Broadcast TECH Original Restored


TRUMPTONSHIRE TRILOGY GORDON MURRAY (TRUMPTONSHIRE) LTD


Type of restoration Digital restoration of 16mm film into high-quality HD masters Duration Three months Facility BBC Studios and Post Production Digital Media Services Interviewee Jonathan Wood, colourist System/software used Scanity film scanner, Nucoda Film Master, Diamant DustBuster, DVS Clipster, Cinnafilm Dark Energy


Tell us about the project Jonathan Wood Led by colourist Andy Parkinson, the team worked closely with the family of the 90-year-old creator Gordon Murray to digitally restore the entire Trump- tonshire Trilogy – Camberwick Green, Trump- ton and Chigley – consisting of 39 x 15-minute episodes, for Blu-ray DVD release. The family had found some of the original


footage in their attic and the remainder of the footage was tracked down in the BBC Archives library at Perivale.


What was your main role in the process? JW I was responsible for the overall look of the finished master, not only on the grading


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side but the processing involved, which affects the feel of the pictures regarding grain and dirt management.


What were the key challenges? JW The project’s sheer scale was its biggest challenge. Our media management and stor- age solutions were tested to their limits as we had so much data hosted on our servers.


What was the workflow? JW Working from the original 16mm A and B roll master print copies was a crucial part of the process to ensure the output would be of the highest quality. The scale of the task was enor- mous, both from a media management and a storage point of view. Our team had to carefully manage the workflow, dealing with massive, fully uncompressed DPX files, so we could view and work on every subtle picture detail. The A and B roll footage was ingested into


a Scanity film scanner so that it was available in our digital domain. The Scanity system reproduces every single frame of film exactly like the camera-originated material. This meant the team could see every detail right down to individual scratches and even the film perforation, so were able to squeeze every ounce of quality from the footage. We then passed the footage through


our suite of film processing, clean-up, grain reduction and restoration tools –


including Nucoda Film Master, Diamant DustBuster, DVS Clipster and Cinnafilm’s Dark Energy – to give the footage the best possible treatment. Knowing the slightly different results


achievable with these devices, and how well they interact, is important to obtain the correct workflow for a project in order to achieve the best results that are faithful to the source medium.


What are the key skills involved in restoration? JW Knowing the film medium and the back- ground and style of the material being worked on is key. Knowing the pros and cons of the restoration processes that are available also helps greatly.


July/August 2012 | Broadcast TECH | 27


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