American Cinematographer - February 2003 - 35

drawing color back that

was

faded but

still there."
With
tent look and

regard to creating a consis¬
maintaining the integrity of

each source, Davidson said it was a deli¬
cate balance. "We'd

get into a sequence
predominant look of
the sequence was and then try to make
the other sources look like they fit in," he
recounts. "But questions of how much
contrast and how much brightness were
always a fine line." He notes that
approximately 80 percent of the film
required substantial color enhancement.
For some of the most degraded footage,
Smith's knowledge of such details as
uniform colors helped give Davidson a
blueprint for restoration.
Part of the challenge, of course,
was that Davidson didn't have the origi¬
and

see

it retained all the detail.

Considering
footage we had,
there was really no other way to do this."
Smith is delighted with the
results. "I've been doing this for 30-plus
years, and John Davidson is probably the
best timer I've come across anywhere in
the world," he says. "He gave us the

tion story for U.S. viewers - and how
an earlier generation of battlefield cine¬

shot-to-shot balance

isn't marvelous, but it takes you more
into the realm of art, whereas color is

the massive amount of

what the

wanted, and

Sherri's clean-up and repair of the frames
were excellent. They both did a truly

remarkable

Wood: "What's

job."

In addition to Scott and Davidson,

Victor/ Studios audio engineers Nick
Denke and Jason Devore supported the
KCTS sound-design team; the soundtrack
pulled together an original score, sound
effects, archival radio-news reports and
actors reading excerpts from diaries and
letters. In addition to providing a music

nal film to work with. "What the telecine

and effects track and broadcast masters

brings to the situation in this kind of envi¬
might have been able to
get more detail out of the dark areas," he
says. "But a good 80 percent of the time,

for the international shows,
Studios provided the full audio

the film had been transferred rather flat,

significance of the Perilous Fight produc¬

ronment is that I

matographers and the medium of film
made it all possible. "Film is vital
history," says Smith. "We're presenting
the American people with a part of their
history that they haven't seen before.
That's not to say that black-and-white

direct and immediate." Adds

astonishing is that these

guys, who were often relatively inexperi¬
enced photographers, not only faced the

rigors of battle but also had the ability to
regular
soldiers. They're the unsung heroes of

film the heroism and fears of
the war."

■

Victory
mix and

broadcast master for the domestic show.
Smith and Wood both note the

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American Cinematographer - February 2003

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2003