{{ref improve, date=February 2013 Universal Hartland was the visual effects house of

Universal Studios Hollywood Universal Studios Hollywood is a film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. About 70% of the studio lies within the unincorporated county island known as Universal City while the rest lies wi ...

. The effects studio was in operation from 1978 to 1981. The studio was created as a means for Universal to enter the visual effects field that was growing larger as well as provide in-house effects creation for '' Battlestar Galactica'' and '' Buck Rogers in the 25th Century''. Before the facility closed its doors in 1981 it had worked on four films, six television shows (two of which they did effects for the entire run of the show), several Universal Theme Park attractions, some commercials and a few specialty projects, including the special model effects for the Horizons attraction for Disney's Epcot Center and sequences for Disney's

Captain EO ''Captain EO'' is a 1986 American 3D science fiction short film shown at Disney theme parks from 1986 through 1998. The movie stars Michael Jackson, was written by George Lucas, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola (who came up with the name "C ...

3-D attraction.

History

Universal Hartland started work on Universal's feature ''Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'', in

Douglas Trumbull Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and innovative visual effects supervisor. He pioneered methods in special effects and created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Close Encounters ...

's former "Future General Corporation" facilities in

Marina Del Ray A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger shi ...

. In August 1978, they moved production to a newly created studio owned facility in

North Hollywood North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...

and settled on Hartland Street (hence the name, "Universal Hartland"). This was around the same time that the

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began ...

crew started working on ''Battlestar Galactica''. During episode two, Universal's management decided to move ''Battlestar Galactica'' to their Universal Hartland facility. For the next three years the studio created all of the visual effects for ''Buck Rogers'' and ''Battelstar Galactica''. It would also work on '' The Concorde ... Airport '79'', '' Cheech & Chong's Next Movie'', ''

Cosmos The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...

'', '' The Nude Bomb'', '' The Thing'' and model effects for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, ABC and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

Closure

Despite the extensive body of work the facility had created, after a change of senior management at the parent company Universal Studios, Universal lost interest in their effects studio and the studio ceased production as Universal Studios owned and operated in-house visual effects facility in 1981, eventually closing completely in the 1985.

List of films

* ''Battlestar Galactica'' (TV series) * ''Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' (movie and TV series) * ''The Concorde ... Airport '79'' * ''Cheech and Chong's Next Movie'' * ''The Nude Bomb'' * ''Cosmos'' (PBS) * ''The Thing'' * ''Captain Eo 3-D'' (visual effects sequences)

External links

Universal Hartland archive site
Universal Pictures