Post #548691

The main part of McCallum's job was to oversee the film's restoration. The original negative had been stored since 1977 in a subterranean vault in Kansas at an optimum temperature of 50 to 53 degrees. But because of a type of color film stock that was used for most films in the '70s, the negative had deteriorated dramatically, with a color loss of up to 30 percent in some parts, McCallum said. Dirt was embedded in the six reels of the negative and frames were scratched and pitted. McCallum said that before anything new could be done to the film, the original had to be restored. He said a group of about 30 people worked for three years cleaning the negative with a sponge, frame by frame, using a special chemical bath heated to 100 degrees. Some portions of the negative were too faded to be restored and had to be recreated. The old footage had to be digitally scanned into a computer and then matched to new footage, until finally a new negative and print were made. McCallum said the process can be used in the future to restore negatives from any old films that mayhave similarly deteriorated. All the new and enhanced stuff, which cost about $15 million, then had to be "degraded" to match the original images, McCallum added.