Warner’s Motion Picture Imaging Building on the studio backlot
Our final studio visit was with grand old Warner Brothers.
Restoration and preservation was the main theme for our visit with Warner Brothers (WB).
-Patrick Sun
Film Scanning Room
Upon arrival, we were graciously brought around the studio lots and were shown how a few restorations are done (How The West Was Won was highlighted in an excellent presentation), how daylies are completed, where a mass majority of the film reels (some that were seen included the Harry Potter films, Heat and North By Northwest) are kept (in nearly a 50 degree room that has a majority of the oxygen sucked out in case of a fire).
-Justin Sluss
Then we were led into a small screening room to see a presentation on the recent restoration of "How The West Was Won" as it was a huge challenge to take the original Cinerama film elements and correct for the cinerama effects, vignetting, and panoramic stitching of the footage where the original aspect ratio was 2.89:1, and then it was stitched together for a 2.76:1 aspect ratio, and finally pared down to a 2.40:1 aspect ratio after it was restored. The restoration team also produce Smilebox, which created the Cinerama viewing experience on the Blu-ray for "HTWWW". Overall, a very impressive restoration project, and an enlightening presentation. This restoration crew also did the restoration of "The Godfather" parts 1 and 2.
-Patrick Sun
Baselight board in a color correction suite
A few more tidbits from our visit to MPI (the film scanning and restoration unit at Warner). This was from a conversation I had with the senior official who was guiding our particular small group, whose name I unfortunately did not write down.
•App. 90% of current motion pictures pass through a digital intermediate (DI) stage.
•Most DIs are still done at 2K resolution.
•MPI's ultimate goal is to offer 4K work at 2K prices, but they're not there yet.
•DVDs and Blu-rays are mastered directly from the DI, if one exists (thus confirming something many of us have long suspected).
This was an exciting visit for me. I've read a lot about the operations of telecine and restoration facilities, but never seen on in real life. MPI is probably the best in the world right now, as indicated by its selection for the Godfather restoration. Getting to see it in operation was thrilling.
-Michael Reuben
I believe that only one word may be able to describe the experience all 50+ of us had at the Warner Brother lots: breathtaking.
-Brendan Surpless
Ronnee Sass welcomes attendees to Warner Bros.
The tour guides led us to one of WB's theaters, and WB's George Feltenstein (long-time friend and supporter of the HTF) was gracious enough to walk around with us, and then present a few goodies for us at the theater
-Patrick Sun
As a long time Laserdisc fan (kiddies, ask your parents what those were!) with about 2000 titles still in my inventory I can say with a certain degree of authority that George Feltenstein is, in every sense of the word, a giant in the LD (and now the DVD and HD) industry. He was responsible for a lot of the quality and titles that actually reached our homes. His enthusiasm for HT and its media is infectious and extremely productive. Warner has a gem here!
-Robert Fowkes
George Feltenstein gives us an overview on upcoming restoration projects then raffles off the book, “You must remember this: The Warner Bros. Story” which was won by Michael Deakin.
Each attendee was given a handsome goodie bag from Warner Brothers that contained the Blu-ray collector's tin for "A Chrismas Story", JFK on Blu-ray, Quo Vadis on DVD, and some fun promo items, like a .357 Magnum-shaped (it could be a .44, though) chocolate candy to promote the Dirty Harry collection on Blu-ray, a magnetic photo holder with a photo of the WB water tower, a Bugs Bunny pen, and a Dirty Harry keychain that comes with mini-handcuffs.
-Patrick Sun
On our HTF meet four years ago Feltenstein and his crew were unavailable to meet with us and it appeared they'd been thinking of how to make up for it ever since. They rolled out the red carpet, made us feel more welcome than we probably deserved, and humbled us with their graciousness and hospitality. Thanks to Mr. Feltenstein, his amazing staff and Warner Brothers Studio!
-Cameron Yee
