‘City of God’ will be restored with the help of AI, says CEO of O2 Filmes

More than two decades after its launch, God’s city (2002), from Fernando Meirelles, goes through a restoration process. In a debate held on the afternoon of last Saturday, 22nd, in the program of 19th CineOP – Ouro Preto Cinema Exhibition, Paulo BarcellosCEO of O2 Filmes, said that the producer has been working on an unprecedented recovery of the feature film.

The process includes recovering original negatives, transitioning image formats and even artificial intelligence resources to adjust technical imperfections, post-production effects and other details in development.

Barcelona revealed that O2 itself is carrying out the restoration and there is still no estimate for completion or release. The CEO revealed that artificial intelligence technology will be used to make some adjustments to the film.

AI will be fundamental in automating the cleaning of ‘frames’, detecting flaws, missing sections, imperfections in the original and giving us the option to choose how to adjust in the way we decide.

Due to specific technical needs, part of the restoration process is being carried out in a laboratory in Los Angeles, by sending 18 hours of raw material filmed by the film team. Fernando Meirelles which will undergo a cleaning process.

At the end of this “washing” of the negatives, as Paulo Barcellos, God’s city will undergo digitization and will contain images in very high resolution, some of them in 4k and 6k technology.

Two versions

Barcelona He also revealed that two restored versions of the film will be made. One will contain changes to sound and visual effects, creating a technically new film. The other version will be more faithful to the 2002 original, maintaining elements as seen at the time, with general improvements in images and sounds.