DIG! is an iconic documentary capturing the turbulent friendship and rivalry between two influential late 90s indie rock bands: The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Released in 2004, DIG! won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and garnered acclaim for its raw portrayal of artistry, ambition, and authenticity in the burgeoning DIY music scene.
Director: Ondi Timoner, Producer/Editor: David Timoner
Sundance-Winning Indie Rock Film Restored to 4K with Topaz Labs
Decades after the widely acclaimed documentary, DIG!, was released, producer Ondi Timoner and editor David Timoner celebrated the film's 20th anniversary with something major—a complete restoration of the film. They aimed to not only to remaster the original, but to expand it with previously unseen footage and updated perspectives.
The resulting project, DIG! XX, required significant technical restoration to enhance its original archival materials for a modern viewing audience. Consequently, the newly remastered 4K version of DIG! XX was screened at Sundance and is now available on Apple TV. Topaz recently spoke to editor/producer, David Timoner about the post-production challenges of revisiting DIG! after 20 years.
Challenges Overcame
Lost Original Materials
David Timoner noted, "We had a 35mm print, but my sister and I were both victims of the Los Angeles fires. We actually lost a lot of the original archives and didn’t have our high resolution master material anymore. However, we did have a QuickTime file that was 640x480 and also the NTSC DVD.
Mixed Archival Formats
The original project spanned hours of various formats, including Hi8, MiniDV, Super 8, Beta SP, and even limited 16mm footage. These diverse sources made achieving visual consistency challenging.
Degraded Footage Quality
For the assets that were recoverable, much of the original footage had degraded over time. David shared, "The Hi8 tape had a lot of hits or glitches on it."
Solution: Video AI from Topaz Labs
Topaz Labs' Video AI proved indispensable to the restoration and remastering process. According to David, “Upscaling was our most essential and difficult post-production process. To bring our interlaced SD master to 4K life we relied on Franny Lane, our digital remasterer. She employed Video AI to upscale our source clips. Franny used multiple AI models and combinations of denoising and upscaling, sometimes removing noise and then re-adding it to a cleaned shot to achieve the best possible result.”
"We relied on Topaz Labs very heavily for the entire project. It simply wouldn't have been possible without Topaz and Video AI."
Results and Benefits
Affordale and Flexible Restoration process
Without Video AI, restoring the documentary would have required costly and extensive rescanning of original prints (assuming availability). Noisy, low resolution 640x480 footage was effortlessly transformed into cleaner, watchable 4K for both projection and broadcast. David re-emphasized, "I really don't know what we would have done without Topaz!"
Enhanced Visuals
Even highly degraded materials, such as old perfomance footage from Late Night with Conan O'Brien were significantly improved. David quipped, " Topaz restored Conan’s face perfectly!.”
New Life for a Classic
The restoration of DIG! demonstrates how AI innovations from Topaz Labs are empowering filmmakers to revisit, revitalize, and significantly enhance archival projects. With Topaz Video AI, the team found a cost-effective, professional solution that ensures this iconic documentary will continue to captivate new audiences for years to come.
"This new upscaled version looks great and is really a lot of fun. It's kind of a new film, but it’s still the old film. Just better!"
DIG! XX is now available on Google Play, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and other streaming services.
