Most geeks know that filmmaker J.J. Abrams has received a lot of trouble for making a somewhat frequent appearance of the lens flare technique in his movies. While some fans have spent hours defending Abrams it turns out that the creator has taken the first step in his recovery – admitting he has a problem.

Abrams recently spoke about how he recognized his problem while working on Star Trek: Into Darkness and had to seek the help of ILM to correct the issue. Abrams said he had shown his wife an early cut of the film and there was a seen where “she was literally like, ‘I just can’t see what’s going on. I don’t understand what that is.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I went too nuts on this.'”. When this happened Abrams turned to ILM to remove some of the lens flare from a couple of shots which by his own admission was “moronic.”

While it remains to be seen if Abrams will reel in the lens flare in the upcoming Star Wars, it stands to reason that the Director will be a lot more aware of the problem while working on the film.

Here’s the clip of Abrams talking about his problem…