A digital future is a welcome one

Forget nostalgia – if Archives opens up its lab to commercial film-makers to process celluloid film in the future, Gaylene Preston will not be lining up.

‘‘You can just shoot so much faster with digital and get a great result,’’ says the Wellington film-maker, who was shooting on 35mm when she began documentary-making decades ago. ‘‘You don’t need so many lights, it sees in the dark, that stuff. It’s just become so much better.’’

Her only gripe with the quick change to digital is that now her film productions –

Cameras are now so ubiquitous that everyone can be a film-maker, but there’s a difference between shooting a film and getting it funded, produced, recognised and distributed, he says.

‘‘There are many components in the budget of a feature film, and the film costs are just one.

‘‘Being able to shoot a film and being able to get it released are two quite different things.’’ The Last Samurai,

River Queen, could say ‘‘behind the scenes’’, Archives New Zealand chief executive Greg Goulding said the National Archives would take over the lab. While neither Park Road nor Archives would say how much money exchanged hands, they each label it a ‘‘nominal sum’’. And perhaps Park Road head of picture Brian Scadden puts it best: ‘‘Peter Jackson came to the party.’’

At least 1000 films at Archives NZ still desperately need restoration, which can be done only at the lab, so it was an easy choice, Mr Goulding told The Dominion Post in June.

‘‘We didn’t have to think too long and too hard before we realised we should do this.

‘‘[These films] are a really important part of New Zealand’s culture, we can’t let them disintegrate and disappear.’’

Archives would now bring forward a $2.8 million government project to restore the country’s films during the next five years. Once printed on to polyester stock, they could be scanned and digitised, and would be put on the Archives YouTube channel.

The lab would be open in November, and would consider providing a service to commercial film-makers in future.

The Film Archive, which holds the country’s commercial films, is slightly further ahead with its restoration. It’s in the final stretch of a $2m project to preserve volatile film stock, and hopes to have most films stabilised by June.

At Park Road, walking through the giant space where film processors and printers used to sit is eerie. Dozens of

Mr Wrong, Ruby & Rata, Bread and Roses – can only be shown in a handful of cinemas nationwide. ‘‘All that now needs to be digitalised, and that’s really expensive.’’ Film-maker Vincent Ward, who was executive producer on and whose work includes says...

All change: Cameron Harland, general manager of Park Road Post, with a scene from Utu on the screen behind him.

Reeled off: Brian Scadden rolls a film over a light box. Hundreds of thousands of frames need to be inspected as films are digitally remastered.

Shelved hopes and dreams: