An Introduction to the Star Trek Film Clip by Dave Tilotta
Welcome to “An Introduction to the Star Trek Film Clip,” the first
in a series of articles on Star Trek film clips hosted on startrekhistory.com.
What we’d like to do in this series is discuss topics of interest to the
Star Trek film clip collecting and viewing community. Articles on this site
will range from how the film clips got into widespread distribution to the genesis
of Lincoln Enterprises to the production of bootleg copies of bloopers. We hope
you enjoy these articles as much as we like researching and writing them. And,
if you find any errors here, please don’t hesitate to drop us an e-mail.
Enjoy!
As
many of you know, a film clip started its life as a frame in a roll of 35 mm
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 ca. 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 (spfx) 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
All of these steps were necessary to create a variety of prints without risk
to the negative.
Star Trek clips can be found commonly from both the interpositive
film and the positive print film, the latter of which includes dailies –
also called 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. It should be pointed out that clips that show
vivid colors - i.e., overly saturated reds, blues, etc - are most likely
duplicate clips (as discussed later).
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.
A Matter of Size
Star Trek episodes were filmed in the 35mm format, which refers to the width
of the film. The dimensions of the image in a film clip, excluding the soundtrack
area, are typically around 22 mm in width by 17mm in height. The exact dimensions
depend upon the matting of the image that affects the width of the frame
line (the thick black line between the successive images in the roll of
film). Please note that these film clips, when mounted in slide holders,
are referred to as “1/2 frame” 35mm frames.
Orientation is Important
A film clip is oriented properly for viewing if the image is on the right
side and a white strip, black strip, or soundtrack strip is on the left.
Another way to correctly orient a film clip, and this is especially useful
if it lacks a strip on the left, is to look for its emulsion. When viewed
at 45 degrees, the emulsion side is dull and often reveals the raised
image in intaglio. In contrast, the plastic “base” of the
film is shiny when viewed at 45 degrees and only reveals scratches. Once
you identify the emulsion side of the clip, place it towards you for proper
orientation. Please note that this procedure does not work well for B/W
daily clips and is not reliable for “dupe” clips. (see below).
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.
A film clip that is correctly oriented for viewing. Note the black
strip on the far left.
Color Clips
A Composite Print Clip
The clip shown on the right, restored from Eastman print stock, is
of the composite print variety because it contains both the photographed
image and the optical soundtrack strip (the white vertical squiggles
on the left). Note that the soundtrack has two squiggles, one for
each channel of analog stereo sound. Sound tracks were generally only
added to the finished film after the editing was completed to make
either an answer print (for approval) or for a print distributed to
the networks for broadcast. It is very unlikely that these types of
clips will contain any production material (e.g., behind the scenes).
A Color Daily Clip
Here is a clip from daily footage of Mr. Spock in the first pilot. It
is from an un-restored scan of a clip on Eastman film stock. Note the
absence of the sound strip on the left side of the image. Although this
picture shows a clip with a black strip in the sound strip area, work
print clips can also be found with white strips and with no strips at
all. With regards to the latter, the image simply fills the entire frame
and extends to the sprocket perforations.
Work print rolls were used by a variety of people during the production
of the series – the editors, producers, special effects houses,
etc. Thus, these types of clips potentially may contain behind the scenes
images.
A Color Interpositive Clip
Here again is Mr. Spock from the first pilot, but this time in an interpositive
clip. This image is darker than the one shown above. Note that the interpositive
film has an orange cast and lower contrast than the work print stock.
As with the daily clip shown above, these types of clips may contain production
information.
An interpositive clip
Black and White Clips
A Black and White Daily Clip
This B/W clip, similar to the one shown above, is from footage called
rushes or dailies. It was likely made from contact printing (i.e., placing
the original piece of film into contact with the unexposed piece of
film). Note the absence of a soundtrack strip on the left – it
is simply a white band. Similarly as the color film daily clips, you
will find production shots on these types. Also, B/W clips obviously
do not fade like the color ones. As the names imply, rushes were processed
quickly and for viewing on the following day. This was before video
assist cameras, so footage of the previous days work needed to be seen
expeditiously.
A Black and White Production Clip
Some scenes in Star Trek were designed to be viewed in black and white.
Although the original footage was filmed in color, it would be printed on
fine grain B/W film stock before being printed again onto color stock. The
image shown above is from the episode Bread and Circuses. Although difficult
to tell from this picture, this film clip has a slightly different tone
(especially in the sound strip area) than the B/W daily shown previously.
Also, note that this clip does not have a soundtrack strip.
A Dupe Clip
This picture shows a scan of a duplicated, or “dupe,” film clip.
As the name implies, a dupe clip is not a true clip in the sense that it
is authentic footage from Star Trek. Rather, it is a clip that was fabricated
by either taking a photograph of an authentic clip or making a contact print
of one. Most dupe clips were generated in the late 1960’s and 1970’s
by fans wanting to possess copies of various images. Note that this clip,
in contrast (no pun intended) to the other color clips shown above, has
unusually saturated colors, has more contrast and is slightly unfocussed
– all common problems with duplicated clips.
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 lighter colors and burned
out highlights due to overexposure in the duplication process.
The image may be blurry.
The size may be enlarged to a full-frame 35mm.
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). In our next article, we’ll
discuss the journey the clip took in getting from the roll of film at
the studio to the collector – a fascinating story as heard directly
from the sources.
As
many of you know, a film clip started its life as a frame in a roll of 35 mm
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.
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.
e
same degree of fade as the clips on the print stock.