The Reel Thing Technical Symposium
 

The Association of Moving Image Archivists just announced the lineup for its annual technical symposium, 'The Reel Thing,' August 21-23 in Los Angeles. One of the topics, and presenters, may be familiar to the group:

"Miniman, the ETF and Color Prototype #3 - introduction to the Early Television Foundation and Museum and the discovery and restoration of an early RCA color receiver - (Ralph Sargent, Film Technology; Nick Williams, ETF)"

Cool! Additional program info below, and at:

http://www.amianet.org/events/theree...2/program.html

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The Reel Thing begins Thursday, August 23, with an Opening Night reception followed by:

A Special Tribute to the Nicholas Brothers -- presented by Film Forum's repertory program director Bruce Goldstein. The evening will include clips and rare home movies of the Nicholas Brothers. The fabulous Nicholas Brothers, Fayard (1914-2006) and Harold (1921-2000), are among the greatest dancers of the 20th century. Despite racial hurdles, the self-taught African American entertainers became one of the biggest musical acts of their time, headlining on Broadway, radio, and television and in vaudeville and nightclubs. But their dazzling, show-stopping numbers in movies like Down Argentine Way, Sun Valley Serenade, and Stormy Weather made them international icons. Known for effortless balletic moves, elegant tap dancing, perfect rhythms, and jaw-dropping leaps, flips, and splits — along with a consummate grace and sly sense of humor — the Olympian brothers are in the end impossible to categorize. The dancer's dancers, their fans have included Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse, Gregory Hines, George Balanchine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Michael Jackson, and Fred Astaire, who called their Stormy Weather "staircase" number the greatest musical sequence of all time. Special Guests to be announced.

Here is a partial list of program topics:

Case Study - Methods and Workflow - Restoring Universal's "The Invisible Man" - (Tom Burton, Technicolor)

De-Wow Techniques for Motion Picture Soundtrack Preservation - (Ellis Burman, Audio Mechanics)

Step One in Preserving File Based Feature Film "Original Negatives" - (Steve Kochak, Deluxe; Andrea Kalas, Paramount)

Gigantic Ideas: The Enlightenment and Pre-Cinema - Part One - tracing the roots of what will become motion pictures (and computers!) (Jonathan Erland, Composite Components Company)

Better Films Through Trickery and Deceit - Part Two - from the birth of cinema and the now archaic art of optical printing and into the future (Jonathan Erland, Composite Components Company)

Miniman, the ETF and Color Prototype #3 - introduction to the Early Television Foundation and Museum and the discovery and restoration of an early RCA color receiver - (Ralph Sargent, Film Technology; Nick Williams, ETF)

Case Study - Reconstructing and Restoring "Heaven's Gate" - (Lee Kline, Criterion)

Multiple Editions of American Silent Features - presentation of the implications for authenticity, restoration and documentation - (David Pierce, Media History Digital Library)

Archiving Digital Content on LTO - technology behind the LTO drive and media and applications for archiving - (Mark Fleischhauer, HP Tape Storage Solutions)

MORE sessions/topics to be announced soon!

Special Screenings and premieres of newly restored films, including the Sneak Preview!

I wish I could have made it there, but duties here at home prevent me from leaving.

That's a shame. I was hoping to go myself, but the budget won't permit it this year, alas.