sundance 2006 - Zoael

Bringing a Director’s First and
Latest Films to New Life
IT IS AN UNUSUAL EXPERIENCE FOR
a legendary film director to walk into
a post house on one day to complete
the transfer of his latest film, and then
the very next day, as if traveling back in
time, return to the post house to
remaster the film that launched his
career. But that’s exactly what Jim
Jarmusch experienced recently with
Broken Flowers (2005)—the 2005
Cannes winner of the Grand Prize—
and Permanent Vacation (1980)—his
first film that started out as a school
project at NYU film school.
Broken Flowers was met with
instant acclaim when the independent
film was unveiled at the 2005 Cannes
Film Festival. When it came time to
transfer the project to video and DVD
for home release, Jarmusch’s main
concern was to preserve the integrity
of the special look and feel for which
the film was heralded. So he turned to
a longtime ally in freelance colorist
John Dowdell, who first worked with
Jarmusch more than 15 years ago.
Dowdell in turn relied on the familiar
toolset of the da Vinci 2K Plus as he
worked on the material.
This collaboration of the old friends
was actually intended from the start to
be a two-pronged endeavor. While the
newly acclaimed Broken Flowers had
the higher priority due to the schedule
of release, Jarmusch had wanted for a
long time to remaster his first flick,
Permanent Vacation, in order to
release it to a new audience. While the
work on Broken Flowers was a relatively
straightforward process, it was
the transfer of Permanent Vacation
that really put the da Vinci to the test.
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Translating the Look of Film onto Video with the da Vinci 2K Plus
The remastering of Broken
Flowers began with the screening of a
new print of the film. Along with DP
Fred Elmes—who years ago started
his career with Dowdell at the
Rochester Institute of Technology—
Jarmusch and Dowdell collaborated
together to determine the look that
would characterize their remastering
of the movie.
Broken Flowers included a number
of scenes that presented the team with
a challenge in retaining the look of
film. For example, one scene was shot
at a cemetery with changing light and
rain. Before the video was corrected
with the 2K Plus, the greens were
exaggerated and the blues were overly
saturated. With da Vinci’s new
Toolbox2, Dowdell was able to isolate
skin tones and clothing on separate
mattes to bring these colors into balance.
The Gallery feature proved criti-
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