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Projecting film heritage

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:13

The National Library of Norway, located in Oslo and Mo-i-Rana, has a large film archive devoted to preserving this country’s rich film production legacy. It has more than 200,000 rolls of film in storage, including early, historic feature-length and documentary movies on nitrocellulose film as well as more recent productions.

This facility has more than 30 skilled staff who work on cataloguing, restoring, and conserving this important part of Norway’s national cultural heritage. The goal is to back up the entire film collection both digitally and on film. A few weeks ago, the National Library also had a Kinoton FP 30 E-Q REFERENCE 35mm studio projector installed that it is using to verify the quality of the new film copies.

The FP 30 E-Q projector's unique, digitally controlled intermittent drive ensures precise image reproduction with excellent focus and contrast and perfect sound reproduction. Fast shuttle operation of up to 100 fps and comprehensive counter functions make it easy to repeat scenes in quick succession. The projection speed can be varied freely from one to 30 fps, with compressed air automatically cooling the film gate during slow-motion projection to prevent heat-induced damage. It is even possible to indefinitely project still frames for detailed evaluation of single movie pictures.

Andrzej Kiwala, senior color grader at the National Library's film lab, states: "We are all very pleased with the Kinoton FP 30 E-Q studio projector, and think it is the best projector our film lab could have wished for. It allows us to closely monitor the quality of the film copies we make, which is very important since they will be archived for many years to benefit future generations."

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