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Techniques & Rationale for Motion Picture Restoration

Techniques & Rationale for Motion Picture Restoration. Kevin Manbeck MTI Film, LLC Providence, RI Jay Cassidy, Donald Geman, Stuart Geman, Donald McClure. Outline. Factors driving demand for restoration Categories of restoration Motion picture restoration examples

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Techniques & Rationale for Motion Picture Restoration

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  1. Techniques & Rationale for Motion Picture Restoration Kevin Manbeck MTI Film, LLC Providence, RI Jay Cassidy, Donald Geman, Stuart Geman, Donald McClure

  2. Outline • Factors driving demand for restoration • Categories of restoration • Motion picture restoration examples • Open problems in motion picture image processing • Restoration examples in detail

  3. Demand for restoration • Film damage can be distracting • Dust and debris • Lint and hair • Chemical stains & water spots • Persistent vertical scratches • Cue marks (reel change indicators) • Finger prints • Film Tears • Splice marks • Customs stamps!

  4. Demand . . . • Evolution of tools has raised viewer’s expectations • Small community of creative people • Intense competition between facilities • Pride in finished product • Post production workflow improvements have made restoration affordable

  5. Workflow model before 1995 color correct remove dirt 525 FF film film color correct remove dirt 525 LB film color correct remove dirt 625 FF film color correct remove dirt 625 FF film color correct remove dirt HD film color correct airline remove dirt film color correct remove dirt T.V. film

  6. Anecdote • Titanic (1997) • Huge restoration project in 1998 • 24/7 for 4 weeks. 2 systems. • Billed 1300 hours • 12 versions • 100 hours per version

  7. Modern workflow • Scan once, use many color correct remove dirt HD Master film 525 FF 525 LB 625 FF 625 FF airline T.V. • Typical new feature film receives about 40 hours of restoration

  8. Demand for restoration • The DVD revolution • Excellent image quality • Stop and jog functions • Cost structure allows small or niche production runs • On VHS, feeble restoration efforts were adequate. Not so for DVD.

  9. Image quality continues to improve • Digital projection in theaters • Star Wars Episode I (1999) 10 Digital Theaters • Star Wars Episode III (2005) 67 Digital Theaters • My prediction: digital projection is unstoppable • Superior image quality • Reduced distribution costs ($1200 vs. $200) • Added flexibility for theater • More demand for restoration

  10. Image quality • Standard definition video is 720 columns wide • High definition video is 1920 columns wide • Data scans are typically 2048 columns wide • Special effects are often 4096 columns wide • Inherent resolution of 35mm film appears to be between 3000 and 4000 columns

  11. Categories of restoration • New features / Episodic television • High volume • Adequate budgets available • Material not too distressed • Chemical stains • Isolated dirt • Vertical scratches • Utter intolerance to artifacts • “Crisis of Confidence” is not allowed

  12. Categories . . . • Major Re-release of marquee titles • Few titles per year • Large libraries in need of preservation • Adequate budgets • Material moderately distressed • Heavy dirt • Splice marks • Film tears • Intolerance to artifacts

  13. Categories . . . • Re-release of niche titles • High volume • Low budgets • Severely distressed material • Willing to compromise automation for artifacts

  14. Categories . . . • Archivist preservation of historic titles • Careful documentation of preservation decisions • Generally funded by government or foundations • Not necessarily interested in public distribution

  15. Restoration examples • Switch to Macintosh demo

  16. Open problems • Better use of Grammar • Cuts are important for dirt removal • Automatic splice bump detection & repair at cuts • Dissolve might be useful in grain reduction • Upconvert / super resolution • Panning too fast for digital cinema • Image stabilization for digital cinema

  17. Open . . . • Gate hair • “This picture came from T.V.” • “This footage came from a cell phone” • Motion estimation

  18. Gate Hair The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)

  19. with Ting-Li Chen

  20. Grain Reduction Dr. Mabuse (1933)

  21. Repurpose material • Upconvert SD material to HD. Super resolution. • Temporal changes

  22. Pans for digital projection • My prediction: audiences will be confronted with material with objectionable “judder” • Take a lesson from animation? The Contender

  23. Motion analysis • Phase correlation • Optical flows • Block matching

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