How Old Movies Are Professionally Restored | Movies Insider

[@silvermoon3901]

Everytime i see something like this i get that irresistable urge to work at a museum, like underfund me i dont care i just wanna preserve history alv

[@SharonRaeRyan]

I had the same thought!

[@Gnefitisis]

Sounds like you are in the wrong career.

[@ink3539]

@@Gnefitisis I feel like this too - but it's so hard to actually get a job related to history

[@ceciliag2176]

Alv indeed jajajajajaja

[@godalfred2266]

@@SharonRaeRyan mee too bro

[@Stephen_Lafferty]

This is a great documentary - I would love to see how older movies are restored to 4K for Blu-Ray releases as well!

[@Milestonefilms]

To be honest, most "restorations" for distribution are taking the best materials, digitizing them, and doing cleanup. Then the digital file is taken to be authored and compressed to Blu-Ray standards and pressed at disc replication plants. This is a far more complicated restoration using many sources, but the final digital file you see the archive produce here would just go through the same authoring and compression for Blu-ray. (With a new music score added, of course, since it's a silent film.)

[@markrobert9915]

They're relatively simple compared to restoring silent movies from the early 20th century. Oftentimes, they use the original camera negative (which is the actual film that went through the camera when it was shot) because it offers the highest possible image quality. These are then scanned using a film scanner which are then converted into single digital images per frame. Then, those digital frames get cleaned by software and once they're done, they are put into Blu-ray discs.

[@maximodakila2873]

What's the point of making 4K versions for very old movies when they weren't recorded in 4K in the first place? Will you get sharper pixel at all than, say 1080p? You'll just wasting bytes.

[@Milestonefilms]

​@@maximodakila2873, I look at a lot of different tests, and most films shot in 35mm will have greater detail when scanned in 4K. With 16mm, it depends on the film itself. ​

[@alolanstarboy]

There’s a video that technology connections made about those 4K restorations. I can’t link it without KZbin getting antsy but you should be able to find it by searching the term along with his channel name

[@warrenguy76]

Restoration of any form of art is paramount. Thanks for sharing this!

[@BeckVMH]

There are channels that carry these type films, not all this old, but 1930s-50s, and I often turn them on in the background out of interest and curiosity. Thanks so much to those who do this valuable work to preserve this history.

[@malfattio2894]

This is effectively what I've been doing in my bedroom over the last few years. I have about 30 or so very small reels of nitrate that I'm currently digitizing.

[@fynkozari9271]

Why did they use nitrate if they degrade so quickly? They didnt think it through?

[@malfattio2894]

@@fynkozari9271 It takes a few decades before it starts degrading

[@ella_cinders]

@@fynkozari9271 It was the first plastic base for film. Diacetate and triacetate came later and those also suffer from a form of degradation called Vinegar Syndrome.

[@michaeljarosz4062]

@@fynkozari9271They weren't thinking of the future. They wanted a quick sell and then on to the next one, like rock and roll 45s. Keep churning 'em out. They don't have to last. The same thing was done in recording studios. Magnetic tape masters of great singers were erased to reuse the tapes, which were expensive. Some historic recordings have had to be restored from 78- or 33- discs because the masters are gone. Hardly the best media to restore from.

[@V3ntilator]

@@michaeljarosz4062 Then you have "The KLF" who quit music industry and demanded to get the original masters erased. Their music on Spotify etc. is from CD as the original recordings were gone. The KLF also burned 1 million pounds in a fireplace because they hated money.

[@toonman361]

Wow! I live near the George Eastman house and never knew this work was being done there. kudos to these wonderful restoration people.

[@Agnostic_Asi]

I remember my time as an intern. During that time I repaired 16mm films in our local media lending office. It was really a very nice job. Now after my film studies I could imagine this work in restoration. Where can I apply? :D

[@Firetomysoul]

George Eastman House in Rochester NY.

[@myname5560]

That's a crazy amount of professional work - but well worth the effort Great results 👍🏼

[@potterheadpix1e471]

People in the past might never thought their simple actions would create a lot of works for the people in the future.

[@zebruh2794]

It makes me appreciate old classic movies even more and be able to see them :)

[@ethanholgate2512]

Oh wow always wondered how they restore old film incredible how they can do it nowadays

[@mykalimba]

I would hope that they run the scanning system 24/7/365. Since time is the enemy, I would be digitizing as much existing film now, and doing all of the processing steps later.

[@SofiaFP]

Film restoration and digitization takes more than just popping every reel into a scanner, hoping for the best and keeping whatever files come out. And digital images also degrade over time. The ideal thing to do would be to copy the films onto newer polyester film stock, but it's extremely expensive.

