Once the films have been scanned they can be repaired. Dust, tears and blemishes like change-over marks can be removed. Scanning itself can help steady the image. Our scanners deal very well with shrunken or warped films. Once scanned additional stabilization can be achieved. Pulsing and flickering can be controlled. Scratches, notoriously difficult to remove, can be erased in many cases. What remains is the film as it might have been seen when it first out of the lab.

We offer three levels of reconstruction and restoration:

1. Basic semi-automated stabilization, de-flicker, dust removal.

2. Scene-to-scene corrections including change-over marks, tears and other damage

3. Frame-by-frame restoration

Once the film has been restored we can grade it. We provide three levels of matching service:

1. One-lite or best-lite overall re-grade

2. Scene-to-scene color correction

3. Shot-to-shot color correction

For example: you have several old prints that need to be made digital at HD resolution or higher because broadcasters no longer accept SD content. But you want it done quickly and cost is a concern. We would recommend scanning the prints and their optical tracks then apply a Level 1 reconstruction and a Level 1 Grade. The track would be put in sync with the picture and a new digital master would be transcoded from the RAW scan files to achieve best quality at any resolution. Since the print would have already been graded, a best-lite grade should retrieve intact the look of the original print. A similar “best-lite” approach to the audio would remove a large degree of hiss and clicks. This process would restore your prints to like-new condition ready to be seen again wherever you want to show them.

By comparison, if you have film negative or reversal camera original, we would recommend mixing and matching levels 2 and 3 to achieve the results you want.