PICTURED: Dan Curry with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Enterprise 1701 D, ca. 1988. Photo courtesy of Dan Curry
by Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer
Dan Curry has had a long and illustrious career in Hollywood, working as a visual effects supervisor for film and television — including four of the Star Trek series (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise). But his Emmy-award winning work is just the tip of the iceberg when considering the life and experience of this Renaissance man. Peace Corps volunteer, art teacher, matte painter, fine artist, director, author, martial arts enthusiast . . . Curry’s interests are wide and varied, and he has brought a wealth of knowledge from his numerous pursuits to his film and television projects.
As he gets ready to give a May 27 talk on innovation and out-of-the-box thinking for the Ventura County Chapter of the Aerospace and Defense Forum, Curry took time to touch base with the Ventura County Reporter about making science fiction a visual reality — and what it takes to get there.
Were you interested in film as a child?
Yes. When I played with toys I always imagined I was making a movie with the toys as actors or props. After seeing The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and reading an article about how Ray Harryhausen did the stop action puppet animation, I built a crude rear projection system with a broken 8mm projector and tracing paper taped inside a cardboard box so toy dinosaurs could chase my brother. Years later I had the opportunity to have dinner with Ray and thank him for the inspiration. When I saw Forbidden Planet (1956), I realized it was possible to create new cinematic realities by combining paintings, models, animation and actors. I didn’t know what they were at the time, but I started drawing storyboards for imaginary movies.
When I saw Spartacus (1960), I was impressed by Saul Bass’ brilliant title sequence and understood how a powerful sequence can introduce a movie, prepare the audience for the tone of what was to follow and, with the music, function like the overture of an opera and really set the stage for the story. I couldn’t have imagined doing over 100 title sequences later in life.
You studied art at Middlebury College. What role did that play in developing your skills for and interest in film work?
Studying art history and studio arts gave me a perspective on the great artists throughout history and how human perception evolved. It also improved my technical skills in drawing and painting. I was a theatre minor and working on various productions taught me how all the various skills come together to create a production. I was fortunate to have the late Chandler A. Potter as a production design professor who taught me how to understand perspective and relate the design of sets to the themes of a script — skills I used everyday in film and TV.
Directing aliens for a morph sequence on Star Trek: The Next Generation, ca. 1989. Photo courtesy of Dan Curry
A course in film history enlightened me as to how the art form evolved and exposed me to films I would have never seen elsewhere. Studying the history of dramatic literature helped me analyze scripts. Studying architectural history was a great foundation for production and conceptual design. It showed the importance of an in-depth liberal arts education.
What inspired you to join the Peace Corps after college?
I graduated college in 1968 and the Vietnam War was raging. I wanted to serve, but in a peaceful way that did not involve the taking of life. So, inspred by John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps was the perfect option. After training in Hawaii I was assigned to Northeast Thailand.
In Thailand you helped with public architectural projects, like building dams and bridges. Did you have a background in architecture as well as art, or did you develop those skills while in the Peace Corps?
Studying production design required drafting and set construction. Peace Corps training was excellent for both language and technical skills and I could apply what I learned in school to the community development projects I worked on. A village would apply to the Thai government for a project. When approved, the government would provide materials, the villagers labor, and I would provide the design and construction supervision. The designs had to be approved by Thai government engineers. It was a wonderful experience and I learned so much from the villagers, their wisdom, craftsmanship and approach to life. I even got to work with elephants. It is interesting how those Peace Corps experiences influenced my career in the entertainment industry, especially Star Trek in creating alien cultures, architecture and martial arts.
In Thailand you worked on the television series Maitri and the Magic Chopsticks. How did you get involved in that project?
It was a Thai language series sponsored by the Ministry of Education and was intended for young audiences. The show featured a kindly character, Maitri, who would help children with their learning. With his magic chopsticks he could pull letters out of books and demonstrate all sorts of things. I got to build and operate hand puppets, built an animation stand and did paper animation, and got to direct short documentaries about subjects of interest.
Your time in Thailand was productive — you taught university-level architecture, did production design for the Bangkok Opera, worked on the Royal Ball . . . how did you manage to establish such a prolific career overseas, and how long were you there?
I was in Asia for five years, mostly in Thailand, but also spent time in Laos, and did some trekking in Nepal, India and Afghanistan. I was fortunate that after the Peace Corps, jobs just came up when I needed them and supported my study of martial arts. One of my favorite projects was designing the An An Nightclub in Bangkok’s International Montien Hotel. The client gave me freedom to design what I wanted and included a series of large fanciful black and white murals.
What inspired you to return to the U.S. — and why Humboldt?
My father became very ill and I wanted to be home near him. I first took a job doing bio-medical illustration in New York. I learned a lot there from the old pros. When my dad improved, I accepted a position teaching art at Cape Cod Community College, drawing, painting and studio arts. Teaching taught me to think and communicate about art in new ways.
