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Films restoration
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  • CRFilms, I LOVE that movie French Connection. That gritty, documentary style is what attracted me to filmmaking. Another good film is the Italian film Gommorah. Not a pretty film, just gritty realism. That must've been great listening to Friedkin. I listen to the commentary track often and Friedkin gives a really cool commentary on it.

  • I think the point is to both have a "hard copy" (film) as well as a digital file to archive, that way all your bases are covered.

    Vincent

  • When I worked at Lowry I asked them why not store it digitally, and at the time it was too cost prohibitive and unreliable in their eyes. Yet, ILM did archive the Holy Trilogy digitally, as well as print out to 35mm negative.

  • @bostonmike I saw the "French Connection" 7-8 years ago on a restored 35mm print at the Austin Alamo Drafthouse, with Friedkin doing a Q&A after. It was the first time I'd seen the movie....EPIC. Hearing Friedkin talking about how they made it, shot it, definitely something I'll never forget.

    Not sure where you live, but if you live within a 90 min drive/ride of a screening like that....see it.

  • Pretty cool stuff. Maybe this will introduce the younger generation to the great movies of decades ago. Movies like Jaws, Bullitt, French Connection, etc. I also think it would be great to show the old classics on the big screen again. So far the only places that do that are the smaller art-house type theaters.

  • By the way, here is a very interesting and in-depth book about film archival (which also tackles the subject of restoration): http://books.google.ch/books?id=f0XRBAajCkMC&lpg=PT51&ots=A_rElaysBf&dq=from%20grain%20to%20pixel&pg=PP1#v=twopage&q&f=false

    Maybe a little duller than an hollywood ad for an upcoming blu-ray/dvd release, but no-one's trying to sell you something in there.

    Off topic: I picked the book up from my library after stumbling upon this topic, and saw it's actually under a Creative Commons license. Pretty awesome, isn't it!?

  • when the guy says 3 to 5 hour per frame, he means they had to do that on 2 or 3 frames.. They most likely spend 10 minutes on the frames that need corrections.

    The fact they print back the restored version to 35mm film is interesting though, it is a common practice but also shows the reluctance to accept that 35mm film will not be around forever (and they WILL run out of blanks, eventually) and that it is possible to back-up a digital file so it will last "100s of years" (which, according to them, is how long film can last.. but then why can't they just scan the films from their archive? :).

  • wow really nice thaks for sharing, 3 to 5 hours for a single frame, titanic amount of work. and thatliquid to erase scratches amazing, restoratoin an art on it self.

  • Very good documentary (and film, my second favorite of all time). I also highly recommend this, about restoring The Godfather (2 parts):