark you can hide a lot of things and create a pretty cool look.

(4) Depending upon the "look" of your movie your bridge might be different. Modern jets for example use fly by wire technology so that the bulk of the controls are simply videoscreens. This could be faked rather easily. Older jets, space shuttles and such have millions of little switches. Switches have a far more military look and would probably be better in a zero g situation where you might not be able to comfortable push the touchscreen as accurately. Here's a sample of what I mean.
http://www.frys.com/product/2860384?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

(5) I think the hardest part would be the chairs. Getting the chairs to look right is make-or-break stuff. I have no real idea for chairs except maybe get some chairs from a car or truck or something. Depending upon your ship the bulk of the crew might stand. In most subs the two guys driving sit but a lot of the other folks stand up. They do this in the romulan ships in Star Trek as well to give them a different feel.

(6) Depending upon the size of your bridge and your budget you might be able to find a cheap van or something and build inside. This would give a bridge closer to that of a B-17 like in Dr Strangelove rather than a naval bridge. But small can also look very military. Advantage of using something like a van is it already has chairs (at least the pilot and copilot) and you can rock the whole thing when you want the ship to be hit. Of course there won't be much walking around or fighting on such a bridge. Might work better for a shuttle or something.

RJSchwarz

quote:

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Originally posted by Aspiring mogul

Scoopicman - your friend must have a huge backyard, if he can build haunted houses (plural?) of 3,000 square feet each and put them in his lot.

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I used the plural, because he used to build a different one, each year. Our lot sizes are half acre, though if he didn't have a horse corral back there, he would have space for two haunted houses.

www.midnightsunent.com

"materials can be quite affordable", but we really don't know what your looking for exactly. The submarine idea will cut down cost a bit, You may only have to build a wall, and then add props and some wall dressings to make it look like you SCI-FI bridge. If you can build it in a room or garage as suggested by Scoopicman that will help us as well. I'm willing to help with ideas, and anything I can help with on line.

Myfilm"Shadow of Crime"
Trailer:
http://www.vimeo.com/4103913
Where to buy:Shadow of crime
https://www.createspace.com/288191