DBF

The Developmental Biology Films Project (DBFP) is transfer-ring these films to digital media with the help of Texas filmmaker, Terrence Malick, and Post Logic Studios in New York City.

The left side of the split-screen comparison below is 1972 film that Professor Margulis has been using in her classes. On the right, a test from Post Logic Studios in New York. See list of titles below that have been transferred to digiBeta tape by Post Logic Studios and to hard disk by Video Express in Needham, MA.

LETTER FROM THE FORMER UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST CHANCELLOR

From: "John V Lombardi" <lombardi at umass.edu>

Date: June 29, 2007 8:16:00 AM EDT

To: <jimmymac at geo.umass.edu>

Cc: <pkostecki at research.umass.edu>, <cseymour at provost.umass.edu>

Subject: Rescue of NSF science films

Dear Jim,

Congratulations to you and Professor Margulis on securing the rights to these films. The best way to deal with materials of this kind is to have the Library as the owner of record, although of course the films will be available for research as appropriate. That way Professor Margulis is not personally liable for anything and the university will have the legal obligations as owner or custodian depending on the agreement. If there are ever any issues, the university can deal with them.

If you work w/ Paul Kostecki in the research office he can figure out the right process to get these materials in the way Professor Margulis wants them but under the protection of the institution and with legal review.

This is a great accomplishment for the campus, my congratulations.

John

1. A Marine Slime Mold - Labyrinthula
2. Microtubules in Echinosphaerium nucleofilum
3. Euglena
4. Induced Twining in the Sea Urchin
5. Feeding and Reproduction of Echinosphaerium nucleofilum
6. The Effects of Temperature on the Axopods of Echinosphaerium nucleofilum
7. Microtubules in Echinosphaerium Nucleofilm
8. Myogenesis
9. Sexual Reproduction in Ferns (Pteridium aquilinum, Anemia phyllitidis)
10. Naegleria Transformation
11. Auto-Inhibition in in a Fungus: Glomerella cingulata
12. Colony Formation in Pediastrum boryanum
13. Aggregation of Dissociated Sponge Cells and Species Specific Sorting: Microciona prolifera, Halclona occulata
14. Pigment Transfer in Skin Cells
15. Response of Cells to Nerve Growth Factor (NGF)
16. Morphogenesis in a Marine Alga, Caulerpa
17. Ascidian Metamorphosis: The Role of Contractile Epidermis in Tail Resorption
18. Pollination and Fertilization in a Flowering Plant: Amaryllis
19. Pollen Germination and Tube Growth
20. An Analysis of Plant Cell Growth Internode Cell Origin and Elongation Nitella axillaris
21. An Analysis of Plant Cell Growth: Cell Shape - Nitella axillaris
22. An Analysis of Plant Cell Growth: Turgor Pressure - Nitella axillaris
23. Growth and Metamorphosis in Plant Cells - Nitella axillaris
24. Determination of Egg Polarity by the Environment Fucus vesiculus, a Brown Alga
25. Colony Formation in Pediastrum boryanum
26. Down Feather Development (Gallus domesticus)
27. Sickling of Erythrocytes
28. The Life Cycle of a Parasitic Flatworm Cryptocotyle lingua
29. Contact Inhibition of Movement in Fibroblasts
30. Extra-Embryonic Circulation in the Chick
31. Epibiology in the Killifish: Fundulus heteroclitus
32. Ooplasmic Segregation Durng Ascidian Development: Bolenia villosa, Styela partita
33. Echinoderm Development: Fertilization and Cleavage
34. Echinoderm Development: Gastrulation

Paul Beck from the New England Chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has been instrumental in helping us save the NSF-funded Developmental Biology Films.

Updated 7/30/2009

Terrence Malick

Post Logic Studios Undertakes Restoration of Scientific Films for the National Archive

16mm Time-Lapse Color Microcinematography Films are One-of-a-Kind Shorts Exploring Developmental Biology Phenomena

Hollywood, CA (June 24, 2009)—Leading post-production facility Post Logic Studios, a division of Prime Focus Group, is completing restoration of over 80 scientific microcinematography short films developed by world-renowned academics and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

These films were commissioned beginning in 1967 through the mid-1970s using a $20 million grant from the NSF as part of a push to close a perceived scientific gap between the US and the former Soviet Union. They were originally intended to be archived at the Library of Congress, and are even listed in the catalog, but were never delivered after the NSF funds became depleted.

prints eventually became faded and discolored, and were retired to the non-book section at the Smith College library, while the film masters, thought to be lost, languished in a Massachusetts warehouse.

“These films are timeless national treasures, and even with funding equivalent to 100 times the original National Science Foundation grant they could not be recreated,” Margulis commented. “Evolution is a slow process, and the cells and tissue interactions of organisms do not change, even over millennia. I consider the restoration of these films for delivery to the Library of Congress to be my most important contribution to the world of science.”

Working on a Spirit DataCine film scanner, Post Logic colorist Alex Berman cleaned and digitized the 16mm films, painstakingly balancing the black, white and mid-range tones to achieve the final look of the source material. “The important thing was to maintain the integrity of the original prints,” Berman commented. “We wanted to make these films a pleasure to view without changing any of the natural coloration. The goal was to push a little more light through so everything looks vibrant and sharp. The Spirit captures so much detail, which is great because it really highlights the features of the cells—the particles inside are nice and clear.”

“The biggest challenge working with these microscopic images was the lack of any external references,” Berman continued. “If you see a car, you know that the tire should be black, but there are no visual references like that for a cell. This makes it much more difficult to know for certain that the colors have been balanced correctly.”

About Post Logic Studios

A leader in digital intermediate and feature film restoration, Post Logic Studios is a part of the Prime Focus Group family, an integrated global network of visual effects and post-production companies servicing clientele around the world with technologically advanced facilities in Hollywood, New York, London and India. With access to hundreds of talented visual effects and 3D artists from within Prime Focus Group, Post Logic has continued to expand into new and emerging arenas within the post-production realm, providing unmatched digital intermediate, digital mastering, editorial assembly, restoration, visual effects and audio post production services to feature film and television clients from its flagship Hollywood facility and Manhattan-based satellite, Post Logic Studios N.Y. For more information, please visit www.postlogic.com or call 323-461-7887.

The films were shot in the late sixties by a team led by British natural history filmmaker Joseph V. Durden, and produced under the direction of some of the world’s leading scientific experts, many of whom are now deceased. Ranging from between three and 20 minutes, the irreplaceable films explore developmental biology and other living phenomena with time-lapse 16mm color microcinematography. One film’s expert is Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini, who turned 100 this year. Her pioneering work with nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein substance that attracts regenerating nerve cells. Another depicts the live meeting of sperm and egg in ferns, exemplifying plant sexuality. One 14-minute film narrated by Durden displays all six developmental stages of the population explosion potential of a flatworm, Cryptocotyle lingua, which is similar to a parasite that causes liver fluke disease in humans, and is invaluable to researchers and students of parasitology.

Evolutionist and distinguished University of Massachusetts professor Lynn Margulis has been using a selection of the EDC films each semester since she first began her Environmental Evolution course at Boston University in 1972. The

The life cycle of the flatworm, Cryptocotyle, is one of the films being rescued by the DBF Project.