Saving Star Wars.

[Poita]

As some of you know, I have an 1977 16mm theatrical print of Star Wars in cinemascope, and am looking to archive it digitally to preserve it.

I'm building a home-made telecine rig to capture the movie one frame at a time, probably via an imaging-source firewire camera as they can be triggered for easy operation.

Now a lot of you AP gurus spend a lot of time messing with image processing and I'm after some brainstorming ideas.

I am building a LED light source to replace the lamp in the 16mm projector, and I can control them to get a perfect mix of RGB.
I will have a camera focus directly on the film in the gate of the projector, and basically pulse the light, grab the image, advance the frame, rinse and repeat.

I'm wondering though if I would be better off doing a 3 pass system, pulsing the RED, capturing the image, The Blue, then capture again, the Green then capture again, and then process them into a colour image, much the way that DSO imaging happens.
Do you reckon a mono camera would do a better job than a one-shot colour?

I'm trying to capture the full dynamic range of the film, or at least as much as possible, so I'm open to any wacky or wonderful ideas on this.

Thanks

-Peter

[Poita]

I've also explored a real-time system where the projector just runs at the film at a constant speed, with no pull-down mechanism and the LEDs flash fast enough to 'freeze' the film image on the CCD, but I'm leaning towards multiple passes per frame.

[koputai]

Peter, what a great project, very interesting.

Of course, 16mm is not strictly 'theatrical', being made for small private and industrial projection rather than commercial cinema, though I used to work in a place with 2x 16mm (one for commercials, one for feature) and one 35mm projectors.

What is the aim of the transfer? Is it just to back it up so as not to be lost, or is it to be actually viewed?

You would have to match the colour temperature of your light source to the colour temperature of the original projector lamp that the print was intended for.

Is the print in cropped 1.33 aspect, or is it a letterbox print? This will have an influence on the resolution you can achieve.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Poita]

It is a 16mm Scope reduction print intended for smaller theatrical release, or for large clubs etc.

It is anamorphic scope.

I can control my LEDs to match the correct colour temperature, and will be grading the final result in Shake to get the colour as close as possible to the original print.

The reason for it is that the original 1977 version is not available any more, only the 'Special Editions'. This is a rare print that pre-dates the Episode IV in the title as well.

It will be to back it up so that it isn't lost, but obviously I'd like to view the finished result as well :)

[koputai]

Just out of interest, have you inquired as to just getting a telecine house to do it?

Cheers,
Jason.

[Poita]

No one will touch it due to copyright etc. I've tried them all :(

[Ausrock]

Poita,

I admire your goal, however, speaking from experience with audio recording, the lifespan of digital media is relatively short when compared to it's "analogue" counterpart. ;)

[Poita]

I'm a bit dense today, I'm not sure what you mean?

[Ausrock]

The common forms of digital storage are either hard drives or CD/DVD. Hard drives on average rarely last 10 years, more realistic estimates say 5 years. The lifespan of CD/DVD's will vary depending on the quality of the blank disc and the burning speed..........ie: the quality of the dyes used in the disc's manufacture and the intensity of the "burn" into those dyes. How long before the dyes suffer degradation is anyones' guess..........I've seen a few burnt CD's become useless within a matter of months. For the best chance of longevity, the general concensus is to burn at a quarter of the disc's rated burn speed. A purchased disc (either audio or vision) is not burnt, they are essentially "pressed" similar to a vinyl record, consequently, short of physical damage to the surface, there's not much that can cause degradation..........at least nothing has become evident since their introduction in the early '80's.

On the other hand, "information" stored on analogue formats (tape or film) can, if stored correctly, last for many, many years. Claims of 100 years are not too far fetched if one considers the number of old films that are in existance whereas, as one museum archivast said......"digital information will last forever or 5 years...........whichever comes first".

;)

[koputai]

I tend to agree Chris. Anything digital that I really want to keep, I make sure is kept on three different media, and at least one of those media is replaced every year to eighteen months. That said, I still have a few old burned CD's from the late 90's that still work.

Pressed CD's and vinyl records are about the only media that have a relatively indefinite life.

Cheers,
Jason.