User:M Rance

I was a documentary filmmaker trained under Ricky Leacock at what was then the Film and Video Section at MIT. Since then I have worked for The Criterion Collection and many Hollywood Studios creating first laserdisc then DVD special editions. This work often involved various levels of film restoration. In 2006 I formed my own company Watchmaker Films to restore and distribute important films (rather films that I felt were important) that had fallen between the cracks. The first effort was a restoration of Eagle Pennell's THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH, an American independent feature from 1979 that inspired Robert Redford to launch the Sundance Institute. Other restorations an re-mastered films include Danny Lyons' LOS NIÑOS ABANDONADOS, the early works of Sergey Dvorstevoy, the entire collection of films from The Children's Film Unit (not to be confused with The Children's Film Foundation) and Tobe Hooper's first feature, EGGSHELLS. In 2011, I formed a second company, Watch Works Ltd, which does scanning of motion picture film in all gauges. Watch Works unique approach however is to take the scanner to the archive or the location where the films are stored and scan on site. We just finished scanning the first batch of archival holding at the Manx National Heritage Museum on the Isle of Man. As part of our work scanning and restoring films, we are looking for open-source tools to add metadata to the digital files and wrap them for both preservation and access. I am hoping to provide a safe and striaght-forward path for archives, large and small, rights holders, institutions, studios and independent filmmakers to preserve and archive their work in the digital realm. Watchmaker Films and Watch Works are located in London.