The Dead Pixel Podcast

Lee has known Robert “Bob” Harris for over 20+ years. “I’ve called him so many times for film advice dozens of times” said Lee. “What I love about Bob is his honesty and confidence when I ask a question, and sometimes the question seems so unique I’d think ‘would Bob even know the answer to this?”’ and of course he usually does.” “There was this one time I had an 8 perf negative on the Visconti Film “The Leopard” and it had all these white slugs throughout. So I called Bob. As soon as I asked he said ‘that's called Auto Select and the white slugs were used to tell the film timer where and how to make the optical. Everything you need is right there in that negative’ said Bob”. Well, he was right...as always. In this episode, we go back to Bob’s early days starting out as a collector and what got him going toward a career in restoration. These are the people who have the knowledge of things that we still need to know, and we’re thankful people like Bob still exist. ————————————————————————————————————————————- Borrowing a bit of dialogue from the film, Robert Harris thought it would be "fun" to resurrect the complete version of the favorite film he had never seen. The "fun" project turned into a two-year odyssey, encompassing months of research, detective work, a touch of modern archaeology, a worldwide search and inventory of surviving elements and the painstaking examination of over four tons (sixty miles) of picture and sound elements. With neither surviving prints nor a written continuity of the premiere version of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA as a guide, he took on the task of reconstructing, restoring and joint- producing the restoration. After LAWRENCE was restored on paper, the project moved from Harris' NY base to LA, where the final work was performed on the selected picture and track materials. It was "an extraordinary honor," said Harris, "to be joined in the final restoration process by first Anne Coates" (who received the Academy Award for her editing of LAWRENCE) "and then by Cinematographer Freddie Young, and Sir David, who, after directing the dubbing of some needed dialogue, flew to LA to not only oversee and approve the final form of the restoration, but after 27 years to create the Director's Cut of his masterpiece." Harris, who studied film at New York University, was also involved in the restoration of Abel Gance's NAPOLEON, and was instrumental in its presentation in a joint effort with Francis Coppola's Zoetrope Studios. Harris served as consultant for a new digital restoration of SPARTACUS for Universal, a 50th Anniversary digital restoration of MY FAIR LADY for CBS, as well as THE GODFATHER and THE GODFATHER PART II for Paramount Pictures. Previously he restored Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Francis Thompson’s three panel production, To Be Alive, for the S.C. Johnson Company. His prior work includes the restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 REAR WINDOW, as well as the 1958 VistaVision production “VERTIGO.” In addition Harris also performed analogue restoration on George Cukor’s 1964 MY FAIR LADY for CBS, as well as the reconstruction and restoration of Stanley Kubrick's SPARTACUS for Universal Pictures. He also produced (with Martin Scorsese) the critically acclaimed motion picture THE GRIFTERS. Most recently Harris served as restoration consultant for Universal on Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, and restored (with archivist James Mockoski), the 1926 silent film, THE JOHSTOWN FLOOD. He currently is splitting his time between restorations of favored classics and the preparation of new productions. His restoration work stands as the most extensive, complex and innovative ever attempted. He is currently parnterned with Mr. Mockoski, working on BEAY GESTE (1926), THE AFFAIRS OF ANATOL (1921), MISS LULU BETT (1922), and THE VANISHING AMERICA (1925).

Calling this episode a discussion about sound is really an understatement. Because, although Dean Hurley has been David Lynch’s official “sound guy” for many years, it’s clear that you’re getting way more with this guy than a conversation about audio. We won’t spoil things, so just listen and enjoy the ride. ———————————— Dean is a sound designer, re-recording mixer, and composer best known for his collaboration with film director David Lynch. Hurley operated Lynch’s Asymmetrical Studio from 2005 - 2018, where he collaborated extensively on the sound and music for an array of Lynch’s film projects, commercial work and music albums. In 2017, Hurley served as sound and music supervisor for the return of Lynch’s iconic Twin Peaks on Showtime. He has also supervised and mixed projects for directors like Werner Herzog, Randall Wallace, and most recently 2021's ‘JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass’ for Oliver Stone.

It might be difficult to conjure up exciting images when someone brings up the library. Quietness, stacks of books, and card catalogs likely come to mind. But the Library of Congress? Well, that’s different. It’s the American people’s library after all. And it’s the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. The Audio-Visual Conservation at the LOC in Culpeper, Virginia is home to more than 1.1 million film, television, and video items. With a collection ranging from motion pictures made in the 1890s to today's TV programs, the Library's holdings are an unparalled record of American and international creativity in moving images. In our tenth episode, we get to speak with two incredibly talented and knowledgeable librarians at the LOC: Heather Linville and George Willeman. We get to hear about all the goodies stored in the library that you probably have no idea about. We talk about how to store and catalog over a million sound and video items and we find out what technology the library uses to keep all these items available for the future. And you want to hear about nitrate? You got it! ———————————— Heather Linville is the Motion Picture Laboratory Supervisor at the Library of Congress’ National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC). Heather manages NAVCC’s film digitization and 35mm black and white photochemical operations. Prior to arriving at the Library in 2018, Heather was a Film Preservationist at the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles for 14 years. She has supervised over 300 digital and photochemical projects including eight films on the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. Geo. Willeman is the Nitrate Film Vault Leader for the Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA and feels having the words “film leader” in his job title is very cool. Geo. has been enamored of motion pictures as far back as he can remember. His epiphany came when his dad took him to see The Ten Commandments in a local movie house in Ohio and he became hopelessly hooked. While earning a degree in Motion Picture Production at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Geo got a part time job inspecting nitrate film at the LOC’s vaults at Wright-Patterson AFB next door. He figured it would be a temporary job until graduation---this May will mark thirty-eight years with The Library of Congress.

