An Introduction to the Star Trek Film Clip
As many of you know, a film clip started its life as a frame in a roll of 35mm film housed at the Desilu/Paramount studio. Someone, for example a volunteer worker at Lincoln Enterprises, obtained the roll of film from the studio and then cut the frame from it. Once it was cut, the frame was mounted in either a cardboard or plastic holder so that it could be viewed with a 35mm slide projector. For those of us with black and white television sets in the late 1960’s, projecting a clip on the wall was the only way to see a piece of Star Trek in true living color.

We’re fortunate that Gene Roddenberry sanctioned the distribution of “rolls of film clips” to the general public. As a result, there are a lot of Star Trek film clips out there – millions, in fact. And if you don’t believe me, consider this: an average 50-min episode of Star Trek generated approximately 72,000 film frames per print. Now, multiply that number (72,000) times the number of Trek episodes in the original series, and, if you do the math correctly, you should arrive at a number greater than 5,600,000 frames! And, of course, that number doesn't even take into account the number of frames from the myriad takes required for the myriad scenes of an episode, nor does it take into account the number of prints that were duplicated for the networks to broadcast, nor the special effects shots and their intermediates, nor the production of the internegatives and interpositives for printing, etc. So, whew, there are indeed a lot of little “gems” out there!

Given the staggering number of film clips available to the collector, it’s not possible to discuss each and every one. Fortunately however, and to get us started, we can divide them into just a few categories based on their general physical properties and their place in the overall production process. For now, we’ll restrict our discussion to the more common types of film clips that are available.

Making a Print
Since clips are potentially available from the film produced during any of the steps in the production process, it’s worthwhile to briefly review how a final print was made for an episode of the series. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll stick to the basics.

The first step, of course, was the generation of the negatives by the motion picture camera. Negatives are special because they are one-of-a-kind (“zero-generation”). Thus, once they were obtained they were used to create a workprint and an interpositive (intermediate positive) film, and then safely stored away. As the name implies, an interpositive is really a special negative of the original negative and is therefore positive. The interpositive was useful because, in turn, it could be used to make an internegative (an intermediate negative) film.

The internegative, a negative of the interpositive, is what was used to strike a final print. Overall, this negative/positive conversion process is summarized as:

Original Negative > Interpositive Film > Internegative Film > Positive Print

Star Trek clips can be found commonly from both the interpositive film and the positive print film, the latter of which includes dailies, work prints and composite prints. Although negatives and internegatives exist for Star Trek, clips from these types of film have not yet widely found their way into the film clip market.

Film Stock
Kodak Eastman Safety print film was used to create the positive prints (not the interpositive prints). Unfortunately, the print film produced prior to about 1982• is prone to fading because their emulsion dyes, the chemicals that change their properties with respect to the light, were relatively unstable. The magenta dye layer was the most stable followed by the yellow layer and then the cyan layer. Thus, many film clips today are faded to a pink/magenta color because their cyan layer has deteriorated. Further, if the clip is yellow in color, then it has severely faded. Unfortunately, there is no way to restore/repair the film once it has faded. However, digital scanning with computer manipulation of the image presents an option for recovering the true colors.

The interpositive film stock, as opposed to the print film stock as discussed above, is very fine-grained and low contrast. These features are necessary in order to prevent contrast "build-up" so that high quality prints can be produced. Interpositive films are typically orange/yellow in color for the same reason that typical negative films are orange/yellow, that is, because they must have color masking for the layers which help to correct imperfections in the overall color reproduction process. Interpositive film clips have not exhibited the same degree of fade as the clips on the print stock.

The black and white (B/W) stock used to print the dailies (also called rushes) was 5302 positive film. This type of stock is inexpensive, but has high contrast and an emulsion sensitivity that sometimes causes blue objects to disappear. In other words, B/W dailies are often not as high quality as color dailies. Finally, and as will be discussed below, low contrast fine-grain B/W film was also used in Star Trek for footage that was intended to be viewed in black and white. This film stock results in higher quality clip images than those from the B/W daily stock.

General Types
There are six common types of film clips available to the collector in three broad categories: Color clips, B/W clips, and dupe clips. These categories are based on the both the film stock and the “authenticity” of the frames.

Please note that, unless otherwise indicated, the images used to illustrate the following discussions are from un-restored scans. These images also exclude the sprocket perforations on the left and right sides.

Don't be Duped
The easiest way to identify a clip as original or dupe is to remove it from its slide mount and look at its sprocket holes. Motion picture film has rounded corners whereas still photography film used for making dupes has rectangular sprocket holes. You can also identify a dupe clip because it will possess one or more of the following characteristics:

• The image may have remarkably good color because many clips were duplicated before the originals had begun to fade,
  
• The image may have a blue tint because many clips were copied onto Ektachrome slide film, which has a blue bias.
  
• Dust and dirt are embedded in the image as opposed to being on the clip.
  
• The dupe will exhibit lack of detail in shadows and lighter colors. Highlights appear overexposed and shadows appear darker due to increased contrast in the duplication process.
  
• The image may be softer in appearance.
  
• The size may be enlarged to a full-frame 35mm with sprocket perforations on the top and bottom instead of the sides.
  
• The image may be reversed (the black, white, or soundtrack strip may be on the right side).
  
• The slide mount may be stamped with copyright information.

That’s a Wrap
It’s time to conclude our introductory tour of the Star Trek film clip and our first article. We hope you’ve found the discussion entertaining and informative, and that the next time you’re shown a film clip you can better tell whether it’s from an interpositive or a daily without being duped (pun intended).

°The fading print problem was improved with the introduction of color reversal printing.