Visionary Archive - Archiving Color Images to Single Strip B&W 35mm Film

• Published in: SMPTE Annual Tech Conference & Expo, 2010 pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: McKee, Sean, Panov, Victor
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: SMPTE 01.10.2010
• ISBN: 1614829446; 9781614829447
• DOI: 10.5594/M001360

For decades, color motion pictures have been archived for long-term preservation storage by separating the three primary color components that when combined make a full color image, yellow, cyan and magenta, known as YCM separations, and recorded each color channel on to a black and white strip of film, also known as '3-strip'. Black and white film stock is known to have a longer shelf life with less degradation than color film stock. This archival process is the same whether the movie was shot on film, or with modern digital cinema cameras. In the case of stereoscopic 3D movies that contain left-eye and right-eye content, a total of six strips (three for each eye) would have to be made for archival purposes. Ultimately, a future generation would be able to take these strips, recombine them (called registration), and view a full color movie.