Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On August 16, Douyin, China Film Archive and Volcano engine held a "continuation of time-classic Hong Kong film restoration conference" in Beijing. At the meeting, Chen Duye, vice president of Douyin, announced that the three parties had officially launched the Classic Hong Kong Film Restoration Program, which would restore 100 Hong Kong films to 4K versions within a year.

The restoration work is supported by the volcano engine and the "AI + artificial" restoration of the film is carried out together with the China Film Archive. Wang Yue, director of video cloud technology architecture for the volcano engine, said that for the first time, the volcano engine applied a large visual model to the old film repair scene to achieve an all-round improvement of the repair effect.

At present, the first batch of 22 films restored, such as "Wu Zongyuan Su Qier", have been launched on Douyin and watermelon videos. Among them, "Plan A" and "Shushan: the New Shushan Swordsman" ushered in its first 4K repair version on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. In the coming year, 4K repair versions of other movies will also be available in Douyin and watermelon videos one after another.

4K restoration of 100 classic Hong Kong films

At the event, China Film Archive Deputy curator Zhang Xiaoguang, Hong Kong director Chen Jiashang, Douyin Vice President Chen Duye, and volcano engine video cloud technology architecture director Wang Yue jointly launched the Classic Hong Kong Film Restoration Project.

Zhang Xiaoguang, deputy director of the China Film Archive, said that film restoration is a worldwide issue, and its original intention is to save endangered films and is an important measure to protect the film heritage. "now, with the help of advanced technology, finally the film can be digitally preserved and applied."

The Hong Kong film production planned to be restored is concentrated in the 1970s and 1990s, covering the works of Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan, Chan Ka-Sheung, Stephen Chow and other well-known directors and actors. Sha Dan, film curator of the China Film Archive, said that this period is the golden age of Hong Kong films. At that time, the mainland was gradually opening up, and Hong Kong films became a window for many young people from the mainland to understand the world.

Although it has been a long time since the moment, classic Hong Kong films still show great vitality on Douyin. Classic Hong Kong films accounted for 30 percent of Douyin's top 1000 films in 2023, and half of the users who watched the content were young people under the age of 30, Chen said. "Douyin helps old classics become popular again and gain the love of young people." "We hope to restore these classic images through technology to meet the current audio-visual requirements, so that they can be accepted and appreciated by more viewers," Chen said. "

Introduction of large visual model into old film restoration

The restoration work is supported by the volcano engine and completed jointly with the China Film Archive.

Public data show that the film restoration process is complicated and trivial, which goes through physical restoration, digital restoration, artistic restoration and other steps. It takes an experienced restorer a month to finish a film. In recent years, through in-depth learning and other AI technology, it is possible to greatly improve the quality and efficiency of old film restoration.

Wang Yue, for example, limited to the equipment and technology of the shooting period, early Hong Kong films would have a lot of penetrating shots, such as the appearance of the Weiya line. In the past, this situation can only be eliminated frame by frame by hand. The AI algorithm can automatically identify the location of Weiya and erase it.

In 2022, Volcano engine worked with Watermelon Video and Douyin respectively to complete the 4K restoration of 100 domestic classic animations and Beyond classic concerts. This time, the volcano engine introduced the AIGC visual model to the old film restoration for the first time. AIGC (generative artificial intelligence) has attracted wide attention because of the amazing effects of ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and other applications. According to Wang Yue, for the old film restoration scene, the volcano engine optimizes the algorithm for the generation quality, video task and efficiency of the AIGC visual model, so that the visual model can output content more stably, high-quality and efficiently in the video scene.

Comparison before and after the restoration of "Wu zhuangyuan Su Qier"

The biggest difficulty in repairing old films is to preserve artistic style and beauty. It is necessary to restore the original appearance of the image, but also not to make the old film "new". The color of each lens should be in line with the meaning expressed by the creator at that time. Li Tao, director of the career development department of the China Film Archive, revealed that the restoration team made a lot of reference to the classic works of martial arts film masters such as Hu Jinquan and Zhang Che to learn the tones of Hong Kong films. "in the restoration of many films, we all tried to invite the creators of that year to come into the restoration laboratory," Li Tao said.

The restoration work of "Wu Zongyuan Su Qier" was also supported by the director Chen Jiashang, who combined the effect of technical restoration to give guidance on color, light and shadow. Chen Jiashang said, "in the past, shooting could only be dimmed, not colored, but it was really a good thing to be able to use current technology to make it better."

Chen Duye said, "I hope that through our efforts, we can brush away the dust from our memories, renew our time, and rediscover the beauty of Hong Kong films."

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