Restoring movies for the net
MOVIES: Digital restoration
June 20, 2003
By John Edwards
A projected explosion of broadcasting via broadband Internet connections will likely lead to a hunger for content that can only be satisfied by raiding film archives. Unfortunately, some of this material was created up to a century ago and is now damaged.
Traditional restoration techniques are slow and expensive, but a new movie restoration project, dubbed PICASSO, is building the first real-time system for film restoration. The project plans to repair material that's faded, jerky or scratched, has ingrained dirt or even contaminated with biological growth.
Peter Stansfield, the project's coordinator, says the potential demand for a fast and cheap restoration technology is huge, "due to the bandwidth explosion demand for archived film material." He notes that global revenue for old films is likely to be in excess of $800 million over the next three years.
U.K.-based Pandora is the project's lead partner and an expert in the manipulation of images for broadcast. The firm has developed an initial software approach to the solution using algorithms that first analyze and then fix faults frame-by-frame, allowing real-time film restoration. The traditional method of restoring by hand took at least 30 seconds per frame, easily driving the cost of restoring a film to over a million dollars, exceeding most budgets. Pandora's film restoration algorithms can also be used to tackle scratches and imperfections on new films. This will save the need for re-shoots and extend the potential market for PICASSO's system.
The simplest example of an algorithm for film restoration is one that looks at the digital level of every pixel for each picture element of a film," says Stuart Gall, a system Administrator at PPV, an Athens-based film production company and a PICASSO project partner. "If there is damage, then the system can restore it by taking an average of the four neighbouring pixels. The PICASSO algorithms are far more complex, since they copy original film, analyze problems and then produce high quality results."
PPV is currently conducting field trials that will include tests on material from the Greek National Film Archive. Once the trials are complete, work can begin on producing a marketable hardware solution.
"No matter how film is stored, its quality deteriorates over time," says Gall. "Reinstating the image quality is a very time-consuming process that very few clients have the budget for. We think that PICASSO will provide a fast alternative."
This article first appeared in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Telecom Direct. (http://www.telecomdirect.pwcglobal.com)
To download a sneak preview of the Global Overview of the Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2003-2007, North America in PDF format, click here. (Requires Acrobat Reader)
A projected explosion of broadcasting via broadband Internet connections will likely lead to a hunger for content that can only be satisfied by raiding film archives. Unfortunately, some of this material was created up to a century ago and is now damaged.
Traditional restoration techniques are slow and expensive, but a new movie restoration project, dubbed PICASSO, is building the first real-time system for film restoration. The project plans to repair material that's faded, jerky or scratched, has ingrained dirt or even contaminated with biological growth.
Peter Stansfield, the project's coordinator, says the potential demand for a fast and cheap restoration technology is huge, "due to the bandwidth explosion demand for archived film material." He notes that global revenue for old films is likely to be in excess of $800 million over the next three years.
U.K.-based Pandora is the project's lead partner and an expert in the manipulation of images for broadcast. The firm has developed an initial software approach to the solution using algorithms that first analyze and then fix faults frame-by-frame, allowing real-time film restoration. The traditional method of restoring by hand took at least 30 seconds per frame, easily driving the cost of restoring a film to over a million dollars, exceeding most budgets. Pandora's film restoration algorithms can also be used to tackle scratches and imperfections on new films. This will save the need for re-shoots and extend the potential market for PICASSO's system.
The simplest example of an algorithm for film restoration is one that looks at the digital level of every pixel for each picture element of a film," says Stuart Gall, a system Administrator at PPV, an Athens-based film production company and a PICASSO project partner. "If there is damage, then the system can restore it by taking an average of the four neighbouring pixels. The PICASSO algorithms are far more complex, since they copy original film, analyze problems and then produce high quality results."
PPV is currently conducting field trials that will include tests on material from the Greek National Film Archive. Once the trials are complete, work can begin on producing a marketable hardware solution.
"No matter how film is stored, its quality deteriorates over time," says Gall. "Reinstating the image quality is a very time-consuming process that very few clients have the budget for. We think that PICASSO will provide a fast alternative."
This article first appeared in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Telecom Direct. (http://www.telecomdirect.pwcglobal.com)
To download a sneak preview of the Global Overview of the Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2003-2007, North America in PDF format, click here. (Requires Acrobat Reader)
| The PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2003-2007, North America (with Global Overview) is available for $495; the "Global Overview" can be purchased separately for $95 (www.pwc.com/thr). Purchase the book and receive six free months of the Hollywood Reporter.com; or purchase the Global Overview only and receive a free one-month online subscription. |
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