Lawrence of Arabia restoration
Contents
1988 restoration
Robert A. Harris supervised the 1988 photochemical restoration, which was released in 70mm to theatres in 1989.
2001 audio clean up for DVD release
Robert A. Harris: From what I've been told by Grover Crisp, they cleaned up the track a bit, but other than that it should be the same. One interesting note: right after the main titles, there was an error in the track. We attempted to get it out in '88 but lost audio with it as we didn't have the digital tools that we have now. If you listen carefully just as Peter gets on the cycle you'll hear (on previous) versions: a "3" pop. This has been eliminated along with some generator noise, which we also could not get out at that time.
[1]
2011 restoration
Grover Crisp supervised the 2011 digital restoration.
'The 65mm original negative was scanned on two large format 65mm Imagica XE scanners at FotoKem at 8K to capture the resolution of the 65mm negative, resulting in a file size of 8192x3584 pixels. "I reserved half of 2010 to do this work," said Crisp.' [2]
It took six months to capture around 325,000 frames. [3] The result was released to theatres in 4K and to Blu-ray [4]. A 4K UHD Blu-ray release has yet to happen.
A longer shot from Lawrence that was also taken in the desert showed a series of fine concentric lines near the top of the frame in a pattern reminiscent of a fingerprint. These, Crisp explained, are cracks in the film emulsion caused by its melting in the desert heat and then healing over. The lines have always been there in the negative and result in an unusual rippling artifact when viewing the movie, but until now there hasn’t been a way to fix it. “We’ve never been able to see this kind of detail before—it’s always been kind of submerged,” he says. “But now, with this 8K scan, it’s more obvious.” Sony commissioned a third party to develop software to minimize or eliminate this distracting artifact for the restored version, which is due out on Blu-ray and in theaters later this year. [5]
2012 Restoration Credits
Restored in 4K by Colorworks
Colorist Scott Ostrowsky
Project Manager Mike Eisenberg
Baselight Conform Reza Amidi
Opticals Jesse Morrow
Image Restoration Services
Prasad Group Channai Restoration Team Hollywood Restoration Team
MTI Film
Research and Development Kevin Manbeck Larry Chernoff
Restoration Artists Bridgid O’Donnell Stephanie Farley Carlos Iniguez Tony Catanese Larry Chernoff
Audio Restoration Services
Chase Audio by Deluxe
Restoration Re-Mastering / Mixing James B. Young
Editorial / Foley Nick Beljic
Research Al Ramirez
Preservation Transfer Robert Rieger
Digital Restoration Gene Hobson Ellis Burman
Project Coordination Lisa Davidson Alex Chane Amy Rosenbloom
Film Scanning and Recording Services
Fotokem
65mm 8K Film Scanning and 4K Film Recording
Project Management Andrew Oran Jeff Heacock Daniel Rapo
Technical Supervisor Vince Roth
I/O Supervisor David Rosenthal
I/O Operations Les Meek Rick Lopez Paul McGhee Les Vary Jerry Callaghan
70mm Color Timer Kristen Zimmermann
References
- ↑ [https://www.thedigitalbits.com/site_archive/articles/022701htfchat.html Chat Transcript Robert Harris on Home Theater Forum]
- ↑ https://variety.com/2012/film/news/advanced-tech-in-lawrence-restoration-1118060183/
- ↑ How to restore a movie masterpiece
- ↑ Sony Pictures Entertainment Celebrates: 50th Anniversary of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia
- ↑ Hollywood, The 4K Way Page 2
