"I am very satisfied with the effect of the 4K restoration of "The Founding Ceremony"!" On the afternoon of September 28, after the screening of the restored version of the "Founding Ceremony" in the 4K Theater of the China Film Museum, director Li Qiankuan told the newspaper excitedly Reporter, although he has watched this work directed by him many times in the past two months, but every time he sees it, he will cry, "Whether it is the clarity of the picture or the sense of space in the sound, it is better than before. The film version is strong."
Li Qiankuan
Recently, the topic of "4K restoration" has continued to appear. The last 4 minutes of "Decisive Moment", the color 4K restored "Founding Ceremony" video, attracted the attention of countless viewers; the 12-minute color video of the Founding Ceremony released by the Central Archives was also hotly discussed by netizens; a few days ago, Italy Director Tonadore's "Pianist on the Sea", which was released in 1998, confirmed the introduction of domestic rescreening, also under the banner of "4K restoration". It is believed that the re-screening of the restored version of "Founding Ceremony" on October 18 will start the craze for re-screening of classic films after restoration. The workload of
4K restoration is 5 times that of 2K.
was established in 2015 and Sanwei Six Degrees is currently the largest company in China for 4K restoration. The company’s chief technology officer Zhou Suyue is a technical controller. “I was promoting in China in 2012. 4K restoration technology is now, and the focus of attention at the time was 3D." Zhou Suyue brought back two important technologies from Hollywood's "digital technology company" in 2009, one is "uncompressed digital production and technical craftsmanship", 2010 "The Hawthorn Tree Love" filmed by Zhang Yimou was the first work recorded in 2K uncompressed format in China. Zhou Suyue was responsible for the entire technical part; the other was 4K technology. The first practice of domestic 4K shooting was directed by Zhang Yimou. "Return" was shot with a real 4K camera, and Zhou Suyue was in charge of the shooting process. "In the field of digital video production in China, I can be regarded as the ancestor." He said confidently.
"From July 15th, these two and a half months have been a dreaming process for me, and this is almost an impossible task." Zhou Suyue recalled that the company initially got three versions of "The Founding Ceremony" , One is a reverse film, the other is a reverse film, and there is a copy. His first thought was to use flipped film to repair, because the flipped film cannot be shown, so there is little damage, and the copy has been let go. However, after digitally scanning these three versions, it is found that only the copy has the best picture quality, and the color and transparency are the fullest. "If you use the reverse film to restore, the workload will be reduced by half. Because the copy has been spared and there are handprints on it. , Oil stains and breaks.” But in order to ensure the quality of the picture, the company finally decided to use a copy for 4K repair.
Li Si is the chief restorer of 3D 6D. The young man born in the 90s told reporters that the 4K restoration of old movies is mainly divided into two parts: physical restoration and digital restoration. Restorers must first physically clean the film, and then use the film scanner to process the film rotation number, and then enter the 4K repair process. In the 4K repair process, the repairer will repair the dirty spots, scratches, mildew, jitter, tearing and other problems of the film in 4K, and then enter the screen toning, and finally output 4K resolution, HFR60 frames/sec. Frame rate, HDR high dynamic range screen shot. "Film repaired in 4K can be saved forever, no longer worry about loss or damage."
"Founding Ceremony" is different from ordinary movies. It is 171 minutes in length, almost equivalent to the length of two movies, with 247,000 frames. , The restoration of 1082 lenses is a huge challenge. In a month and a half, more than 40 staff, including Li Si, carried out repair work almost endlessly. “We work until two or three o’clock in the middle of the night, and then simply rest in the company’s rest area. On average, one person does four days of work a day and sleeps three to four hours a day. 40 of us in 40 days is equivalent to 160 people’s work. Work.” When the most stressful, more than 600 staff were employed. How difficult is
4K repair? Zhou Suyue explained that the best monitor now is 2.5K and 32 inches. If you want to do 4K, it means that a screen can be repaired 5 times on such a screen. In other words, the workload of 4K repair is equivalent to 5 times the workload of 2K. "2K is solved on one monitor, 4K needs to be repaired in 5 times."
The most difficult lens repairer can only repair one second a day
Zhou Suyue
Zhou Suyue told reporters that the repair of the film can be completed in time. In addition to the repairer's skill and the company's good artificial intelligence software assistance, it is also related to the excellent team management system. The best restorer in the company can repair 2,000 frames a day, almost 100 seconds. Like Li Si is one of the best restorers. He has been repairing for 3 years and loves this from the heart.
3D Six Degrees is also the first company in China to bring the Hollywood restoration process to the country. Before restoration, the film lens is divided into 5 levels of difficulty, and then the ability of the restorer is divided into 5 levels. According to the difficulty, Zhou Suyue assigns each repairer the lens to be repaired every day. Some lenses may take 3 days, and sometimes a lens only takes 10 minutes; the level of the repairer determines the corresponding basic salary. Generally speaking, a well-lit lens is easy to repair. The hard things to fix are night scenes, rain scenes, smoke scenes, and special effects scenes. "The literary opera is easy to repair, but the martial arts is difficult to repair; the day scene is easy to repair, but the night scene is difficult to repair; the ordinary lens is easy to repair, but the transition is difficult to repair." Especially in the past transition shots, two films are superimposed, and there are many inside. Dirty spots, difficult to deal with. Six percent of the expansions in "The Founding Ceremony" were shot by war reporters before 1949. After many reprints, the quality is already very poor, with a lot of scratches on it. Such a lens can only be repaired by a senior restorer for one second a day.
