Cineric Presents Cinemascope 55 Paper

[Tim Tyler]

TORONTO, June 22, 2004 Cineric, Inc., a New York postproduction facility specializing in film restoration and preservation services, will present a research paper on the CinemaScope 55 film format at the 2004 Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Joint Tech Symposium. The paper traces Cineric's restoration of two classics of American cinema, Carousel and The King & I.

 

"It's a privilege to work on a project like this," says Cineric president Balazs Nyari. "This project is a great example of Cineric's unmatched expertise and commitment to preserving film. We look at this work as part of Cineric's contribution to maintaining our shared artistic and cultural heritage."

 

The paper, titled Bringing Life Back to an Obsolete Film Format, CinemaScope 55, was written by Cineric's Simon Lund and Dan DeVincent, whose expertise in the field of optical film restoration is unsurpassed. The paper reviews the genesis of the CinemaScope 55 format and chronicles the painstaking work by Cineric to revive the films. The challenges included the creation of specially tailored sprockets and gate mechanisms adapted to the shrinkage of the original elements, optical techniques to address dye fade and scratches, and digital techniques aided by a specially adapted Oxberry scanner. The final result was a fully timed 35mm Cinemascope 2.55:1 answer print, along with a new color protection master interpositive.

 

DeVincent and Lund will present the paper and outline steps for working from original 55 mm camera negatives when restoring films on June 25, at 5 p.m. at the Isabel Bader Theatre (on the grounds of Victoria University.) Additionally, Schawn Belston, executive director of film preservation for 20th Century Fox, will discuss the historical significance of this restoration effort from the studio's point of view.

 

"The satisfaction of creating a new protection master and new prints that effectively recreated this obsolete film format was definitely worth the challenge," says Lund in the paper. "The combination of engineering and mechanical expertise, an extensive appreciation for what the filmmakers intended, and the requisite background in optics, allowed these two films to be brought back to life. To the community that cares, there may not be anything that must be obsolete forever."

 

Cineric, Inc. was founded in New York in1983. The company provides optical printing and digital imaging, titles, special effects and restoration and preservation services. The facility has worked on many independent features as well as such studio films as The Sixth Sense, Bringing Out The Dead, Goodfellas, Matewan, Philadelphia, Raging Bull, The Big Lebowski, and The Silence Of The Lambs.

 

Cineric was the first postproduction facility in New York to establish a digital motion picture film service bureau, offering scanning, recording, video-to-film, and specialized image processing services. Blowups and format conversions are a specialty. The facility has also restored more than 200 films including Jason and the Argonauts, The Birds, American Graffiti, A Man for All Seasons, The Man from Laramie and The Caine Mutiny. Cineric also recently restored and created 35 mm archival negatives and prints for 80 of the classic films that are part of a traveling exhibit called Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1893-1941. The exhibit has been on the road since June 2001.

 

For additional information, visit www.cineric.com or www.amianet.org.