Preserving our movies

I recently had the pleasure of attending the launch of two Sinhala movies (Viragaya and Madol Duwa) on DVD. With a DVD player firmly entrenched in almost every home, this will enable a new generation of Sinhala film lovers to see these two classics at any time they wish. The entrepreneur behind this move has launched a library of other Sinhala films on DVD, for which he deserves our accolades.

But what is disappointing with most DVD releases of old Sinhala films is the picture quality. The DVD transfers are usually sourced from worn-out 35 mm film prints with plenty of patches and other disturbances in both video and audio departments. Some colour prints have almost become black and white or even red tinted.

It would be far better if some kind of investment is made for restoring old Sinhala movies. Hollywood studios have made restoration and remastering old classics a fine art and we can learn a lot from them. It is a painstaking and expensive process, but worth every cent. Not only can we get a pristine digital transfer of a given film, but also output a fresh 35 mm print for preservation. Despite the advent of digital media, the preferred method of film preservation is still film itself.

I am amazed by the sheer video and audio quality of some Hollywood classics that had received the digital restoration treatment recently and released on blu-ray, the high definition home video format. From the Wizard of Oz to Snow White to Ben Hur to Jaws, the restoration experts have done such a wonderful job that fine detail oozes out of every frame. Moreover, they usually remaster and re-mix the sound elements to create 5.1 or even 7.1 channel high resolution audio tracks. These films may not have looked any better even on the big screen.

It is worth studying the Hollywood methods of remastering and preservation in order to preserve our own films. Sri Lanka still does not have a world-class film archive and only a few private collectors preserve films under difficult conditions. Such a facility is essential, because we have already lost pristine prints of films such as Ranmuthu Duwa (the first Sinhala colour film). Modern technology has given us an opportunity to preserve our films in a pristine condition for future generations and we should not miss it.

Example

Ben Hur, which won 11 Oscars, is often cited as a shining example for a breathtaking restoration. For its new blu-ray release, Ben-Hur underwent a US$ 1 million digital restoration - frame by frame from an 8k scan (eight times the resolution of a 1080p high definition signal) of the original 65 mm camera negative, making this the highest resolution restoration ever completed by Warner Bros. “ It was our intention to release this film in Blu-ray in 2009, but the film restoration was complex, and the 8K scan was the optimal solution vs. 2K or 4K, therefore we took our time and did it right to deliver the best possible resolution for the consumer,” Warner’s Jeff Baker told an interviewer.

Here is what one reviewer said about the picture quality: “The studio has returned to the original negative to source new high-res scans, along with a frame by frame restoration, to present this film in high definition, and to say the results are spectacular is something of an understatement.

Everything from the copious Roman foliage to the ornate grillwork in the Hur compound resolves perfectly, with precision and absolute accuracy. Colours are incredibly well saturated and those gorgeous Technicolor reds and purples are all that they should be. It instantly becomes apparent what a difference a careful transfer, including absolutely accurate telecine color timing, can make for a release. The film is also stunningly damage free, with nary a scratch, speck or other distraction in view.

Ben-Hur instantly becomes the gold standard for what can be achieved in high definition restoration and transfers of catalogue titles.”

Another big benefit of the restoration was that Warner now has an 8K film print for theatrical exhibition and preservation. The film was indeed screened in New York to coincide with the blu-ray release and reviewers were simply speechless. It is doubtful whether the film looked that good even on the day of release in 1959.

One million dollars is a lot of money and we may not have the financial resources to effect such a spectacular job on our classics. But even a 2K scan (double the 1080p resolution) and digital cleaning up of film frames can do wonders for our most treasured movies from Rekhawa (Line of Destiny) onwards.

It is high time that we seriously think about restoring and preserving at least our film classics, if not all the local Sinhala and Tamil movies produced since Kadawuna Poronduwa (Broken Promise) in 1948. It is also time to think beyond DVD – blu-ray is now the preferred format for releasing pristine new prints of internationally famous films.

There certainly will be a healthy international demand for films of Lester James Peries, Sumithra Peries, Tissa Abeysekara, D.B. Nihalsinghe, Titus Totawatta, Vasantha Obeysekara, Gamini Fonseka, Mahagama Sekara, Dharmasena Pathiraja and Prasanna Vithanage.

If this is too big a task for local DVD producing houses, they should explore the possibility of linking up with international outlets such as Criterion Collection, Film Movement, Momentum, Pathe, Eureka Masters of Cinema and BFI, which release restored versions of exceptional classics and contemporary movies. Can you imagine giving the blu-ray treatment to a film treasure such as the Nidhanaya (Treasure, 1972)? It would be a high point in our cinema.

Uncompressed

One example of such a classic film which will soon (November) see a blu-ray release (via Criterion) is Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Rashomon. Just to give an idea of what is possible with a world classic, Criterion has packed the disc with a new digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, audio commentary by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie, video introduction by director Robert Altman, World of Kazuo Miyagawa - a documentary on Rashomon’s cinematographer, a sixty-eight-minute documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew, archival audio interview with actor Takashi Shimura, Original and rerelease trailers and new English subtitle translation. This is the sort of treatment our movie classics deserve too.

With a true classic such as Nidhanaya, a blu-ray can include restored picture and sound, commentary tracks, subtitles in several languages, video interviews with film experts and historians, stills galleries, soundtrack music, a booklet on the movie and its place our cinema history and other extra material. Such discs will be prized by film lovers the world over.

And there will also be a brand new print for theatrical exhibition as a by-process.

Films are part and parcel of our lives. They are a part of our culture. It is a crime to let them rot (film nitrates decay over time if not stored properly) until they cannot be used anymore. Now is the time to act to give a new life to our movies and preserve them for generations to come.