American Cinematographer - February 2009 - (Page 70)

Pictured are before (bottom) and after (top) versions of a harbor view. Flaws in the source material included visible thumbprints on the print, vertical print scratches and underexposure. tion of pre-existing vertical scratches that ran across multiple frames. Before processing, the scratches flowed straight through the frame, but after processing, they jumped back and forth from frame to frame. Another mysterious problem was a slight 1-to-6-frame-long fogging of the film stock at the beginning and end of each shot. Posner speculates the flares could have been caused by the start-stop positions of the shutter in the camera during shooting, or in the printer during duplication. It is also possible that short ends of fogged raw stock were used. Much of the damage shows as white flashes where the negative was nearly solid black. The same frames also displayed the detritus of cement splicing, a white or black horizontal line across the frame, and defects such as nitrate 70 February 2009 punches and rips. The restoration’s budget precluded the repair of all these defects, so the restoration team decided to remove 102 irreversibly damaged frames. The restored picture was digitally graded by Lowry colorist Rick Taylor, who worked in a Baselight suite, and a key reference for this work was 14 single frames Sheeler had saved from the original camera negative to make photographic prints. The pristine, vintage photos helped the team determine the ideal contrast, tone scale and color and also provided exact dimensions for the film frames, which had been printed in varying sizes on the 35mm dupe negative. The restored picture was formatted to fit an aspect ratio of 1.30:1. Taylor modulated the overall tonal scale, keeping whites and blacks within acceptable technical standards for digital, film and video color spaces. According to Posner, the filmout files registered perfect film-grain reproduction, while the video files were modified to appear slightly sepia-colored to match the film output. Decisions about such things as grain were made by Posner in consultation with archivists from the various sponsoring entities. “We worked with some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on silent film and still photography to realize a digital duplicate of … the 35mm original,” says Posner. “Early negative stocks were quite good, but the print stocks weren’t,” he continues. “Since Manhatta was shot off and on over the course of nearly a year, the lab work varied greatly from batch to batch. Seeking a global ‘look’ for the film grain became a serious consideration. As a conservator, you’re trying to make something as close to the original experience as possible. After cleanup and repair, you often need to re-introduce some grain, but you don’t want to introduce anything that looks fake. We resolved those questions as best we could in concert with our restoration partners. Lowry’s files worked extremely well with the 35mm fine-grain stocks.” It is not known whether Strand and Sheeler intended to have a musical accompaniment for Manhatta, though the record shows this was done at some of its earliest screenings. For the DVD of the restored film, silent-film accompanist Donald Sosin was commissioned to compose a new orchestral score that was performed by the 39-piece Slovak Sinfonietta. The music was conducted by Peter Breiner and edited and mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 at Chace Audio Productions in Burbank. The 35mm archival negatives and prints were processed and printed at YCM Laboratories and are being preserved by the Museum of Modern Art and the Nederlands Filmmuseum. Lowry also generated 2K digital files and HDCam-SR 4:2:2 tapes formatted for different exhibition and broadcast purposes; this material is being preserved at the Library of Congress, where Manhatta is listed in the National Film Registry. I

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2009

American Cinematographer - February 2009 Contents Editor's Note Short Takes: Circus Production Slate: The International Reverte 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions Dead Reckoning Embracing Anamorphic Citizen of the World Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky

American Cinematographer - February 2009

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