I’ve been re-watching star trek voyager recently, and I’ve heard when filming, they didn’t clear the wide angle of filming equipment, so it’s not as simple as just going back to the original film. With the advancement of AI, is it only a matter of time until older programs like this are released with more updated formats?
And if yes, do you think AI could also upgrade to 4K. So theoretically you could change a SD 4:3 program and make it 4k 16:9.
I’d imagine it would be easier for the early episodes of Futurama for example due to it being a cartoon and therefore less detailed.
I was wondering the same last week, but for Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series, which received a horrible HD release some years back.
For Buffy they recut the shot often using the raw footage, and they did so very cheaply so film equipment was often visible. They also didn’t address how bad the make up looked in HD, but then soft focus face filters are also garbage.
The Simpsons when they tried they cut the frame, which is just laughably bad as it removed information and the context for scenes.
When the Wire was done they got David Simon back to work on the conversion, he considers it a completely different cut of the show. I think this is the only way to do it as it means re framing the shot, this is a decision for the director, editor, and DP IMO
AI making shit up to add to the frame removes the context for the shot. Nothing wrong with black bars for me, I just want good colour balance and upscaling.