[opendtv] Re: NYTimes: Test Pattern Girls...

I believe that Lena Soderberg still lives in Sweden with her hubby and 2 =
grown children.  She was honored in recent years at a Siggraph event in =
Boston.  For those unfamiliar, Lena inadvertently became a digital =
imaging test subject when her November Playboy centerfold photo =
(portrait shot only) was scanned into the digital world in the early =
seventies. =20

The earliest visual record of an actual "China Doll" shot exists in a =
photo of the Farnsworth Wyndmoor PA television studio in 1932.  There's =
a reference life-size porcelain bust of a woman surrounded by artificial =
flowers sitting in the studio corner. =20

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Baker [mailto:hbaker1@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 12:09 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] NYTimes: Test Pattern Girls...


FYI -- Beats the heck out of a boring test pattern...  BTW, does anyone =
know where "Lena"
is these days?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/movies/30sich.html?oref=3Dlogin&pagewan=
ted=3Dprint&position=3D

January 30, 2005
DIRECTIONS | FROM THE ARCHIVES
Big (Test) Break

By CHOIRE SICHA

Opening on Friday: portraits of 60 female film stars you've never seen.

The women in the exhibition "Girls on Film," at Anthology Film Archives =
in the East Village, belonged to a secret cinematic world. They were put =
before the camera not for the audience's eventual enjoyment, but for =
brief tests that technicians used to adjust the film's color and =
exposure. These "China Girls," as they came to be known (though no one =
seems to remember why), were sometimes actresses but more often lab =
assistants or secretaries who were roped into service. As far as the =
moviegoing public was concerned, they never existed, but they captured =
the glamour and attitude of the period. And they lived on for decades as =
projection booth pin-ups.

"We're always looking at these old test girls," said Robert David, chief =
executive of the CinemaLab in Englewood, Colo., which specializes in =
film restoration. The test strips are used to gauge absolute =
black-and-white tones but are most useful for skin tones. "In Europe, =
the test girls are naked - they're topless," he said. "Because the more =
flesh, the more helpful it is." Though the film-strip models are useful =
for restorations, digital technology has made them otherwise obsolete: =
perfect white balance can be achieved with the touch of a button, not =
the squint of an eye.

The exhibition's curators, Julie Buck and Karin Segal, work in =
conservation at the Harvard Film Archive and spent nearly a year =
restoring scratched and damaged snippets of found film for the show, =
which is made up of photographs. "They were used since the silent era, =
but probably the predominant period when they were on everything was =
mid-60's to mid-80's," Ms. Buck said. She added that "Chinese film has =
Chinese girls, Indian has Indian girls" - "French has French girls," Ms. =
Segal interjected - "but they're always girls," Ms. Buck concluded. They =
had not yet found any tests of topless models.

Karin Kolb, now the program coordinator for film at the Goethe Institute =
in Boston, served as a test-strip girl just once, in Munich in 1992. Her =
on-screen moment hasn't yet been found. "I didn't have to dress up - I =
just had my regular clothes on, I wasn't stripping!" she said. "When =
you're an intern, I think you always do what they tell you to."

=20
=20
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