The 77th Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 14th to 25th, and the 4K restored version of Jackie Chan's classic film "Flying Eagle Project" was selected as a "Cannes Classic" and will have its world premiere at 21:30 local time on May 23 in the "Beach Screening" unit. The 4K version of this screening is restored by the "Classic Hong Kong Film Restoration Project" initiated by the China Film Archive, Douyin, and Volcano Engine.
"Beach screenings" are one of the most popular parts of the Cannes Film Festival. During the festival, the organizing committee will screen the audience free of charge on the beach every night, or the world premiere of non-competitive films. It is reported that "Flying Eagle Project" is the only Chinese film selected for the "Cannes Classics" beach screening unit of this film festival.
Restore the martial arts action frame by frame
Combination of manual and technical restoration
In "The Eagle Project", Jackie Chan's "Asian Flying Eagle" Jack was entrusted by the earl to go to the African desert to find secret gold, and on the way he started a life-and-death struggle with a mysterious organization.
Released in 1991 during the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema, "The Eagle Project" was nominated for Best Action Direction at the Hong Kong Film Awards. It is reported that the film went to Morocco, Spain, the Philippines and other places for filming, with a total investment of 115 million Hong Kong dollars, setting a new record for the highest production cost of Hong Kong films at that time.
In order to restore the film in 4K, the original film film needs to be scanned in Hong Kong with high precision, converted into a 4K resolution data image file, and then digitally restored by the China Film Archive.
Compared with other old films, the state of preservation of the film of "Flying Eagle Project" is not too bad, but because of the many martial arts actions in the film, it is still a great test for restorers.
There are many martial arts actions in the film, and each frame changes greatly, and it is difficult to learn from each other before and after the restoration. Once there are scratches, stains, etc. on the screen, the restorer can only continue to grope for the current frame, relying on the work to try out little by little.
The sound restoration should not only make the sound clear, but also maintain the texture of the golden age of Hong Kong films. In particular, while ensuring that the dialogue of the characters is clear, it is also necessary to ensure the sound dynamics of the fighting. In this way, we can not only retain the humor of Jackie Chan's movies, but also feel the fist of the action scenes.
"So action movies are one of the most difficult film genres to restore, and they are a test of the restorer's eyesight, ear, and patience." Li Tao, director of the production department of the China Film Archive, said.
There are also some fight scenes, which are not smooth enough due to the low frame rate, and these pictures are difficult to repair manually, and the Volcano Engine provides a technical solution for intelligent frame insertion. For example, at the end of "Flying Eagle Project", Jackie Chan used strong winds to fight against his opponent, and his facial features were blown "beyond recognition" by the strong wind. Through the frame insertion algorithm, the Volcano Engine intelligently compares the content of the before and after frames and generates intermediate frames, thereby improving the video frame rate, reducing lag, making the picture smoother and the motion details clearer.
The application of volcano engine technology restoration can not only help restore the classic fight scenes in film history, presenting a more rhythmic and smooth fight scene, but also reduce the restorer's repetitive work, allowing the restorer to focus on the most difficult and complex details.
A classic fight scene from Project Eagle
Continuing the classic beauty of the film
The main creator participates in directing the art restoration
In addition to digital restoration and technical restoration, the China Film Archive also invited the film's creator to guide the artistic restoration and control the artistic texture of the restoration.
For example, in terms of film color grading, the creator of "Flying Eagle Project" gave restoration suggestions. Some of the scenes in the film involve transitions, and the main creator hopes to enhance the contrast effect of the pictures before and after the transition, such as the sky, yellow sand, and daylight after the flying eagle and his party get out of the tunnel, so as to make the picture more impactful.
It is fixed here that if the restorer directly brightens it, the image is prone to image noise with small white dots. The volcano engine uses AIGC large model technology to simulate the old equipment with degraded shooting level, and uses the simulated data to train the HDR algorithm to predict the white point in the picture to obtain a color correction matrix, correct the color shift of the picture, and make the film more transparent and bright.
Compared with the restoration of "Flying Eagle Project", according to the wishes of the main creator, the film as a whole is brighter
There is also a chase scene in a cave and a tunnel in the film, and not only is the dark environment noisy, but the special effects shots of this clip are not consistent with the film color and quality of the regular shots. In order to solve this problem, the technical team of Volcano Engine uses algorithms to balance the graininess of the film without affecting the picture quality, and after color matching and noise equalization, the picture is more natural and smooth, and the picture is "repaired as the old", bringing a better viewing experience.
The 4K restored version of "Flying Eagle Project" makes up for the regrets left during the filming of the movie. Sun Rong, a veteran filmmaker who used to be the vice president of Jackie Chan China, said, "Restoration is to some extent 'immortal' the film, it is not only a technical preservation, but also an artistic creation. "The 4K restoration allows classic old movies to get out of the film tin box and reappear with a clear face after "dusting", continuing the artistic life in the hearts of a new group of young fans.
It is understood that the "Classic Hong Kong Film Restoration Project" will be launched by the China Film Archive, Douyin, and Volcano Engine in 2023, planning to restore 100 classic Hong Kong films, and select 10 of them to be restored frame by frame by "artificial + AI", and the remaining 90 are mainly restored by AI technology. In April this year, the 4K version of "Plan A" and "Deed of Sale" restored by the plan premiered at the Beijing International Film Festival, and the restored films can be watched for free on Douyin and Xigua Video.