Instructors: Alice Plutino, Universita degli Studi di Milano, and Giorgio Trumpy, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 2 hours
Course Date/Time: Monday, June 19 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM

Benefits:
This course enables the attendee to:

• Understand the main milestones in the evolution of color technology for motion picture film and the main challenges of working with film materials.
• Identify color film processes.
• Understand why is it important to digitize films.
• Choose the best image-capture and -processing approach for different color processes on film.
• Describe the limits of current film scanning technology.
• Learn about the main scientific advancements in film digitization and digital correction.

Course Description:
Why should we digitize cinematographic materials? Is it possible to restore a film being faithful to its original look? The history of color technology on film is a fascinating succession of attempts to accurately reproduce color scenes in motion that started in the late nineteenth century. Comprised of applied hand coloring, tinting, stencil coloring, and a multitude of color processes. The accurate reproduction of this colorful heritage using digital tools requires an understanding of the optical properties of the different color processes, knowledge of projection techniques used for screening in cinemas, and information about the features and limitations of current film scanning technology.

Film digitization and restoration is a multidisciplinary field that requires the joint work of many disciplines and professionals. This course provides an overview of this fascinating research field, addresses open problems for future developments and research, and presents some innovative solutions.

Intended Audience:
Students and professionals of any field, from physics to archiving, image scientist, and film enthusiasts.

Alice Plutino is a postdoctoral fellow at Università degli Studi di Milano. Her research interests are color science, colorimetry, image enhancement, image digitization, and archiving, with a particular interest in cultural heritage applications. She is author of the book “Tecniche di Restauro Cinematografico” and several journal and conference papers of national and international relevance. She is adjunct professor at Università degli Studi di Milano and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, teaching digital film restoration and digital media conservation. She is member of the Italian color group (Gruppo del Colore), deputy editor of the Color Culture and Science Journal (CCSJ), and vice-coordinator of Divisions 2 and 8 of NC CIE Italy.

Giorgio Trumpy has a solid real-world experience rooted in imaging science. He started working in 2006 in Florence on non-invasive analyses of paintings. During his PhD work at the University of Basel, he devised an optical setup for the restoration of motion pictures. Between 2014 and 2016 he was at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, designing spectral imaging methodologies for works of art. In recent years, he has been a research scientist at the University of Zurich conducting scientific analyses of historical film colors. He is currently an associate professor in the Colourlab, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.