However, not all lenses have to be repaired by hand. If it is a daytime scene with sufficient light, the artificial intelligence repair software used by 3D Six Degrees, "can solve 90% of the work and repair the rest. The teacher just needs to check it briefly". Zhou Suyue said that Sunway Six Degrees has 32 repair systems, plus various hardware, with a total investment of more than 20 million yuan, accounting for half of the country's total repair equipment.
Although the final output of "The Founding Ceremony of the Country" this time is a 4K resolution, 5.1 channel, HFR60 frames per second high frame rate, HDR high dynamic range footage. But it does not mean that ordinary viewers can enjoy such an experience when they walk into a movie theater. For example, there are currently no more than 40 theaters in China that can show a high frame rate of HFR60 frames per second. 98% of theaters in China can only play 2K format with a frame rate of 24 frames per second. "From a purely safe point of view, it is best to make a 2K version with a frame rate of 24 frames per second. But why do we insist on doing a higher version of 4K repair, because someone has to go ahead and do this. Otherwise, everyone With backward compatibility, technology will not develop." Zhou Suyue said.
In the field of digital restoration, the China Film Archive is also an early unit in China. Hu Xiaobin is a restoration engineer. He went to work at the China Film Archive in 2011. He told reporters that compared to 2K restoration, 4K restoration requires more computer memory, more professional equipment, and more patience for restoration personnel. At present, there is a restoration team of 20 people in the library, all of them are young people born in the 90s, many of whom are majors in animation and design, and have high artistic accomplishments. The latest 4K restoration films in the archive include Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" and Huo Jianqi's "Nashan, Man and Dog". The former will be shown at the 3rd Pingyao International Film Festival.
ask the director and photographer to repair it together to ensure perfect
Although 4K restoration is a technical task, it does not mean that the restorer can do it alone. "As long as the director and photographer of the restored film are still there, we will invite them to communicate and discuss, so that we can restore a film with a perfect combination of technology and art." Zhou Suyue said that the deterioration of the film in storage is manifold. One of the most important deterioration is that the blue color will be lost first, and all old films will be found to be reddish after digital scanning. Therefore, when calibrating colors, one way is to calibrate completely in accordance with the science of colors. This seems accurate, but it may not have artistic effects. Because many colors are subjective things, every photographer wants to have his own Video style, "Like a photographer tell me, I want to add 5 degrees of blue to it". You need to communicate with the director for confirmation when the shot is graded. When
was repairing "Yellow Earth", because Zhang Yimou was the photographer of this film, he had his own color sense. To Zhou Suyue’s surprise, after decades, Zhang Yimou’s own color perception has also changed, “Why is it called rebirth? Because this is not simply repairing the old as it is, but adding the feeling of a restorer and a colorist. Feeling, the director’s artistic feeling and the photographer’s color feeling, of courseIncluding my taste as an executive producer. "Such a collision can repair a refreshing work.
Zhou Suyue remembers that even film masters like Martin Sicoses came to work with the restorers when restoring the work "Taxi Driver" Communication and color grade, "These works are like their biological sons, not at all sloppy. "It is worth mentioning that 70% of the 4K restoration work of "Taxi Driver" was completed in China. This is also the business that Zhou Suyue brought in.
Hu Xiaobin remembers that when he was restoring the film "The Horse Thief" The photographer Hou Yong specially came over to work with the restorer for color correction. Because the film was repaired, there was no dimming. There was a scene of horse stealing in the film. The restorer thought it was a daytime scene, but Hou Yong pointed out that it was during the day. A night scene shot with a filter, "If it weren't for the photographer, we must have made the wrong adjustment. "The re-screening of the classic film restored by
4K is ushering in the best time.
, including Li Si, most of the three-dimensional and six-degree restorers are post-90s or even post-95s. "As far as the "Founding Ceremony" is concerned, the film was released in 1989. We were not born yet, but we all know the historical significance of this movie, which is a revisiting history for us. "Li Si said.
Zhou Suyue is very optimistic about the prospects of 4K restoration. He believes that in the next 5 years, those classic movies that have been restored after 4K restoration may form a boom. "This is the classic movie ushering in the market. The best time for the re-screening is because we have begun to pursue our cultural self-confidence, and the audience’s enthusiasm for classic films is also rising.” He revealed that 3D Six Degrees has 20 film restoration plans in the next two years, including director Li Qiankuan. The six film works. And the "Furong Town" directed by Xie Jin and "The Shore of the Yellow River" directed by Li Qiankuan are his personal favorites to restore.
Hu Xiaobin also holds the same point of view, at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival In the screenings, the restored films such as "Flowers on the Sea" directed by Hou Xiaoxian, "Tokyo Story" by Ozu Yasujiro, and "Schindler's List" by Spielberg are hard to find. These classic films have been restored after restoration. The dazzling brilliance is re-emerged. Most of the domestic works that have been restored in 4K are used for exchanges and exhibitions at film festivals. However, with the formation of the diverse needs of domestic audiences for viewing movies, the distributors have begun to pay attention to this phenomenon. The re-screening of later classic films is becoming a popular choice, and many film producers have already heard the news. "
Author: Wang Jinyue intern reporter Zhang Xue
Photography: Wang Jinyue (Lee and former director Zhou Suyue wide photo)
Producer: Zhou Nan Yan
