An exhibition in Milan on the 40th anniversary of E.T. featuring the archives of effector Carlo Rambaldi

In December 1982 the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in Italy. Forty years have passed and today Cineteca Milano is setting up E.T. The 1982-2022 Exhibition (from November 6 to January 29, 2023 at MIC - Interactive Museum of Cinema) where, in addition to E.T. in the “flesh,” drawings, sketches, letters and films, all previously unpublished material, are on display for a journey of discovery of one of the most famous and successful characters in the history of cinema.

The preparation of the exhibition was also made possible thanks to the support provided by Epson, which, as a technological partner, provided Cineteca Milano with the scanners used to digitize the huge amount of sketches, drawings, photographs (slides and negatives), as well as posters and large-format blueprints from the personal archive of Carlo Rambaldi (Vigarano Mainarda, 1925 - Lamezia Terme, 2012), the special effects specialist who brought the alien to life. It was thanks to E.T. that Rambaldi won an Oscar for best special effects.

Epson’s digitization technology-versatile and high-performance-has made it possible to handle the wide variety of formats and different types of material at the same time, speeding up the work while securing this precious heritage of cinematography. Case in point: over a thousand digitized paper images, from which about 150-200 were selected for exhibition.

“It was a challenging job,” says Matteo Pavesi, Cineteca Milano’s director general, "because after finishing a first phase of acquiring the paper material, we subjected the originals to restoration work that was followed by a second acquisition.

Three different types of digitization to preserve and enhance Carlo Rambaldi’s legacy.

The use of three different Epson scanners enabled the best results in terms of performance and quality of acquisition. “These technological tools,” says Cristiano Vignati, Scanner Sales Manager of Epson Italy, “ensure quality and accuracy of the images. All this is also thanks to the fact that each scanner has different features, which allow the best management of the work. Not only that: being able to use the three models at the same time has made it possible to cope with all the needs that arose at the same time.”

The models used are: Expression 12000XL Pro, Perfection V850 Pro, and WorkForce DS-730N. The Expression 12000XL Pro, the professional A3-format scanner designed for graphics and film capture, was used for the large formats in the Rambaldi collection. On a technical level, this scanner has a true 2,400x4,800 dpi resolution and operates with the highest accuracy on details even in blurred areas, ensuring exceptional sharpness.

“The features of this scanner,” says Maela Brevi, a Cineteca Milano worker and expert in the restoration of photographic and paper materials, “have proved to be really useful: one above all is the possibility of acquiring negative films directly in positive. Moreover, for us it was particularly functional both to be able to easily change the scanning mode from photo to text and to be able to save the digitized file in tiff, jpg or png format: all aspects that simplified and sped up the acquisition work.”

The Perfection V850 Pro, on the other hand, is a professional A4 photo scanner that has proven particularly useful for scanning negative film directly into positive, especially with smaller formats, at an incredibly high resolution.

Finally, for the digitization of Rambaldi’s text and writings, the WorkForce DS-730N model was used, which is suitable for capturing documents in A4 format and up to more than 6 meters in length. The presence of various intelligent features, including double-feed control, paper protection, and ultrasonic sensors that help prevent jams caused by double sheets, enabled even particularly delicate documents to be scanned with the utmost care.

For all information, you can visit the official website of Cineteca Milano.

An exhibition in Milan on the 40th anniversary of E.T. featuring the archives of effector Carlo Rambaldi

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