[@fynkozari9271]

U missed 52 weeks 12 months.

[@Ganiscol]

@@SofiaFP no, digital data certainly does not degrade. The storage medium might fail decades down the line, however. But there is a solution for that: copy it in time.

[@penerjemah10]

Budget

[@penguinexpress12]

Ganiscol digital films do degrade and at such a fast rate, the library of Congress preserves film on actual film even if it was shot on digital. 3 RBG super long lasting physical film reels can last 125+ yeats

[@VideoNOLA]

Somehow never mentioned: Nitrate's unfortunate tendency to self-combust, which led to countless film warehouse fires. Nitrate is the "N" in TNT, for reference sake. So combustible it can readily be made explosive.

[@raminagrobis6112]

Oops. Big chemistry misinformation here. The 'N' in TNT (trinitrotoluene) is for "nitro", not nitrate. And there's a huge difference between the two. A nitro group, NO2, is uncharged (neutral), whereas nitrates such as nitrocellulose are esters of nitric acid (-O-NO2) that bear local + and - charges that create mutual attraction between neighboring molecules. Nitrate films are made of nitrocellulose, i.e. cellulose nitrate, obtained by reacting cellulose with nitric and sulfuric acid. The name "nitrocellulose", although still used is misleading, as there are no nitro groups involved in the structure, only nitrate radicals (hence the proper name is indeed cellulose nitrate, and nitrate films are correctly named). Thus, TNT is an uncharged, nitro aromatic compound, whereas cellulose nitrate is a nitrate ester, like nitroglycerin (another misnomer as it has no nitro group, and the ingredient of dynamite), a totally different beast. The explosive mechanisms between nitrocellulose and TNT are also COMPLETELY different. Basically, nitrocellulose is the main component (and active ingredient) of modern smokeless gunpowder. Nitrocellulose was used to make film support for photography mainly because it is actually the earliest plastic invented. If safety had been a concern, a different support would have been developed much earlier. Fun appendix: I have loved chemistry since my youngest age. I even built my own lab with another crackpot like me when I was about to enter college. Our specialty was making polymers, but as a fun side project, to draw attention to us and impress chicks 😂, we made TNT, which is awfully easy. We detonated a small container of it using a homemade wick. It was a lot of fun. Nice clean fun. But don't try this at home, kids, OK? 😊

[@bobsaget666]

@@raminagrobis6112 i thoroughly enjoyed this comment

[@deadpool6072]

To counter this, most of these vaults are equipped with a system which will remove all oxygen in a split second to kill the fire. Unfortunate if you get stacked inside. Haha

[@MicaRayan]

Fantastic efforts in preserving the art through vintage films. I love the techiques they store the films so it be safe and sound - in moving cupboards 😁 High tech. Wish I could adapting the same on cupboard in my home. Saving space and so organized! I remember to see Roman Holiday sparkling clear in DVD many moons ago. What these guys do requiring hypotesis and analysis so the dirt and chemicals gone without messing with the integrity of the original presentations. Sometimes they restored the credit names of crews that were banned during the release of that particular film. I think it is nice gestures. Kudos

[@ericfrost3244]

This is just awesome I love history in films music and just history in general I love the fact that there are people out there that try so hard to keep it alive

[@eliezerlogronio]

I love watching how they restore very old films. :) It's like a time machine.

[@moonbeam7702]

This is fascinating to watch - and kudos to the George Eastman restoration team for doing such a great job! 😊

[@huntrrams]

I would love to see a KZbin channel or podcast based on film restoration! This was interesting!

[@harrymanipud4992]

Salute to the whole team.

[@Paul_Wetor]

Sometimes I watch movies on TCM just to admire the quality of the image. B&W movies have vivid mixes of grays and blacks, and so much detail! We are now seeing movies better-looking than when they were in the theaters at the time. Thanks for all the hard work, restoration people.

[@Lady_Lily_Blubaugh]

I for one would like to say thankyou for preserving these films for people to see. Good day and Rock on!

[@37BopCity]

Extremely interesting and historically significant to see this. Not only is this a great look at the early history of Hollywood and movie-making, it's also a great look at the authentic days of the old west. Only 20-30 years before this film was made, it was 1895-1885 and many of the people involved were part of that pioneer era.

