Legend Films

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Legend Films
Type Colorization, Restoration and Film/TV DVD Distribution
Founded August, 2001
Founder Barry B. Sandrew, Ph.D.
Headquarters San Diego, California, USASan Diego, California
Area served World
Key people David G. Martin, CEO

Barry B. Sandrew, Ph.D, Founder/COO/CTO

Bob Pollack, President
Industry Film and Television
Products Library of Colorized and Restored Films (www.legendfilms.net) and Rifftrax (www.rifftrax.com)
Services Colorization, Restoration and DVD Distribution
Owner Privately Held
Employees 240
Website http://www.legendfilms.net or http://www.legendfilms.com and http://www.rifftrax.com

Legend Films, a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the restoration and colorization of classic black and white films for DVD, HDTV and theatrical release. Legend also produces the DVD, designs the packaging and menus, and creates all value-added materials, including interviews and commentary from the original cast and crew when possible. Their primary goal is to make their attempts look as realistic as possible, in addition to letting viewers choose between the original black and white and new colorized versions without changing discs. The company has also created color effects for newer films, such as Martin Scorsese's The Aviator.

Legend Films' founder, Barry Sandrew, pioneered and patented the first all digital colorization technology and recently reinvented the process by patenting the most advanced colorization technology that largely automates the process. Image sequence enhancement system and method – US Patent 7181081 [12] Some of the works being colorized by Legend are films that have fallen into the public domain and are now copyrighted only in their colorized form in the United States, while their original copyright on the black and white version is still in force. Other movies in the Legend Films library are titles color produced in revenue sharing partnerships with the original copyright holder. Legend has also colorized films owned by 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Paramount Home Entertainment, and collaborated with Shirley Temple, Jane Russell, Terry Moore and Ray Harryhausen on independent releases. In less than three years, Legend Films has restored and colorized over 100 feature films in high definition or film resolution.

Some of Legend's releases have included audio commentaries by comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson. In 2006, Nelson was appointed Chief Content Producer. He will be responsible for building and leading the company's creative content, providing on-going commentaries and developing other premium web-based programming. "Mike Nelson is an outstanding addition to Legend Films," said David G. Martin, CEO of Legend Films. "His experience, vision and skills will be an important asset to the company as we continue to build our entertainment library."[1] Nelson and Legend Films founded RiffTrax, a website offering the purchase of downloadable audio commentaries, in the summer of 2006. The first commentary made available through the service was for Road House.[2]

In 2007, Legend Films appointed Bob Pollack, a former Senior Vice President for Warner Home Video, as its president. Pollack will oversee all sales and marketing activities.[3] Legend Films plans to distribute films licensed from other studios. Paramount Home Entertainment has already licensed titles to the company.[4][5]

Legend Films is currently releasing about two films a month. Founder Barry Sandrew hopes to increase the output to another film per month in the next year. But while the company has plenty of films to colorize, he insists there are some black and white films that should stay that way. "I certainly would not colorize films like Citizen Kane and others that were intentionally shot in black-and-white. But where budgetary or technical constraints prevented the use of color film, we can now show everyone how these movies were truly meant to be."[6] "There are some films I would say no to colorizing. Unless the original creative people participated in the color design."[7]

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[edit] References

  1. ^ Legend Films, Inc. (July 10, 2006). "Michael J. Nelson Named Producer at Legend Films". PR Newswire. Retrieved on 2006-11-14.
  2. ^ RiffTrax. Retrieved on 2006-11-14.
  3. ^ Legend Films, Inc. (May 8, 2007). "Entertainment Industry Veteran Bob Pollack Joins Legend Films as President". PR Newswire. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
  4. ^ MrDisgusting (March 26, 2008). Legend Films Gets Paramount Classics for DVD Release. Bloody-Disgusting. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
  5. ^ Giaco (March 24, 2008). Legend Films Releases Paramount Cult Movies. FearNet. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
  6. ^ Tinted Love, The Boston Globe, June 24, 2006.
  7. ^ "San Diego: film colorization capital of the world" (January 9, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-11-14.

[edit] External links