Film Restoration

Message

Erikht · #1 Post by **Erikht** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 5:17 am

I I digitize a reel, can the file be used to restore the film, or would I need the original film to do the restauration? In other words, can I bin it after digitizing it?

Oedipax · #2 Post by **Oedipax** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:03 am

Erm, don't bin film!

The answer is that restoration is done both ways, depending on the budget/intentions of the project. A negative can be photochemically restored or worked on digitally. If you're doing a digital restoration you're going to be limited by the quality of the scanning (resolution) and the codec used to store it (uncompressed, lossy, etc).

What are you trying to restore?

MichaelB · #3 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:26 am

Yes, don't ever bin the film if you can possibly avoid it.

Even if you're doing an 8K scan to the highest current technical standards (and I'm guessing you're not), you can never be sure what future technology will bring - and there's a desperately sad example at the start of the BFI's second COI volume Design for Today of a film (the hilarious Joyce Grenfell vehicle Designing Women) that now only exists as a poor-quality analogue tape master.

Either the original 35mm film was lost after it was transferred or it was deliberately destroyed under the misguided impression that the film would only ever be screened from analogue tape from then on, but neither the COI nor the BFI have a copy any more - and it's hard to think who else would. At least it survives in some form, so it's not quite a total tragedy, but it could obviously look much, much better.

Erikht · #4 Post by **Erikht** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:13 am

Okay, I will see if the owners will allow the films to be taken out of the country after digitazion, and if The Norwegian National Libarary will agree to keep them in their facilities.

FrauBlucher · #5 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 9:28 pm

India's film history just got a caretaker.

FrauBlucher · #6 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 1:00 am

This is sad and frustrating.

movielocke · #7 Post by **movielocke** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 2:27 am

FrauBlucher wrote:This is sad and frustrating.

Yes it's a shame the other studios have been unable or unwilling to replicate the phenomenal warner model.

hanshotfirst1138 · #8 Post by **hanshotfirst1138** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:12 am

movielocke wrote:
FrauBlucher wrote:This is sad and frustrating.
Yes it's a shame the other studios have been unable or unwilling to replicate the phenomenal warner model.

Sadly, the state of the market for catalog titles right now probably does. It encourage studios.

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