Curt McAloney (born 13 May 1955; age 69) is a cinematographer who, around 2005, embarked on a mission to digitally restore film clippings that originated from the production of Star Trek: The Original Series.
At the time that the Original Series was in production, 1966-1969, it was in the entire motion picture industry neither commonplace to save or archive shot footage, that was either edited out in post-production, or never intended to be released in the first place, nor was it customary to record or save production history for posterity. The latter case was left to individuals, working on the production, to do so on their own accord if they were so inclined, like background performer William Blackburn, or Producer Robert H. Justman. This footage usually consisted of deleted scenes, test shots, bloopers, outtakes, and rare production behind-the-scenes footage. Clippings of these were simply discarded, at least according to the then Executive Producer Gene Roddenberry, resulting in that published behind-the-scenes visuals of the production, those in color, in particular, are relatively rare, in comparison with the later franchise productions.
In those years, however, Roddenberry, habitually collected, or stole as it turned out later, rolls of unused footage whenever he was able to and later, after production had wrapped, sold them, often cut up as framed production stills, in the late 1960s and early 1970s as merchandise through his company Lincoln Enterprises at Star Trek conventions. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, pp. 400-401) Two exceptionally rare reels of behind-the-scenes visual effects (VFX) footage, featuring the filming of the eleven foot Enterprise model, the D7 class model, and the SS Botany Bay model, were sold on 23 April 2003 as lot 135(X) in the Profiles in History's The Ultimate Sci-Fi Auction for US$1,000, having had an estimate of US$1,000-$1,500.
It should be noted that virtually all known color behind-the-scenes VFX imagery from the Original Series originated from these clippings.
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It is exactly this color production material that McAloney specialized in as he stated on his website, StarTrekHistory.com(X): "The goal for this website is to create a repository of restored images showing the production aspects of the original Star Trek series. This would include outtakes, deleted scenes, close-ups of props, effects scenes, and publicity photos. (...) These behind the scenes aspects of the series should be preserved for posterity before they disappear." [1](X) As a cinematographer, McAloney was acutely aware that the film material of the 1960s deteriorates over the years. On his website he invited owners of these clippings to submit their material for restoration for free. As a form of payment, McAloney reserved the publication rights of the restored versions of the material that "can be used as StarTrekHistory.com sees fit, such as posting on the Internet or used for any other venture". Several clip owners have taken up McAloney's offer, and his website used to feature a growing library of unique Original Series production material, before McAloney decided to take the website offline in 2020 after the publication of his below-mentioned 2018 reference book.
McAloney has been joined by partners Dave Tilotta and Dave Rolf(X). Tilotta, who contributed many film clippings, is in daily life a professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University (a useful skill in restoring old film clips), whereas Rolf is the site's resident Star Trek history interviewer, researcher, and video editor. It was on Rolf's initiative that the website was started to bring the work to the attention of the public at large. [2] Like McAloney, both men volunteer their efforts to the undertaking. In recent years, their work has been discovered by licensed publishers. Their restored material, usually fully credited, has appeared in, among others:
- Star Trek Magazine issue 120, 2005, Behind the scenes: Visual Effects, with William S. McCullars, p. 81
- Star Trek: The Original Series 365, 2010
- Star Trek Magazine issue 162, 2011 (courtesy Dave Tilotta)
The article for Star Trek Magazine 120 was well received by its then Chief Editor John Freeman, who recalled, "My favorite feature this issue is probably our revamped Flashback feature, which covers the making of the ST: TOS episode "Space Seed" and features some great behind the scenes visual effects images. Some of these have appeared online but a guy called Curt McAloney has digitally restored them and they look terrific." [3]
McAloney, together with partner Tilotta, conceived a reference book Star Trek: Lost Scenes, published in August 2018.
McAloney works in daily life as an art director, graphic designer, and illustrator, operating his own company, Curt's Media, Inc., mostly for Internet publishers and corporations.
External links[]
- StarTrekHistory.com(X) – archived website
- Rescuing Star Trek Treasures at StarTrek.com
- CurtsMedia.com – company homepage
- Professional profile at LinkedIn.com