Film - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 72

Dust laden image Dust particle detail

Scratch detail

Figure 4-26 Dust and scratches.

Tears and punctures after scanning damaged film

Figure 4-27 Examples of film damage.

4.13.8 Hardware Solutions

The Cintel company that makes Telecine units has a product called Oliver that is designed
to cope with damaged film as it is scanned. It fixes the effects of a scratch by looking for
areas where the refractive damage has occurred and recombining the scattered light with
a clever algorithm to restore the image.
Snell and Wilcox offer similar restorative equipment (Alchemist.PhC) for video con-
tent. This may be useful for restoring film as well.

4.14 Digital Intermediate Processes

The traditional way of making movies was purely mechanical. Splices were done manu-
ally and the color grading was done with filters and timed exposures. Although they are
automated now, the processes have been fundamentally the same for many years.

Cintel International Ltd.: http://www.cintel.com/
Snell & Wilcox: http://www.snellwilcox.com/