NOTES ON THE RESTORATION
Written by Michael Arick
LIZA WITH A “Z” is the most vivid documentary of a live-Broadway
performance ever filmed.
Bob Fosse’s concept was to film Liza’s live stage performance for
television and thereby combine the three mediums into a new documentary form.
So all the excitement of that evening was captured by eight 16mm cameras and
later married to an extraordinary track designed by Phil Ramone. Every detail
was brilliantly engineered, and the result was a musical milestone in television.
LIZA WITH A “Z” originally aired in 1972 as a 16mm print with mono
sound. After just three airdates, the negative was retired to the vaults and
removed only occasionally to strike a new print for Liza. But during the mid-1980s,
the negative was inadvertently misplaced and disappeared without a trace. After
several years of searching, many feared that it had been destroyed.
So when Liza and I first began talking about restoring the show in 1999, our
immediate challenge was to find the missing film negative. Liza has great instincts
and tremendous respect for film, so there was no doubt that we would search high
and low. And after an aggressive search, I finally uncovered the picture negative
in Los Angeles and New York.
While the fragile 16mm A/B rolls had been damaged over the years, I was relieved
to find that the color image remained stable. So Paul Rutan of Triage Laboratories
in Los Angeles took on the challenge of repairing, cleaning and retiming the
negative to create our restored 16mm and 35mm archival elements.
Reconstructing the film’s soundtrack proved to be an even bigger challenge.
In 1972, the film’s original soundtrack had been mixed to 1⁄4” tape
and re-recorded as a 16mm mono track negative, which is decidedly Lo-Fi by today’s
standards. Surprisingly, no master mix source survived for the show itself,
although a soundtrack album with subtle differences was released in 1972.
But Liza had wisely stored away all of the sound elements associated with the
project and buried among these I found hundreds of tiny sound rolls. Without
a logbook, these presented quite a puzzle, and my initial concern was that
I wouldn’t find every track necessary to reconstruct the show.
But Fosse’s incredible attention to detail saved the day. He’d produced
this special as a musical film, so in addition to Liza’s live vocals
and the orchestra tracks, every finger snap and footstep had been re-recorded
and
logged. Nothing was missing, so nothing needed to be recreated.
And best of all, Phil Ramone had recorded most of the musical program that evening
in a multi-track format. So while the show was never designed for a stereo presentation,
a full Dolby 5.1 mix was suddenly possible.
After a quick conform to work picture, I took our rough mix to Chace Productions
in Burbank for further restoration and a Dolby 5.1 theatrical mix. Mixers James
Young and Nick Beljic were frequently amazed at the quality of the original
field recordings, and we took special care to preserve the uniquely “live” sound
of Liza’s performance that night within the Lyceum Theatre.
With the show finally preserved on film, I turned to Jim Hardy at High Technology
Video in Los Angeles to create our High Definition master. It’s worth noting
that the show was lit for the stage and not the camera, and so a great deal of
effort went into preserving Owen Roizman’s verite style, while pulling
out as much buried detail as possible. This required a delicate touch, so colorist
Mark Nowicki used the Spirit to transfer directly from our archival 16mm interpostive,
after which the master was given an extensive restoration pass to digitally
remove all remaining dirt and negative damage.
We’ve been lucky in so many ways with this project and very fortunate to
have the luxury of time to get it all right. Digital technology and superior
lab work allowed us to showcase Liza’s amazing performance and Fosse’s
incredible genius, in a form never before possible. And it’s been a labor
of love every step of the way.
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LIZA WITH A “Z” FACTS & AWARDS
LIZA WITH A “Z” was first broadcast on NBC September 10, 1972. It
was repeated on March 9, 1973 (18 days before Minnelli won her Cabaret Oscar®)
with one final airing in September 1973. It has not been broadcast since.
LIZA WITH A “Z” was filmed “live” on May 31, 1972, at
Manhattan’s Lyceum Theatre, on 16mm film, via eight cameras planted throughout
the audience. Original plans had called for the special to be filmed during Minnelli’s
Greek Theatre engagement the previous fall (September 20-26, 1971).
The LIZA WITH A “Z” Soundtrack Album was Minnelli’s first for
Columbia Records, upon her signing by music legend Clive Davis. The album was
awarded a Gold Record and spent 23 weeks on the Top 40 charts (a week shy of
six months), debuting on September 30, 1972. It reached Number 19 on Billboard’s
charts and has never gone out of print. It has appeared on every format – LP,
reel-to-reel, 8-track tape, cassette and CD.
PEABODY AWARD
WINNER OF FOUR PRIMETIME EMMY® AWARDS (1973)
OUTSTANDING SINGLE PROGRAM, Variety And Popular Music
Bob Fosse, Producer
Fred Ebb, Producer
Liza Minnelli, Star
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHOREOGRAPHY
Bob Fosse, Choreographer
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC, LYRICS AND SPECIAL MATERIAL
Fred Ebb, Composer
John Kander, Composer
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY, VARIETY OR MUSIC
Bob Fosse
NOMINATED FOR FOUR ADDITIONAL PRIMETIME EMMY® AWARDS
(1973)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMMING, Special
Or Feature Length Program Of A Series
Owen Roizman
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING FOR ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMMING, Special
Or Feature Length Program Of A Series
Alan Heim
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC COMPOSITION, Special Program
Fred Ebb
John Kander
OUTSTANDING WRITING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY, VARIETY OR MUSIC
Fred Ebb (writer)
DIRECTOR’S GUILD OF AMERICA AWARD
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSICAL/VARIETY
Bob Fosse
Kenneth Utt, Unit Production Manager
Paul Ganapoler, First Assistant Director
John Neukum, Second Assistant Director