Klarinet Archive - Posting 000451.txt from 2005/01

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: Edison recordings
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 04:11:00 -0500

Bill Hausmann wrote:

> What, you think it is improper to go back to the original negative,
> get the best possible print, and digitally remove any additional
> scratches and other defects to produce a "perfect" version of the film?

No, that wasn't what I was referring to.

> Early silent motion pictures were recorded at different speed than is
> common today, but it had been accepted practice to run them at modern
> projector speeds, resulting in the rapid, jerky action that was NOT
> originally intended. When played at correct speed, as is more common
> today, they may flicker a bit more, but the motion is correct.

What I object to is not *playing* the film at a different speed but
altering the frames so as to make them "fit" with our modern equipment.
As I said in my previous email, "[W]here it's simply a case of our
equipment not being able to process them properly then we need to alter
our equipment, not the data." It shouldn't be too difficult, in an age
of DVD players and computers, to be able to set up our systems to play
at 16 frames per second instead of 24 (for example). That would be
fine. Altering the frames of the movie to make it "fit" our systems, on
the other hand, is not (IMO).

> The artifacts of the recording process cannot be completely removed,
> but they can be minimized. It is actually quite surprising how much
> information is present in those early acoustical recordings!

I personally think that the artifacts of the recording process can be an
important part of the character of certain recordings. I don't mind
restoration, but I do think it's important to preserve the recordings as
well as to try to recapture the performances. My ideal would be to have
double CDs with on one CD the recording "as is" and on the other to have
the restored performance.

But I'm just an idealist... ;-)

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