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Topic: Film Restoration??

Bill Bidwell
Film Handler

Posts: 1
From: Englewood, CO, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 09-24-2001 11:41 AM

Dear Brad and other Techies,
I have a 15-minute "short" that's about 20-years old. In a former life I was self-employed in a retail bicycle sales/service business. From an organizational standpoint, I got involved in bicycle racing. A retired projectionist/friend gave me a present about 10-years ago of this short which was of the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic bike race. At the time it was the biggest bicycle race in the U.S. I got involved with it's successor, the Coors International Bicycle Classic. Anyway, I don't want to bore you with details.

This print has GOT to be pretty brittle by now. I haven't shown it for probably 8-years. It has little value to anyone but me and I'm wondering if/how it can be restored? Would this be cost prohibitive?

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

Bill Bidwell
bbidwell@uatc.com

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 09-24-2001 12:34 PM

If your print is not too faded or shrunken, a high quality mastering copy can usually be made. A film master would entail making an internegative and new sound negative, from which additional release prints could be made. Some color correction is possible during printing, but excessive fading would require making separation positives (to allow contrast control for each color) or a "digital intermediate". A video master could be made on a telecine (e.g., the Philips Spirit), which allows considerable control over color and tone scale. Even if you make a video master, keep the original film elements, as they will likely last longer than any video format if stored properly, and can be used to make new video transfers as digital formats evolve.

Kodak's website has a fairly comprehensive listing of film laboratories and film-to-video transfer facilities:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/industry/labs.shtml

Colorado labs include:

Name: Rocky Mountain Film Lab
Address: 560 Geneva Street
City: Aurora Co 80010
Phone: 303-364-6444
FAX: 303-340-3449
Net Address: http://www.rockymountainfilm.com

Name: Western Cine Film & Video
Address: 2735 S. Raritan St.
City: Englewood CO 80110
Phone: 303-783-1020
FAX: 303-806-0555
Net Address: http://www.westerncine.com

Film-to-video transfer facilities in Colorado include:

Name: Works Video Media
Address #7 Inverness Drive East
City Englewood CO, 80112
Phone: 303-741-3400
FAX: 303-708-8375
Website: http://www.theworksonline.com
Equipment & Services: Rank Mark III
with DaVinci 888 Color Corrector with DUI

Cost will vary with the lab, and the condition of your print.

If your film is of historical interest, you may be able to interest a film archive in preserving it. The AFI has a large list of "Preservation Links":
http://www.afionline.org/

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 09-24-2001 12:44 PM

When you say "restored", do you really mean "restored"? If so you're looking at a bundle of cash.

Just how much are you willing to spend? If you just want to be able to play that existing print and are not worried about making new prints and frame-by-frame restoration, FilmGuard will lubricate it to take the brittleness away so that you can safely run it.

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