(July 8, 2010)
ARRI has hosted its first major workshop on the rapidly growing market for archive and restoration technologies. The two-day event at the company's headquarters in Munich attracted more than 80 attendees from a diverse range of backgrounds and companies, including four national film archives, post houses, broadcasters and manufacturers.
Leading restoration software companies demonstrated their latest products, all of which facilitate digital repairs to damaged film materials. These included Phoenix and DVO from Digital Vision, DaVinci Revival from Blackmagic, Correct from MTI and Diamant from HS-ART. ARRI also presented its new and unique range of ARRISCAN archive tools, as well as the ARRILASER film recorder and RELATIVITY software.
Seminars assessed various archive workflows and technologies, addressing issues such as the 2k versus 4k debate and the challenge of long-term storage. Among the speakers was Mikko Kuutti, who sits on the Technical Commission of FIFA (the International Federation of Film Archives). Case studies included the well-publicised restoration work recently done on Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece,
Metropolis.
With so much attention in the industry currently being paid to new digital cameras, the Archive Workshop served as timely reminder that equal efforts must be made towards archiving the digital data being created, as well as preserving the rich cultural heritage that already exists on film and making it accessible in a digital world.
Feedback from the event has been overwhelmingly positive. John Palmer, Digital Film Bureau Manger at Ascent 142 in London, commented: "I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop, which had the right mix of informality and friendly professionalism. The ARRI demos and the talks were particularly useful and interesting; I learnt a lot and came away with a lot to think about. We're certainly interested in returning for future events."
Martin Bennett, Digital Vision's VP Worldwide Marketing said: "Digital Vision is very keen to promote and assist its partners and ARRI's restoration workshop provided a unique platform for attendees to draw on the vast experience available."
For more information / documentation on this workshop and similar events planned for the future, please contact smaier@arri.de
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