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www.postmagazine.com 27 POST NOVEMBER 2014 hen vintage films need their pictures and sound restored, who ya' gonna call? Studios have a big choice these days as a growing roster of facili- ties and talented artists lend their skills to preserving classic and iconic motion pictures for audiences to enjoy on the big screen or at home in today's latest digital formats. COLORWORKS — GHOSTBUSTERS It's been 30 years since fans were intro- duced to the unflappable Ghostbusters, and to commemorate the anniversary of the Ivan Reitman-directed comedy, Sony Pictures re-released the film to theaters across the US and Canada for Labor Day weekend, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment issued a Blu-ray special edition later in September. Colorworks (www.sonypicturesstudios.com), a DI facility on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, CA, provided picture restoration and remastering for a new 4K version of the comedy classic. The original negative of Ghostbusters was in "excellent shape," says Rita Belda, Sony Pictures Entertainment's vice president of asset management, film restoration and digital mastering. The negative had the usual dirt and wear commensurate with its age, but its color had not faded. "It helps when you start with a fairly-clean and uncontaminated image," she notes. "The picture had been very well photographed, so there were all kinds of details to work with, including in the inky black cityscapes, that we could bring out from the original negative in a crisp, clear 4K version." James Owsley, technical specialist in Belda's asset management group, oversaw the restoration. The negative was scanned in 4K at Colorworks, where restoration colorist Christian Lamie per- formed the 4K color grade on a FilmLight Baselight system. The Prasad Group in India helped with dust and dirt removal. "When you're working with a film this iconic you want to reference all the material available to you: We had an answer print from the last photochemical restoration about 15 years ago and the previous video masters," Belda explains. "We did that last restoration with the participation of cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, and he had been involved with the previous transfer, too. When you have that connection to the talent the goal is to work within the established frame- work; not remake the film. Christian had a much greater range available to him working with the original negative than with previous HD transfers from an IP." So with the mandate of "maintaining the look that's been seen and appreci- ated by so many fans," Lamie strove to bring out all the detail captured in the original negative that was now finally accessible in a 4K version, she says. "This was one of the first fully-4K res- torations from original negative as part of our new initiative, Video Unlimited, Sony's 4K service," Belda adds, "so we were working end-to-end in 4K: scanning, color correction, merging in the restoration. It amounted to some pretty heavy lifting for the IT department since we had to play back 4K in realtime in the grading theater. A lot of people at Colorworks worked very hard to make sure we had no sense of how difficult it was to manage all that 4K data and review it in realtime." Ghostbusters did not present a chal- lenge common to many films of its era in which "opticals and VFX shots were of a lower quality than the original negative," she notes. "That was not an issue here. The photography and the visual effects work were first rate — and they hold up beautifully today — delivering the same scary thrills when you see them in 4K as they did originally." She believes that the 4K restoration of Ghostbusters "helped set the tone for the pace and data management of [subse- quent] 4K restorations — and we've done in excess of 40 now." Belda, who recently noticed a closed-caption broadcast version of Ghostbusters playing on a restaurant's TV set, says it was "exciting to be able to bring out the depth and detail in a film that resonates for so many people. And the advantage of 4K is that you can bring back a beloved release for people who enjoy seeing it in their local multi- plex, too." CINERIC — THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL New York City's Cineric (www.ciner ic.com) was tasked with providing a 4K restoration of the iconic 1951 sci-fi film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, for Twentieth Century Fox recently. The Robert Wise-directed feature is a fixture on "best" lists worldwide and a beloved piece of film — and Cold War — history. Cineric used its proprietary wet-gate scanning process to create 10-bit, 4K DPX files for restoration. The company introduced the technology to the digital world more than 20 years ago. "The pro- W BY CHRISTINE BUNISH Cineric's Seth Berkowitz and Daniel DeVincent (inset, L-R) used a combination of tools, including their proprietary wet-gate scanning process, DaVinci Revival and Autodesk Lustre, to restore The Day The Earth Stood Still. FILM RESTORATION