FiRe2: a Call for a Film Repository of Technical Data and Memories for Photo and Movie Restoration

Through the history, thousands of different kinds of film formats, emulsions and colour systems have been used, to reproduce natural colours and as mean of expression for specific characters ad scenes. In the last years, the advent of digital intermediate improved the post-production technology and the film restoration process. Anyway, the support migration opened different issues about the colour reproducibility in digital systems that present the same problems as the analogue ones. Furthermore, the lack of physical information on film dyes, emulsions and sensitivity makes impossible the reconstruction of different film process colours, and so their comparison with the analogue or digital copies. In this contribution we aim at rising the awareness of restorer and film expert on the colour reproduction problems which always affect the practice of digitization and digital restoration and we propose and promote the contribution of Fire2, an open access database of cinematographic and photographic technical data and materials, to support the work of conservators, restorer and researchers.