CFA and Hualong to restore 5,000 Chinese films with da Vinci's Revival

USA: Beijing-based China Film Archive (CFA) and Hualong Film Digital Productions Co. Ltd. are using nine da Vinci Systems’ Revival image restoration systems for a multi-year project to salvage, repair, clean, and protect some 5,000 films from the 102-year history of Chinese cinema.

The restoration project targets to restore the films and then to store them in digital format. According to Leng Chuansong, managing director of film technology at the China Film Archive (CFA) the Revival system was selected for its processing algorithms which automatically complete dust-busting, image stabilization, deFlicker, scene splice repair, and vertical scratch removal, as well as its independence of operator control.

At CFA, three Revival systems will be mounted on a SAN sharing network. At Hualong, six Revival systems mounted on an ADIC-based SAN will work under the direction of TGV Bones workflow management in conjunction with a da Vinci 2K Plus color grading suite and a Spirit 4K telecine.

The project is currently under way with the condition of individual films being assessed in the initial stage. Following restoration, some of the films are expected to screen in provincial towns across China, with a number of them also slated for broadcast in HD on TV in China. 90 percent of the restored films will be stored in digital format while the remaining 10 percent will be copied back to film.