Call for submissions closed

SUBMISSIONS ENTERED

xiv) Award for Archive Restoration or Preservation Project

   
Accident (1967): restoration
BFI/Studio Canal/ Deluxe Digital London
Restoration carried out in UK

The story centers on a married Oxford professor, Stephen, who is experiencing a mid-life crisis. The world changes for him when he meets Anna, a beautiful young woman who is engaged to one of his students, William. Following a car accident outside Stephen's home in which William is killed and Anna is severely disoriented, she is obliged to remain with Stephen although his wife is out of town. The events of the build up to the accident are told in flashbacks.

TECHNICAL: Accident – 1967 35mm original colour negative – aspect ratio 1.33:1 and 1.66:1. Directed by Joseph Losey with screenplay by Harold Pinter - submitted as an example of the work of Deluxe Digital London’s grading and restoration department. This project was collaboration between Studio Canal / BFI / Optimum Releasing who approached DDL at the end of 2008 with a view to screen at Cannes / theatrical re-release / data archive. Working closely with the BFI National Archive team and Gerry Fisher BSC our Senior Colourist – Stephen Bearman regarded the 2k data captured from 35mm original Negative and also sections from 35mm Interpositive – the neg exhibited tears and poor cement joins – scratching and some shrinkage. The 2K theatrical grading was carried out on our Baselight 8 system with simultaneous picture repair using MTI and PF clean systems. Final delivery was new 35mm Digital Neg /35mm show prints / HDCAM SR masters / LT03 Archive of raw and graded data.

 

Comedy Playhouse: Are You Being Served (1972): colour recovery of pilot programme
BBC / BBC Studios and Post Production
Restoration carried out in UK

Are You Being Served? was a British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the men's and women's departments of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London department store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John Chapman. The idea for the show came from Lloyd's brief period working at Simpsons of Piccadilly in the early 1950s, a clothing store which traded for over 60 years until 1999. In 2004, it came 20th in Britain's Best Sitcom.

TECHNICAL:This pilot episode was made in colour and initially recorded on 2” videotape, but only archived on black and white film. Fortunately, the film recording process captured microscopic dots containing the colour sub-carrier information. The resolution of HD film scanning allowed the application of some tailor-made software by Richard Russell to remove geometric distortions inherent in the film recording and recover the original colour. The pictures then required some frame-by-frame re-touching to correct colour recovery errors, VidFIRE processing (to recreate video interlacing) and grading.

 

Fawlty Towers (1975): 12 episodes restoration & DVD release
2Entertain / BBC Studios and Post Production
Restoration carried out in UK

Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Although only twelve episodes were produced the programme has had a lasting and powerful legacy. The setting is a fictional hotel called Fawlty Towers, the show was written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, both of whom played main characters. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 that was voted by industry professionals, Fawlty Towers was placed first. It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004.

TECHNICAL: Widely regarded as one of the UK’s all time favourite sitcoms, the last DVD box set was made in 2001. However, advances in decoding and noise reduction technology combined with BBC Studios and Post Production craft skills, have enabled the picture quality to be greatly enhanced for this new release. In addition, the BBC Studios and Post Production Telecine team was able to locate and access a few more film insert rolls from the original recordings, which were re-transferred. Despite the majority being the original TX prints, which have now faded, it was possible to produce a far improved picture with better detail, colour and contrast.

Now and Then (1967-68): 110 hours + 330 interviews restored & DVD/web release etc
BFI National Film Archive / Prime Focus London
Restoration carried out in UK

During 1967/8 Bernard Braden filmed a series of interviews, which he called Now and Then. The initiative was self-financed, without commission for the programmes to be broadcast. No buyer emerged and production was never completed. Braden interviewed public figures and personalities right across the spectrum of society; from Enoch Powell to Sean Connery, Joan Littlewood to Spike Milligan, Robert Maxwell to Quentin Crisp. In 2008 the BFI acquired the unedited rushes, with an immediate ambition to include all 330 in the JISC Inview project. Film elements were combined with sound for the first time to create high definition video masters.

TECHNICAL: The interviews, originally captured on 16mm ektachrome reversal stock in 4:3 aspect ratio, with sound recorded onto ¼" magnetic tracks, are now preserved by the BFI National Archive in the following formats: original film and mag tracks, high definition 1080P HDCAM SR videotape, and 50 Mb/s MPEG2 digital file formats, all in 4:3 aspect ratio. These elements are held in the BFI’s vaults at Berkhamsted in the correct preservation environments. Specific problems of vinegar syndrome and sound synchronisation were managed throughout the process using custom techniques. Through BFI Inview, academic access has been extended to all UK HE institutions. Audience reach has been maximised through inclusion in the Five TV series, Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: 60's revealed. Other outputs have included additionality to two BFI DVD releases, inclusion in BFI Screenonline, and public screening of the recreated pilot TV programme

 

The Red Shoes (1948) - restoration
ITV / BFI / The Film Foundation / UCLA Film and Television Archive
Restoration carried out in UK/USA

Originally released in 1948, ‘The Red Shoes’ was the tenth collaboration between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and is widely considered a cinematic masterpiece. Based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a pair of enchanted crimson ballet slippers, it follows the beautiful Vicky Page, a young socialite who loves ballet, the rising composer Julian Craster whom she loves, and her dictatorial director, Boris Lermontov.

TECHNICAL: Starting with the original 35mm nitrate three strip camera negatives (which had been adversely affected by mould and shrinkage), each yellow, cyan and magenta reel was scanned at 4K resolution. These scans were then subject to extensive digital restoration – re-registering the colours; addressing colour breathing and contrast issues; removing dirt and defects; and colour grading shot-to-shot – before being recorded back to 35mm colour film stock. Using an original Technicolor dye transfer print as a guide, this digital version was produced to combine the best quality of modern film with the most pleasing aspects of the vintage Technicolor ‘look’.

 

United Press International Television News Collection (1963 – 1985) - restoration 3500 hours/approx 70,000 news stories to HD & web
AP Archive, The Film and Video Archive of the Associated Press / Éclair Laboratoires
Restoration carried out in UK/France

The UPITN archive is the legacy of the United Press International Television News agency which covered world events between 1963 – 1985. Due to many changes in the ownership and control of the agency, the catalogue index became scattered and consequently, the “lost” 3,500 hours of 16mm film footage became inaccessible for decades. This project was launched to catalogue the collection, to restore the 16mm films and transfer to high definition videotape, and to digitise the footage. This complex and ambitious project has unearthed some incredible and important “new” footage of the events and people who have shaped the modern era.

TECHNICAL: This major project is worthy of recognition as it is one of intense complexity drawing on the full spectrum of the archiving skill set, including research, original cataloguing, complicated logistics, restoration, high-definition preservation, and technology. It is of vital importance culturally as well as for the archive industry as the collection itself represents a vital missing link in the history of television news. A reflection of the project’s significance was the worldwide media attention it received, which is perhaps greater than for any other archive-related initiative. The project is all the more remarkable considering that it was entirely privately financed.