JCA, the digital specialist, has restored A Month in the Country for Film4 and Finishing Post Productions. The classic British 1987 film has been remastered to HD. The movie will air on Film4 in the UK this year. Kate Robinson, technical manager, Film4 Library, commented: “A Month in the Country is a bit of a forgotten classic with a first-class director and cast. We wanted to bring it back to life and take it to international audiences. It was in need of an upgrade though, so an HD remaster was essential the result is excellent.” Jason Tufano, managing director at Finishing Post Productions, commented: “The restoration of this project was particularly difficult due to the specific look of the film. We were able to source film elements, which allowed us the best opportunity to digitally remaster the film to its true potential, bringing it up to date whilst in keeping with the film maker’s original artistic intent.” Matt Bowman, commercial director at JCA, added: “Film content is vulnerable. We work closely with clients to help them future-proof their content libraries so films do not disappear into obscurity. There is a large amount of dormant content out there gathering dust, and it is our goal to help companies preserve and maximise these hidden assets.” Bowman continued: “A Month in the Country was a hidden gem. Our challenge was treating the grain whilst keeping the film authentic and true to the narrative. The film, which was meant to depict the great British summer of 1920, was actually shot in wet and dingy weather. Because we had the original negatives, we had to take great care to get the balance between the rich colours of summer whilst fighting against the actual conditions.” Working from the original negatives, shot in the mid-80s, JCA had to create a new conform as they were an A/B roll cut. The film required stabilisation; the dissolves and fades needed recreation. JCA used its ArriScan to capture a super 2k DPX sequence. Next, the JCA team utilised multiple non-destructive restoration tools, including Cinnafilm Dark Energy, to achieve a clean master and treat grain structure. YoYo was then used for a full DATA grade. The audio also required restoration to remove the hiss, pops and crackles, before being laid back to the HDCamSR delivery medium. www.jca.tv
