posted 02-12-2004 12:24 PM                       

quote:

---

This publication addresses the most commonly asked environmental, health, and safety questions about the use of perchloroethylene in Motion Picture wet-gate printing applications.

---

quote:

---

The following article was written by Bob Fisher and David Huering for In Camera (September/October 2003)

Robert A. Harris of The Film Preserve has played vital roles in restoring and preserving many of the crown jewels of Hollywood's history, including My Fair Lady, Lawrence of Arabia and Spartacus. Harris is currently focusing his attention on a unique restoration project. The Story of A Patriot has been playing at a theatre in the Williamsburg colonial village in Virginia, since April 1957. Estimates are that more than 30 million visitors to have seen the film depiction of life in America during the revolutionary war. Harris says that when he first saw the film during the late 1950s, it touched him deeply. He describes the film restoration project as a labor of love.

The film was originally produced and shown in VistaVision format, which is designed to put a huge, widescreen image horizontally on the screen. It features six-track magnetic sound running at twice the normal speed, which was revolutionary for its time and delivered on its promise of "motion picture high fidelity." "It is like looking through a window to the past," says Harris.

Since the early 1980s, the film has been shown to audiences on 70mm film format. When Harris saw the film again in 1994, he knew a rescue effort was in order. "The picture was contrasty, grainy, out of focus and out of registration," he says. "I met with Richard McCluney of Colonial Williamsburg Productions and with his approval, the restoration project began. I've worked with Cinesite, in Los Angeles, on other restoration projects before. I knew how dedicated the people there are, and they have been extremely helpful throughout the process."

Harris' eyes and memory are helping Cinesite restoration specialists Brad Reinke and Jerry Pooler restore the film to its original grandeur. A hodgepodge of older elements, most importantly a 35mm dye transfer copy of reel 2AB provided by a collector, are also used as a reference for color. Harris and the team are also consulting with 94-year-old Haskell Boggs, ASC, the original cinematographer on the project.

"We've looked at costumes and props that still exist, as well as the brick on the buildings as they stand now," says Harris. "It's a major puzzle, but we're solving it piece by piece."

The original VistaVision images have been scanned into the digital realm at 6K resolution. Each frame is represented by 150-200 megabytes. The film consists of about 54,000 frames. The result is a gargantuan data management challenge. Once perfected, the frames will be output to VistaVision interpositive and optically converted to 65 mm, from which 70 mm prints will be struck. The work will be done at Pacific Title and CFI in Los Angeles. Cinesite will also provide black and white separation masters for archival purposes. Cinesite Manager of Restoration Services, Brad Reinke, says that the negative had a significant amount of differential dye fade as well as overall color saturation dye fade.

"Other than the dye fade, the negative was actually is very good condition," he says. "There are some dirt problems, scratches, and lens falloff in some cases. We are also recombining some separation masters when necessary. One crucial aspect of this project is to preserve the original grain structure. The film was originally shot on Kodak stocks, and we have the advantage of bring a sister company to Kodak. We're going back and researching the technical specifications on these older stocks and applying that knowledge to here.

"The characters, costumes and environments in this film are very period," says Reinke, "but the look of the film is not. It's incredibly rich and vibrant and colorful. Bob Harris and the Williamsburg people want the images to pop off the screen. They want those colors sharp and vibrant. "The Patriot is a big project for us because of the size of the files and the extent of the restoration necessary," says Reinke. "But it's also very important to us because of the historical significance. It's very exciting to work on a project that is the oldest running American film."

---

posted 02-12-2004 01:42 PM                       

quote:

---

would you use Film Guard on an archival print?

---

quote:

---

I've booked in 4 "archival prints",one for each week in March and I'm feeling a bit uneasy now!The application form did state it's dislike for platters but my film booker assured me that the hirers said it would be ok to run them off a platter.

---

quote:

---

Apart from making sure it is thread up right what other precautions should you take when handling Acetate prints?

---

posted 02-12-2004 08:34 PM                       

• Rotate your hand a bit and guide it in so that the film is not perpendicular to the flanges.
• Pop the flanges out, keep the film winding evenly (i.e. no telescoping), then pop it back in.

posted 02-12-2004 11:42 PM                       

quote:

---

Another feature of acetate is cement splices. These often become brittle with age and will fail when stressed. It may be worth it to reinforce with at least a one-sided tape splice even if the splice still seems good, because often you are gentler on the film in handchecking than the projector is. Acetate is thicker than polyester, make sure the gate isn't overtensioned.

---

posted 02-16-2004 12:05 PM                    

quote:

---

The original VistaVision images have been scanned into the digital realm at 6K resolution. (...) Once perfected, the frames will be output to VistaVision interpositive and optically converted to 65 mm, from which 70 mm prints will be struck.

---

posted 02-16-2004 12:16 PM                       

quote:

---

GENESIS PLUS 65MM SCANNER

Cinesite is excited about the tremendous growth happening in the large format, special venue industry. The Kodak Genesis Plus scanner brings the same dynamic and robust digital tools to the 65mm wide-screen filmmaker that are available with the 35mm Lightning scanner. The Genesis Plus handles 5, 8, and 15 perf formats.

---

quote:

---

KODAK LIGHTNING LASER RECORDERS

The Lightning recorder's technology is unique in that it uses red, green and blue lasers to expose negative film. The three lasers write directly to each color layer of the intermediate stock. This combination produces images of unparalleled sharpness and color saturation. The system's 10 bit (per color per pixel) log space retains all the film's enormous density range, while the lasers' extremely wide dynamic range ensures that the quality of the new negative is absolutely optimised

---

quote:

---

For example, there are no laser recorders that can record to 65mm (from 5-perf to 15-perf 65mm IMAX), so CRT recorders are used. Some efx people doing IMAX work are still waiting for a 65mm laser recorder.

---