Page 43 - Fujifilm Exposure_42 Cheri_ok

n 1963, Sergio Leone embarked Ion a low, low budget project
that in retrospect helped change the history of filmmak- ing. For the lead in his trail-
blazing ‘Spaghetti Western’, A Fistful Of Dollars, he chose a young, relatively unknown actor called Clint Eastwood, and he handed music chores to his old school friend Ennio Morricone.
The film was shot in Technis- cope (2 perf. flat Cinemascope) on leftover film stock. Now this classic has been restored. Copenhagen’s Digital Film Lab (DFL) was awarded the assignment and the project was managed by DFL’s head of restora- tion, Bet Schwenn.
The original 2 perf. Camera neg- ative was scanned using a Spirit 4k scanner. After this, a Da Vinci “Re- solve” system was used to grade in order to recreate the look of the original Technicolor prints. Quite fortuitously, an original trailer was found and used as a reference.
The colourist was Jorgen Chris- tiansen, who has completed more than 50 restoration projects at DFL,
in this case supervised by the exter- nal consultant Johan Prijs.
The grading was approved using a Barco DP90 projector. Next, two Da Vinci “Revival” systems were used for dust and scratch removal. Five operators worked on this project for two months around the clock super- vised by Claus Greffel (senior opera- tor at DFL) who also headed the advanced image repair using two Au- todesk “Inferno” systems.
For film re-recording, an ARRI Laser was used onto the new ETERNA-RDI (laser specific interme- diate stock) for maximum sharpness and colour fidelity. Using a colour management system, primaries were
very selectively boosted quite a lot. After a number of tests, ETERNA-RDI 3521XD print stock was chosen be- cause of its very deep blacks and high saturation. This stock is nor- mally not available in Europe but Fujifilm kindly arranged a special shipment for this project.
The HD version for digital pro- jections and future HD DVD releases was made onto a Sony HDSR 4:4:4 deck. The HD DVD release will con- tain the original title sequence in which the Italian names are English pseudonyms including that of the director who, in the first, version, was credited as... Bob Robertson.
AFTER A NUMBER
OF TESTS, ETERNA-RDI 3521XD PRINT STOCK WAS CHOSEN BECAUSE OF ITS VERY DEEP BLACKS AND HIGH SATURATION.
THIS STOCK IS NORMALLY NOT AVAILABLE IN EUROPE BUT FUJIFILM ARRANGED A SPECIAL SHIPMENT FOR THIS PROJECT.
TECHTALK_ONE/ETERNA-RDI
THEMANWITHNONAME
RIDESAGAIN...
THE RESTORATION OF
A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS
Photo inset: The Team, l-r: Jørgen Christiansen, Senior Colourist, DFL; Johan Prijs, Consultant for Ripley’s Film, Rome; Franca Farina, Representative, Cineteca Nazionale, Rome; Claus Greffel, Senior Restoration Operator, DFL Above left: A Fistful Of Dollars BEFORE treatment and, far right and top inset, AFTER restoration; centre: Kris Kolodziejski, CEO, Digital Film Lab, Copenhagen
FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE • THE MAGAZINE • EXPOSURE • 41