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I saw the They Shall Not Grow Old screening here in Atlanta. What Peter Jackson has done with virtually unusable footage is absolutely spectacular. Both the fil
by samsolomon 8y ago
I saw the They Shall Not Grow Old screening here in Atlanta. What Peter Jackson has done with virtually unusable footage is absolutely spectacular. Both the film, coloring and sound work is amazing.
Despite the absolutely spectacular footage. I thought the documentary itself was OK. It uses audio from people in British WWI regiments to tell the story—all from BBC and Imperial War Museum recordings. It was a good execution given the constrains, but there's no real angle or conclusions to draw from the documentary.
The real gem was the interview with Peter Jackson after the movie. It covered the restoring process—much of which is covered in the article. They basically used computer software to move the frame-rates from 12 to 16 fps up to 24 fps. Then tweaked the highlights and shadows. There's a ton of work that went into color and sound as well.
I hope these techniques can be used to restore other old footage.
- mensetmanusman 8y agoI saw it as well, thought it was amazing. I liked how it wasn’t pushing a narrative, because you obviously come to the conclusion that war is hell.
- protomyth 8y agoI'm glad it doesn't push a narrative. I like documentaries that get out of your way and let you think on the subject instead of being railroaded.
- stan_rogers 8y agoThe "narrative" was simply "these young men weren't just grainy black-and-white historical artifacts". I'm old enough to have grandkids in high school; my elder grandfather was just old enough to have signed up as the war ended. A hundred years is a long time - long enough for the dust of history to start replacing the reality of the thing.
- apendleton 8y agoCompletely agree. It seemed like they struggled to construct a coherent or particularly interesting narrative given the constraints they set out for themselves. I think it really would have significantly benefited from a relaxing of those constraints to may be have a narrator that tied things together or filled in some narrative gaps for which they didn't happen to have footage or interviews. Amazing technical achievement though.
- weinzierl 8y ago> I hope these techniques can be used to restore other old footage. Paul McCartney was so impressed by Peter Jackson's work that he approached him to restore 55 hours of old Beatles footage. Rumor has it that the film will come out in 2020.
- bgeeek 8y agoYou can't have escaped it - https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/peter-jacksons-version-beatles-let-be-lost-movie-2444006 https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/peter-jacksons-version-b...
- seizethecheese 8y ago> It was a good execution given the constrains, but there's no real angle or conclusions to draw from the documentary. Interesting because the thing that kills most documentaries for me is when they have a clear angle or are driving for a conclusion.