2014 (Production)

2014-10-29 (Production)

English (Original)

United States

Archivist and entrepreneur Ralph Sargent is interviewed by Betsy McLane at Film Technology Company in Hollywood, CA in 2014. He discusses his early interest in motion picture photography, the formation of Film Technology Company, and his photochemical restoration efforts from THE BIG TRAIL (1930) to CITIZEN KANE (1941).

Archivist and entrepreneur Ralph Sargent is interviewed by Betsy McLane at Film Technology Company in Hollywood, CA on October 29, 2014. Sargent shares stories about his formative years in Plainfield, NJ. He was introduced to motion picture photography by his home movie enthusiast father, who gifted a teenaged Sargent with an 8mm Brownie camera. He reminisces about shooting ten-minute reels of film during the family’s move to Arizona. He attended the University of North Carolina as a Radio, Television and Motion Pictures major, commenting on his aptitude for sound technology. Sargent recalls entering UCLA’s graduate film program and joining the university’s Motion Picture Division of the Theater Arts Department, working as technical production supervisor and later appointed to instructor. He recounts his uncredited directorial debut with TRANSFORMATIONS (1968), a 17-minute film produced for IBM stakeholders. After leaving his UCLA teaching position in 1972, Sargent formed Film Technology Company with partners Winrich Kolbe, Dale Matlock and Alan Stark. He discusses the impetus for the company’s formation, with the mission to assist student filmmakers with post-production workflow. Film Technology’s first project was a research study commissioned by National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to investigate the state of long-term preservation for moving images. Sargent discusses Film Technology’s move into television post-production before focusing strictly on film lab processing and motion picture restoration. He shares insights on their first restoration project THE BIG TRAIL (1930) in 1980 and details the technical difficulties faced during the process. Sargent briefly touches on Film Technology’s video preservation efforts while noting the triage between archivists and lab technicians during this period. He discusses film restorations for LOST HORIZON (1937; 1985), KING KONG (1933, 1989), and CITIZEN KANE (1941; 1991), and comments on the logistical challenges of working with each film’s multiple source elements. Sargent mentions his involvement with the Association of Moving Image Archivists and the Society for Motion Picture Television and Engineers, emphasizing each organization’s significant relationship with film studios. He concludes with thoughts on the closing of Film Technology, the future of photochemical restorations and the relevance of film laboratories in the digital era.

Ralph Sargent (born 1941) is an archivist and entrepreneur known for pioneering advancements in audiovisual preservation as co-founder of Film Technology Company, Inc., whose image/sound restoration projects include LOST HORIZON (1937), CITIZEN KANE (1941), and THE QUIET MAN (1940). Possessing an early aptitude for technology, Sargent began his career as a production supervisor for UCLA’s Theater Arts department before launching Film Technology in 1971. The company was tasked with developing long-term archival initiatives for moving images, as well as providing post-production services for television and motion picture studios. By the early 1980s, Sargent refocused their efforts into video/print preservation and laboratory operations, which included photochemical restorations of THE BIG TRAIL (1930) in 1984, followed by 1989’s KING KONG (1933). Film Technology would partner with National Film Preservation Foundation in 1997 with the mission to preserve deteriorating films, while providing grants and financial assistance to archives. In recognition of his innovations for restoration best practices, Sargent received the Silver Light Award from the Association of Moving Image Archivists in 2011.

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