FRONTE DEL PORTO ( On The Waterfront )

""On The Waterfront
Sony Pictures Entertainment has preserved or restored over 1,500 films so far, including such classics as LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, FUNNY GIRL, EASY RIDER, and IN COLD BLOOD. Other films such as THE BIG HEAT, IN A LONELY PLACE, COVER GIRL, FIVE EASY PIECES and 1776, have also recently been restored, making them available to a whole new generation of film enthusiasts.The technology employed for restoring films has evolved over the years. As the technology improves, it is often possible to return to work previously completed and improve the final product. ON THE WATERFRONT is a good example. When first restored by Sony Pictures, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, in 1992, state-of-the-art laboratory processing and printing were employed. Although many problems with the picture and the audio could be addressed, such as torn perforations or scratches on the emulsion of the negative and were replaced in acceptable fashion at the time, there were still problems that could not be resolved because necessary film materials did not exist.
More than a decade later, we now have the availability of certain digital technologies that allow us to achieve results not possible in a traditional photo-chemical (analog) world. With ON THE WATERFRONT, there were several places in the picture negative that were torn or scratched that the studio could not replace because of the lack of good secondary material with which to replace the damaged sections. Typically, a torn original negative would be replaced with a duplicate negative that was made prior to the damage occurring in the original.
The unfortunate trade-off would be the resulting loss of picture information, or resolution, because of the generational loss from the copying of the original to a positive element then to a duplicate negative. An acceptable loss, perhaps, in a traditional sense, but not really desirable.

On The Waterfront (cont'd)
Scanning the damaged film into a digital file workstation at a resolution adequate to capture the picture information in the original element is an essential first step, in this case a 4K scan for WATERFRONT, using Mac G4 workstations, running OS X with Jaguar, and with LaCie FireWire 80GB hard drives, utilizing software that supports a color depth of 16bits. Most of this type of work is done adapting software originally developed for the special effects industry -- removing wires or props from a shot is similar to removing a scratch. When a frame is torn or scratched, the restoration team compares the damaged frames to "clean" frames before or after the damaged one, then copies over the clean frame or partial image into the damaged frame, essentially erasing the damage. It is important that any digitally-replaced shots or sequences match-in with the surrounding original picture so that the digital replacement is seamless and effectively invisible to the viewer.
These before and after shots from ON THE WATERFRONT illustrate the ability to seamlessly replace a damaged frame with a digitally-restored frame. Scratches, tears and general wear can be observed in the first frames from the original picture negative. Next to those are examples of the same frames now restored using new digital processing techniques.""

...ED ECCO QUALCHE FRAME CON IL BEFORE AND AFTER, DEL RESTAURO...:

...Che è davvero IMPRESSIONANTE, e di certo non capisco come mai, dopo un Lavorone Certosino e Sublime del Genere, non abbiano almeno fatto uscire una qualche Special Edition in BD , o comunque qualcosa di Maestoso (come la Superba edizione di Lawrence Of Arabia) al pari del Restauro e dell'Opera, come invece la Criterion (che in questo caso non c'entra nulla) ha fatto...
...In ogni caso ,speriamo bene e attendiamo i risultati, in ogni caso credo che con la Sony possiamo aovviamente dormire sonni tranquilli.

ORIGINAL

RESTORED



ORIGINAL


RESTORED

1.33:1


1.66:1


1.85:1



...Ed ancora...:

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1.66:1


1.85:1


...E ancora...:


1.33:1


1.66:1


1.85:1