First of all, i know it isn't exactly a "true restoration, however, it is my own and it was a lot of work, and still just a tad more to go. But the bulk of it is now done.
As you may already know, i bought a 16mm copy of High Plains Drifter.
It is a scope feature and the colour is A1, no fade,however, it was a TV cut and there was some very poor splices and repairs with a lot of jumping, with several sections of sprocket holes missing, so when the opportunity arose to get hold of a theatrical print but,again, with a lot of damage for a song, (also scope and A1 colour) i snapped it up from a friend of a friend. He may as well have given it to me for what i paid but i did show willing. His copy was going to be binned rather than viewed.
Yesterday i set about making a good theatrical print from the two. As pure luck would have it the frame and focus were the same, After two sessions of well over two hours work during the afternoon and evening i finally finished, I was able to replace whole and jumpy scenes with the uncut version and as luck would have it the damage was pretty much confined to parts of the film i didn't need anyway.
I could have bought the Blu ray for a fiver but i wanted my 16mm print and i wanted it restored as best as i could manage. It wont be perfect, but not far off.
This is something you cant do this with a DVD or blu ray, this was fun & the biggest repair job i had done on any print and very much well worth it!!!!!
I broke all the rules doing this, (and others in the past), i dont have a 16mm editor, and i dont fanny about with cotton gloves. This was me working with my 8mm editor to pop the film in simply to look at where i was, i used an eye piece in order to see the frames, (one great advantage over 8mm is being to see an image on a frame easily), and my trusty CIR splicer and rewind arms. Once finished everything looked great. Today i gave the film a light clean and ran reel one, tomorrow evening i will run reel two (or possibly Tuesday). Reel two is where around about 400ft of film had been replaced in four long sections, it will remove all the sticky/jumpy parts with what appears to be almost perfect sections. So far, it appears to be looking great, Here some images from reel one, and will pop up some from reel two focusing on the replacement sections tomorrow or Tuesday.
What these images dont show you is how vivid the colours are and how sharp the image actually is, my little camera appears to have over exposed some of the brighter images here making faces look dupey but the actual film is excellent.