Saturday, December 17, 2005

How do they do it on TV?

Re-reading my post about how Hollywood (mis)represents audio/video forensics led me to the subject of this posting - just how do the Hollywood types get such amazing improvements when they dramatize forensic restoration and enhancement? Well, quite frankly, they cheat! First they start with a broadcast quality image. Then, they possibly, but not necessarily, make it look more 'authentic' by dropping out the color or decreasing the resolution. Next, they dirty it up in a way that they can easily remove the dirt (noise) with the tools they have available. So, when it comes time for the actor to perform the forensic filtering, presto-chango, abracadabra, and the case is solved! What a dramatic difference it makes to take away a known, simulated noise from a broadcast quality image...

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