Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

Les films des artistes indépendants, réalisés,
reçus et évalués en dehors des normes
industrielles standard, représentent un défi
unique pour l’archiviste. En effet, de
nombreux principes de base de la
préservation restent en vigueur pour ces
films. Mais leur application pratique subit
des transformations, à tel point que nous
nous trouvons face à un processus qui ne
ressemble plus que vaguement à un travail
de préservation traditionnel. Des méthodes
de tirage uniques doivent souvent être
appliquées.
En préservation comme en esthétique,
conclut l’auteur, des questions de conception
et de technique peuvent aller plus loin que la
simple spécialisation...
Las películas de artistas independientes
realizadas, recibidas y valuadas fuera de las
normas industriales estándar, reprersentan
un desafío único para el archivista. En
efecto, numerosos principios de base de la
preservación siguen vigentes para estas
películas, pero su aplicación práctica sufre
tantas modificaciones que finalmente nos
encontramos ante un proceso que ya no se
parece en nada a un trabajo tradicional de
preservación. A menudo se deben aplicar
métodos de procesamiento únicos; las
cuestiones de ética son a veces
transfiguradas; etc. En preservación como
en estética, concluye el autor, las cuestiones
de concepción y de ética pueden ir más allá
de la mera especialización.
Introduction
When Kodak announced the discontinuation of its ECO color reversal
film stock (1 in 1984, it heralded the end of an era in independent filmmaking.
In so doing, it also left behind a kind of acetate standing stone
for archivists. This was the death-knell for professional reversal work as
well as for those artists clinging to its coattails. Reversal stocks continued
to exist, but the negative/positive system was in essence canonized, leaving
an effective void of printing methods for untold numbers of “directpositive”
films. Like the haunting formations at Avebury, Lewis,
Stonehenge, those old images now please us while implying a logic
whose order we’ve alas forgotten – and their preservation may be altogether
more precarious.
Today’s intermediate stock 7272 is ideally designed to print from ECO.
Yet the simple fact is that most extant reversal images are not in fact
ECO, but higher-contrast materials like Ektachrome or Kodachrome.
When one prints an internegative from these films, or in fact any non-
ECO positive material (2) , the contrast is boosted to the effectual quality
of mud. (3) Anyone who has seen an old black and white film that seems
very dark to the eye, with almost no delineation of greys, can imagine
the look. One is faced today with an industry that has on the one hand
canonized the internegative system, while simultaneously leaving behind
a massive body of films that are unprintable within this system. (4)
Artists’ Films
Prominent among these are the works of independent artists. Independents
have historically gravitated to the reversal film for reasons economic,
practical, and aesthetic. There is something lovely and elegant in
the camera-original that, bypassing the negative, simulates directly the
tones and colors of the world as seen to the eye. No negative means less
expense, and therein allows more experimentation – an attractive package
for the artist/filmmaker. But while appealing to the artist, it presents
a minefield for the archive preserving the work.
Not only must archivists consider the vital issue of image contrast, but
they must be aware of any peculiarities in the piece itself. As often as
not, the iconoclastic artist will be working at cross-purposes with industry
standards. As an introductory example, one might take Larry Jordan’s
recent H.D. Trilogy. Jordan, the acclaimed animator and restorer of
Joseph Cornell’s films, had his black-and-white reversal originals for this
work printed – via black-and-white internegative – onto Kodak’s special
low-contrast color television film 7385, with an amber tone added. Now
one could emulate an amber tone easily enough, but without instructions
to print onto 7385, the results would be horrendous. Jordan himself
ran no less than seven entirely different printing tests before settling
on this path. And rare is the case when a preservationist has access to
coherent, detailed printing instructions.
To make things more difficult, the renowned “artist’s temperament” can
come into play as one attempts to faithfully render a meticulous vision.
The Pacific Film Archive was recently involved in the preservation of
50 Journal of Film Preservation / 53 / 1996