Media & Entertainment Division >> Film Restoration

Film Restoration

Film and television archives represent an invaluable resource for Indian broadcasters, publishers and film makers. With the explosion in the number of broadcast, satellite and cable channels, as well as video-on-demand, video, DVD publishing and multimedia services, high quality programme material is in increasing demand. But at present, the level of exploitation of moving picture archives is limited by the high cost and lengthy processing time required to restore archive assets to meet viewers' expectations. This is all set to change, however, with a series of cost-effective restoration solutions that open the door to more widespread use of film archives.

These developments arise from BGIL project to improve the speed and efficiency of film restoration. Its goal was to enable the widest possible access to valuable archive material by significantly enhancing the efficiency of the video and film programme restoration process. Building on the results from an earlier project BGIL has focused on reducing the restoration time by developing algorithms capable of analysing the image in detail.

Domino’s tracking software used in conjunction with the zip brush, will quickly and automatically isolate a rig or wire over the entire shot and provide the track-path over which adjacent or slightly offset pixels can be placed using the picture mover. Alternatively, the tracker can be used to define a travelling matte through which a clean background plate or clean footage from the previous or next frame, may be restored over any of the unwanted elements. Difficult jobs can then be retouched manually using the Domino’s on board high-resolution Paintbox.