As I write this, the coordination continues on a project that has been ongoing. I’ve never given up on this project through these years, as other things that had their challenges make it to the finish line, I’ve been working hard to get the Lou Bunin Alice in Wonderland project there as well.

As the project has continued, the hardest thing has been actually moving the scanning of the best material through the various hurdles. When I did get to scan some of the material, it wasn’t to the quality I wanted at all, and obtaining the best has been less than easy. Happy, at this point in the project, the access is improving, and I’m happy to report that the current three element being scanned will likely get us to a pint where we have good versions of all the shots and the soundtrack.

Bunin’s ambitious project ran into all sorts of hurdles in getting it to the finish line. The biggest and most significant was Disney’s production, resulting in both a limited release of the film and the inability to use the Technicolor process to make the production. This blow led to a much lower budget being committed to the film as well as an inferior color process being used, well after production had already started.

We’re at a place in the project where I’m enjoying the challenges as they come. Over this past week, I borrowed a great print of the majority of the film from my friend Mark Kausler, hoping to improve on some of the material I have already scanned. The word improvement is inadequate.

The film, a co-production between British, US and French financiers, even had challenges in release. The French version was released upon completion in 1949, but Disney’s lawsuit prevented it from being released in England and the US until 1951. Ansco color, the American division of Agfa/Ansco, a German company, was in receivership by the US government since seizing the company from Nazi-controlled Germany. The company would eventually be released from government ownership and reformed as “GAF” in the early 60s.

The color process, similar but inferior to Kodachrome, was greatly flawed in many ways. As a single negative reversal stock, there was no negative, and in order to get the best results, the original camera material needed to be used for each print made. As Lou Bunin explained in a letter describing his career, he was never given the original camera materials all back for the feature from the French producer, resulting in an inability to release the best version of the film after the initial release. For re-releases, Bunin used several nitrate prints as his best masters. I’ve scanned material that used some of that material as the master, with only fair results.

The 35mm Ansco print that Mark lent for the project is a safety print from 1951, printed from the camera original.This material, along with the ability to now scan one of the few remaining nitrate prints, finally makes it possible to get the rest of the project finished to the kind of quality I was hoping for.

There are quite a few hurdles to overcome technically. The early Ansco color stock faded and muted pretty early on, including the prints I’m working with.In addition, the stock didn’t fade evenly on any of the material, resulting in a mottling that looks like water damage throughout all existing prints. While the later Ansco stock held on to colors better, it was much, much grainier. Add to that the material being another generation from the camera material makes a big difference in overall end qualities. Now that we’re able to have material only one generation down I’m more than happy with how the results are looking.

There are several other things we’re hoping to still get to improve what we have, but I thought I’d share some stills from the current work-in-progress. From here it’s still a road uphill, but we have good tires now to make the climb up the hill at least!

Here’s some stills from the current work-in-progress. While far from final, I think these give a pretty good idea of how the material will start to look like as we work on it. More soon as we get closer to finishing.

Have a good week everyone!