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www.postmagazine.com 28 POST NOVEMBER 2018 Using the latest digital restoration techniques, facilities are busy transforming aged, faded and damaged films into treasured content ready for new theatrical runs, home video distribution and release on streaming platforms or safe archiving for future viewing. Here, industry pros discuss with Post how they are preserv- ing masterpieces and cult favorites of yesteryear for future generations. NBCUNIVERSAL — THE MAN WHO LAUGHS Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal (www. nbcuni.com), has continued its historic silent film initiative with the restoration of The Man Who Laughs, a 1928 romantic drama directed by Paul Leni and starring Conrad Veidt. Based on the Victor Hugo novel, the film centers around the son of a noble rival to the English king whose face has been permanently disfigured into a grotesque smile in an act of revenge. He becomes a circus clown and falls in love with an orphaned blind girl before he's faced with the decision to reclaim his birthright or follow his love for the young woman. The primary source for the restoration was a 35mm composite fine grain from the Universal Studios vault, which was created in 1954 from the nitrate original camera negative. The 4K dig- ital restoration was completed by NBCUniversal StudioPost. The restored film premiered at the 2018 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. "Often, few film elements survive, but we had access to 18 various film elements in international archives," says Peter Schade, vice president of content management at NBCUniversal global media opera- tions. "We used the fine grain as the primary element as it is only one generation removed from the original negative, and it's got English inter-titles." Nevertheless, "there was more than 25 years worth of aging on the fine grain, not to mention the print- RESTORED TO LIFE A NEW GENERATION OF FILM FANS DISCOVER LOST MASTERWORKS AND CULT FAVORITES, THANKS TO DIGITAL RESTORATION BY CHRISTINE BUNISH RESTORED TO LIFE Restored at NBCUniversal's StudioPost 1928's The Man Who Laughs