Going too far with clean up?

[Brian Fretwell]

I found this clip on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-jb8ydfsqw
With Video Restoration Process: ✔
FPS boosted to 60 frames per second ✔
Image resolution boosted up to HD ✔
Improved video sharpness and brightness ✔
Colorized only for the ambiance (not historically accurate) ✔
added sound only for the ambiance ✔
restorationstabilisation,denoise,cleand,deblur)
I think making 1930's film look like modern video IS going too far, no matter how good it looks.

[Ed Gordon]

If the film is not what was created in the past, then it is a derivative work. If I were to photograph a Van Gogh painting and modify the colors, it is no longer a Van Gogh painting.

I have the same problem with CGI special effects. What you are looking at is an animation of something that never happened. You look at it and conclude that it is too "perfect" to be real. Nothing in life is perfect.

Another factor here is that we expect an old film, to look old. We look at a "enhanced" restoration of a film and conclude that anything that old should have some signs of age; if there is no sign of age, it can't be that old.

[Ken Finch]

Old films should be restored to the point they were when first produced as with any historical artefact. Otherwise it is not restoration. You wouldn’t put a hybrid engine in a “restored” model T Ford motor. It would no longer be restored. You would use something as near as possible to the original. Ken Finch.😊

[Onnie Granados]

Thanks for the link, Brian, that was very interesting footage. While I absolutely agree with your points about how this "modernization" of the film completely changes its very nature, at the same time I find it quite amazing as a way to connect the audience with how it actually "feels" like to be on the streets of London at the time. I say that as someone who both loves old movies and loves to travel -- this heavily modified footage does a great job of transporting me to the physical environs of London at that time. I've walked this area of London many times and have my own films and memories of what it was like when I was there -- again this conversion really "feels" like I'm walking there right now, back then.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

The only point for the creation of these „restored versions“ is to modify it enough to pass as „derivative work“ so that you get the copyright and make a lot of money when putting it onto YouTube.

[Brian Fretwell]

Thanks for the link, Brian, that was very interesting footage. While I absolutely agree with your points about how this "modernization" of the film completely changes its very nature, at the same time I find it quite amazing as a way to connect the audience with how it actually "feels" like to be on the streets of London at the time. I say that as someone who both loves old movies and loves to travel -- this heavily modified footage does a great job of transporting me to the physical environs of London at that time. I've walked this area of London many times and have my own films and memories of what it was like when I was there -- again this conversion really "feels" like I'm walking there right now, back then.

Yes, inded. I posted this to show the dangers of overdoing restoration and the use of interpolation to change speed from scans done at the wrong speed. Taking it too far and getting the action speed right by interpolating to 60 fps could remove the nostalga effectfrom home movies.

[Osi Osgood]

I will probably be in the minority on this one, but I really like this sort of thing, especially if it isn't colorized, but original film footage, as it makes it look like HD video shot these days, but it almost really allows you to visit a time period you could only imagine being a part of. Now, classic theatrical films, it's just not the same situation, as, you already know that it's a story, so giving it a "videotape" look takes away tremendously from the experience.

[Stan Jelavic]

I had the same thought Osi. I.e. it is like visiting the real past that we do not get from faded out films or old photographs. So perhaps it has its place.

[Onnie Granados]

Watching the old footage "restored" to HD/high-frame-rate reminded me of the one time I got to watch a "Showscan" film back in the 80's -- I was going to San Jose State at the time, Radio-TV-Film school, and one of my profs was friends with Douglas Trumbull (special effects genius film maker) and we got to see a short movie, can't remember the title, that Trumbull had produced in the "Showscan" format -- a 70mm print running at 60fps, which Trumbull (who was an amazingly cool guy) had developed because he'd found that when you watch a film at 24fps, you get this "blur" that your brain picks up on as not-quite-real, but at 60fps (or actually anything above 57fps or like that), your eye/brain "sees" the movie as "real" and it makes your whole body get sucked into the experience as more "real." Anyway it was a real cool presentation and when we finally got around to watching the film, all the class was going, "okay, sure, maybe it'll be like advanced 3D anyway" and then the movie rolled and "WOW!!!' It was like you hear in the old days how people screamed when they first saw a movie in the 20's and a train was coming at them, I think a few people got motion sick watching the Showscan movie. Absolutely fabulous. So of course we all are yelling and screaming and cheering and asking, "Hey, when is this gonna hit the theaters!" and Trumbull was (I think) working on "Brainstorm" back then ... anyway he said, "We hope to have a full-length feature in a year or so," but far as I remember it turned out the cost of outfitting theaters with the 70mm/60fps projectors was just insanely expensive.

Funny, I'd completely forgotten about that experience until I watched the "restored" 60fps footage, and my brain was going, "I've seen something like this before..." and that's pretty much how realistic the "Showscan" movie was, when we watched it, way back when. Trumbull was just unlucky to be 40 years ahead of his time.

[Brian Fretwell]

Yes I believe he wanted the scenes that ended up being full screen 70mm in "Brainstorm" to be in Showscan so that they would look more like "reality" but couldn't get the finance to convert cinemas for showing. I did see what turned out to be a video version for a sort of fairground booth ride, but the low definition than available spoilt it.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

At the very least, the audience should have a chance to watch the original "as is" version (exactly the way it had been initially showed) and the "restored" version with all seasoning/spices/MSG/whatever added on.

Take original STAR WARS Trilogy for example. Most fans wouldn't be too upset if the original theatrical release are still available alongside with Lucas's SPECIAL EDITION, which he then can add/edit/deleted/changed/swapped scenes/audio remixed/redo VFX again and again (and again) as much as he wanted.