[@MatthewGhirardi]

Fantastic. I honestly like both versions: unrestored version and restored version Restored: making the movie look a lot better and more natural, looking like they came out in theaters Unrestored: nostalgic

[@joeclark1621]

I know this sounds weird but when it comes to movies that were released during let's say since the 50s onward, I like the unrestored version for the nostalgia as you said(given not ignoring later damage caused by use), for movies older than that like let's say the silent era, cause there was let's say a lot of damage to the source material, they'd require restoring which should still perserve grains/film feel as much as possible. Not sure how much that makes sense or/and accurate but that's my take on it.

[@tangyorange6509]

As an analog enthusiast i really loved this video

[@joshuagaude6084]

While 16mm may be lower resolution than 35mm, nearly all 16mm film was safety film and not nitrate. While that still decomposes, it's a lot more stable and doesn't burst into flames.

[@Found-History]

Yeah, I would be very worried about having a nitrate film reel at home. Sometimes, when I'm scanning or cleaning a film reel, there are a lot of static sparks...

[@allangibson8494]

Polyester base is better than either of the celluloid variants…

[@garryferrington811]

Polyester is much, much better, and very tough. We made a lot of black-and-white separation positives on polyester base. The only problem was, if it did break, it could tear the racks right out of a processing machine!

[@beefknuckles]

Very cool! This is important work in my opinion because it's part of American heritage. Great work from that team!

[@benmasta5814]

I'm so jealous of people who have jobs like this. It's like a hobby but you get paid. What a life.

[@ericrhill]

I wonder how much further Peter Jackson could take this in truly bringing it back to life after what he was able to do with WW1 footage for They Shall Not Grow Old? I know the goal of the museum is artifact-level preservation but I would love to see something like this given a high-dollar true-to-life restoration.

[@dd52161]

lord of the ring also

[@ella_cinders]

This is true restoration as it does not alter a film beyond the original filmmaker's intent. What Peter Jackson did wasn't true restoration, but manipulation. This true-to-the-original restoration is how these films should be preserved and believe me, it isn't cheap.

[@masonpowell4422]

The fact that this came up in my recommendations a day after I started watching Archive 81 on Netflix has got my Timbers shivering

[@SaadNabil]

Now that's what I call remastering the movies!

[@BlenderStudy]

Amazing work..!! Thank you for the update, Insider..!!

[@ZoraTheberge]

I went to William S. Hart High School and his home and much of his land are preserved as a museum. Cool

[@namu5583]

Amazing for a Nation that care for preservation of its culture.

[@LiamSPC9065]

I needed this! It’s what I was wondering for a very long time!

[@shakerHeightsChannel]

PBS featured an 1hr + long English language documentary on film preservation one evening. It was probably made in the 90s. I cannot find it to save my life but I wish I could watch it again.

[@artie]

This was amazing. Thank you for your hard work in preserving these amazing works of art.

[@geneziogenezio3299]

THANK YOU FOR THE EXPLANATION. IT IS A VERY DELICATE WORK.

[@CloudyBogdan]

I love this. What great work. Restoring amazing history.

[@Pbdave1092]

The Philippines is also doing these kinds of works for the Philippine Cinema, it's so sad that the TV Station funding a majority of the endeavor got closed due to political reasons.

[@TheMaster4534]

Well, its that TV station's fault for whoring out to foreign powers. The government should have nationalized the endeavor. We need to invest in arta and culture like the Chinese to bolster nationalism against foreign meddling.

[@payhemseht]

Some feel good shtuff before the weekend 👍

[@V3ntilator]

I'm surprised how many restored movies that is released on streaming services, but not on Blu-Ray.

[@DougSalad]

Physical media releases are expensive, and the market for these types of films is small and niche.

[@thenorthstars2210]

All those films were once seen in high definition black and white by audiences a hundred years ago.

[@kulturfreund6631]

Amazing. Very interesting. Thanks for showing. Cheers from Berlin.

[@JudgeCrater22]

Interesting. I wonder if they still use the wet gate process, where the film is run through dry cleaner solution (perchloroethylene) to fill in scratches.

