Advanced Film Capture Working to Save Historical Films

A film canister is shown in its early stages of decomposition. Historical films and newsreels are being lost over time. (Guy Morell/Advanced Film Capture)

Metal doors lead to rooms built to withstand explosions. A thermostat watches the temperature, as even a light bulb left on can set a room in flames. And when the time comes, a tightly closed canister is carefully taken from the racks that line the rooms, opened with care, and a film reel is gently removed and placed on an old camera. As it begins spinning, light shines through and an image of a world both lost and nearly forgotten is projected—scenes of living history that may very soon be reduced to dust and chemical waste.

Thousands of film vaults like this still exist around the world, yet nearly all of them are facing the same fate. Filmmakers have already abandoned them—whether for shooting movies or TV shows—and with the switch to digital, time is running out for the vaults and all the films inside. And as the films deteriorate, the history they contained will never be seen again.

AnthroCine has a few other tricks up its sleeve. The film scanner was built from the ground up with the single purpose of transfering archive films to digital format. It works like similar machines—projecting the film’s image into a camera—but it can switch exposures on the fly, it can be adjusted for converting different film types, and it even has some features to better care for deteriorating films.

There are a small handful of film restoration projects going on, with colleges including UCLA and NYU leading some of the efforts, but they’re still few and far between. “It’s a shrinking world, for sure,” Vinson said. “I wouldn’t describe it as a job with a lot of growth.”

 

He added, however, that it is a passion for the work that drives those involved. He said that with his team in particular, “I don’t think anyone on this project actually expects to get rich off this, but it’s a dream job.”

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