Innovation in Advanced Digital Imaging: ON THE CONTROVERSY OF COLORIZING THE CLASSICS

Saturday, May 26, 2018

ON THE CONTROVERSY OF COLORIZING THE CLASSICS

BARRY SANDREW, phd - ON THE CONTROVERSY OF COLORIZING THE CLASSICS FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD (PART 1)

Barry Sandrew on the Controversy of Colorizing the Classics-Part 1

THE GUEST

Barry Sandrew is a neuroscientist turned visual effects innovator and entrepreneur. He invented a process for colorizing black & white films, and another for converting 2D movies into 3D. As a result, Barry has touched a remarkable number of classic and modern films and TV shows - everything from It’s a Wonderful Life to Top Gun to Transformers - through the work of the companies he founded, which include Legend Films and Legend 3D.

Currently Barry is involved in several AR initiatives as a founder or board member, including ARival (AR experiences around live sports), Context Surgery (AR for surgeons), and Magnify World (global conference on AR & VR).

THE CONVERSATION

This is the first of two parts of my conversation with Barry. In this part, Barry and I talk about the lessons he learned from the public reception (and some outrage) to colorizing old black and white movies. Barry also shares his awakening to the potential of 3D movies, and his perspective on why 3D has floundered in the US.

Barry retells some wonderful stories about his interactions with the films and people from the Golden Age of Hollywood, including Jane Russell, Terry Moore, Shirley Temple, Ted Turner, and Frank Capra.

THE REQUEST

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BIOGRAPHY

This is a series of blogs by Barry Sandrew, Ph.D., an internationally recognized inventor, digital imaging expert and visual effects pioneer. Dr. Sandrew is founder of three visual effects facilities that were among the largest and most prolific production studios in Hollywood. Over the past three decades he has been and continues to be instrumental in evolving the entertainment Industry's digital standards and processes in feature filmmaking.

Sandrew earned his doctorate in neuroscience from SUNY at Stony Brook. After winning a 2 year NIH Fellowship at Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons, he joined Harvard Medical School/MGH as staff Neuroscientist. In 1987, Sandrew left his academic and scientific career to found American Film Technologies (AFT) where he invented the first all digital process for colorizing black and white feature films.

At AFT he also invented a paperless animation process used to produce episodic animation for Fox Children's TV and a digital ink & paint and compositing pipeline that produced Spielberg's first digital animated feature film, "We're Back: A Dinosaur Story." Sandrew took AFT public while converting hundreds of movies for clients such as Turner, Disney, Warner Bros., Fox, Gaumont, TF1, ABC, and CBS, among many others.

In 1993 Barry Sandrew left American Film Technologies to co-found Lightspan, an animation and production edutainment studio that grew into one of the largest educational software companies in the U.S., marketing into entire school districts around the country. Lightspan ultimately went public and was later acquired by Plato Learning.

In 2000, Sandrew founded Legend Films, re-inventing colorization and a proprietary film restoration process using the latest in digital imaging technology. Over the course of the next 7 years, Legend Films converted to color approximately 145 black & white films as well as several TV series. Legend Films also produced visual effects for Scorsese's "The Aviator", HBO's "Entourage" and other high profile TV and film projects.

In 2007, with Jim Cameron's game changing "Avatar 3D" scheduled for a 2009 release, Sandrew leveraged his proprietary colorization pipeline, redirecting his company's entire R&D focus to embrace 2D-to-3D conversion and changing the company's name to Legend3D. Since 2010, Legend3D has lead the competitive field, producing 3D conversion and visual effects on over 35 of the highest performing box office tentpole films of the past 6 years.

In 2014, Dr. Barry Sandrew left Legend3D to focus on new immersive and web based media technologies as well his non-profit and for-profit board positions. He is consultant to Fortune 500 companies re: mobile 3D-sensing and motion tracking technology that he considers precursors to augmented reality. Most recently, he is Co-Founder and President/CEO of Graffiti Video, Inc. a company that is redefining the curation of web based media.