Desmet method
Encyclopedia
The so-called Desmet Method (also known as Desmetcolor) is a method for restoring
the colours of early silent film
s, which had originally been subjected to the processes of either:
It was developed by Noël Desmet, a film archivist
and restorer working for the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
in Brussels, Belgium.
and the colours, if recorded at all, only noted in writing. These actions have unfortunately cost many subsequent restorations dearly. Fortunately, however, there are a number of different methods for restoring early coloured films today, each of which nonetheless comes with its own inherent strengths and weaknesses.
The most obvious, in a way the most straightforward (though it still requires a great deal of skill and accuracy in order to be done successfully), and still the most common method today is that of copying the original coloured print ‘as is’ onto modern Eastman colour inter-negative film
. From the developed inter-negative then a new colour positive print can be struck.
If set up and executed correctly, the colours in the new positive print can resemble very closely the colours in the original print but only as they survive today. Therefore, whatever fading, decomposition and/or other changes, which may have occurred to the colours down through the years, will also be copied along with them. Unfortunately, beyond the possibility to make very slight improvements to the saturation this method offers little in the way of any colour restoration. There are, meanwhile, other notable disadvantages, not least the use of modern colour film stock
. Colour film is both expensive and has questionable archival permanence, as modern colour dyes are known to fade in time.
It was largely as a result of these problems that Noël Desmet, starting in the 1960s, developed his own flashing
method for restoring silent films, which had originally been coloured either by the process of tinting or toning (or both). With Desmet’s method, the original colour print is first copied onto modern, panchromatic black and white inter-negative film, rather than colour film. The colours are then applied later during production of the positive print.
The result is effectively little more than a colour image on top of a black and white one but the illusion is quite convincing. The use of coloured lights or filters, meanwhile, allows one greater freedom in attempting to reproduce the colours as they might have originally looked.
For the reproduction of prints coloured by toning, the developed black and white inter-negative is exposed onto colour print film using a coloured light source rather than a neutral one. As the light passes more easily through the light parts of the negative image, the result will be colour in only the dark parts of the positive image, effectively simulating the original tone.
Combined tints and tones can be reproduced using this same process, to simulate the tone, but with the addition of a second printing pass to colour the light parts of the image, simulating the original tint. It is very important to balance the colours correctly during testing beforehand since, as the second pass covers the whole image, the two colours are apt to mix.
That said the Desmet method is not without its drawbacks. Principle among these is that the technique cannot be employed for more selectively coloured prints, such as those coloured by the Pathécolor
(later Pathéchrome) stencil process or the Handschiegl processes
. These prints must still be copied directly onto modern colour inter-negative film or scanned to a digital
format, manipulated digitally
and then recorded
back onto film.
The use of modern colour film for the positive print is another drawback. Modern colour film stock effectively produces the required colour range by the subtractive mix of cyan, magenta and yellow dyes. These dyes are incapable of reproducing the same levels of saturation and hue
as some of the single colour dyes used to colour the film in the first place, particularly primary colours such as red and green. Nonetheless, the Desmet method still offers a greater range of saturated colours than the colour inter-negative method.
It is still technically possible to reproduce these vintage colour effects by means of the original methods today. This is, of course, the most accurate method in terms of reproduction, though even then it cannot be said to be entirely accurate, as modern black-and-white print film, whilst very similar to the film used in the early years of cinema, will still exhibit different properties to the film stocks used then. It is also the most complex, time consuming and expensive procedure. Moreover, many of the toxic dyes originally offered by manufacturers are no longer available today, on account of increased health and safety standards. Those available, meanwhile, can often only be purchased at great expense. As a result, only a select few film laboratories
specialised in film restoration are capable of offering this facility today.1
Another method worth mentioning, which has become increasingly common in recent years, is to transfer the original colour print to a high resolution digital format and manipulate the image in the digital domain before reconstituting it back on film. Without a doubt this method offers the widest freedom in terms of restoration, since many things are possible with digital that would not be possible by traditional photochemical means.
It is also, however, the most ethically questionable, since it involves the transfer to a different medium
, which comes with its own unique properties and limitations, losing many of the inherent, film-like properties of the original along the way. It is also the least archivally sound, since the longevity
of digital media formats has not yet been determined. Thus, while digital techniques in film restoration are undoubtedly on the rise, they are still far from becoming standard.
Film preservation
thumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...
the colours of early silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s, which had originally been subjected to the processes of either:
- Film tinting – a process that suffuses the entire image a single colour
- Toning – a process that colours only the dark parts of the image
- A combination of the two
It was developed by Noël Desmet, a film archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
and restorer working for the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
Cinematheque
A cinémathèque is a French word used to refer to a film archive with small cinemas that screens particularly classic and art-house films.- History :...
in Brussels, Belgium.
Background
Before the 1960s, early coloured films were almost without exception preserved on black and white filmBlack-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and the colours, if recorded at all, only noted in writing. These actions have unfortunately cost many subsequent restorations dearly. Fortunately, however, there are a number of different methods for restoring early coloured films today, each of which nonetheless comes with its own inherent strengths and weaknesses.
The most obvious, in a way the most straightforward (though it still requires a great deal of skill and accuracy in order to be done successfully), and still the most common method today is that of copying the original coloured print ‘as is’ onto modern Eastman colour inter-negative film
Eastman Color Negative
Eastman Color Negative, specifically abbreviated as ECN, is a photographic processing system created by Kodak in the 1950s for the development of monopack color negative motion picture film stock....
