NT Audio Video Film Labs is pleased to announce the addition of Paul Rutan Jr. to head its Restoration and Preservation Division. Paul’s extensive film background began over forty years ago in New York City when he started working as a part time delivery boy at Perfect Film Lab. Soon, he was working for his father’s company, Optical Print Services Inc. (O.P.S.), in Los Angeles. There he learned how non-standard film formats had to be converted into a 35mm and 16mm standard for both network and independent television stations and airlines, with additional cutting for censored versions. At O.P.S. he developed a keen eye for the slight nuances of color and B&W cinematography.
At O.P.S. Paul was kept busy handling, repairing and analyzing numerous film types including: black and white, dye layer color film, 2-color and three-strip Technicolor, successive exposure, Y-C-M masters, and many other exotic film types. Here Paul gained proficiency working daily with volatile nitrate elements, overseeing their conversion to Safety Film. During this time he also became an experienced Negative Cutter, in both picture and sound.
His experience and expertise in film formats grew to include the intricacies of Cinemascope, Techniscope, Vistavision, Technirama, Auto-Select, Full Aperture, SuperScope, Super 35, 2-Strip Technicolor, Cinecolor, SuperCinecolor and many other odd color formats. He became an authority on the art of panning and scanning anamorphic negatives to CRI and flat interpositives.
Paul served a brief stint in post-production at Columbia Pictures Television as an apprentice editor before his passion for film restoration quickly drew him back to Restoration Supervisor positions at R.G.B. Optical and Image Transform Laboratories.
It was at RGB Optical where Paul became recognized for his restoration talent. Particularly, his work on Spartacus, with Robert Harris, creating a 65mm recombined internegative from Technirama Y-C-M Masters with severe registration issues.
Paul then moved to Image Transform working on numerous projects; including several Disney, Sony, UCLA, Warner Brothers and Beatles titles. At Image Transform Paul developed innovative techniques including modifying printers to handle severely shrunken and damaged film.
In 1998 Paul launched his own company in partnership with Tony Munroe to concentrate on working full time on restoration and preservation. Triage Archival Restoration Services was truly a boutique facility. Paul says we named it Triage because; “We were triage, comforting the dying (rotting film) and rescuing the sick and distressed that could be saved.”
While at Triage, Paul opened the door to perfecting digital restoration and preservation methods using modern digital tools. These included both 4K and 2K projects.
Paul most recently finished restoring The Beatle’s Apple Corps A Hard Days Night, Help, Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour.
Paul is an industry recognized authority on all obsolete and current motion picture film formats and stocks from the late 1800′s to the present. Specializing in both black and white, and color, Paul is well versed in all laboratory, optical, Hi-Def and digital formats. Paul’s experience ranges from 8mm, 16mm, 35mm to 65mm film formats.
Paul has been a member of Local 700 since 1974 and is a member of AMIA and SMPTE.
Now on board at NT Audio Video Film Labs Paul says, “My goal is to produce the best product possible by creating the best image possible and striving to stay within the photographic parameters of the era in which the motion picture was shot.”
Filmography
Alfred Hitchcock:
- Marnie
- The Trouble With Harry
- To Catch a Thief
Academy Award Winning Films:
- Wings (1927)
- The Godfather
- All About Eve
- All The King’s Men (1949)
- How Green Was My Valley
- My Fair Lady
- Oliver
- Ordinary People
- Rebecca
- The Sting
- The Apartment
- The Greatest Show On Earth
- Terms of Agreement
- Tom Jones
Academy Award Nominated Films:
- A Hard Day’s Night
- All That Jazz
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- The Bridges at Toko-Ri
- Reds
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Romeo and Juliet
- Shane
Additional Titles:
- A Fistful Of Dollars
- Fistful Of Dynamite (Duck You Sucker!)
- For A Few Dollars More
- Help
- Once Upon A Time In The West
- The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Paul also assisted acclaimed restoration artist Robert Harris with the 35mm ancillary material on My Fair Lady.
Digital restoration work includes:
- Yellow Submarine photochemical and digital
- Magical Mystery Tour photochemical and digital
