The Association of Moving Image Archivists has enlisted keynote speakers Erik Weaver and John Downey for the Digital Asset Symposium, November 18-19 at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower in Portland, Oregon. This year marks the first time that DAS will run simultaneously with AMIA’s Annual Conference, which takes place November 18-21.
When Ken Burns’s 11-hour documentary The Civil War first aired on PBS in 1990, it set new standards for television documentaries through its astonishingly detailed, sweeping and often heart-wrenching recount of the epic conflict between the North and South. Working under the direction of Burns and restoration producer Daniel J. White, Technicolor PostWorks New York participated in a meticulous 4K restoration that brings the classic documentary vividly back to life. The project was done in preparation for the 25th anniversary rebroadcast of The Civil War on PBS and its Blu-ray release this month, and also coincides with the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination and the end of the war.
1776, Columbia Pictures’ exuberant 1972 film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical is now available on Blu-ray, from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, in the form of a spectacular 4K digital restoration. Prepared under the guidance of director Peter H. Hunt and Sony Pictures Entertainment executive vice president of asset management, film restoration & digital mastering Grover Crisp, the new director’s cut restores the film to its original visual splendor and includes newly-discovered material, never before seen by the public.
Building on its 2012 Centennial celebration, Universal Pictures has announced its continued commitment to honor the studio's rich film history and cultural legacy by restoring some of the world's most classic silent films. During the next four years, the studio will restore approximately 15 silent film titles from Universal's early years. The complete list of films is still in development in collaboration with outside film historians, institutions, and preservationists.
Digital Film Technology has launched its Wet-Gate technology for its latest Scanity HDR film scanner, which is designed to provide a real-time organic solution for the ingest and management of difficult to solve historical film transfer issues – such as dust and scratch removal.
FotoKem’s restoration of Twentieth Century Fox’s The Sound of Music will kick off the sixth annual TCM Classic Film Festival on March 26 in Hollywood. Originally released in 1965, the re-mastered version of this cinematic treasure will grace the screen of the TCL Chinese Theater IMAX as the fest’s Opening Night Film, as previously announced by TCM.