. From the developed inter-negative then a new colour positive print can be struck.
If set up and executed correctly, the colours in the new positive print can resemble very closely the colours in the original print but only as they survive today. Therefore, whatever fading, decomposition and/or other changes, which may have occurred to the colours down through the years, will also be copied along with them. Unfortunately, beyond the possibility to make very slight improvements to the saturation this method offers little in the way of any colour restoration. There are, meanwhile, other notable disadvantages, not least the use of modern colour film stock
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...
. Colour film is both expensive and has questionable archival permanence, as modern colour dyes are known to fade in time.
It was largely as a result of these problems that Noël Desmet, starting in the 1960s, developed his own flashing
Flashing (cinematography)
In cinematography, flashing is a method of contrast enhancement that takes advantage of the natural physical properties of film stock to bring out detail in darker areas of the print....
method for restoring silent films, which had originally been coloured either by the process of tinting or toning (or both). With Desmet’s method, the original colour print is first copied onto modern, panchromatic black and white inter-negative film, rather than colour film. The colours are then applied later during production of the positive print.
Technique
For the reproduction of a print coloured by tinting only, the developed black and white inter-negative is first printed onto modern colour print stock in an initial printing pass. The same piece of film is then flashed with the appropriate coloured light (or a neutral light shone through a colour filter) in a second printing pass.The result is effectively little more than a colour image on top of a black and white one but the illusion is quite convincing. The use of coloured lights or filters, meanwhile, allows one greater freedom in attempting to reproduce the colours as they might have originally looked.
For the reproduction of prints coloured by toning, the developed black and white inter-negative is exposed onto colour print film using a coloured light source rather than a neutral one. As the light passes more easily through the light parts of the negative image, the result will be colour in only the dark parts of the positive image, effectively simulating the original tone.
Combined tints and tones can be reproduced using this same process, to simulate the tone, but with the addition of a second printing pass to colour the light parts of the image, simulating the original tint. It is very important to balance the colours correctly during testing beforehand since, as the second pass covers the whole image, the two colours are apt to mix.
Benefits and drawbacks
The main benefits of the Desmet method are in cost, as black and white negative film is still generally cheaper than colour film. In addition, the black and white inter-negative provides a greater archival record than colour film, since it is not subject to the same fading as the colour dyes used in modern colour inter-negative films.That said the Desmet method is not without its drawbacks. Principle among these is that the technique cannot be employed for more selectively coloured prints, such as those coloured by the Pathécolor
Pathécolor
Pathécolor, later renamed Pathéchrome, was an early manual stencil-based film tinting process for movies developed by Pathé in the early 20th century...
(later Pathéchrome) stencil process or the Handschiegl processes
Handschiegl Color Process
The Handschiegl color process produced motion picture film prints with color artificially added to selected areas of the image. Aniline dyes were applied to a black-and-white print using gelatin imbibition matrices.-History of the process:...
. These prints must still be copied directly onto modern colour inter-negative film or scanned to a digital
Digital cinematography
Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on video tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common...
format, manipulated digitally
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
and then recorded
Film recorder
A Film Recorder is a graphical output device for transferring digital images to photographic film.All film recorders typically work in the same manner. The image is fed from a host computer as a raster stream over a digital interface...
back onto film.
The use of modern colour film for the positive print is another drawback. Modern colour film stock effectively produces the required colour range by the subtractive mix of cyan, magenta and yellow dyes. These dyes are incapable of reproducing the same levels of saturation and hue
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
as some of the single colour dyes used to colour the film in the first place, particularly primary colours such as red and green. Nonetheless, the Desmet method still offers a greater range of saturated colours than the colour inter-negative method.
It is still technically possible to reproduce these vintage colour effects by means of the original methods today. This is, of course, the most accurate method in terms of reproduction, though even then it cannot be said to be entirely accurate, as modern black-and-white print film, whilst very similar to the film used in the early years of cinema, will still exhibit different properties to the film stocks used then. It is also the most complex, time consuming and expensive procedure. Moreover, many of the toxic dyes originally offered by manufacturers are no longer available today, on account of increased health and safety standards. Those available, meanwhile, can often only be purchased at great expense. As a result, only a select few film laboratories
Film laboratory
A film laboratory is a commercial service enterprise and technical facility for the film industry where specialists develop, print, and conform film material for classical film production and distribution which is based on film material, such as negative and positive, black and white and color, on...
specialised in film restoration are capable of offering this facility today.1
Another method worth mentioning, which has become increasingly common in recent years, is to transfer the original colour print to a high resolution digital format and manipulate the image in the digital domain before reconstituting it back on film. Without a doubt this method offers the widest freedom in terms of restoration, since many things are possible with digital that would not be possible by traditional photochemical means.
It is also, however, the most ethically questionable, since it involves the transfer to a different medium
Media (communication)
In communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data...
, which comes with its own unique properties and limitations, losing many of the inherent, film-like properties of the original along the way. It is also the least archivally sound, since the longevity
Longevity
The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or known as "long life", especially when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than expected ....
of digital media formats has not yet been determined. Thus, while digital techniques in film restoration are undoubtedly on the rise, they are still far from becoming standard.
See also
- Color motion picture film
- Film preservationFilm preservationthumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...
- Film tintingFilm tintingFilm tinting is the process of adding color to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion...
- Silent filmSilent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
External links
- Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
- Brian Pritchard's website Explanation of tinting and toning