This project is currently ongoing as more research conducted on the field of film studies by Barbara Fleuckinger and her collaborators. The planned result of this project was to provide information to archivists and restorer on how to digitize/restore film using different processes, the historical impression/appearance of film based on different aesthetics, and how the audience views are affected based on the aesthetics of the film. Essentially their goal was to get a better understanding of culture.
As Barbara states in her article A Digital Humanities Approach to Film Colors she states:
“The evidence created by computer-assisted analysis and its subsequent visualizations will answer—in Bordwell’s words—the question of “why it happened.” What were the epistemological assumptions that guided inventions in the realm of film colors? What were the guiding discursive notions in professional practices and in the marketing of film colors’ added value? How did the color systems and technical solutions respond
(Flueckinger 2007)
to cultural norms of taste in a given period and geographical location? How are color schemes and aesthetic patterns connected to chemical and physical properties of film stocks? As research progresses on an ever-growing group of films, we will get closer to the answers.”
The project is in their third phase, so my team was able to assess that they have gotten very close to their goal. My team found this out by assessing the project progress from when it started to now. Not only has the project gotten bigger from where it started from just analyzing film colors to analyzing the different processes film are restored. It also reached it’s goal of spreading the culture of film as this project has received a large following through a blog and news website. The project has also has an outreach from where it started in Switzerland to now spanning across the globe.