American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 16

letters
Defining "Restoration"

While

It is the

work from

researchers, which makes responses to

applaud Technicolor's desire'
original materials, this hardly
sets its restoration facility apart from
one's local purveyor of one-hour process¬
ing and prints. Original negatives are our

articles

friends.

quality of a publication,
especially one which is used as a long¬
term
reference by students and

Soft Cucoloris

important. American Cinematog¬
rapher, being what it is, makes a
response essential. Therefore, we would

work

like to make

number of corrections and

work with Technicolor because of its

annotations to Bob Fishers fine article

newly engineered dye-transfer process,
and its staff worked very hard with us
and with Universal's Bob O'Neil to create

a

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Compressions" [AC May '00],
It's nice to see that the concept of
a director of photography's input in the
process of re-timing negatives before the
creation of new protection elements or
prints may be becoming the rule rather
than the exception. The more cinematically minded publishers of laserdiscs and
DVDs have been accessing this invalu¬
able brain trust for years, going back to
the early days of The Criterion Collection.
More important, however, is the cine¬
matographer's contribution to actual
restoration of his original images.
Our problems begin with Mr.
Mina's comments. Representing the
Technicolor Film Restoration Company, he
would have us believe that cleaning an
original negative and touching up timing
is somehow

ing

Optimum performance is
achieved with a minimum
200 lb. weight load.
*

The

a

form of restoration. Clean¬

negative is, well, cleaning a nega¬
tive. Repairing damaged perforations and
splices is precisely that, no more. This is
generic lab work that has been going on
for a century. A competent color timer
a

should be able to work with

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a

director of

photography to re-time an older (even
slightly faded) negative or conform it to
more modern printing equipment in an
efficient and painless manner. What it is
not is film restoration
any more than
having one's car detailed is in some way
restoring the vehicle.
Any quality laboratory will have a
lab technician go over even the newest
original negative before attempting to run
it through a printer. This is common sense
and insurance companies like it.
-

Used

we

-

Technicolor did
on

no

restoration

Rear Window. We wanted to

superb printing matrices and the resul¬
beautiful, dye-transfer prints.
Flowever, they had no hand in the

tant,

restoration of this film. All of the
elements used to create the restoration

negative

were

created by YCM Labora¬

tories, Pacific Title/Mirage and Cinesite.
The

simplistic creation of blackseparation masters also has
very little to do with either film restora¬
tion or, ultimately, with the potential
survival of a film. The mere production of
seps serves no purpose. Separation
masters must be printed to dupe nega¬
tive and an answer print produced and
approved. If one were to gather the sep
and-white

masters that reside in studio vaults

today, which have never been tested or
are not up to standards, one could easily
fill a warehouse with junk film. Many
films are "protected" by separation
masters which cannot create dupes
which will answer back or provide qual¬
ity prints.
It should be noted that while
most studios do not go

to dupe to test

their elements, some do. Universal and

DreamWorks

come

to mind with imme¬

diacy. Sony certainly inspects them.
Other studios that have taken this posi¬
tion should stand up and be counted, but
should not apply if only for publicity
purposes.
The newest Kodak

(Vision) print

stocks, while creating a number of new

problems in film restoration, especially
American Cinematographer - September 2000

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