Arri-news 2014

BEFORE and regarded as part of the artistic expression in a film image. This is especially true of black-and-white films such as the original Godzilla , so we give real care and attention to the restoration of monochromatic film grains. ARRI has successfully ensured that the ARRISCAN does not express grain as unpleasant granular noise, which can often happen with other equipment.” Even though the final DCP of Godzilla was screened in 2K, since most of the digital theaters in Japan only have 2K projectors, it was so film-like that many audiences believed they were watching a celluloid print, which Tokyo Laboratory took as indicative of the restoration’s success. As well as the newly restored version, the ungraded 4K scan data has been kept for long-term preservation on LTO, for possible reuse in the future. The other project taken on by Tokyo Laboratory, a 30-minute television program covering all 28 Godzilla films, required a different approach. The goal here was to optimize the scanned images for large consumer 4K displays, which necessitated some testing. Once all the films had been previewed, an offline EDL specifying what footage to use was created and then converted into a cut list. Ryosuke Miki, Chief Engineer of film scanning and recording, notes, “This series of films has been continuously produced through 60 years of evolving film technology. It was unusual for us to be scanning such a wide range of different film formats on one project, from Academy, to anamorphic, to spherical widescreen and back to anamorphic. Fortunately the ARRISCAN could easily handle the multiple variations of format and aspect ratio, as well as the many optical composite shots in these films. We discovered that by using the ARRISCAN, even decades-old films can achieve a level of sharpness that perfectly suits the emerging media of 4K broadcasting.” With the test broadcast of this 30-minute Godzilla retrospective proving a workflow for 4K transmission of restored historic films, and the fully restored 1954 Godzilla screening at 60 theaters across Japan, the two projects have proved a resounding success. This is especially relevant because they are the first restorations in the country to have been 14 ARRI NEWS