Hong Kong is almost the only country in the World who have traditionally, as a matter of common practice, run theatrical prints from a feature's original negative.

Normally a print-type called an 'interpositive' is created from the original negative, and the original negative is then placed in permanent or semi-permanent storage, as a future source of brand new pristine prints.

From the 'interpositive', a high contrast print called an 'internegative' would then be struck. It is from this 'internegative' or a series of 'internegatives' that hundreds of general theatrical release prints would then be created.

In Hong Kong, however, this protocol was totally ignored until the 1990s, and only then, adopted by the largest studios. Consequently, the original negatives of Hong Kong films available to HKL are generally of extremely poor quality. As the original negative is our source print for a new anamorphic transfer, we are already at an extreme disadvantage, as the edges of the print will often be worn and curled due to overuse, and invariably covered in solvent and adhesive, which will have decayed and oxidised over time.

Added to this problem is the fact that many Hong Kong producers, regularly used the original negative elements to compose their theatrical trailers. In pure layman's terms, a 'technician' would come in with a pair of scissors and physically cut frames from the original negative, composite his trailer master print, then run hundreds of copies from this trailer master-print before returning the 'borrowed' frame-elements to the original negative using a form of sellotape.

Now, when a producer like Hong Kong Legends comes along many years later, to try and make a quality anamorphic product for DVD, this is the starting point in the DVD production process.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not possible to use the components from any previous VHS or laserdisc release at this stage, as the elements will be linear 4:3 letterboxed or full-screen pan & scan.

If you want an anamorphic transfer, the original negative or a new print created from it, must be used. There are no exceptions to this rule. Creating simulated anamorphic transfers from a linear master is a recipe for disaster!!

Telecine is the process by which picture elements are transferred from the original negative to a digital master, which is then restored and encoded onto DVD.

During the telecine process, the 35mm print passes through a 'gate' on the telecine processor, the data is copied and then transferred onto a storage tape such as digi-beta.

Normally, the relatively unused and mostly pristine original negative will pass through the gate smoothly, giving a stable transfer with little or no movement between individual frames.

With Hong Kong product however, the telecine becomes something of a challenge, as the original negative complete with crumpled edges, oxidised adhesive and ineptly sellotaped joints, now has to be forced 'kicking and screaming' through the telecine gate.

As each telecine operator has a different view of how this should be done, especially as transfers are often done years apart, the angle and position of the print as it passes through the gate, may vary slightly from one transfer to another, in an attempt to create a stable transfer.

This is one of the principal reasons why aspect ratios may vary very slightly from one DVD release to another.

Invariably, we are faced with a resultant transfer, which is not only covered in sparkle, scratches and/or green mould, but one in which the composite frames, move both vertically and horizontally as a result of the excess movement of the print through the gate.

At this point we are left with a choice, leave it as it is, in which case the audience will be 'treated' to an irritating vertical and horizontal movement on each and every scene-change or rectify the problem.

To rectify the problem and stabilise the frame, you need to reposition each frame very slighty so that it coincides with the relative angle of its immediate neighbours. This process is then repeated throughout the entire duration of the motion-picture, so that a stable and consistent image is achieved.

This process, by its very nature, may also create a very small variation in the aspect ratio. This however, for 99.9% of consumers is much more preferable than, sitting through an entire feature with thousands of frame-jumps, especially as the resultant image is wholly representative of the director's original vision.

Using this method, in conjunction with our other techniques, which remove sparkle and other major defects and correct colour balance, we have received consistently good feedback from the vast majority of our customers.

Hong Kong Legends is also the first 'Hong Kong Cinema' dedicated label to receive regular support from significant elements of the mainstream consumer market. I can only believe that this is due to the overall strength of our product.

4. Audio Elements: Due to the small physical size of Hong Kong, its population density and the fact that for many years, Kai Tak airport, Asia's busiest, was literally located in the centre of town, almost every film made in Hong Kong during the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90's was shot silent and then re-dubbed later.

Unfortunately, Hong Kong's dubbing and mixing studios, were among the most inept in the world, and the resultant soundtracks would literally fail every quality control test put in place by a Western film-making studio.

Add to this, poor storage protocol, and an archiving system, which literally allows for key track elements to simply disappear, and you will begin to get some idea of the challenges, which HKL face when they try to bring a Hong Kong audio track into the 21st Century.

Often, as in the case of 'Police Story', original elements are lost or damaged, leaving us no choice but to obtain the best possible remaining elements from which to create our audio mix.

Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is the most commercially favoured mix, so where we can, that is what we strive for. In the pursuit of this goal, sometimes, we have to borrow elements from many different sources, an M&E (music and sound effects track) from the original mono mix coupled with a modern re-mix of the music or dialogue, or the other way around. In this way we can usually obtain all the elements we need to engineer a competent track, which is an improvement over the existing elements.

Just because audio elements may be available on certain historic releases, such as laserdisc editions from Japan, does not mean that the elements from which they were mastered, still exist, nor does it mean, that we as a company, have a contractual right to obtain access. In addition, Japanese sound elements are mastered for NTSC (Japanese and US output system) whereas we master our elements in PAL (European and British Standard, excluding France). Although a conversion can be made, it further degrades elements which are already below normal industry standards.

As a related example, despite the fact that we have access to the much vaunted Japanese laserdisc of Police Story through our archive, it took us over 12 months of negotiations to obtain the Right to use the out-takes on our UK DVD release.

In other words, if our soundtracks vary slightly from the original theatrical versions, this is a matter of necessity and not a matter of choice.