Preserving old movies

According to the American Film Institute, about half of all feature films produced before the 1950s is gone -- either lost, destroyed or deteriorated beyond use because of the highly-flammable nitrate film stock on which motion pictures were photographed and printed. Poorly-preserved color film stock has also faded. The survival rate of silent films is even worse, with 80-90% gone.

In The Vault

With the rise in home video and DVDs, the archives of movie studios have become valuable corporate assets, leading to extensive efforts to track down the best surviving elements of films (searching archives and laboratories around the world), and preserve and restore them. One such archive is George Eastman House outside Rochester, N.Y., where thousands of early movies are kept in frigid, low-humidity vaults.

The Unveiling

Deborah Stoiber opens a case containing a reel of decomposing film at the George Eastman House Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center in Chili, N.Y., Thursday, April 24, 2008.

The Ravages Of Time

What you don't want to find: A reel of decomposing film, photographed at the George Eastman House Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center in Chili, N.Y.

Dust To Dust

Deborah Stoiber brushes off a reel of decomposing film at the George Eastman House Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center in Chili, N.Y., Thursday April 24, 2008.

We Do Give A Damn

However, film that is properly stored can survive. Deborah Stoiber opens a canister containing original film negative from "Gone With The Wind." When Ted Turner bought the MGM film library, he spent $350,000 to restore the Civil War classic. Already one of the highest grossing films in history, it reaped millions more in home video sales and theatrical reissues.

Not Quite A Randbow

Part of the original negative of "The Wizard of Oz" was lost in a fire in the 1970s. Intermediate prints had to be used in the film's recent restoration, in which the film was digitally scanned, then individual frames were cleaned on computers and then reprinted onto film.

Glorious Technicolor

Beginning in the 1930s, Technicolor movies were actually photographed on three strips of black-and-white negative film stock. What the camera lens sees is split by filters into cyan, yellow and magenta information. When the three film strips are combined in a lab, a full-color film print is produced.

Measuring Up

Film is measured to determine shrinkage. If any of the three-strips of film that make Technicolor shrink or warp, a crisp color image won't be reproducible.

They Had Faces Then, And Do Again

Films in danger are not just poorly-received, long-forgotten titles. Among the films that have been recently restored through the efforts of archivists, researchers and Hollywood studios are "Sunset Boulevard" (with Gloria Swanson, pictured), "Roman Holiday," "The Grapes of Wrath," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Spartacus," "Rear Window" and "The Godfather Parts I and II." What would life be like without any of them?