Restoration
OK, so I love this show and consider myself lucky it made it to DVD at all, when so many others did not (Oh where art tho Witches and the Grinnygog?)
But after over 40 years on a shelf somewhere, Children of the Stones now looks a bit… muddy. I’ve got some experience in film restoration so I decided to do it up a bit.
I can’t share these videos as I don’t have permissions. I’m sharing the project here because it may be of interest to other COTS fans.
However, if you want to do the same to your own video files and you have access to the right software (I used Adobe After Effects), it’s worth while. The HD version looks great on a big modern TV.
First off, the DVD releases have an odd dark green tint to the external (film) footage. I doubt this was a creative decision, more likely it’s a case of it not being possible to match the film footage to the videotaped (interior) shots at the time. Possibly exacerbated by subsequent film deterioration. Anyway, I removed it by reducing the green and boosting blue and red levels.
DVD footage on left, corrected on right
DVD footage on left, corrected on right
The videotaped sequences are not so bad. But they do have a slight red cast and a softness which isn’t really noticeable, unless you’re watching an upscaled version on an HD telly. I removed some of the red, which gave a better match to the film footage, and sharpened slightly to reduce the soft appearance.
Finally I upscaled to 1920 x 1080 and added a little noise on the videotaped footage, to better match the film footage. Until a COTS Blu-ray comes out, this will have to do!