UCLA Film & Television Archive - Preservation

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Films Recently Preserved at UCLA
Television Programs Recently Preserved at UCLA

By the time cinema celebrated its centennial in 1995, a major portion of our film heritage had been irretrievably lost. Fifty percent of all films produced in the United States prior to 1950 have already disappeared. Ninety percent of classic film prints in the United States are currently in very poor condition. Similarly, much of historic television now exists only on obsolete and deteriorating tape formats.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive has committed itself to the preservation of these invaluable moving image materials. In general, the term "preservation" refers to the process of gathering the best surviving materials from a film or television program and transferring them to the most stable format possible. "Restoration" usually refers to even more time-consuming and complicated projects in which altered or missing material is restored to the film, bringing it as close as possible to its initial release form.

Until 1950, films were produced using nitrate cellulose film stock, a chemically unstable and highly flammable material that inevitably deteriorates and turns to dust. Film preservation historically referred to the transfer of nitrate films to more stable acetate (or safety) film stock. However, acetate film stock also deteriorates, giving rise to a condition called "the vinegar syndrome"; and many of the color films made since 1950 are also subject to irreversible color fading. Many of the Archive's preservation and restoration projects deal with these post-1950 titles. The Archive is relying increasingly on a new polyester film stock, which appears to be much more stable if kept in optimal storage conditions.

All of the preservation and restoration work done at UCLA is the result of hours of painstaking hard work, in collaboration with commercial film laboratories specializing in preservation. Computers and digital means are increasingly used to improve image and sound quality in the preservation process.

The Archive's internationally recognized preservation program has been responsible for preserving nearly 300 films. RKO's BECKY SHARP (1935), the first film shot using three-color Technicolor, had original elements literally scattered throughout the world. This not atypical preservation and restoration effort required not only unearthing the missing footage, but also repairing the physical damage to the material. It also meant conducting extensive historical research about the original so that sound and image could be recreated accurately.

Some of the other titles preserved by UCLA include Cecil B. DeMille's CLEOPATRA (1934); Marlon Brando's first film, THE MEN; Dorothy Arzner's THE WILD PARTY (1929) starring Clara Bow; Max Ophul's 1949 film CAUGHT; John Ford's STAGECOACH; Katherine Hepburn's screen test for THE ANIMAL KINGDOM; early Vitaphone sound-on-disk films; one of the last of the two-color Technicolor films, DOCTOR X; both release and full-length versions of A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT; and THE BETTER 'OLE.

Preservation's efforts also extend to the Archive's Hearst Metrotone Newsreel Collection. Here, a comprehensive approach is aimed at preserving distributed newsreels, unreleased stories, and outtakes. This collection provides invaluable documentation of the history of the first half of the twentieth century. Newsreel preservation activity is ongoing, yet due to limited funding only a small percentage of the 27 million feet has been preserved.

Television preservation is a relatively new field. Previously it consisted only of safeguarding historic kinescopes and tapes, but in recent years the Archive has expanded the program to include a transfer and restoration program.

Preservation efforts have centered around the preservation of programs originally produced on 2" videotape from the late 1950's through the 1970's, and the Archive has focused on the preservation of early color programs, including the three Fred Astaire specials (1958's AN EVENING WITH FRED ASTAIRE, the first major broadcast to use color videotape; 1959, and 1960); THE GEORGE BURNS SHOW (1960); ESTHER WILLIAMS AT CYPRESS GARDENS (1960); two 1959 color specials starring Gene Kelly; and the Nixon-Khrushchev debate taped in Moscow in 1959.

Other programs preserved include a number of episodes of RALPH STORY'S LOS ANGELES (1965-70); a number of campaign speeches and special programs from the 1960 JFK presidential campaign; several HALLMARK HALL OF FAME productions; coverage of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination; interviews with Rube Goldberg and Harold Lloyd; and a 1966 press conference with The Beatles.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive regularly presents a biennial Festival of Preservation which showcases films, televisions and newsreels recently preserved at UCLA.

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