An exclusive eight-minute video was posted today at MovieWeb offering a fascinating look at the many challenges faced for the restoration of John Huston's The African Queen, which will finally come out on Blu-ray next Tuesday. Paramount's ambition with this restoration program has been to be regarded as one of the industry's best.
The speakers on the restoration include Chris Carey, Exec. VP Worldwide Technical Operations, Paramount Pictures; Ron Smith, VP Restoration, Paramount; Jan A. Yarbrough, Senior Colorist, MPI; John Polito, Audio Re-mastering Engineer, Audio Mechanics; and Valerie V. McMahon, Digital Artist, MPI. Also speaking on the importance of The African Queen are filmmaker and restoration advocate Martin Scorsese, and writer/director Nicholas Meyer.
The release has been overseen by Smith, who was quoted in Variety as stating that prior to this restoration "there was never a good enough print to make a DVD." Now he considers that this new version "will be a terrific treat for anybody that gets to see this."
The restoration was delayed for several years before the studio could have access to the original camera negative, which was stored in the United Kingdom. Rather than risk damaging or losing the negative in transit, Smith's team decided to have it scanned at 4K resolution by UK-based company Cinesite. The digital files were then sent by secure server to Warner Bros' Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) in Burbank to be restored and recombined. "This was probably the first restoration where we never touched the film," says Smith.
Afterwards, action has been taken to correct faded dyes, Technicolor misregistration and problems with process shots. Audio crackles and pops were also removed.
Interestingly, this online video is labeled as an extra for the DVD, and produced in high-definition, so it probably was pulled from the special features at the last minute.