Stage One: The transfer of all archival originals, edited or unedited materials alike, onto new 35mm film masters (either negatives and/or fine grains). These will be transferred onto a digital basis. The AVID system will in this case serve both as cataloguing system and as editing device. In this stage the original rushes will be reconstituted and the best scenes selected. The reconstruction of the original camera rushes will follow the principles developed by the film historian Jay Leyda. A rough-cut and rough sound assembly will be established and a 35mm film cutting copy will be edited and matched to the digital instructions of the AVID cut. All final picture and sound editing will be made on film to the final length of approximately 100 minutes.
Stage Two: Once the final shape of the film has been determined, the final film will be digitized utilizing the latest, most suitable technology. The special route of digital restoration has been chosen because it is particularly suitable for Eisenstein’s Mexican materials:- a) some of the original materials were shot at a shutter speed of between 20 and 22 frames per second, - the undercranking can be adjusted. b) some sections of the footage are unsteady due to film shrinkage and an occasional shutter problem, - these scenes can be stabilized. c) the scanner can make advantageous use of the full silent image ratio through a 12% compression of the frame. d) inherent blemishes and defects will be repaired digitally and the full tonal range of the the images will be restored. e) grading and contrast controls will balance qualitative discrepancies and provide greater visual cohesion. The digitally restored images will be transfered back onto film. Thus the 1931 negative will be replaced by a fresh, high-quality negative with all the advantages of modern film stocks.
While the scanning and processing of the film is going on, the sound track will be produced in Mexico. It will contain authentic recordings of athmospheres and dialogues and will incorporate a specially commissioned score. The final stages of post-production follow the line of a normal 35mm film completion: fine cut, sound cut, sound mix, sound negative and married print.
The undertaking of this reconstruction is an onerous one, and will take some considerable time to achieve. However, the result will be well worth it; it will be the definitive production of a film which was presumed to be lost for ever.
Eisenstein and Tissé shot some 195,000 ft. of film in Mexico. Several films and travelogues were produced in the 1930’s from sections sold off separately. These include: ‘Thunder over Mexico’ (Sol Lesser, 1933) 6124 ft. ‘Death Day’ (Sol Lesser, 1934) 1400 ft. ‘Eisenstein in Mexico’ (Sol Lesser, 1994) 1400ft. ‘Time in the Sun’ (Marie Seaton, 1939) 4209 ft. Six separate short films were produced by the Bell and Howell Company: ‘Mexico Marches’, ‘Conquering Cross’, ‘Idol of Hope’, ‘Land & Freedom’, ‘Spaniard & Indian’, and ‘Zapotek Village’, which were later compiled in the production ‘Mexican Symphony’ (W.F. Kruse 1941/2) 6400 ft.
All remaining unedited negatives (71,000 ft.), were deposited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York by Upton Sinclair in 1954. In 1957 the film historian Jay Leyda compiled for MoMA 21,713 ft. of Eisenstein’s rushes into a set of viewing reels, ‘Eisenstein’s Mexican Film - Episodes for Study’. A large amount of the original nitrate negatives and fine-grain positive masters were transferred onto safety stock in a collaborative effort of MoMA and the National Film & Television Archives in London. This process was completed in 1972. Subsequently some of the originals were sent to the Soviet film archive Gosfilmfond in Moscow. There are still 35,000 feet of nitrate originals waiting to be transferred.
The film footage preserved by MoMA, the NFTVA and Gosfilmfond, as fragmented as it may be, will be the basis for the planned reconstruction. This mostly unedited material contains many alternative takes of all the important scenes and sequences planned and shot by Eisenstein and Tissé. They will enable the reconstruction of ‘¡Que viva México!’ according to the director's original intentions.
