Digital restoration and the invention of analogue: The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and Wake in Fright

Abstract

Prior to the advent of digital film technology, analogue film was not analogue, it was simply film. The introduction of digital, thus also marks the introduction of the analogue version. The idea of old media persisting – is dependent on celluloid film being transformed into “analogue” and being classed as an old form of media. In this paper, using the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and Wake in Fright as case studies, I introduce the concept of the film-version. Moreover, my paper challenges the relegation of celluloid film as old media, and instead argues that the creation of a distinction between digital and analogue versions gives rise to a new kind of mediatised coexistence. I argue that rather than forming a hierarchy, the analogue and digital form a parallel and dialogical relationship allowing both the new restored version, and the older celluloid version to not only persist, but evolve into the present.