Podcast Episode 10: David Leitner (part two)

David Leitner is a producer, director, and cinematographer with over a hundred credits in dramas and documentaries. From 1977-1985 he was Director of New Technology at New York’s legendary DuArt Film & Video, responsible for innovations in optical printing, cine lens testing, film-to-tape transfer and Super 16. He has since become an industry consultant on camera design. On the side, for decades he was senior contributing editor at Millimeter and Filmmaker magazines. He is a Fellow of the SMPTE and presently serves as digital scanning consultant and board member at IndieCollect, a nonprofit dedicated to digital restoration of American independent films.

David’s IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0500717/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_in_0_q_David%20Leitner

This podcast lasts 73 minutes.

(You can click the Transcript button on the top right, and there you can jump to specific spots in the program.)

• 0:00 Intro

• 0:34 IndieCollect beginnings rising from the end of labs

• 5:00 IndieCollect’s restorations

• 7:00 Benefits of digital presentations of restorations

• 9:00 Late NYC lab: TVC and its chemical flashing (ChemTone)

• 11:00 Making pre-print material at DuArt

• 14:30 LAD tests and “China girl” test material

• 17:05 Film timing vs. current digital work

• 24:20 David’s work as a cinematographer

• 28:30 Working with Super 8 sound

• 31:30 Frederick Wiseman

• 37:05 Wiseman’s collaboration with Shirley Clarke

• 39:00 Restoring Wiseman’s 33 movies

• 46:15 For All Mankind and optical printing at NASA

• 1:03:00 Widescreen framing from 16mm 1.33:1

• 1:07:20 65mm NASA footage used in Apollo 11

• 1:08:00 David talking of seeing One Battle After Another in VistaVision with me

• 1:13:00 End

This podcast is © 2026 by Larry Blake. All rights reserved.