FEATURE THE ART OF RESTORATION
The art of restoration requires a high level of knowledge and sympathy for the original context, characteristics and audience of a piece of archive material, coupled with the ability to restore it to a level that meets the requirements of today’s audi- ences and delivery formats. Michael Burns examines the work of four leading facili- ties in the field.
A QUEEN IS CROWNED ITV STUDIOS GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT
Type of restoration Digital remaster and restoration of three-strip Technicolor film Duration Four weeks Facility JCA Interviewee Anthony Badger, digital restoration artist Main systems/software used Pixel Farm PFClean, Arriscan, Cinnafilm Dark Energy
Tell us about the project Anthony Badger We remastered the 1953 documentary A Queen Is Crowned to HD for ITV Studios Global Entertainment in time for the Diamond Jubilee.
What was your main role in the process? AB I supervised and advised the restoration
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team, and liaised with the clients. I assessed the material of new projects to get the best starting digital image and tested and set up automatic presets for the restor ation software, carried out R&D, and identified and facilitated additional equipment and plug-ins.
What were the key challenges? AB Along with the usual issues relating to the age of the material, this project had the added complication of being shot in three- strip Technicolor. This meant that numerous scenes suffered from some degree of colour misregistration, which altered from frame to frame. Density fluctuations over the different colour channels also posed challenges.
What was the workflow? AB Before the restoration process, all mate- rial was transferred to super 2K resolution using the Arriscan and infra-red dirt pass.
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Pixel Farm’s PFClean restoration package assisted us in cleaning and repairing the film. The misregistration meant we had to pass nearly all the film through various channel aligners, along with manually realigning each channel to fix the colour misregistration. The film dirt manifested itself as red, green and blue, rather than the usual white. An auto- matic pass was performed on each colour channel, which allowed unique parameters to detect the different coloured dirt. We also had to contend with around 40
dissolves, each varying in quality and requir- ing extensive use of the GPU-accelerated Cinna film Dark Energy grain controller to help match them into the flow of the pro- gramme. Coupled with intensive hands-on work, we were able to bring this slice of British heritage back to its former glory.
What are the key skills involved in restoration? AB Attention to detail is very important. Any restoration software is only as good as the operator using it. It is also important to have a clear understanding of the client’s expecta- tions and goals, so you can make informed decisions. And it is necessary to know as much about the processes and techniques used to produce the film as possible in order to restore and remaster it accurately.
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24 | Broadcast TECH | July/August
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
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