Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
That's perhaps already been answered but OPUS 1 was restored by Filmmuseum Munich and they worked for years on it so it should be a serious result. If I remember correctly they based their efforts on both a few feet of coloured film in a forgotten tin and on a colouring chart. Stockholm and Moscow were the two places of the sources. Once again: if I remember correctly... Ingo Am 31. Januar 2015 23:08:45 MEZ, schrieb Laura Trager tragerla...@gmail.com: Hello Frameworkers, I have a question regarding color preservation of Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction or share your insights with me. I am currently researching the use of color (or lack thereof) in the early absolute animations by Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter and Walter Ruttmann, and recently came across an essay by William Moritz titled Non-Objective Film - The Second Generation (1979). He states that we have only fragmentary black-and-white silent prints of Ruttmann's originally hand-coloured films - and yet, these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od0MxuD4xxQ digital color versions of his films are widespread online. So, my question is: What do we actually know about the use of color in Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and what sources is this knowledge based on if his colorized films are not preserved? Have there been any new insights since Moritz' essay was published? And who made these digital color versions of his films - are they just amateur work, or are they a legit institutional reconstruction project? Any leads you might have regarding the use and preservation of color in Ruttmann's films or in early abstract films in general will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Laura ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks -- Diese Nachricht wurde von meinem Android-Mobiltelefon mit K-9 Mail gesendet.___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
Stefan Drossler of the Munich Filmmuseum screened a digital copy of their recent restorations of Ruttmann's Opus films with the color, a few years ago in Los Angeles. Afterwards we spoke about their restoration, and he confirmed the intensity of colors (seen on their Ruttmann DVD compilation) could only be achieved digitally, not through photochemical means. Contact Munich Filmmuseum re the original Ruttmann material used in their preservation projects, and their Ruttmann DVD is quite useful. For the definitive book on Ruttmann and his films, see Walter Ruttmann: Eine Dokumentation. JeanPaul Goergen, Ed., Published by Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek (1989). German language. Goergen, a Berlin-based animation historian, would likely have other more recent information useful for your research. Re older 16mm Ruttmann prints with color, mentioned in this thread. Correction to the below email from Pip, new Ruttmann prints don't come from CVM. Center for Visual Music (CVM) has *Cecile Starr*'s 16mm Ruttmann prints, but we don't have new prints restored by William Moritz, nor any quality restored Ruttmann prints done by Moritz. I remember reading about a project he did for this film, funded by the Frankfurt Filmmuseum, but have no information that he was able to work with any nitrate originals. He did often complain that for his attempted preservation projects, archives wouldn't release originals for him to work with (which is understandable). In any case, if funded by Frankfurt they'd have the negative, though I have to say the tinting test fragments done by Moritz that I've seen are not sophisticated restorations. I'd go to Munich Filmmuseum as a primary source. I'm not positive re the source of Starr's 16mm Ruttmann prints, but she was in close contact with his daughter Eva Riehl and distributed these on her behalf, so they may have come directly from her. We also have Starr's 16mm Richter and Eggeling prints, which derive from Richter's own originals. Re inquiry on other early abstract tinted/toned films - CVM preserved some of Oskar Fischinger's early tinted nitrate film for the *Raumlichtkunst* (c.1926/2012) 3 screen reconstruction projection, which has screened at Tate Modern, Whitney and Palais de Tokyo. It's currently on view, installed in Brisbane, Australia until May 2015, and there's a tentative German date for June. Contact me off list if you would like further information about that project. Also I published a few stills from some of Fischinger's other early hand-tinted tests, see page 110 in my book, Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967), Experiments in Cinematic Abstraction. (Amsterdam and Los Angeles: EYE Film Institute and Center for Visual Music, 2013). Distributed by Thames Hudson. best regards, Cindy Keefer Center for Visual Music www.centerforvisualmusic.org CVM email - cvmaccess at gmail.com Fischinger research site: www.centerforvisualmusic.org/Fischinger -- Forwarded message -- From: Pip Chodorov framewo...@re-voir.com To: Experimental Film Discussion List frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com Cc: Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2015 23:46:10 +0100 Subject: Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films I don't know where the hand painted originals are or if any exist at all. There must be an internegative at the Eye Institute (Amsterdam) because I think the 16mm print originally in circulation in Paris came from the Dutch Filmmuseum in the 1980s. New prints come from CVM and were supervised by Moritz but I don't remember the exact source of the older prints. (I may be confusing with Ballet Mecanique because Moritz also restored that.) We released a VHS in 1998 called Dancing Images with a Dutch company and we included Opus. We got the rights from Ruttman's daughter Eva Riehl and I made a Beta master from one of those original prints. Write me off-list if you are interested in obtaining a digital file transfer from the beta at cost. -Pip ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
Thanks so much, everyone, very helpful! 2015-02-01 3:23 GMT-05:00 Ingo Petzke i...@petzke.biz: That's perhaps already been answered but OPUS 1 was restored by Filmmuseum Munich and they worked for years on it so it should be a serious result. If I remember correctly they based their efforts on both a few feet of coloured film in a forgotten tin and on a colouring chart. Stockholm and Moscow were the two places of the sources. Once again: if I remember correctly... Ingo Am 31. Januar 2015 23:08:45 MEZ, schrieb Laura Trager tragerla...@gmail.com: Hello Frameworkers, I have a question regarding color preservation of Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction or share your insights with me. I am currently researching the use of color (or lack thereof) in the early absolute animations by Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter and Walter Ruttmann, and recently came across an essay by William Moritz titled Non-Objective Film - The Second Generation (1979). He states that we have only fragmentary black-and-white silent prints of Ruttmann's originally hand-coloured films - and yet, these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od0MxuD4xxQ digital color versions of his films are widespread online. So, my question is: What do we actually know about the use of color in Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and what sources is this knowledge based on if his colorized films are not preserved? Have there been any new insights since Moritz' essay was published? And who made these digital color versions of his films - are they just amateur work, or are they a legit institutional reconstruction project? Any leads you might have regarding the use and preservation of color in Ruttmann's films or in early abstract films in general will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Laura -- FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks -- Diese Nachricht wurde von meinem Android-Mobiltelefon mit K-9 Mail gesendet. ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
