Legend Films
Encyclopedia
Legend Films, a San Diego
-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film
format utilizing proprietary technology and software . The company started business providing restoration
and colorization
of classic black-and-white
films for DVD
, HDTV and theatrical release. However, with the refocusing of the company efforts to the 3D conversion business over the past two years the company officially changed names to Legend3D
, Inc. in the summer of 2010.
Legend3D has performed 3D conversion on a number of high-profile projects including feature film work for Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Warner Bros., and Sony Imageworks, as well as commercial work for HP, Fanta, New Balance, and M&M/Mars, television work on television show "Chuck" and for MTV and special feature work for the Michael Jackson "This is it" tour.
Legend3D also continues to support its two legacy businesses. The first, Legend Films Home Entertainment Distribution, produces and distributes DVDs of films and video content that have been colorized from their original black-and-white format. The second, RiffTrax, is an innovative web 2.0 business from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000. RiffTrax offers humorous downloadable audio commentaries designed to be played back in synch with blockbuster movies.
, Sony Pictures Entertainment
, Universal Pictures
and Paramount Home Entertainment. In less than three years, Legend Films has restored and colorized over 100 feature films in high definition or film resolution.
In 2006, comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000
host Michael J. Nelson
was appointed Chief Content Producer and established the RiffTrax business.
Legend Films now does most of its work in India.
, Jane Russell
, Terry Moore
and Ray Harryhausen
on independent releases. A colorized version of Holiday Inn
was met by positive response from the family of Bing Crosby
.
On April 20, 2004, Legend Films released a colorized version of Reefer Madness
featuring intentionally unrealistic color schemes, playing up on the film's camp
appreciation. A colorized version of Plan 9 from Outer Space
was screened at the Castro Theatre
in San Francisco.
With the cooperation of director Richard Elfman
, Legend released a colorized version of Forbidden Zone
on July 29, 2008. This version was also made available online at Rifftrax, however without any commentary as Rifftrax creative felt the film was weird enough.
In December 2008, it was announced that Legend will release a colorized 3-D version of Night of the Living Dead
coproduced by PassmoreLab. The 3-D version will receive a full theatrical release in Europe, and a limited theatrical release in the United States before being released on DVD and as a digital download through RiffTrax, which will feature commentary by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett
and Kevin Murphy
. The 3-D version is slated for an April 1, 2009 release. A Blu-ray release has not been announced. According to Barry Sandrew, the film was the first entirely live action 2-D film to be converted to 3-D.
In late 2008, Legend colourised part 3 of the Doctor Who
story Planet of the Daleks
; the remaining episodes exist in colour, but part 3 was wiped and only a black-and-white film version remained. The resultant colourised footage was combined with colour information that was recovered from the Chroma Crawl
colour recovery
process, and was released on DVD in November 2009.
According to founder Barry Sandrew, Legend Films does not plan to colorize titles that were shot in black-and-white for artistic purposes, unless the original creators of the works participated in the color design.
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
format utilizing proprietary technology and software . The company started business providing restoration
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...
and colorization
Film colorization
Film colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
of classic black-and-white
Black-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...
films for DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, HDTV and theatrical release. However, with the refocusing of the company efforts to the 3D conversion business over the past two years the company officially changed names to Legend3D
Legend3D
Legend3D, Inc., a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001 as Legend Films, Inc. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new-release and catalog titles, television programs and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film and video format utilizing...
, Inc. in the summer of 2010.
Legend3D has performed 3D conversion on a number of high-profile projects including feature film work for Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Warner Bros., and Sony Imageworks, as well as commercial work for HP, Fanta, New Balance, and M&M/Mars, television work on television show "Chuck" and for MTV and special feature work for the Michael Jackson "This is it" tour.
Legend3D also continues to support its two legacy businesses. The first, Legend Films Home Entertainment Distribution, produces and distributes DVDs of films and video content that have been colorized from their original black-and-white format. The second, RiffTrax, is an innovative web 2.0 business from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000. RiffTrax offers humorous downloadable audio commentaries designed to be played back in synch with blockbuster movies.
