Since the process has been inadvertently allowed out of the proverbial bag in a Ten Commandments promo piece, it is perhaps time to explain how N x NW and other films may now be brought back to their original glory by certain well-placed digital wonders.
It was the intent to reign in the process to be used only by those entities which I felt could take proper advantage of it, but here we go...
And this will be a discussion that may give some a headache.
A dozen years ago, during the restoration of Rear Window for Universal, we discovered that beyond extreme yellow dye failure in dupes, that the entire reel 5B had been damaged in the removal of protective lacquer. Since RW had been protected on the earliest variant of separation masters, compositing those masters, especially for dupes would be problematic, if not downright unpleasant.
In a meeting, held in a small inconspicuous Italian restaurant not far from the Paramount lot, a discussion was held with Phil Feiner, then chief of Pacific Title, whether one might be able to drop the entire yellow dye layer out of a dupe during exposure, and replace it on an optical printer, by maneuvering the contrast levels and size differentials of the black & white master positive containing the information as copied from that yellow dye layer before damage. He averred that it was worth a try, and Jim Katz, producing the restoration nodded approval to begin testing. While sizing and contrast were initially problems, the final result was only problematic in terms of increased contrast because of the optical generation.
This process was used for portions of reel 5B, as well as all of the opticals, with the slo-mo optical Stewart / Kelly kiss, being a combination of analogue yellow layer replacement, combined with a final digital clean-up pass. Further tests were performed on The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and with some problems of fit, color was brought back to day one accuracy. While conceptually this may all sound relatively simply, there is actually quite a bit of elemental hand-holding.
Beginning in 2003 toward the restoration of Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot, we began to test the process digitally, dropping out the entire yellow dye layer from extant portions of the original negative, and replacing same with a re-sized, gamma-manipulated digital version of the original 1956 black & white yellow master in VistaVision format. After months of testing at various facilities, the work moved to Kodak's CineSite, with Jerry Pooler in the colorist seat. Working on a small monitor, he was able to control LUTs, and we were able to create workable data files, allowing us to record out a new VistaVision interpositive, which could then be optically enlarged to the necessary 65mm negative, toward 70mm printing. The entire film, as it always the norm, was broken down shot by shot, with certain shots using the extant masters, and others using a more complex set of digital layer replacements, all being brought together to form a cohesive final product. Different technical facilities were used, changing on a shot by shot basis.
In the summer of 2005 testing moved to Lowry Digital, where among other items on the agenda, we were permitted to test various elements from The Ten Commandments, and were able to bring the film back to it's full 1956 color rendering.
Later tests at WB's MPI facility were used to bring back color to The Alamo (1960) after 8k scans produced at FotoKem, although for the record, fade is one of The Alamo's lesser problems.
The process, which has far wider abilities than described, was most recently used for North by Northwest, and portions of The Ten Commandments.
Using this process, every film with separation masters, and via other means in the process, some without, can be brought back to their original chromatic luster, which one cannot achieve by comping the three separation records.
Fortunately films must no longer be shipped to the Black Forest.
RAH
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