Restoring a RCA 21CT55

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Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

I just received "The Red Shoes" and the color is very nice. I had forgotten how many exterior scenes there are, and the Monte Carlo shots are nice. I caught one flub - as Moira Shearer is approaching a fancy building for a meeting, they are obviously following her with powerful spotlights and or reflectors to light her back, which is toward the camera but in shadow. At the very beginning of the shot, you see one of the spots whip across the courtyard in front of her, getting into position.

The set comes with bonus material including Martin Scorsese showing and commenting on the restoration process; he breaks it down into separate illustrations for the processes of removing mold spots, correcting misregistration, and correcting color breathing. Nothing short of amazing.

Edit: many of the shots other than daytime exteriors are rather low-key, which is not an easy thing to reproduce on a vintage color set with a dim picture and reflective tube face. To add to the fog, the CTC-5, like most vintage sets, has less than full DC coupling. I found it advantageous to turn off room lights except for the "TV light" I have that lights the wall behind the set, and turn down the brightness control a little. This made the exterior shots a little too dark, but you have to compromise or some of the interiors look foggy.

That scene as she prepares to ascend the stairs was very noticeable and seems to be an obvious error that should have been caught. Also wonder why all the weeds were left to grow on the stone steps.

If you have a moderm television with a good color decoder and adjusted reasonably well, you owe it yourself to see the nuisances that the old roundie may not capture.

For anyone interested, we posted the entire ballet scene as reproduced by the RCA 21CT55 here at this link. Click on the 1080P setting for best quality.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0zfc_E...ature=youtu.be

Edit: From IMDb, "On her first day of shooting, Moira Shearer got badly sunburned and developed a blister on her back. Later in the production she also wrenched her neck quite badly when called to leap from a window, and received a scratch that turned into an abscess. Shearer would often find herself being suspended in a harness for up to eight hours while being buffeted by wind machines."

Possibly they rushed the scene because of Shearer's complaining. It was her first film and she was nervous. I would be p****d if suspended in a harness for two minutes, oh the pain if you know what I mean.