Restoration Process

At DRME, we follow the following steps in Digital Restoration:

At DRME, we first transfer all your footage and/or images currently existing on any format onto a hard drive bringing all your data into a digital environment.

If the footage/images seem to be damaged in any way, the next step will be the Restoration Process that is done by our specialised partners.

The Restoration process follows various stages enlisted below:

1. Diagnosis/Analysis:

The first step in Film Restoration is an analysis of the condition of the film as each film reel is different. Hence, every film reel is individually evaluated for their physical condition prior to deciding the required restoration process that needs to be undertaken. The film is checked for Bad splices, Brittleness, Shrinkage, Stickiness, Tearing, Lacquering, Scratches, Cinch marks, Dirt, Dust, Digs, Curling, Newton’s rings, Patches, Emulsion separation & Edge damage & Nitrate decomposition.

2. Photo Chemical Cleaning/ Ultra Cleaning/ Film repairs:
With this Lab process we can get rid of residues & Lacquer on the Film as well as repairs all film tears with a clear polyester tape or splicing cement.

3. Converting the Negative to Digital film/ Digital Capture of film:
This is the first step to digital restoration & is initiated by transferring the film to a digital medium for repair and manipulation by using a film scanning device.

4. Scanning
The original film negative or print requires scanning by a high quality telecine or film scanner for digital capture. The various reels of the Original Camera Negative (OCN) have different exposures and the telecine operator would need to adjust the telecine light levels- Dmin and Dmax settings to extract the full extent (contrast) of the image. We generally grade the material in HD and then switch the systems to DATA for image transfer.

5. Best light Telecine Transfers
Our team ensures the best light transfer of HD resolution of the film onto HD tape. This minimizes any potential damage to the film which can then be safely returned to the storage archive. We use a da Vinci 2K Plus color corrector to control the telecine levels and adjust it to incorporate the films unique condition. A 120 minute movie may have 12-20 film reels and assuming a reasonable film condition to complete a “best light” transfer of these reels, we would take approximately a day to complete.

If more material is required from the original scan, the HD tape can be used. This tape can also be used for the restoration of audio. While this HD recording is done on tape, the images are ingested into the restoration system storage at the same time.

Digital restoration done through Revival comprises of 2 modes- the Automatic Mode and Interactive Mode:

* Automatic Mode

The images from the telecine transfer are generally treated with a range of automatic operations to clean up most of the problems on the film. The automatic process deals with 75-90 percent of issues and the balance is by the interactive mode. Our expert technicians review the images and set a range of adjustments for a number of automatic processes. These can also be set-up in a ‘Batch Process’ queue so the system can work on frames independently without constant operator supervision. Furthermore, the automatic mode uses artificial intelligence to compare pixels and the power of multiple CPU’s in a pool. Our restoration systems use 6-8 CPUs, for HD material and 10-16 CPUs for DATA (2K or 4K).

The automatic processes include:

Dirt/Dust Removal: Dirt and dust repair is generally the fastest of all restoration tools. The restoration operator can use many settings with regard to size, type, and nature of the dirt on the image. The Automatic mode applies those settings to the reel fixing only the part of the image where dirt is located, leaving the remainder of the image unaltered. There are Region of Interest (ROI) controls to help guide where processing is required or is not needed to take place.

Grain and Noise Reduction: The software being used has high quality, resolution-independent tools for the reduction of grain and noise from an image. In addition to noise reduction, when dealing with large volumes of flicker and dye fade between RGB channels, the resulting repairs with this tool are unmatched. This Grain and Noise Reduction tool has a dual purpose wherein for grain reduction, spatial controls are used which blend the image pixels to smooth out grain. And for noise reduction, larger pixel groups are smoothed out over a group of frames. When there is a slow drift of the image level over many frames, the Noise reduction tool will automatically correct and average the image over many frames.

Vertical Scratch Repair: Vertical scratches in a film image are very difficult for any computer algorithm to repair due to lack of support imagery information required to generate a proper replacement. Usually scratches are repaired using spatial filters that analyze pixels on either side of the damage. Identical scratches are usually not found throughout a film, and mostly appear in groups of frames, rather than entire scenes and reels. There are two methods of repairing scratches. Automatic Scratch repair is used where there are 10 or less scratches of a similar nature. A ROI is drawn around each scratch, and then all scratches are repaired using the same control settings. If more than 10 scratches are need to be repaired, or if there are different kinds of scratches, this software has the Interactive Scratch tool that provides for many ROIs in one scene and offers DI technicians the ability to have different adjustments for each scratch, with the added benefit of separate controls for each. Additionally, Scratch processing may be limited to individual red, green, and/or blue channels to provide the best and fastest possible result.

