Sweden saves the day
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| Written by: David Strohmaier | Date: 01.12.2009 |
 The
35mm scope print of Windjammer arrives at Pro Tek media preservation
services in Burbank from the Swedish Film Institute.No one has the money to do the HD master from the real 3 panel process. So things won't look as good as "West" does, but better than nothing. Swedish Film Institute has a rather worn 35mm composite print of "Windjammer" with Swedish dialogue in their collections. The print was inspected in December 1997. Condition: fair (scratches in all 6 reels). It is in reasonable good shape. There is only one print and it was last screened in Malmö, Sweden in 2001, for the 40th anniversary of "Windjammer"'s Swedish premiere. |
More
in 70mm reading: "Windjammer" Press Release Internet link: |
 Closer
look at the Eastmancolor faded print with mono optical sound track. Notice
that all three panels are within the anamorphic frame.Strohmaier: "About 2007 Thomas Hauerslev sent me a DVD of a video tape recording of the print. I was surprised that the condition was pretty good considering its age and that the print seemed to have about half of it color still intact. Our plan is to have it telecined in HD and to recover electronically the reminder of the color and to enhance the image." Following by a year of preparation, the Swedish Film Institute, under the management of Johan Ericsson agreed to loan their 35mm composite print of "Windjammer" to Pacific Theatres in Hollywood, USA. The print was needed for approximately 3 weeks for the digital transfer to be made. The institute would of course get a credit on the finished transfer for the use of the print. |
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Prologue not complete - Swedish Fan to the rescue |
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 "Before"
screen shot of the prologue. Click to see enlargementLike all 3-strip travelogues, "Windjammer" was "born" with a prologue, which sort of set the tone of the film. The prologue was filmed with a standard 35mm camera and was shown on a smaller section of the screen. The full 3-strip spectacle followed immediately after much to the surprise and wonder of the audience. See the "Before" and "After" color tests, not bad for such a faded print! This is just the first pass on the general color recovery next pass will be the flesh tones. Dave Strohmaier: "[We] started on the 35mm prologue to "Windjammer". We found out that our "Windjammer" Prolog has a shortened main title sequence with several credits missing and it has the Cinerama Releasing logo and no National Theaters or Cinemiracle logo. Besides the main titles I just discovered that the 35mm prologue we have here is only 8:30 seconds long and the prologue from Stockholm is a full 12:00 minutes long. Ours must have been a shortened version for a later release as several scenes are missing. John Mitchell, down under, checked his prologue and while it has the Cinemiracle opening it is also a cut down version of about 10 minutes long vers 12 minutes. So the print in Sweden may be the only full length prolog." |
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 "Before"
screen shot of the prologue. Click to see enlargementDave Strohmaier continues: "The prologue turned out to be a short re-release version from the early 1970s. A world wide search for a complete prologue was started, only to find it in Stockholm in Sweden in the hands of a private collector. Strohmaier: "We need to borrow it for about 2 weeks as it will help us keep the Roadshow version intact. When we are finished in mid February we will have a credits on the film after the end title fades out with those who helped get "Windjammer" back together. We plan to do a little 25 minute video on the "restoration" something that would be fun to show at Bradford next year." |
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