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R3store Studios restores Wimbledon footage in collaboration with IMG and the AELTC

Jun 18 2018

R3store Studios is working with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and IMG Studios to digitise and restore a huge amount of the AELTC's archive in celebration of its 150th birthday!

R3store Studios is working with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and IMG Studios to digitise and restore a huge amount of the AELTC’s archive in celebration of its 150th birthday!

For years the film reels have been stored at IMG, but never properly viewed. This project has uncovered a whole host of lost footage and the original negatives of many classic Wimbledon moments. As many films shown so far have been positive duplicates of original footage, the discovery of the original negatives presents an opportunity to see historic Wimbledon games in higher quality than ever before.

“Safeguarding the world’s greatest sporting events and moments is a subject that has been close to IMG’s heart for many years,” said Sheilagh Little from IMG. “Working with equally caring partners such as the AELTC has been immensely rewarding.  The work carried out by the IMG Library and R3Store has revealed footage of extraordinary historical value with some moments simply taking one’s breath away.  IMG are proud to have been a partner in this important project.”

There are around 30 hours of content being restored, dating from 1920s to 1980s, including both official films and news reels. Not only will match footage be made available, but also shots of crowds queueing overnight for Centre Court tickets, and old interviews with tennis legends such as Connolly and Perry.

“We are proud to be carrying out this important work to help us celebrate a fundamental chapter in our history,” commented Mick Desmond, Commercial & Media Director of the AELTC. “We thank IMG and R3store Studios for their support and are looking forward to seeing fantastic scenes and moments uncovered during this process.”

This three-way collaboration has seen R3store Studios scanning and automatically restoring the film as well as manually restoring each individual frame to ensure the footage looks as good as it did the day it was shot.

“R3store Studios are very proud to be part of preserving this very important historical collection for AELTC and IMG,” stated Jo Griffin, COO at R3store Studios. “Working from the original negs has been wonderful and I think everyone who views this content will be amazed at just how fantastic it now looks!”