Scanning and Preserving Film Heritage

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1 Scanning and Preserving Film Heritage From ideas to daily routine DIASTOR Conference Zürich, 5 June 2014 Mikko Kuutti, Deputy Director 1

2 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Contents National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI) in brief Digital Cinema implications KAVI s strategy & technical implementation Image digitisation resolution time considerations scanner comparison 2

3 NATIONAL AUDIOVISUAL INSTITUTE In Brief 1957 established as Suomen elokuva-arkisto / Finnish Film Archive 1979 public body operating under the Ministry of Education 2008 radio & television archiving started name changed to Kansallinen audiovisuaalinen arkisto (KAVA) / National Audiovisual Archive 2014 merger with the Centre for Media Education and Audiovisual Media (formerly Board of Film Classification) name changed to Kansallinen audiovisuaalinen instituutti (KAVI) / National Audiovisual Institute budget 7.4 million 87 staff 3

4 NATIONAL AUDIOVISUAL INSTITUTE Collection statistics prints of Finnish feature films image material on Finnish films prints of foreign feature films 4

5 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Film Industry Digital Timeline sound production went digital decades ago 1998 first full digital intermediate DI process in Denmark 2000 first full DI process in Finland (and in Hollywood) 2012 in the Nordic countries, all cinemas digital analogue film distribution stops the only film lab in Finland goes bankrupt 2013 Fuji stops making cine films, Kodak barely escapes bankruptcy 5

6 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Implications of Digital for film archives demise of film as a medium film collections usable only in a few cinemas almost all access will be digital large-scale digitisation is required new films will have to be archived in digital formats long-term digital preservation has to be deployed and trusted film archives facing a profound transformation from steady memory organisations into fast-moving IT houses 6

7 National Audiovisual Hybrid Archive Institute Strategy develop KAVI into a hybrid archive for both analogue & digital films digital access Funding some extra funding since 2009, ca. 1 mill. annually since 2011 Storage project started in Jan 2010, in use in early 2011 partnered with the IT Centre for Science Digitisation first equipment in early 2011, scanner installed in autumn

8 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digital Services unit a DCP production line providing access in cinemas to Finnish film heritage throughput about 30 feature films/year restorations are separate projects 3 5 restorations yearly feature films scanned at oversize 4k 2k worflow an option express DCPs, newsreels & short films 8

9 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digital Services unit hardware 7 staff Scanity 4k scanner head of unit laser diffraction sound scanner scanner operator 190 TB (usable) Fibre Channel SAN colourist multiple concurrent 4k+ streams colourist-editor off-site tape storage 2 x image restorers 10 km dedicated fibre link sound restorer software Resolve, Revival, PFClean, Fraunhofer Curator / easydcp, OpenCube, Pro Tools, Cedar 9

SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Outsourced Services IT Centre for Science External Streaming Flash memory External Streaming CSC Services National Audiovisual Archive STREAMING SERVERS 600-800

10 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Outsourced Services IT Centre for Science External Streaming Flash memory External Streaming CSC Services National Audiovisual Archive STREAMING SERVERS GB 2 TB Funet 1 Gbit/s <10 Gbit/s 1 Gbit/s RESTORATION DISK SPACE Storage handler/mover NAS Vfiler NFS dailies 22 TB NL-SAS RAID10 NAS Vfiler NFS restoration 20 TB NetApp Digital Services Unit Restoration Workstations Fibre Channel SAN Storage 190 TB TAPE ARCHIVE INTRANET FILE SERVER Internal Streaming NAS Vfiler CIFS inside 4,5 TB NL-SAS RAID10 NAS Vfiler CIFS stock 12 TB NL-SAS RAID10 KAVA restoration & secure storage 10 Gbit/s Transfer Server Packaging Workstation KAVA inside Cataloguing Server AD Administration NAS Vfiler NFS SFTP SERVER SFTP Server 5 TB NL-SAS RAID10 KAVA Workstations KAVA DMZ 10

11 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Human visual limits cinema geometry, constant height projection viewing angle of CinemaScope 2.39:1 images: x screen height 1.2 x screen height 11

12 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Human visual limits KVA (Kuutti Viewing Angle) 90 full unobstructed view through my eyeglasses KVA 12

13 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Human visual limits normal human visual acuity Snellen 20/20 or visus 1.0 vision = smallest details 1 /60 visus is common = smallest details 1 /90 1 /75 smallest discernible detail 1 /90 1 /60 13

SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Human visual limits pixel count from viewing angle: divide screen dimension by size of smallest

14 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Human visual limits pixel count from viewing angle: divide screen dimension by size of smallest discernible detail where w = size of pixel h = size of screen r = viewing distance α = viewing angle ß = angle of detail (e.g. 1 /60) n = number of pixels α ß w h r 14

15 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Human visual limits visual limits for on-screen pixel count for constant height projection human visual acuity 1 /60 horiz. px vert. px (back) (middle) (front) human visual acuity 1 /75 horiz. px vert. px (back) (middle) (front)

16 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Film performance ITU-R Study Group 6 research into the resolution of 35mm film in theatrical presentation, Document 6-9/3 ( ) target with sine wave patterns corresponding to resolutions of up to 2400 lines per picture height 1.85:1 MTF of negative and answer print measured perceived resolution tested in a number of screenings in different cinemas 16

17 @ 1.85:1 (11.33 mm) 17

18 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Film performance audience expectations film measurements for negative and answer print: > :1 > :1 screening subjective results camera negative interpositive internegative print: highest perceived resolution 875 lines / picture height average highest perceived resolution 750 lines / picture height perceived vertical resolution 60 80% of horizontal resolution 18

19 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Resolution summary negative 1.37:1 human visual limit (1 /75) projected film front row middle row 4k 2k L/PH

20 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Resolution summary human negative human 2k front row 1.37:1 4k middle row full height projected film L/PH

21 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Resolution summary human negative human 2k front row 1.37:1 4k middle row full height projected film 2k scope L/PH

22 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Scanning at 4k 4k scan 4k DCP 4096 x Mpx 52% 13% 2k DCP 2959 x Mpx 1480 x Mpx 28

23 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Scanning resolution 4k scanning approaches the resolution of film achieves oversampling which is necessary for best results in spatial transformations, e.g. stabilising, de-warping dustbusting, scratch-removal hopefully no need to re-scan any time soon 2k scanning is good enough for 2k DCPs but will not give best results 2k DCP-size restoration inside a 2k 1.5 k is a somewhat wasted effort 29

24 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Scanning bit depth dynamic range: high density film needs high intensity light source and/or high sensitivity sensors high bit-depth scanning is needed to permit tone scale manipulation without artifacting, and for faithful recording of the original film DCPs 12 bits, more are needed when scanning KAVI current standard uses 10 bit log dpx files for workflow reasons. 30

25 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Scanning time considerations about 120 Finnish feature films are loaned per year for screening outside the archive soon, they will all have to be DCPs working time to scan a 90 min feature film at various scanning speeds:!!!! fr/sec h days 15 5,5 0,8 4 12,4 1,8 1,3 31,8 4,5 film operations at scanning (loading, unloading, setting scanning parameters, winding, QA) estimated at 36 min/part or 180 min/feature 31

26 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Scanning time considerations physical film preparation, colour correction, sound scanning, syncing, file packaging & compressions, file transfers also take time an optimistic estimate: scanning one day + other work three days 100 features x four days: 400 days all access will be digital: flexibility is needed to allow scanning of something else besides feature films choice between 1.5 fr/sec & 15 fr/sec was easy 32

27 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Some scanner comparisons same vinegar affected B/W film scanned with three different scanners scanned by manufactures personnel each scanner had a different scanning resolution 33

28 A 34

29 B 35

30 C 36

31 A 37

32 B 38

33 C 39

34 A B C 4 k scan 3 k scan 2 k scan 41

35 A B C 42

36 A FILM ARCHIVE TAKING ON DIGITAL Practical scanning Stability SCANNER A SCANNER B 43

37 SCANNING AND PRESERVING FILM HERITAGE Digitisation Scanner conclusions? For KAVI, the decisive factors in choosing the scanner scanning speed 4k for future-proofness scanner testing is of limited utility lack of standard testing procedures scanner operator & scanning setup have a major effect on results 44

38 Scanned footage from Cinémathèque royale de Belgique Nicola Mazzanti! in connection with a FIAF Technical Commission survey project on moving image film scanners Scans made in

39 That s All Folks. National Audiovisual Institute Sörnäisten rantatie 25 A Helsinki Finland! Mikko Kuutti mikko.kuutti@kavi.fi tel

Library of Congress, Packard Campus. The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation Culpeper, Virginia

Library of Congress, Packard Campus. The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation Culpeper, Virginia The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation Culpeper, Virginia Question: Is the preservation of motion picture films dependent upon the survival of new motion picture film stock?