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Shortly after gushing about the superb DVD transfer quality of North By Northwest last year, The BIG Picture heard from John Lowry. Mr. Lowry is the founder and principle of Lowry Digital Images in Burbank, California. His company has revolutionized the film to DVD transfer process by electronically cleaning and restoring image data transferred from original film elements to the digital medium. Using proprietary computer programs developed by Lowry, originally used by NASA, Lowry Digital Images is helping to define a new benchmark for DVD quality with breathtaking transfers. Okay, we've only seen two so far, but they're startlingly good. The aforementioned North By Northwest and more recently, Citizen Kane. Both eagerly anticipated films on DVD. Both outstanding in quality. We want to know what in the heck is going on with this little company, which has grown from a two-man operation to twenty employees in just over a year...We were delighted to hear from John Lowry again recently, and even more pleased that he consented to an exclusive interview with TheBIGPictureDVD.com
TBP: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us John. I know you must have a very busy schedule these days. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started? What were you doing prior to becoming involved with film industry projects?
JL: After many years doing a diversity of things in the film and TV industry, my first serious work in image processing was in 1971 when we built the Image Transform system. It was designed originally for creating high quality motion picture film from video. I received six image processing patents at that time including one for the first noise reduction in motion pictures. We went on to clean up the live video from the moon during the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 lunar landings. Shorty after we created the first 24 frames per second video system for making theatrical motion picture films.
In 1974 I started Digital Video Systems where we designed and built a range of digital video processing hardware such as time base correctors, frame store synchronizers, and satellite scrambling and encryption systems. In the mid 1980s I got heavily involved in computer software and spent the next 14 years creating multimedia products. In 1998 I decided to pull all this together and started Lowry Digital Images. Our focus is on software based image processing systems for improving motion picture film images. Today, low cost consumer computers have the power of yesterday’s super computers while software design is limited only by your imagination.
TBP: What originally brought the attention of Warner Bros. to your company?
JL: We had been quietly working on research and development for about one and a half years and felt that we needed to test our process on some real films. A friend brought one of the engineers from Warner Bros. in to see our work. That led in quick succession to two more meetings at progressively higher levels in the company. They liked what they saw at this very early stage in our work and showed a great deal of faith in us by issuing purchase orders within a few hours for the processing of three important films. They continue to be our largest single customer and we will do everything in our power to do a great job for them.
TBP: Was North By Northwest the first film that you digitally restored for video? What were some of the special challenges that you encountered with those film elements?
JL: When the people at Warner Bros. saw samples of our work they showed a great deal of faith in us and gave us 3 films to restore for DVD. North By Northwest was first, followed by Gone with the Wind and Now Voyager. Gone with the Wind was for release in Europe in the PAL standard which uses 20% more data for each frame. Our grain reduction significantly improves the MPEG-2 digital compression needed for DVD mastering making it possible to put this extremely long film on one DVD with room to spare.
TBP: So is this release of Gone With The Wind is markedly different than what was released here in the U.S. by MGM before they sold the rights to Warner Bros? Any plans to release it NTSC Region 1?
JL: This is a question for Warner Bros.
TBP: Fair enough. What unusual challenges did you discover in the restoration of North By Northwest?
JL: Our biggest challenges in processing North by Northwest were related to the transition from a R&D facility to full production. Of course, there was a great deal of printed-in dirt but our automated dirt removal does a good job on that. Our image enhancement made the images quite sharp and, in one scene, created a problem. The crash of the crop dusting plane into the tanker truck used wires to guide the plane into the truck. They were suddenly obvious. A little time doing digital wire removal solved the problem. We used 12 computers working together to process North by Northwest. Eighteen months later we have 160 computers processing images.
TBP: Why so many computers? Does having the extra CPU power simply enable you to take on more projects, complete each one faster or both?
JL: We believe that we are doing the most complex processing of motion picture images that has ever been done. Our total capacity is measured in hundreds of gigaflops per second. Even so, each frame takes a while to process. We are currently working on a film that has almost 300,000 frames. We need the computing power to get the job done in a timely manner for our clients.
TBP: Can you describe how the process works without exposing any trade secrets?
JL: I would rather not at this time.
TBP: Tell us about your work on Citizen Kane. Considering the huge importance of this film, you must realize the enormous significance of Warner Bros. handing over the film elements for you to work with. I understand the original print was destroyed in a fire many years ago. Where did the new source elements come from and what was their condition?