Joe Gawler is the senior colorist and partner at The Harbor Picture Company in New York City. Joe and Lee go back a very long time. When Lee first started mastering movies in New York City, there weren’t a lot of colorists who could work on feature films outside Hollywood. Most colorists in the city were only doing commercials or music videos and the emphasis was on the 30 second spot or the 3 minute MTV special. Joe could do these of course, but Lee quickly learned that Joe could handle the long form movie re-master very well. With the advent of high definition and the needed content to supply broadcasters with HD versions of classic films, Lee and Joe spent a lot of time together moving through dozens of films including Bergman, Fellini, Tarkovsky and countless others. Cut to 2022 and Joe is one of the leading feature film Digital Intermediate colorists in the world. In this episode, Ryan and Lee go back to Joe’s humble beginnings, share some great stories, and talk about the evolution of the telecine transfer up to the digital camera and the changes in technology. It’s a fun and fast paced conversation. ———————————— Over the years, Joe has built long- standing collaborations with respected cinematographers including Ellen Kuras, Harris Savides, Ed Lachman, Bradford Young, and Florian Ballhaus. Gawler’s recent work includes Disney’s "Hamilton," Kelly Reichardt’s "First Cow," Ron Howard’s "Solo: A Star Wars Story," Greta Gerwig’s "Little Women," Robert Eggers’ "The Lighthouse," and FX’s "Fosse/Verdon." In 2020, "The Lighthouse and" "Little Women" earned nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards for ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Picture’, respectively. “Finding the bespoke look for a project drives my process,” says Gawler. He finds that the art of color grading is “a balancing act to push the most compelling images while staying true to the creative intent for all filmmakers involved.” His subtle art of ensuring that every filmmaker in the room is happy with the final image, and delivering a signature look, is what has given him the reputation of a trusted collaborator.

A few months ago, Lee was speaking with filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld. They were catching up on a few things related to one of the Coen brothers films, and he started to tell me why he didn’t like HDR and why he has a problem with 4k. Intrigued, I continued the conversation. But, while he was ranting I asked him if he would come on the Dead Pixel Podcast and discuss it in detail. He agreed, and we had a very funny and frank discussion about both of those subjects. But that’s not all - we speak about his favorite lenses, moving on from cinematographer to director, shooting for Martin Scorsese and Penny Marshall, and so many other topics. Barry was the cinematographer for the early Coen brothers films including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and Miller’s Crossing, but also shot for Penny Marshall, Rob Reiner, and Danny Devito. He directed many big budget Hollywood films including Addams Family, Get Shorty and Men in Black. He currently lives in Vancouver and continues to work in both feature films and television. He recently released his very hilarious book “Barry Sonnenfeld, Call your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker.

The discussion of film scanning doesn’t come up too often. A lab has a scanner of their choosing for various reasons, and we simply send our film to them for the scanning work asking little questions. But there are plenty of questions to ask with the biggest one being “is this the right scanner for this job?” Maybe it it is, maybe it isn’t. We spoke to Manuel Götz after seeing him teach Southeast Asian film archives students on how ARRI’s famous scanner works. With a huge range of options that could handle just about any piece of film from missing sprockets to shrunken frames that had no right getting through any scanner, the ARRI is the workhorse of many labs and archives throughout the world. Manuel shares his knowledge on the great ARRI machine but also his very interesting perspective on the future of scanning including AI.

We wanted to know what it’s like working for just one filmmaker, albeit an incredibly diverse and prolific one as Francis Ford Coppola. What we learned after talking to James Mockoski is that it’s always kept interesting because the filmmaker is continually interested in the past as much as the present and the future. Keeping classics like Apocalypse Now and The Godfather alive in new mediums for multiple generations is a busy job, and James (just like his boss) knows how to surround himself with the right artists and technicians. It’s a fast paced and honest discussion. James is the film archivist and restoration supervisor for American Zoetrope in San Francisco, California. He received his B.A. in Film/Video from UCSC and graduated with a M.A. in Film Archiving from the University of East Anglia. In 2002, he joined Francis Ford Coppola's company, American Zoetrope as their Film Archivist and he has supervised the restorations of some classic films such as Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Tucker and The Cotton Club. He also oversees the Coppola Family Archive of Costumes and memorabilia, including the Museum Collection held at Inglenook Winery and Francis Coppola Winery in Geyserville.

John Polito is the founder and chief engineer of Audio Mechanics in Burbank, California. Founded in 1991, Audio Mechanics is one of the most sought-after, respected, award winning audio service providers for film studios, music labels, content owners, collections and archives, with a reputation for aesthetic integrity and unparalleled technical proficiency. Speaking audio engineer to audio engineer, Ryan and John trade war stories and anecdotes while discussing many years of working in the audio world. It's a frank and insightful conversation about restoring old films and how good archiving skills can set you up for a successful career.

Davide Pozzi has been working at Cineteca di Bologna since 2001, and in 2006 he became the director of L’Immagine Ritrovata film restoration laboratory. Under his management, the laboratory has established itself as one of the most highly specialized facilities in the field of film restoration worldwide. L’Immagine Ritrovata is exclusively specialized in film restoration and is equipped to cover every workflow, from 4K to photochemical. The equipment with which the laboratory is furnished is at the forefront of technological innovation and is designed for the restoration of films from all type periods. In this episode Davide goes into the history of building a restoration empire that is unparalleled in the small world of restoration and film.

Archiving thousands of film and digital assets for a giant studio like Paramount Pictures seems like a daunting task. But Andrea makes it seem both fascinating and exciting. We spoke to her about life at the big studio, her former work at the British Film Institute, UCLA and Dreamworks. And we get into the nitty gritty of War of the Worlds, the world of The Godfather and many other titles. The discussion about creating a great workplace for your team is especially inspiring.