From Film Grain to Digital Pixels

In a curious twist of fate, however, improved digital technology has led to a virtual renaissance in the remastering and, on occasion, actual restoration (when it's not just a marketing term) of films-from beloved studio classics and acclaimed foreign films to low-budget indies and even exploitation titles-on both Blu-ray and the newer, state-of-the-art 4K Ultra HD disc. The quality of any remastering and especially a restoration, of course, depends on the quality of original film materials available-a camera negative, an interpositive, a fine grain master, or other first- or second-generation preprint materials- but once a film has been digitally scanned, computer tools enable the correction of image jitter, weave, or flicker, the repair of warped or torn frames and negative scratches, and the adjustment of brightness and contrast levels, color rendition, and grain resolution. Throughout the last two decades, scores of older films have been restored and preserved thanks to the efforts of not only the studios but also organizations such as the Academy Film Archive, Cineteca di Bologna, Library of Congress, UCLA Film & Television Archive, World Cinema Project, and The Film Foundation, which have made their restorations available to viewers worldwide through distributors such as the Criterion Collection, Milestone Film & Video, Twilight Time, Olive Films, Cohen Media Group, Film Movement, Edition Filmmuseum, Arrow Films, Flicker Alley, Kino Lorber, and other companies far too numerous to list here.