[@tsegulin]

Is that PF Clean with which they digitally restoring the scanned film? I wonder if George Eastman House uses Diamant or if it's mostly custom software made in house? Back in the 70s the Sydney movie lab where I worked restored the first Australian colour feature 'Jedda', shot in 1954 on Gevacolor, an unmasked colour negative based on the wartime German Agfacolor. It was all broken down into shot by shot RGB separations and the lab brought an older grader out of retirement to oversee the job. He would eyeball each cut and call for separations to be processed at modified gammas where needed so that when they were optically overlaid back onto Eastmancolor dupe negative and colour graded on a colour video analyzer they looked as closely as possible like the print. I believe it took over 6 months. Many years later the lab restored the tinted and toned 1927 classic feature 'For the Term of His Natural Life' from a recently discovered print again onto Eastmancolor. My boss oversaw this and I had the pleasure of seeing it presented in the State Theatre, a 1929 movie palace with its score performed by a palm court orchestra. It was one of those moments you never forget. Both of these films had previously been feared lost. This was back in the 1970s where the Australian film industry was being reborn and we all knew the time was running out for old nitrate prints long forgotten in cinema projection rooms and film libraries in what was called 'The Last Film Search'. That was almost 50 years ago. Although the handling of fragile, flammable nitrate film is still tricky, digital scanning replaces printers with register pins that needed serviceable perforations and digital restoration programs with noise, blotching, float and scratch removal and colour dye fade restoration software make this process interactive, unlike the wedge-print-process-check-redo photo-optical days. I would imagine that the restoration standards are higher today than they were back then to ensure that the scale of the problem has grown to fit the new tools at hand. So I guess it's still a slow, tedious process but films we would have been unable to restore back then stand a chance today - if the nitrate survived or the acetate hasn't suffered vinegar syndrome or the colour dyes haven't faded to the point of being unusable. I must visit George Eastman House someday soon. This is not only about preserving the art form of the 20th century but a nation's cultural history. Great video - thanks for this!

[@janetcarbone4213]

So so glad they can do this

[@aam50]

That’s a job that must take superhuman levels of patience.

[@michaelthomas6940]

Eddie Muller mentions the UCLA restoration labs. I suppose that they do similar work. This was a very interesting video considering the noir films from the 1940s that we watch so much.

[@UnchainedEruption]

The guy restoring the silent films looks like an older Larry Sanders

[@mechellehuber5352]

I'm interested in how this process is done with talkies. I know that film strips could contain audio in the post silent film era, but how is the sound for a film restored?

[@petersolomon5227]

Historically, in most instances sound has been recorded separately to the picture. In the analogue era this was first done by recording to wax disk, cylinder, then magnetic tape. When archiving soundtracks in the 20th century quarter inch magnetic tape recording was often transferred to “mag film”, which was/ is a magnetic oxide surface covering an entire sprocketed film. In this digital era film sound is created as an audio file; although some sound recordists and sound designers still prefer the “non-clinical” quality of tape recordings, even when these recordings are transferred to digital files for editing and mixing.

[@garryferrington811]

I think the commenter is referring to the optical soundtrack which is parallel with the picture on the film print.

[@salamanderavem3782]

I recommend a page of madness A art of a movie brought back

[@sarbojitmookerjee1680]

Very interesting topic

[@jackmorrison7379]

Unmentioned but part of any discussion is the practice of early distributors, theater chain owners and studios/producers concerning silent films which ended their scheduled run. Most often they were either disposed of or the silver in them salvaged or the film reprocessed. Only a few directors, studios and star actors saved the negatives or the volatile nitrate film itself if they had a fireproof film vault. This documentary highlights the other problem: the unsafe nature and fragility of nitrate film to deterioration and spontaneous combustion.

[@garryferrington811]

One interesting factor of the silent film era is that duplicate negative film wasn't available until just before it ended. Multiple negatives were filmed. According to a contemporary "Popular Mechanics" article "The Lost World" had five separate negatives!

[@filmbuster2619]

Now let's get Pinto Ben on blu ray... maybe from Criterion

[@Angvas007]

Which software is it that is shown at 5.38 ?

[@treverthetree]

Great work!

[@Veso266]

Do they reprint the restored version back to film Digital file, although great, cannot last for decades, because the tehnology to view it will change too fast

[@alexfinns6162]

It’s a really cool process, and I like the idea of preserving history. However, with so many films from the past to the point where they aren’t all needed to understand the way humans lived in the past, why is it that they all need to be kept and restored even though most will never be seen again?

[@t0n0k0]

Are there private enterprises doing this for private individuals? I have an early 2000s film on VHS that was never released, never digitised and I fear I will loose it overtime.

[@andysilvers9532]

Definitely try Legacy Box.

[@tsuyunobradley4439]

@@andysilvers9532 NO. These people will RUIN your films.

[@andysilvers9532]

@@tsuyunobradley4439 It sounds like you had a bad experience. If so, I'm sorry to hear that.

[@piss4429]

looked it up and theres a bunch of articles about how to rip from VHS, apparently some big stores can do it for you too. id look into everything carefully, though. make sure you know what youre doing before trying it yourself, or make sure youre certain youre sending it somewhere safe.