JL: Warner Bros. does the scanning of the film and provides us with data tapes or digital video tapes. We process the images and return data to them in the same format. In the case of Citizen Kane we worked with PAL resolution images of 720 X 578 pixels at 24 frames per second. We look forward to the day when we will have the opportunity to process 2048 X 1536 pixel (or higher) images and make new negatives of films as important as this one. This could lead to preservation of the films in a simple and standard format for the next 100 years.
TBP: Given the resolution that you speak of, I'm a little dubious of Warner Bros. plans to exhibit Citizen Kane theatrically on September 20th at the El Capitan theater (Hollywood, CA). While we feel that CK looks terrific on even a large home theater screen, how do you suppose it will look on a 50' screen? Do you know how Warner Bros. will pull this off? Will the DVD be used with some sort of a digital projector? Any idea?
JL: This is a question for Warner Bros. To my knowledge there is no "pristine" film print in existance.
TBP: In viewing the DVD, I was struck at how grain-free, scratch-free and dirt free the images were -- except of course the newsreel footage that Orson Welles intentionally damaged in a very effective effort to "age" them for the purpose of the film. How did you differentiate between the "intentional" flaws and flaws inadvertently introduced to the film elements over the years?
JL: The newsreel sequence “aged” remarkably well. After consultation with our client we turned off our processing for most of this material and used a little grain reduction on a few scenes only.
TBP: As you know, The BIG Picture is exceptionally impressed with your system for removing scratches, dirt, excessive grain -- and worse -- from original source elements for video restoration. Do you think your technology would have been able to completely clean the intentional flaws on the newsreel footage in Citizen Kane had you wanted to do that? Just for the sake of private testing purposes or demonstration, of course. Were you tempted? Did you try it?
JL: Other portions of Citizen Kane that we did clean up were worse than some of the newsreel footage. The result speaks for itself. Most films, regardless of their condition, can be improved to a surprising extent.
TBP: So what's the deal with the little hair that I spotted in the lower left corner of several frames. Did we catch you off guard with that one? To be frank, we almost didn't see it at all. However, inquiring minds want to know how that one got past you. It seems that very little else did, certainly.
JL: I can assure you things like that do not get past us. This was one of a very few a compromises based on the budget that we had for this film. We did not expect normal people to notice that kind of little detail. But then, maybe you and I are not normal.
TBP: We've watched this DVD several times in anticipation of our review -- and only really noticed an instance or two when the elements seemed to shift in contrast intensity for a few seconds. We're assuming that's due to the condition of the source material. Does this mean that we're seeing the limitations of your video restoration capabilities? Or was it simply a matter of time and money? You mentioned budget contstraints.
JL: When we completed our work on Citizen Kane the data was returned to Warner Bros. for scene to scene timing where they very carefully optimize the brightness and contrast of each scene. Some of the source material had been subjected to additional generations on film which usually causes a contrast build up. Both the darker and lighter areas often lose detail permanently. It is very difficult to perfectly match these scenes with the rest of the film.
TBP: Can you share with us some of the other film titles that you're preparing for DVD release? Any titles in particular that you'd like to be working on if given the opportunity?
JL: We are very proud to have the opportunity to work on more than 20 films during the past year and one-half. These titles are the property of our clients who are, in each case, major Hollywood studios. It is the studio’s responsiblity to control their publicity and annouce titles to be released. With their permission we will be most pleased to discuss our work when the titles are actually going into distribution.
TBP: We hope you'll let The BIG Picture be the first to know when you receive the green light. Can you tell us what studios you're working with? We've heard from a reliable source that you're doing work for Disney, Paramount and of course Warner Bros. I'm not sure if anyone from Paramount will see this in time, but we'd like to put in our vote to nominate your company to clean up and prepare Sunset Blvd. for DVD release if they do.
JL: I will admit that we are working on films for three major studios but I must again defer to them for any announcements. There are many films that we would love to restore. Certainly a great film like Sunset Boulevard is on our wish list.
TBP: Thank you for allowing our readers to learn more about your company and the work you do.
JL: As a group of people who are totally immersed in the quality of motion picture images, it is a great pleasure to find a publisher who understands image quality as well as you obviously do and who is trying to raise the bar for our industry. Thank you.
Click here for The BIG Picture review of Citizen Kane
Editor's Note: For further information, call or write John Lowry at Lowry Digital Images, 2777 Ontario St., Burbank CA 91504. 818-557-7333.
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