Bridgeman is incredibly proud to announce an exciting new collaboration with cutting-edge AI video enhancement company neural.love. The Gdansk-based organization has been making great developments in machine learning and applying these technologies to transforming film and video by means of customised noise removal, resolution upscaling, colourisation, motion smoothing, and facial restoration algorithms.

We are thrilled to be bringing their expertise to the Bridgeman archive and look forward to collaborating in many ways over the coming months. As a celebration of these techniques, we have asked neural.love to test their pipeline of neural networks on some clips from the archive to showcase some of the technology and what is possible:
 
''We begin the restoration and enhancement process by running the “original framerate restoration” algorithm which allows us to remove duplicate frames and thus restore the original framerate of the film. We then upscale each frame to 4K, and use our motion smoothing algorithm to generate additional frames. Combined with an adjustment of the playback speed, the effect creates a more fluid, realistic sense of movement. We then have the option to colourise the footage, an artificial process that nonetheless generates colour schemes that appear natural to the human eye. As a final touch, we apply a gentle facial restoration algorithm, a GAN (generative adversarial network) that enhances visible faces by synthesizing and artificially refining facial details. While not historically accurate, the effects appear stunningly natural.

Further, in 2021 we are also set to roll-out an integration of neural.love’s services across our film, video, and stills collections, allowing our customers access to a full suite of AI tools and features, enabling licensed content to have another life through enhancement and restoration.''

neural.love's Elizabeth Peck: ''Our machine learning magic wouldn’t be possible without the kind of high-quality source material that Bridgeman can provide. With this partnership, we’re looking forward to transforming the experience of the past for a whole new audience.''

Alex Wilson, Bridgeman Images' footage manager had this to add: ''I’m really excited about this partnership. We are seeing genuine growth and interest from the sector in this space and to be able to offer these services to our clients is something very special. I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops.''

Neural Love on Bridgeman Images

Neural Love showreel