RESTORATION COMPARISON: "Jail Birds" (1931) (Patreon)

Apologies for the slight delay, but now I am able to present a restoration comparison on Jail Birds (1931), starring Flip the Frog!

Sourced from the original 35mm fine-grain master positive, this was already a relatively crisp-looking raw scan, though there were some sections that had their share of problems. One example I showed last week involved a series of horizontal streaks that needed to be erased. Usually in the Flip cartoons during a pivotal moment such as this scene, this frame would be held for a second or two. However, that was not the case here.

Let me explain as best as I can: the position of the gorilla at the bar, with his left hand near the pig customer, in the midst of derisively laughing at policeman Flip, is only seen in two frames – including the frame with the troublesome streak lines. With the other frame that uses the same drawing of the gorilla, the pig customer changes position, since the animation of the crowd laughing is shot on 1’s. This required meticulous masking and Photoshop work sandwiching two different pictures, including an identical frame of the pig in the same position near the gorilla’s hand, since their laughing is on a cycle. It might not be exactly perfect, but I am pleased with the results.

There was also a sequence that occurs a few scenes earlier in the film, when Flip and his clumsy police horse find themselves in a dark cellar. In the scene, there is a distracting white emulsion line throughout much of the scene. Since the emulsion line is in the same spot throughout the sequence, the restoration software was not able to fix this issue entirely through an automatic removal, even with multiple passes. As a result, they were hand-painted out frame by frame.

Hope you all enjoy this sampling! A longer video of the restoration comparison can be seen at the $5+ level. (Be sure to watch in 1080p.)