Philip M. Jefferies

Television film production designers Walter M. "Matt" (1921-2003) and John D. Jefferies Sr. (1936-2010) are Phil Jefferies' (1925-1987) brothers. Matt Jefferies with his two younger brothers, Phil Jefferies and John Jefferies (youngest), worked together as a design team on the conceptual space vehicles for the Gene Rodenberry pilot "Star Trek". Matt was the production designer for the series pilot. The brothers were all designers and art directors in the Hollywood entertainment industry. Matt asked his brothers to assist him in the preliminary design preparations. The team mounted all the conceptual design art work on the art department walls, inviting Navy, Air Force, Army and NASA representatives for their critique and suggestions improving upon their efforts. The military representatives were astonished at what they were looking upon. The concepts and space vehicle designs were basically what NASA had been working on, giving Matt and the brothers their complete approval. John Jefferies worked on the initial series as Matt's assistant. Phil returned to his film projects. The series was filmed at the Desilu Studio which was adjacent to Paramount Studios. Hub Braden, a set designer in the art department with television studio experience, designed related TV monitor shapes and frames required in control panels and consoles. Budget constraints required ingenuity in "electronic flashing panels". Masonite panels set on tracks behind the console walls were designed with patterns; when a prop maker pulled the back sliding panel, the front wall console panels became a flashing electric pattern of lights, with a back-light aimed at the sliding panel. A very theatrical effect created because the budget would not allow expensive electronic flashing lights! After the show's success, these space ship console walls were eventually replaced with practical electric programed lighting panels.

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" exterior Utah State location for the Paul Newman bicycle riding sequence, featuring the Burt Bacharach medley "Moondrops Keep Falling On My Head," was filmed 25 miles East of Hurricane, Utah, an abandoned (State designated park), 1900 ghost-town sight which had been flooded out. A river flows adjacent to the abandoned town. A few relic buildings remain standing, including a Morman Temple/church, a few houses, a few farm/barn buildings. The film company was based in St. George, Utah. The small Mormon community town was wiped out in a 1900's flood, with the few remaining buildings comprising the ghost town's existence. The film company's production designer Phil Jefferies and his construction department built the cabin set at the center of the ghost town's main street, opposite the small brick Mormon temple/church in 1969. The cabin set was built utilizing walls which could be pulled away from the structure, allowing a camera crew to light and film inside the cabin, with windows for capturing Newman riding his bicycle in the main street area. The "studio cabin" was left intact after filming was completed, becoming a curiosity feature of the ghost town's remaining standing structures. After the film was completed, tourists visiting the sight have since stripped the area of the post and rail fencing built as part of the town's structure set decorating. In 1981, the original producer Paul Monash and Lawrence Schiller (Special still photographer) joined forces to produce and film "A Child Bride From Shortcreek," for a NBC television movie of the week. With production designer Hub Braden, the three returned to "Butch Cassidey and the Sundance Kid" Utah location sight, evaluating the location for the "Shortcreek" MOW sight filming. The sight had been stripped bare except for the shrubs and trees, and remaining structures. The location sight was revived, adding false structure fronts, set dressing, out houses and fencing for the NBC television MOW.