American Cinematographer - September 2008 - (Page 72) A Long-Awaited Redemption emulsion damage, the Technicolor team used a variety of proprietary and off-the-shelf tools, including MTI Correct, da Vinci Revival, Thomson Shout, Digital Vision Phoenix and Adobe After Effects. Another issue was the registration of the YCM elements; because the different records had shrunk and warped at different rates, when they were recombined, they did not line up. Burton notes that about 40 percent of the restoration was derived from the YCM records, and those all had to be realigned using a proprietary Thomson algorithm. In terms of salvaging elements, the most problematic scene was the one featuring Lola and Liszt’s long dialogue in Liszt’s carriage. The only existing element for some of these shots was the print in Luxembourg. “At first, I couldn’t believe it was possible to make something from that material,” remarks Ede. “The colors were completely faded — there was only a reddish hue, nothing else.” Burton addressed this problem by splitting the image into individual red, green and blue records, then dramatically rebending the blue and green records, handing off new versions of the image to colorist Tim Peeler to see if he could get anything out of them. After a series of iterations, they finally found a recipe that gave Peeler enough to work with, though the raw, uncorrected image he started with looked very washed out. Burton notes that this was also the only scene in which some work was done on the grain; overall, the goal of the restoration was to preserve the grain that was already part of the image. According to Ede, the Lola Montès shoot was quite complicated in technical terms. The cinematographer, Christian Matras, used a Mitchell BNC camera, and in order to capture the widescreen The scene in Liszt’s carriage was particularly difficult to restore because the only element available for some shots was a badly faded print. From top to bottom: the scan from the print; the image after the separation curves were radically bent; the final frame. In 1956, new prints of Lola Montès were struck in 2.35:1 to make it easier to screen; the left side of the image was simply lopped off to create the smaller aspect ratio. “On all subsequent prints, the image was decentered,” says Ede. “You can see it in the titles — they’re not right in the middle of the frame — and sometimes actors on the left side of the frame are a little bit cut off.” In order to maximize Lola Montès’ chances for exhibition, the restoration team decided to give the picture a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, nesting the 2.55:1 image in a 2.40:1 frame with letterboxing at the top and bottom. To restore the soundtrack, the team used the four magnetic tracks that were pulled from original CinemaScope prints and digitized by the Filmmuseum München during its restoration of the German version of the movie in 2002. A complete exhibition print held by the Cinémathèque Royale de Bruxelles was used as the reference soundtrack. To repair damage that included YCM density variation, image flicker, missing optical elements, missing dissolves and 72 September 2008
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