[@tsuyunobradley4439]

@@piss4429 I'd recommend getting a good SuperVHS deck and a capture card that takes S-Video and has good capture quality. Do it yourself. Don't let others take your tapes.

[@TheWastedPaperProject]

I love the rochester accent these gentlemen have

[@frankmckinley1254]

This is great work.

[@negativeusername5989]

0:20 am i the only one that think George Eastman Museum looked like Willam Afton

[@six1364]

This is actually so cool!😊

[@hilarioph]

I wish other films would be restored like other silent films were never been found since the era of silent films

[@Clemenssnemelc]

Very interesting . Fantastic

[@iushtube]

William Shart

[@sage11x]

This is fantastic. Now can someone over there do Aliens next because Cameron really did a number….

[@mr.sushi2221]

I hope I get into their school and can aid this process

[@TheFastestSrbin]

Great video!

[@ConclusiveLionSecond]

I really wish George Eastman museum could restore the Michael Rockefeller documentary

[@ditarf85]

For the love of God, give the narrator a decent microphone.

[@ich0ra]

Amazing work

[@enteranon3342]

What is this program at 9min 5:35?

[@Found-History]

That is PF clean.

[@elchoya8432]

william s hart was known as RIO JIM in france,they love him in france.

[@garryferrington811]

Contrary to popular belief, acetate safety film also decomposes. So does magnetic tape recording.

[@AleArzMusic]

02:50 just like light entering a black hole

[@Electronzap]

That's very cool.

[@michaelelsy2209]

This was really interesting.

[@ThomS8]

What's the software called he works in?

[@aadenandfriends5869]

Imagine if they have a copy of London after midnight without knowing

[@JannaAnderson-ol4gs]

I hope the true story of the Kelly gang from 1906 can have enough film found from it to make a cohesive movie then it can have sound added to it and possibly some colour so it can be re released or maybe get put on a dvd or a streaming service

[@pazzieanneknexx809]

This is so cool!!

[@morganalabeille5004]

I imagine intertitles are a lot easier to replace than actual footage so it's lucky they saved the cheap stuff for that.

[@knrz2562]

wurtzite boron nitride (w-BN)

[@strangenunusual5582]

Why aren't more films and tv shows being saved? Nowadays can't they just be put into a computer as files? Then let people pay a price to download? There are so many tv shows just sitting in vaults. The studio doesn't want to spend money to clean them. So they sit in a vault. Why not let Eastman or more universities take on the work? Ridiculous to have visual media not get seen!

[@charlessimons2851]

What is that software at 6:16??

[@damiancarrillo33]

quisiera saber lo mismo, si alguien sabe le agradecería mucho

[@Pace90]

Silhoutte

[@14fu19]

I compare it to the smell of formaldehyde when used to preserve the items for dissection

[@trotterhorsewatsonjr.6668]

I don't care if i have to start at sweeping and mopping the floor of this place....i want a job there😉👌🏿

[@1sonyzz]

I understand when US or other country movies/shows on film are 100 years old and it's degraded, what I don't understand is Japanese taking a lot of effort to manually hand draw an animation in the 70's - 90's only for letting the film rot later when they could make a remaster blu ray release of it but, they choose not to do that because upscaling from DVD is cheaper and thus loosing what could be a digital master of what's still left from 30-50 years old film before it completely rots away

[@Samhertzog]

5:33 what software is that?

[@johncameron4194]

Are these uploaded online?

[@younghollywood941]

I think studios should be taxed to help fund projects like this.. get more workers to get more films restored

[@kishengounden1891]

Always renew the copyright and clean up the entire film strip to restore on internet and home video.

[@worldwide_cruising]

*I pray that everyone who sees this becomes successful in life!*

[@gangisspawn1]

Being successful doesn't bring you closer to God 🙏 You need to suffer in order to gain access to heaven. May God bless you with hardships and pain no person has experienced before so that you may understand Him. God bless 🙌 🙏 ⛪

[@akashgarg6553]

I wish same for you

[@remasprojects1951]

*OMG THATS SO AMAZING ❤️*

[@MultiFilmci]

Which software for restoration?please

[@jasonlee0290]

Older films: Needs restoration Restoration: Very standard Peter Jackson: Hold my camera!

[@cziegle3794]

Yay top 112 comments. Love this channel. Great work. Best to all.

[@Chellebelle121]

So cool!!!

[@mattkung84]

I’d like to understand how much this project has changed since the emergence of AI and other new technologies over the past two years.