Image Stabilization: Instability of an image is usually the result of one or more of the following:
- Worn sprocket holes causing inaccurate placement in the scanning gate
- Multiple printing generations without exact alignment of sprocket holes
- Edge damage or film shrinkage preventing the film from positioning repeatedly in the scanning gate
Furthermore, Automatic Stabilization uses an advanced algorithm to determine which objects are to be tracked or stabilized, and Interactive Stabilization allows the DI technician to manually select which objects are to be stabilized.

De-Flicker of Image: Flicker in an image can be caused by numerous reasons including emulsion or color dye fading over time, long term exposure to heat and humidity, chemical processing problems in film, as well as stains and scratches. Flicker may be local - where the image level variations are within the frame or global- where the image level variations are from frame to frame. Some older two- and three-stripe (Technicolor) films could have different flicker or level shifts between channels when printed. They can smooth out these channels independently, providing a solid level and color balance. It has settings to accommodate both local and global variations along with motion compensation. In addition, deFlicker is “scene based,” requiring a reference frame for each scene to be defined. For faster setup, this software defaults to the middle frame of each scene to set as an initial reference. An added benefit is the ability to process in either direction from the defined reference frame.

Furthermore, with functions like deWarp, Aperture Correction, Speckle Removal, Scene Splice Repair, Re-registration and Color Registration Revival enables the removal of scratches, dirt and other undesirables in the fastest and most efficient way.

* Interactive Mode

On completion of the Automatic mode, the Interactive mode is put to work on individual frames that require further repair. Often this includes further dirt and speckle removal, or for some manual touch ups. Here, the technician selects and locks on a “Region of Interest” (ROI) in order to reduce processing time when using the brush tools of Reveal, Luminance, Clone and Paint. Similarly, Splice damage, scene cut errors and Cadence issues can also be reviewed and repaired interactively. Using the color module for RGB lift, gain, and gamma adjustments, Da Vinci’s Power Windows is used for secondary color corrections. However, the most common issue with old films is emulsion staining. Due to incorrect storing, high humidity allows mould to grow on these tapes that stains the image over time. Da Vinci also has a de-stain module which provides a powerful tool to repair images affected by the stains.

Final Color Grading:
After the images are restored and formatted correctly, the final stage is to complete a full color balance of the film using the Resolve. The Resolve is a resolution independent non-linear color enhancement and re-mastering system that can read image files directly from disk, including the images from SAN and can color correct and format for output as completed DATA files or to a SD or HD VTR for broadcast transmission. A full length feature of 120 minutes can require between 2-10 days to color correct depending on the extent of the correction required and the finished result desired. As Digital Film Restoration has an endless demand for new media, Digital Cinema, DVD and TV broadcast releases we now have a practical and cost effective process for checking, cleaning, scanning, and digitally restoring the thousands of films that have captured the culture and history of countries. Restoration of these films not only preserves them for generations to come, but also as a by product makes them accessible via the wide variety of Asset Management and Content Delivery Systems which can supply these historical films by new media delivery systems to business, government and the public at large.

The Final Word:
The Restoration process plays a dynamic role for DI facilities’ re-mastering projects, assuring the highest quality results and reducing the time and cost associated with this process. With Revival, films from all ages can be brought back to life, preserving a precious and valuable part of cinematic history.

Digital Restoration and Archiving at DRME helps not only to upgrade the quality of the image but each file can be marked by a bar code including metadata in it enabling it to be identified easily the next time we would like to search for it. Furthermore, Library management through the internet is also possible for global accessibility. Digital Archiving of material brings the footage to international viewing standards and can be converted through electronic storage & distribution for broadcasting on Satellite, IPTV, HD DVD’s / Blu ray DVD’s.

All the fixes, whether automatic or manual, are executed via a per frame metadata map. As a result, specifications right down to individual paint strokes are stored as metadata for later modification. This gives us total control over any image modification and also provides an unlimited number of non-sequential ‘undo’ options. The data is maintained throughout the clean up process with additional annotation tools allowing further information to be added to inform processes further down the DI chain.

As a result, we have all the tools required to address the workflow from archival footage and images into post production and finishing providing an efficient, clean and perfect handling of the original footage and images as well as prompt delivery of the final restored output.

Once the Restoration process is completed, DRME can help you organise your newly restored digital files through Metadata, that can not only make available your organization’s past and present to a global audience but also help to generate revenue through online subscriptions or purchase agreements every time your digital files are sourced and downloaded.

Our partners use highly renowned softwares which are a fast, flexible and automatic image clean up application designed for use in high end restoration of archived film and video. They have the technology to operate flexibly in an ever changing and complex DI environment enabling the user to define frames and the type of problems to be fixed in a stable environment. Image sequences can then be processed immediately or according to PF Clean’s tightly integrated cross platform batch processing system.