Wake in Fright


DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – TED KOTCHEFF
MAKING WAKE IN FRIGHT: THE NOVEL
THE FILM
FILMING IN AUSTRALIA
SHOOTING IN BROKEN HILL
POST-PRODUCTION AND RELEASE
RECOVERY AND RESTORATION
WAKE IN FRIGHT ON AUSTRALIANSCREEN
WAKE IN FRIGHT ON DVD AND BLU-RAY

RECOVERY AND RESTORATION

In the years after its theatrical release, Wake in Fright occasionally screens late at night on Australia television, presented by Bill Collins during the 1980s and early 1990s. There is a limited release of Outback on videocassette in the US during the 80s. By the late 90s, some 16mm and 35mm prints of the film exist but were in extremely poor
condition for screening. The original negatives seem to have disappeared without a trace.

In 1996 Anthony Buckley, the original editor of Wake in Fright, starts searching for the original materials as it is found they are missing. This was done on a promise Buckley made to the NLT principal Bobby Limb in the years before his death in 1999.

In 1998 Buckley locates the negatives in London at a bonded warehouse, only to find on arrival that the film has been shipped to the United States the week before. His search in America takes another four years.

After an extensive search the original film materials are finally located in 2002, in a Pittsburgh vault marked for destruction and imminent disposal. There are protracted negotiations with CBS (who now own the North American rights to the film and the materials) and finally, with the assistance of Ausfilm in Los Angeles, an agreement struck with CBS to export materials to the Australia to be held at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA).

In 2003 the eagerly awaited first batch of Wake in Fright materials arrive in Australia. Upon closer inspection it is soon apparent that the two pallets of material turn out to be mainly beaten up, cut-down TV versions of the film of little use. This was a great disappointment for all concerned as CBS stated that they had delivered all the material
known to be held.

But despite this setback, Buckley persists and, with the assistance of Megs Worthy then of Ausfilm, continues to liaise with CBS in Los Angeles. CBS recommend contacting Iron Mountain Vaults directly, and a long-time vaults manager suggests that if there was anything more to be found, the “dump bins” would need to be searched. The
complete original negatives of Wake in Fright (Outback) were found in those bins.

In two separate shipments 263 cans of film from the US, containing original film elements necessary to reconstruct and preserve the film, arrive at the NFSA in September 2004. An initial inspection confirmed that virtually the complete set of images and sound negatives were there and reasonably intact. The NFSA undertakes a project to determine how to preserve the film and to choose appropriate materials in good enough condition to use; for both image and sound.

The NFSA, together with Atlab; and with Tony Buckley’s creative oversight, commence preservation work using traditional photochemical techniques for the image and archival matching of the negative components.

Due to poor condition and the onset of vinegar syndrome on key components the sound required specific care and transfer techniques to produce a quality transfer. A large number of sound components were transferred and auditioned for audio quality and completeness by NFSA technicians. Eventually, components were selected for use
in a new final mix. These components included a combination of dialogue tracks, music and effects tracks and optical soundtracks from both film and television versions. These parts were then pieced together digitally by Soundfirm with the guidance of NFSA staff to create a restored and complete mix ready for Atlab/Deluxe to re-master to Dolby
Digital.

Meanwhile, it was soon apparent that traditional photochemical preservation would not be sufficient to preserve the film and produce prints that match how the film was released originally. Significant colour fade and emulsion scratching were too severe to rejuvenate via photochemical means. Testing using digital restoration techniques were
employed to see what improvements could be made using these methods over photochemical.

Digital restoration testing proved very positive and a partnership was agreed to between the NFSA and Atlab to do a full digital restoration. Anthos Simon, General Manager, Atlab/Deluxe explains: "Atlab/Deluxe scanned the original film elements for Wake in Fright at the highest possible resolution (4K or 4096x3112) on a pin registered scanner to ensure we got the best image quality available. We kept the entire digital image in film log space (DPX files) so there was no colour compression at all. We then proceeded to digitally restore each reel by carefully removing dirt marks, fixing scratches, creating a colour LUT to repair the emulsions, and splice repair. We used both standard and in house digital tools that we developed specifically for this project. It is also handy to have some in house R&D. All this careful and delicate restoration was done frame by frame and took over a year to complete. The sound was also remastered
to a new Dolby digital sound negative from a combination of the original final mix, dialogue, music and effects elements. We then we proceeded to make brand new prints and a safety inter-positive master."

By February 2009, Wake in Fright has been digitally restored to pristine condition by Atlab/Deluxe and the NFSA– and is ready for rediscovery by audiences.


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