[Frameworks] 16mm prints turned pink

[Robert Withers]

Dear Frameworkers,
Thanks for all the interesting responses to this issue. There is such a wealth of knowledge here!

Glad to know there are some digital restoration possibilities, though sounds like something that should be done sooner before further shifts happen. Aii, the tension between preserving the old and making the new. 

I wonder how Kodak color prints and negatives of today will behave? Were they improved after the 70's?
Once converted into digital, we're into the ever-shifting technology stream that still seems to have no practical archival process that won't require constant updating. 

I think of the B/W paper prints in the Library of Congress that are still preserving films of the early 1900s. Illuminated manuscripts on vellum have held up pretty well for 600 years, if limited to beautiful blue, red, and gold. I wonder if the Technicolor process with three B/W separation negatives still exists in China, where Technicolor sold it?

Or should we think of movies as an essentially ephemeral art, like dance, with a life span similar to our own?

Cheers,
Robert Withers



WithersWorks.com



On Dec 19, 2015, at 7:00 AM, frameworks-request at jonasmekasfilms.com wrote:

> 
> 
> From: cbifilms at gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] 16mm prints turned pink
> Date: December 18, 2015 2:17:53 PM EST
> To: Dominic Angerame <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>, Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
> 
> 
> I did a pretty good job of colour correcting a red print by shooting it with a video camera set to auto colour balance. The shutter could be adjusted in 10ths to eliminate flicker.  It brought it right back to where it should be colour-wise and was just slightly more muted than the original likely was.  
> 
> Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Rogers network.
> From: Dominic Angerame
> Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 10:23
> To: Experimental Film Discussion List
> Reply To: Experimental Film Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] 16mm prints turned pink
> 
> Alas all of this is true. A Canyon Cinema I found most of the color prints made in the 70's had turned red. This even happens when the film is never projected. When I worked at the Encyclopedia Britannica in the early 70's most of their prints had turned red. I am inspecting the 16mm film collection at the SF ARt Institute and am finding the same situation with some prints made during the 70's and some 1980 print.
> 
> 
> On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 8:13 PM, Jeff Kreines <jeff at kinetta.com> wrote:
> Eastmancolor was very bad in terms of magenta fading.
> 
> I’ve seem excellent work scanning faded prints and restoring the color (using lots of nodes in Resolve) and doing filmouts (16mm 5K, or 35mm) by VFS, now merged with Colorlab.
> 
> The trick is to have at least a tiny bit of the missing colors present in the scan, to give the software something that it can work with.
> 
> > On Dec 17, 2015, at 9:46 PM, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
> >
> > I don't remember whether it had to be slightly acid or slightly basic, and
> > it was _just_ a thing with the Agfa/Ansco chemistry which is very different
> > (and can be a lot more stable than) the modern Eastman chemistry.  I think
> > there is a discussion of it in Mees' book, though.
> > --scott
> > _______________________________________________
> > FrameWorks mailing list
> > FrameWorks at jonasmekasfilms.com
> > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
> 
> Jeff Kreines
> Kinetta
> jeff at kinetta.com
> kinetta.com
> 

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