A fellow faculty member had a friend who was the chair of the Film and Theatre Department at Humboldt State University (HSU) in Arcata, California. Unbeknownst to me, they corresponded about me and HSU offered me a full scholarship, part-time teaching position, and the opportunity to design my own MFA program. I got to work in live theatre and film in a variety of capacities and do a thesis project in film and theatre. For my theatre thesis project I wrote, designed and directed a science fiction play set in an alien prison inhabited by a variety of sentient species — some of which became part of Star Trek. I will always be grateful for the opportunities given me at HSU. They also invited me to be their commencement speaker twice.
You met film editor Marcia Lucas, who helped you get your start as a matte painter for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Battlestar Galactica — which brought you to Hollywood. Was your work in science fiction more a result of chance and opportunity, or did you have a passion for the genre?
I have always had a passion for science fiction, in both literature and film. The world of “what if” always interested me. During the course of my career I worked on all genres, but sci fi was always close to my heart.
After meeting Gene Roddenberry, you eventually made the jump from painter to visual effects. How did that come about?
Curry directs Michael Dorn as the Klingon Worf on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation, ca. 1992. Photo courtesy of Dan Curry
After Universal’s Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica (where is also where I started to learn about motion control miniature photography and VFX animation), I did freelance for a while and then accepted a job as art director at Modern Film Effects in Hollywood. That’s where I began designing main titles while continuing to do matte paintings and other visual effects. Modern also gave me the chance to direct inserts (close-ups requested by film editors to clarify the action of a scene) and second-unit shots (bigger shots of a technical nature that were too time consuming for principle photography). After several years at Modern, I accepted the position of director of creative services at Cinema Research Corp. doing more of the same work with greater emphasis on visual effects.
I had done a lot of projects for Paramount Pictures. VP, Director of Television Post Production Peter Lauritson decided to leave that position and become supervising producer in charge of post-production for the newly conceived Star Trek: The Next Generation. Familiar with my work, Peter called and invited me to meet Gene Roddenberry to learn about their plans. It sounded like great fun, so I jumped on board as a visual effects supervisor. I was lucky to find a place where my goofy skills had value and got to explore my own imagination working with wonderful people in front of and behind the camera.
Who were some of your influences at the time?
There were some wonderful visual effects achievements by then. I was inspired by the work of giants like Dennis Muren (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) at Industrial Light and Magic, Doug Trumbull (2001, Blade Runner) and Richard Edlund (Star Wars); and the great traditional matte painters Albert Whitlock, Syd Dutton, Peter Ellenshaw, and Matthew Yuricich, whose credits are too numerous to list. I must also mention friend and mentor Peter Anderson at Universal who gave a newbie a chance.
Tell us a little bit about your work on the Star Trek franchise. What were some of the most memorable projects? What did you find particularly challenging? What was the most fun for you?
Star Trek was great to work on because of the quality of the people who were involved. It was especially gratifying for me because I could do a wide range of things: visual effects, supervision, conceptual design, directing and second unit directing, martial arts choreography and main title design. I was pleased to have the opportunity to design the main titles for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager, working with a great team of excellent artists. The various departments — art, makeup, special effects, construction and camera — all worked together smoothly with mutual respect. The cast was always super cooperative with the visual effects department and the technical needs of various shots.
It would be impossible to pick a favorite series. Each had its unique micro-culture. Of course there were certain episodes that stand out as particularly challenging, but the body of our work, over 350 episodes on four series, might best be considered as a whole.
The technology must have changed a lot over the span of nearly two decades! How did your work on Star Trek evolve over time?
When we began The Next Generation, we relied on shooting film on set for principle photography as well as photographing motion control miniatures and various elements like liquid nitrogen, fire and explosions. Matte paintings were done by hand in oils. We also used traditional green and blue screen, and 2D analog video compositing. Paramount made a courageous decision at the time to forego having a film negative final master of each episode and maintain it as video.
A breakthrough occurred when digital video, D5, came along, allowing us to do complex multi-layered compositing without image quality loss. The art of putting shots together became a more painterly experience. The visual effects department worked with outside vendor companies like Image G for motion control, CIS for transferring film to video, and The Post Group for 2D compositing and animation. As computer-generated images evolved, we began to make more use of the technology.
Shows like Deep Space Nine and Voyager were hybrids using physical models in the foreground, as they still had a greater degree of verisimilitude, and CG ships in the background. By the time Star Trek: Enterprise began, CG had evolved to such a high quality that visual effects were all digital and principle photography was shot on high definition video. Digital paint systems evolved, too, especially with the arrival of John and Thomas Knoll’s Adobe Photoshop, so matte shots were done digitally and took exponentially less time. VFX supervision evolved from doing much of the work hands-on to becoming more like an orchestra conductor working with great artists with diverse skill sets.
Computer-generated imagery has obviously had a tremendous impact on filmmaking today. Do you see any limitations with this technology, or find that an older/less technologically advanced approach is actually better? Perhaps that depends on the project.