Some original hand-painted prints of Opus 1 were preserved, and 16mm prints from these are still in circulation today. When you see the 16mm prints projected you can see the hand-painted color bleed beyond the edges of the white shapes (unlike in those youtube videos). Later Moritz himself provided new color restorations of Opus 1 and/or Ballet Mecanique, but I always prefered the unrestored versions. Have you not seen the prints projected? Pip Chodorov At 17:08 -0500 31/01/15, Laura Trager wrote: Any leads you might have regarding the use and preservation of color in Ruttmann's films or in early abstract films in general will be greatly appreciated. ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto festival showed restored 35mm prints of the Ruttmann shorts in 2000, most of which were from the Munich Stadtmuseum and/or Netherlands Filmmuseum (now Eye). Some were tinted/toned, others were directly colored, and the 35mm preservations were done on color stock to retain these qualities. Don't know if they've been made available digitally. And prints may only be obtainable from those archives, though perhaps MoMA or another US archive or museum acquired some. Mark Toscano On Jan 31, 2015, at 2:08 PM, Laura Trager tragerla...@gmail.com wrote: Hello Frameworkers, I have a question regarding color preservation of Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction or share your insights with me. I am currently researching the use of color (or lack thereof) in the early absolute animations by Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter and Walter Ruttmann, and recently came across an essay by William Moritz titled Non-Objective Film - The Second Generation (1979). He states that we have only fragmentary black-and-white silent prints of Ruttmann's originally hand-coloured films - and yet, these digital color versions of his films are widespread online. So, my question is: What do we actually know about the use of color in Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and what sources is this knowledge based on if his colorized films are not preserved? Have there been any new insights since Moritz' essay was published? And who made these digital color versions of his films - are they just amateur work, or are they a legit institutional reconstruction project? Any leads you might have regarding the use and preservation of color in Ruttmann's films or in early abstract films in general will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Laura ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
Thank you, Pip, for the quick response! No, I haven't seen or heard of the existence of Ruttmann's hand-painted prints... Do you know where they are archived or where/how I might have a chance to see them? Also, aside from the bleed, can you tell me how similar these digital versions are to the original? Thanks so much! 2015-01-31 17:24 GMT-05:00 Pip Chodorov framewo...@re-voir.com: Some original hand-painted prints of Opus 1 were preserved, and 16mm prints from these are still in circulation today. When you see the 16mm prints projected you can see the hand-painted color bleed beyond the edges of the white shapes (unlike in those youtube videos). Later Moritz himself provided new color restorations of Opus 1 and/or Ballet Mecanique, but I always prefered the unrestored versions. Have you not seen the prints projected? Pip Chodorov At 17:08 -0500 31/01/15, Laura Trager wrote: Any leads you might have regarding the use and preservation of color in Ruttmann's films or in early abstract films in general will be greatly appreciated. ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
I don't know where the hand painted originals are or if any exist at all. There must be an internegative at the Eye Institute (Amsterdam) because I think the 16mm print originally in circulation in Paris came from the Dutch Filmmuseum in the 1980s. New prints come from CVM and were supervised by Moritz but I don't remember the exact source of the older prints. (I may be confusing with Ballet Mecanique because Moritz also restored that.) We released a VHS in 1998 called Dancing Images with a Dutch company and we included Opus. We got the rights from Ruttman's daughter Eva Riehl and I made a Beta master from one of those original prints. Write me off-list if you are interested in obtaining a digital file transfer from the beta at cost. -Pip At 17:29 -0500 31/01/15, Laura Trager wrote: No, I haven't seen or heard of the existence of Ruttmann's hand-painted prints... Do you know where they are archived or where/how I might have a chance to see them? Also, aside from the bleed, can you tell me how similar these digital versions are to the original? ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
Re: [Frameworks] question regarding color preservation of early animation films
They're all on this DVD set, in color and very legible transfers; region 0 disk: http://www.edition-filmmuseum.com/product_info.php/info/p70_Berlin--die-Sinfonie-der-Gro-stadt---Melodie-der-Welt.html Michael Betancourt Savannah, GA USA michaelbetancourt.com twitter.com/cinegraphic | vimeo.com/cinegraphic www.cinegraphic.net | the avant-garde film video blog On Sat, Jan 31, 2015 at 5:08 PM, Laura Trager tragerla...@gmail.com wrote: Hello Frameworkers, I have a question regarding color preservation of Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction or share your insights with me. I am currently researching the use of color (or lack thereof) in the early absolute animations by Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter and Walter Ruttmann, and recently came across an essay by William Moritz titled Non-Objective Film - The Second Generation (1979). He states that we have only fragmentary black-and-white silent prints of Ruttmann's originally hand-coloured films - and yet, these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od0MxuD4xxQ digital color versions of his films are widespread online. So, my question is: What do we actually know about the use of color in Walter Ruttmann's Opus films, and what sources is this knowledge based on if his colorized films are not preserved? Have there been any new insights since Moritz' essay was published? And who made these digital color versions of his films - are they just amateur work, or are they a legit institutional reconstruction project? Any leads you might have regarding the use and preservation of color in Ruttmann's films or in early abstract films in general will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Laura ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks ___ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
