Cinerama 70mm short subject remastering work completed |
Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter |
| Written by: Dave Strohmaier | Date: 01.04.2015 |
 About
5 years ago Randy Gitsch and I brought to the
Widescreen Weekend events at
the National Media Museum in Bradford a few of the 70mm short subjects. The
6-track magnetic prints were certainly faded to the usual Eastman color
magenta, and we realized that at some point we should do a digital makeover
to protect the assets. Tom March and I went to the vaults last January to
pull the titles and examine them for overall condition. We could see that
the fading was even more severe that when the prints were shown a few years
back. Since no negatives were ever located we would have to relay on color
recovery techniques to try to rebuild back as much color as possible.These three titles were, “Shellarama”, “Bridge To Space” and “Concorde”. A similar remastering process was done on the Cinerama version of "Fortress of Peace" last year. |
More in 70mm reading: Cinerama Remaster "Fortress of Peace" 70MM Remastering In 2K Digital “Broadsword Calling Danny Boy” Widescreen Weekend Report 2009 Lost Orphaned Films Abandoned in Basement The History of 70mm Short Subjects Internet link: |
 70mm
cases pulled from the vaults and labels to go to Fotokem for scanning. Image
by Tom MarchWe shipped the 70mm cases over to Vince Roth at Fotokem for cleaning and the prep for the scanning work. During the scanning some color was recovered with a one light adjustment to several areas but another more extensive session by Fotokem’s colorist Willie Lawton, on the DaVinci Resolve, would be required to do a full scene-by-scene correction for the final. |
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 Dave
Strohmaier examines the Shellarama Eastman color print. Image by Tom MarchAfter scanning I would digitally “dust bust” each frame to clean up the blotches, dirt and minimize any vertical scratches as well as the final color adjustments. Meanwhile at End Point Audio expert sound technician Nick Bergh was transferring the 6-track magnetic sound track directly from the 70mm print onto to digital files for a 5.1 mix. The owner of Audio Mechanics, John Polito personally re mixed the shorts for our new 5.1 print master. |
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 Faded
Eastman color main titleWhile not the ideal situation reasonable color can be often achieved. Some shots come out much better than others but the overall, while not perfect, is very impressive considering the condition of the print source. The eventual use for these 70mm shorts might well be as bonus extras for any future Cinerama feature blu-ray releases such as "Russian Adventure", "Best Of Cinerama" or perhaps "The Golden Head". In our earlier research we contacted the archives at NASA to see if they had any record of the title “Bridge to Space”. The archivist at NASA told us he did not know this film existed and he was very interested in getting a digital file for their archives as soon as possible. They now have a digital file of the film. |
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 Final
color and SmileboxingThe Digital Reconstruction Reconstructed and Remasterd by David Strohmaier Produced by Tom H. March Scanned at Fotokem Film and Video Remixed for 5.1 at Audio Mechanics in Burbank, Ca. 70mm Print Source Cinerama Inc. |
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Credits |
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 Shellarama
Eastman Color section blow upSHELLARAMA Cinerama presents a Dimitri de Grunwald production in Super Technirama-70 Written and Directed by: Richard Cawson Produced by: Dimitri De Grunwald Photography by: Stanley Sayer Editing by: Fred Burnley Music by: Johnny Scott Production: Roger Good Sound editing: Norman Savage Sound mixing: Gordon McCallum Night photography: Eric Willmott Technicolor - Technirama RCA Westrex Recording UK - 1965 - 16 minutes |
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 Final
color and Smilebox |
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 An
aerial scene from “Bridge To Space” in SmileboxBRIDGE TO SPACE Directed by Robert Gaffney Produced by Charles R. Trieschmann Edited by Angeleo Ross, A.C.E. Cinerama Inc. and Seneca Productions Technicolor |
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 A
scene from “Concorde”CONCORDE Written and Directed by Pierre Jallaud Produced by Sylve Jallaud Photography Georges Barsky Editing Philippe Gosselet An Objectifs Production |
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A montage of clips from each production on YouTube |
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