There are times when the older techniques are actually more efficient and produce great results, but computer imagery allows convincing depictions of anything that can be imagined. One of the problems before CG was shooting water in scale with miniatures. It never really worked. Water simulation algorithms have made possible truly spectacular scenes like tsunamis roaring through cities.
Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry came out in December 2020 and is available to purchase from Amazon.
You must have lots of memorable moments from your time on Star Trek! Any stories you can share with us?
There are so many that it would take too much time, but I will share one story that exemplifies the surreal magic of the moment when my immersion into Star Trek really began. I’ll never forget the first time I walked onto the set of The Next Generation. It was constructed on a giant soundstage at Paramount Pictures. Walking into the dark stage crammed with lights, gear, equipment and people performing a myriad of tasks, I saw the outside of the set walls. They were constructed of thin, unpainted plywood. Catwalks suspended by heavy chains held lights and crew members focusing them. Through a doorway I could see the camera crew, actors in costume, and a director rehearsing a scene. When I walked through that door, suddenly I was in the 24th century. The brilliance of production designer Herman Zimmerman’s sets made it real. I asked one of the crew members who the captain was. He answered, “That bald guy over there.” Then the rehearsal was over and Patrick Stewart delivered his first line with astonishing gravitas and I thought to myself, “Yes, he’s the captain.” I could not have known that this was the world in which I would spend the next 18 years of my life.
You earned seven Emmys for your work on Star Trek, but you have numerous other credits on your resume. What were some of the most memorable, and why?
Some favorite projects include supervising visual effects for the NBC spy comedy, Chuck. The stories took us all around the world, but we shot at Warner Bros. in Burbank, so we had to create the illusions that took us there. I worked on the last four seasons and did every matte painting but one myself.
Other projects that were memorable include designing the title and map sequences for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, working with Carl Reiner and Steve Martin on several of their films, and one that was great fun, doing the title sequence for the Rodney Dangerfield film, Back To School. I was asked to depict Rodney’s character from age 12 to 55. By a coincidence, I grew up in the neighborhood where the fictional character grew up, so I could use old family photos, and before Photoshop, made large prints and hand-painted signs and Rodney’s face for a montage of stills synced to a score by Danny Elfman.
Most projects were challenging and satisfying to work on, and most people were pretty nice to deal with.
Tell us a little bit about your contemporary work.
Currently I am involved with developing two television series, working on a long-postponed novel about Laos in 1970, and doing fine arts.
What do you see as the future of visual effects? Where do you think the art and technology will go in the next 10-20 years?
The art of visual effects will only get better and better as technology is improving exponentially. The advent of virtual production gives filmmakers convenient means of telling stories set in otherwise impossible locations. VFX artists will be able to convincingly depict anything that can be imagined. Image resolution, improved ways of capturing light and displaying images will bring us closer to Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the Holodeck. As generations who have grown up with computers, streaming and super sophisticated video games grow to maturity, they will re-define what entertainment is and how audiences access it. The world they create will be as astonishing to us as our world would be to someone from Medieval Europe.
Is there some special “dream” project you’d like to work on? Or something extraordinary in film you hope to one day see?
I am hoping at least one of the concepts I am developing will come into existence and my partners and I can do groundbreaking work together.
The subject of your talk on May 27 is “What A&D companies can learn from the special effects of Star Trek</m>.” Without giving away too many secrets, what are some things they can learn? What are some things anyone in any career or walk of life can take from your innovative, out-of-the-box approach?
In aerospace and defense, the constant challenge is to invent what has never before been. The same is true in creating visual effects for film and television. We are constantly asked to create something that has never been seen before and finding new ways to accomplish things. In the days prior to computer generated images, we had to look at materials and objects not as they are, but what they could be, independently from their actual scale and original purpose. For example, liquid nitrogen that serves so many industrial purposes produces heavier-than-air vapors that can create vast time-space anomalies, portals into other dimensions, and scale wild fires. Aerospace, like filmmaking, is a collaborative effort, a team sport. As in Star Trek visual effects, there is no individual hero. Their creation requires a team of talented, dedicated individuals with an incredible range of special skills and the ability to pool resources to achieve an envisioned common goal.
Any wisdom you can share with our readers?
Your life is your reference for your career; experience as much as you can with an open mind. Get a good formal education and understand that its purpose is more to become a well-rounded educated person rather than just job training. This will equip you to face a wide range of challenges with critical thinking.
It’s interesting that those things in life that have the greatest value are those without material existence: love, honor, knowledge and wisdom. Ownership of all material things is just a temporary social convention. We spew forth into this world naked and without possessions and go out the same way. The founding fathers were quite enlightened when they referred to “the pursuit of happiness.” Those who achieve it are the real winners in the phenomenon of life.
Dan Curry gives an online talk, “What A&D Companies Can Learn from Special Effects,” for the Ventura County Chapter of the Aerospace and Defense Forum on Thursday, May 27, 8-9 a.m. For more information and to register, visit aerospacedefenseforum.org/presentations-ventura-county-chapter/.
Dan Curry’s recently published book, Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry (ISBN 1785659340), is available at Amazon.