ABS-CBN Film Restoration Project

ABS-CBN Film Restoration Project is a digital film restoration project of ABS-CBN Corporation in partnership with Central Digital Lab. The project is headed by Leo Katigbak of ABS-CBN Film Archives and Manet Dayrit of Central Digital Lab. The aim of the project is to digitally restore and remaster over 2,400 Filipino films from the archives of ABS-CBN. Since the beginning of the project in 2011, the project has successfully digitized, restored, and remastered over one hundred (100) films into a Digital Cinema Package format with a maximum pixel resolution of 1080p at 24 frames per second. These films have been released through a wide array of platforms including limited theatrical runs, film festivals, free-to-air and cable television, DVDs, pay per view, and other over-the-top content platforms such as iTunes.^[1] All of the restoration process are done by Central Digital Lab in the Philippines with the exception of Kakabakaba Ka Ba? which was commissioned by ABS-CBN to be restored abroad by L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy.

Process

The film restoration process involves the scanning of existing 35mm prints and film negatives into a digital format using Cintel Millennium 2. The scanned materials will then undergo a painstaking frame by frame digital restoration process using DaVinci Resolve. The process involves the digital removal of dirt, scratches, fingerprints, discolorations, molds, tape marks, and other damages in the scanned materials. The process also involves the correction of color, brightness, and contrast into its original form often consulting the original cinematographers of each films whenever possible. Subtitles and watermarks, if present, are also remove in the process. The process also involves the restoration and remastering of audio using Pro Tools. This involves the removal of unnecessary noises such as eradicate pops and whistles and the syncing of the sound to the picture. Extreme measures were also done to remove copyrighted songs into some films. Dozens of technicians, engineers, and artists work hundreds of hours for each film with restoration cost ranging anywhere from twenty-five thousand pesos to ten million pesos for each film.^[2]

Notable films restored

A still image from Ishmael Bernal's 1982 film Himala showing the differences between the old and the restored version.

References