Classic Films Restored by DTS Digital Images to Premiere at NYFF

[Tim Tyler]

The classic films DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK (1939)

and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945) were recently restored by DTS Digital Images

utilizing the company?s proprietary Lowry Process?. The films will premiere at

the 45th New York Film Festival on October 12. The facility, a division of DTS

Digital Cinema, provided full, 2K restoration services on both films. The

movies are part of the festival?s retrospective program ?In Glorious

Technicolor: Martin Scorsese Presents,? sponsored by American Express and The

Film Foundation. Scorsese will introduce the films and discuss the importance

of preservation prior to the screenings.

 

?These classic films are an important part of our motion picture history and

culture,? says Schawn Belston, vice president of film preservation at 20th

Century Fox. ?The restoration and preservation of these films was a

collaborative effort by Fox, the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation.

DTS Digital Images restored these and other classic films in our library using

the most advanced image processing technology available today. We?re very

pleased and excited to see these Hollywood classics projected at the

festival.?

 

DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN were both produced in three-

strip Technicolor format. DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK was directed by John Ford

with Bert Glennon, ASC and Ray Rennahan, ASC sharing the cinematography

credit. LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN was directed by John Stahl, and Leon Shamroy, ASC

earned an Oscar® for Best Color Cinematography for his work on the film.

 

?DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK presented some of the most difficult types of

restoration challenges,? says Mike Inchalik, vice president, Strategy and

Marketing, DTS Digital Images. ?We were dealing with film elements that were

several generations removed from the original. Because of significant fading

of the CRIs (color reversal intermediates) in particular, most of the color

information from the blue layer of the original camera negative was gone.

There were also tricky issues to resolve, including misregistration, flicker,

color breathing and grain build-up and image softening that results from the

creation of second and third generation film preservation elements.?

 

Since the original three-strip negatives were no longer available, DTS Digital

Images worked from color reversal protection copies and black-and-white YCM

separations to reconstruct the films. Those elements were scanned and

converted to digital files using IMAGICA® film scanners that are specially

designed to gently handle older, shrunken films. The images were then

faithfully restored using the Lowry Process? embedded in proprietary DTS

software.

 

?The Lowry Process? incorporates some very powerful imaging algorithms that

have been fine-tuned over the course of more than 200 major feature film

restorations performed over the past eight years,? explains Inchalik. ?We?ve

put a great deal of energy into inventing the right tools and putting enough

computing power behind them.?

 

Inchalik notes that the original three-strip negatives had shrunk at different

rates. As a result, there was significant misregistration photographed into

the color reversal copies.

 

?There?s quite a science to digitally recombining those records and adjusting

for the various rates of shrinkage to create a perfectly recombined registered

image,? adds Inchalik.

 

In both restorations, DTS delivered a new negative, a digital archive, and a

new HD master for serving home video markets that are all true to the restored

films. The prints that will screen at the New York Film Festival were made

from these new negatives.

 

?Restoring classics like DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN is a

tremendous responsibility that we take very seriously,? says Inchalik. ?The

breathtaking rate of technological change helps us recover and recreate the

amazing experience of seeing these cinematic treasures as they were originally

meant to be seen, and that?s exciting. Using the Lowry Process?, we have also

prepared the films for today?s high-definition home viewing environments, and

for whatever formats the future brings as well.?

 

The Preservation Screening Program was created by American Express and The

Film Foundation to screen motion pictures that have been preserved/ restored

with funding from the Foundation. The goals are to connect today?s moviegoers

with film art and culture from the past, and to highlight the importance of

film preservation.

 

The 45th New York Film Festival runs September 28 through October 14 at the

Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The festival,

presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and sponsored by Sardinia

Region Tourism and The New York Times, features showcases, music documentaries

and retrospective films. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com/nyff.