Pro Hollywood Restoration Lowell

We offer 3 restoration options. Color Correction, Grain Elimination and Stabilization Technology.

About 90% of our Lowell customers want the color correction and about 75% do the grain elimination. We do also offer image stabilization. It adds a nice touch to those old home movies.

Color correction is very important for amateur film because we will be able to recover more footage that was shot too dark or has darkened as part of the aging process. The scanner monitors the light and color balance and will change it based on pre-determined algorithms. This means it will pump more light through film that is dark and it will back off on film that is too bright. This will allow us to recover footage that would normally be too dark or too light. In addition, after the scan, an editor will go through the footage looking at skin tone and things like the color of the sky to order to make sure it looks correct. You can see in the examples below how much better the images look with our 2 pass color correction.

Grain is on all film. Look at the "Before" picture below compared to the "After" picture. These little dots muddy up the image and take away from the content you care most about. Now, look at the After picture on the right. This is what you really want to see. We do recommend Grain Elimination on all film for our Lowell customers.

Most amateur films have some stabilization issues just because of the way the film was shot. But, most people are used to seeing this on old movie film (See example video clip below). So, we see stabilization as a nice to have but not required. If you can afford to do it then we would recommend it. If it pushes you outside your budget then we would just recommend the Grain Elimination technology.

Super 8 Film Examples Lowell

Advanced Grain Elimination Technology It is easy to find the film grain by looking at the wall (on the Before picture) but film grain is on everything throughout the frame. All film will look like this. This is a full resolution image we have cropped to the upper right corner to fit this table (this is 1/6th of the original frame). This is the level of detail you will see on your HDTV. This advanced technology is very compute intensive and it increases our processing time by 7 times. We have to charge extra for it and have decided to make this technology optional on the order form.
Before	After
Advanced Stabilization Technology Most amateur films have some stabilization issues just because it was not shot using a tripod. This technology is intended to smooth out the motion for small to medium movement but not for large movements. The reason is because the larger the movement the more the surrounding video has to be cropped to keep things smooth. This technology is very compute intensive and it increases our processing time by 6 times. We have to charge extra for it and have decided to make this technology optional on the order form.
Color & Exposure Correction Color shifting and darkening of the film are very typical for any type of old movie film. Usually we are able to fix both color and exposure issues to get the film to look like it did when it was first taken.
Before	After

 

16mm Film Examples

Advanced Grain Elimination Technology It is easy to find the film grain by looking at the wall (on the Before picture) but film grain is on everything throughout the frame. All film will look like this. This is a full resolution image we have cropped to the upper right corner to fit this table (this is 1/6th of the original frame). This is the level of detail you will see on your HDTV.
Before	After
Advanced Stabilization Technology Most amateur films have some stabilization issues just because of the way the film was shot. It was shot with a handheld camera that was moving almost all the time as opposed to sitting on a tripod. You would be surprised to see how unstable most film is. This technology is very compute intensive and it increases our processing time by 6 times. We have to charge extra for it and have decided to make this technology optional on the order form.
Color & Exposure Correction Color shifting and darkening of the film are very typical for any type of old movie film.
16mm Before	16mm After

Lowell Fun Facts: By the 1990s, however, the advent of microprocessors and personal computers changed the market considerably, and throughout the decade Lowell saw a steady decline in its economic power. Lowell today is on the upswing again, fueled by a resurgence of the area's technology industry and the growth of new service industries which have revitalized the city's economy and an increasingly more diverse ethnic fabric which has enhanced the city's cultural depth. The Massachusetts city of Lowell lies on the banks of the Merrimack River, about 30 miles northwest of Boston. Together with Cambridge, the city shares the role of county seat of Middlesex County.

Massachusetts Fun Facts: Boston, the state capital, was a hotbed of activity, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, during the American Revolution. In addition to its revolutionary spirit, the state is known for sparking the American Industrial Revolution with the growth of textile mills in Lowell, and for its large Irish-American population. One of the original 13 colonies and one of the six New England states, Massachusetts (officially called a commonwealth) is known for being the landing place of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims. English explorer and colonist John Smith named the state for the Massachuset tribe.