Curt McAloney

Curt McAloney is a cinematographer who has, 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 not 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. This footage usually consisted of deleted scenes, test shots, outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage. Clippings of these were simply discarded, resulting in that published behind-the-scenes visuals of the production, especially those in color, are relatively rare, in comparison with the other franchise productions. However, Gene Roddenberry, in those years, habitually collected these clippings whenever he was able to and later, after production had wrapped, sold them in the early 1970s as merchandise through his company Lincoln Enterprises at conventions. An extremely rare reel of this behind-the-scenes footage, featuring the eleven foot Enterprise model, the D7 class model, as well as the SS Botany Bay model, has been sold on 23 April 2003 as 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 is exactly this production material, McAloney specializes in, or as he had put it on an older version of his website, "The goal for this web page is to create a repository of restored images showing the production aspects of the original Star Trek series. This would include out takes, 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." As cinematographer, McAloney is aware that the film material of the 1960s deteriorates over years. On his website, he invites owners of these clippings to submit their material for restoration for free. As form of payment, McAloney reserves 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 currently features a growing library of unique Original Series production material.

In recent years, licensed publishers started to discover McAloney's work, and restored material by his hand has, usually fully credited, appeared in among others:
 * , 2005, Behind the scenes: Visual Effects, with William S. McCullars, p. 81
 * Star Trek: The Original Series 365, 2010

A project on personal title, McAloney, works in daily life as Art Director, Graphic Designer, and Cinematographer, operating his own company, "Curt's Media, Inc.", mostly for Internet publishers and corporations.