Company history
Legend Films' founder, Barry Sandrew, pioneered and patented the first all digital colorization technology and recently reinvented the process by patenting the most advanced colorization technology that largely automates the process (Image sequence enhancement system and method – US Patent 7181081 [12]). Some of the works being colorized by Legend are films that have fallen into the public domain and are now copyrighted only in their colorized form in the United States, while their original copyright on the black-and-white version is still in force. Other movies in the Legend Films library are titles color produced in revenue sharing partnerships with the original copyright holder. Legend has colorized films owned by 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
, Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
and Paramount Home Entertainment. In less than three years, Legend Films has restored and colorized over 100 feature films in high definition or film resolution.
In 2006, comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
host Michael J. Nelson
Michael J. Nelson
Michael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's 11-year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson...
was appointed Chief Content Producer and established the RiffTrax business.
Legend Films now does most of its work in India.
Notable releases
Legend Films has collaborated with Shirley TempleShirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
, Jane Russell
Jane Russell
Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....
, Terry Moore
Terry Moore (actress)
Helen Luella Koford , better known as Terry Moore, is an American actress. Terry Moore made her film debut at age 11 and grew up with all the icons of the Hollywood era that made Hollywood what it is today, also known as "The Golden Age of Hollywood". Moore is an Academy Award nominated actress...
and Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
on independent releases. A colorized version of Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn (film)
Holiday Inn is a 1942 American musical film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, with music by Irving Berlin. The film has twelve songs written expressly for the film, the most notable being "White Christmas"...
was met by positive response from the family of Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
.
On April 20, 2004, Legend Films released a colorized version of Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness...
featuring intentionally unrealistic color schemes, playing up on the film's camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
appreciation. A colorized version of Plan 9 from Outer Space
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction film written and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film features Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and Maila "Vampira" Nurmi...
was screened at the Castro Theatre
Castro Theatre
The Castro Theatre is a popular San Francisco movie palace which became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, in the Castro district, it was built in 1922 with a Spanish Colonial Baroque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window...
in San Francisco.
With the cooperation of director Richard Elfman
Richard Elfman
Richard "Rick" Elfman, , is an American film actor, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and magazine publisher.-Family:...
, Legend released a colorized version of Forbidden Zone
Forbidden Zone
Forbidden Zone is a 1982 musical comedy film based upon the stage performances of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. The film stars Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell and members of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, and features appearances by Warhol Superstar Viva, Joe Spinell and The...
on July 29, 2008. This version was also made available online at Rifftrax, however without any commentary as Rifftrax creative felt the film was weird enough.
In December 2008, it was announced that Legend will release a colorized 3-D version of Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
coproduced by PassmoreLab. The 3-D version will receive a full theatrical release in Europe, and a limited theatrical release in the United States before being released on DVD and as a digital download through RiffTrax, which will feature commentary by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett
Bill Corbett
Bill Corbett is an American writer and performer for television, film and theatre. He was a writer and performer on the cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 , for which he voiced the robot Crow T. Robot during the show's later seasons on the Sci Fi Channel and played the character...
and Kevin Murphy
Kevin Murphy (actor)
Kevin Wagner Murphy is an American actor and writer best known as the voice and puppeteer of Tom Servo on the Peabody Award-winning comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000.- Early career :...
. The 3-D version is slated for an April 1, 2009 release. A Blu-ray release has not been announced. According to Barry Sandrew, the film was the first entirely live action 2-D film to be converted to 3-D.
In late 2008, Legend colourised part 3 of the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
story Planet of the Daleks
Planet of the Daleks
Planet of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 7 to May 12, 1973.-Synopsis:...
; the remaining episodes exist in colour, but part 3 was wiped and only a black-and-white film version remained. The resultant colourised footage was combined with colour information that was recovered from the Chroma Crawl
Dot crawl
Dot crawl is the popular name for a visual defect of color analog video standards when signals are transmitted as composite video, as in terrestrial broadcast television. It consists of animated checkerboard patterns which appear along vertical color transitions...
colour recovery
Colour recovery
Colour recovery is a process which can restore lost colour, specifically to television programmes which were originally transmitted in colour, but for which only black & white copies remain archived...
process, and was released on DVD in November 2009.
According to founder Barry Sandrew, Legend Films does not plan to colorize titles that were shot in black-and-white for artistic purposes, unless the original creators of the works participated in the color design.