Anónima Post Relies on Cintel to Revive Classic Mexican Films
Film scanner and DaVinci Resolve Studio help manage complex workflows to restore 50 year old films.
Blackmagic Design today announced that Mexico based post production studio Anónima Post relies on the Cintel Scanner and DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software to restore classic Mexican films dating back to the 1940s.
Founded in 2016 by Director and Colorist Edgar Flores, Anónima Post offers post production and restoration services for films and commercial projects in Mexico City. The team, consisting of Flores, a master restoration artist and an online editor, works on color restoration for numerous Mexican films, in addition to film restoration itself. For Flores, using DaVinci Resolve Studio, along with a DaVinci Resolve Micro Color Panel, is second nature, as he’s had extensive experience with the post production software over the years, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the studio and projects.
Anónima Post’s latest project includes the 1978 Mexican film “Nuevo Mundo,” directed by Gabriel Retes, for which the Cintel Scanner and DaVinci Resolve Studio were used to reconstruct the original edit and perform the color grading restoration.
Flores explained, “This project was unique because the film was restored from the original 35mm camera negative shot with anamorphic lenses in 1976. During research, we had the opportunity to view a projection of the film derived from a period era composite print, and we discovered that the version on the original camera negative did not match the edit of the composite print we were watching. We realized that the director had created a separate, more commercial version. When we completed the restoration of the commercial version, we set out to recover the director’s original cut as the next phase.”
To accomplish this, Anónima Post relied on three period positive prints, since the original negative for the missing footage could not be found. Flores added, “Each reel of the positive prints was transferred using the Cintel Scanner, treating them as if they were our original rushes, with each reel capturing metadata generated by Cintel, including timecode, reel and print number, and footage count.”
The film’s original edit was then reconstructed by integrating footage from the period era positive prints into the previously restored theatrical version, resulting in a combination of the restored original camera negative and the recovered print material. Anónima Post then generated an EDL to rescan the recovered footage at 6K resolution, ensuring it could be seamlessly incorporated into the restored version.
Flores commented that the project has its challenges, “The objective was to match the color grading of the original camera negative as close as possible to the specific color degradation characteristics of the period positive prints which, being projection prints, exhibited varying degrees of physical deterioration.
“It was a huge advantage that Cintel performed the transfer in real time, simultaneously capturing the audio from the positive print which allowed for an assessment of the physical damage to each reel across the three positive copies. With this data, it was possible to refine the workflow design for the digital restoration process involving image, color and sound. Also, during the transfer of each reel, it was possible to perform a color balance using Cintel’s printer lights to better visualize the color of the prints, which had already become severely degraded due to years of poor handling and a lack of cleaning. This step was also crucial for generating the metadata corresponding to each reel, enabling the subsequent creation of an EDL that precisely identified every individual frame to be scanned in high resolution.”
Using DaVinci Resolve Studio, Anónima Post tested and designed various color workflows to ensure optimal color interpretation and recovery of the source material, operating within modern color spaces since every project responds differently due to the effects of time. “We consistently design highly complex, wide ranging color workflows to ensure that we can always work with the maximum latitude afforded by the scanned material,” Flores said.
He added, “DaVinci Resolve enables us to integrate specialized tools for capturing information regarding color, texture and final finish. We have established highly proven workflows that we adapt according to the specific requirements of each project. It is a huge advantage to work with high resolution files in real time and for color operations to integrate seamlessly with the restoration of degraded color which, in some cases, is severely damaged.”
“We are very proud of the projects we’ve worked on so far, especially ‘Nuevo Mundo.’ The film is expected to be available in film archives and at film festivals, bringing more life to it now than it did back in the ‘70s,” Flores concluded. “Here at Anónima Post, we also hope to continue to establish a stronger presence in the realm of contemporary projects as well as restoration, and work on more series, documentaries and similar projects.”
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