Kemp Niver

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Kemp R. Niver (born October 17, 1911 in Los Angeles , California , † October 15, 1996 there ) was an American film technician , cameraman and author . At the 1955 Academy Awards , he was awarded an honorary Oscar for developing a restoration process to save the Library of Congress's Paper Print Collection .

Life

Niver grew up in Los Angeles. He trained in public administration and has worked as a naval aviator, naval commander on a destroyer in World War II , detective with the Los Angeles Police Department , investigator for the Los Angeles County District Attorney , bodyguard , cameraman and photographer .

While working as a detective, he met Margaret Herrick , library director at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , in the early 1950s . Through her he was commissioned to convert contact sheets of thousands of films from the years 1894 to 1912 back into complete films. The Library of Congress kept paper prints of numerous films made before 1912. These were made because until then filmmakers could only have their works protected as a collection of individual photocopies. It was not until the Townsend Amendment of 1912, an addition to the Copyright Act of 1909 , that films could be protected as a whole. The collection of bromide paper photos was discovered in the basement of the library in the 1930s. In the fall of 1947, the Academy commissioned Howard Walls, the former curator of the Library of Congress's film department, to transfer the photos onto film. Since the funding was unclear, there had been no significant progress until Wall's departure from the Academy in 1953.

Niver took over the project at the end of 1953 and received funding from the Academy for an initial period of three years. He developed a machine with which the single-image paper copies could be copied onto 16 mm film . Of the over 5,000 films in the archive, Niver was able to restore around 3,600. He called the process “Renovare”. For this achievement he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1955 . The work to secure the film copies dragged on until 1965. During this time, Niver managed Renovare Productions. At the same time he wrote numerous papers about his work, often in collaboration with Bebe Bergsten .

Niver later taught film history at Loyola Marymount University .

Since 1958 he was a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). At the 1991 ASC Lifetime Achievement Award , Niver received the ASC Presidents Award.

He died two days before his 85th birthday in 1996 at the Country Villa Nursing Center in Los Angeles. Married in his youth and divorced at an early age, Niver left behind a granddaughter.

Fonts (selection)

  • with Bebe Bergsten: Motion Pictures from the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection, 1894-1912 . University of California Press, 1967, ISBN 978-052-000947-9 , OCLC 10912882 .
  • In the Beginning: Program Notes to Accompany One Hundred Early Motion Pictures . Brandon Books, 1967.
  • The First Twenty Years; A Segment of Film History . Artisan Press, 1968.
  • Mary Pickford, comedienne. Renovare, 1969.
  • DW Griffith's The Battle at Elderbush Gulch . Locare Research Group, 1972, ISBN 978-0913986042 .
  • Klaw and Erlanger: Famous Plays in Pictures . Renovare, 1985, ISBN 978-0913986073 .

literature

  • John Mercer: Kemp R. Niver and the History of Cinema. In: Journal of the University Film Association, Vol. 23, No. 3 (1971), pp. 71-73.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Kemp R. Niver at oscars.org, accessed January 19, 2017
  2. ↑ The 27th Academy Awards Memorable Moments at oscars.org, accessed January 19, 2017
  3. ↑ a b c d Myrna Oliver: Kemp Niver; Film Historian Who Won Special Oscar . In: Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1996
  4. ↑ Frank Evina: Copyright Lore . at copyright.gov, accessed January 19, 2017
  5. ↑ a b In Memoriam: Kemp R. Niver, ASC at questia.com, accessed on January 19, 2017
  6. ↑ Past ASC Awards ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at theasc.com, accessed January 19, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theasc.com
personal data
SURNAME Niver, Kemp
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Niver, Kemp R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film technician, cameraman, and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1996
Place of death Los Angeles , California