Michael Blackwood Productions approached us in 2018 with the goal of digitally remastering the entire collection of films made during the long careers of filmmakers Michael and Christian Blackwood.
Since the 1960s, Michael Blackwood Productions has produced over 100 films about artists (Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Donald Judd, Philip Guston), architects (Frank Gehry, Irata Isozaki, Mies van der Rohe), musicians (Philip Glass, Thelonius Monk, Eartha Kitt) and history, literature and science (Albert Einstein, Hans Bethe).
We've had a very successful and long-lasting partnership with Gamma Ray Digital, largely involving film scanning, restoration work, and mastering services. Gamma Ray Digital not only provides very high-quality transferring and encoding services, but is also able to work with and put together differing and sometimes challenging elements. All of our digitizing and (re)mastering projects we've been extremely happy with, and will always appreciate.
Over the course of nearly 3 years, Gamma Ray Digital has been scanning, color correcting and restoring these 16mm films, as well as capturing later works from camera original video tape and XDCAM discs.
In many cases original elements have been lost or damaged, so much of the work has involved tracking down usable elements (workprints, soundtracks from previous transfers or disparate elements), and properly handling them to produce new, high quality masters.
Most of these films are available for viewing through Michael Blackwood Productions web site.