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"  When Universal Studios decided to celebrate its centennial by restoring its signature films, they started with the one that made millions afraid to go into the water: Jaws. A new Blu-ray of the 1975 film, fully restored for the first time ever, hits shelves August 14. (Universal is also restoring and rereleasing 12 other movies including To Kill a Mockingbird, E.T., All Quiet on the Western Front, and some of the classic monster movies.)  Restoring Jaws took nearly five months; the result looks spectacular, and will make you afraid of Amity Island all over again. Here&amp;#039;s how Universal pulled it off. Step One: Select the Source Material Once you pick a film, you have to see how much of the original physical film remains, and in what condition. &amp;quot;We do an extensive search on what materials are available, evaluate those materials, and do tests with them to determine what&amp;#039;s going to give us the highest quality,&amp;quot; says Mike Daruty, senior vice president of technical operations at Universal.  Many of the films restored for Universal&amp;#039;s centennial rely on original negatives, inner positives, and other preprint material. But for Jaws, the restoration team stuck with the original negative. Although the negative was covered in dirt and had many scratches and a very grainy appearance, the team knew that it would give them the highest possible resolution. Step Two: Scan and Up-Rez Daruty&amp;#039;s team ran the original negative through a piece of equipment called a wetgate scanner. &amp;quot;The film goes through a liquid bath [of chemicals],&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It puts a coating on the negative that fills in scratches before it hits the scanning gate. So if it&amp;#039;s a surface scratch\u2014which a lot of these scratches were\u2014the liquid fills it in, so when the film is scanned, that scratch is not apparent.&amp;quot; The film was scanned, frame by frame, at 4 K resolution.  Step Three: Repair Once the scan was complete, the film was transferred to Universal Studios Digital Services Group\u2014Universal&amp;#039;s in-house postproduction facility\u2014where technicians began digitally repairing deep scratches and tears and getting rid of dirt and other blemishes on the negative. &amp;quot;Minor damage is fixed fairly easily,&amp;quot; Daruty says. &amp;quot;Where we have tears in the frame or some serious damage, they have to go into visual effects devices\u2014I call them photoshop on steroids\u2014like FireInferno to fix those sections.&amp;quot; Perhaps the most difficult to repair was the infamous chalkboard scene, which introduces the iconic character Quint. &amp;quot;It was truly challenging, because it had a tear across the whole frame, and it had to be literally re-created,&amp;quot; Daruty says. &amp;quot;It was also challenging because there&amp;#039;s movement, and when there&amp;#039;s movement it takes more time to do.&amp;quot;       Step Four: Color-Correct Correcting color was the team&amp;#039;s biggest challenge. &amp;quot;There are some drastic color changes that go on, just because of the way Jaws was shot,&amp;quot; Daruty says. &amp;quot;They shot early in the morning, and then they would shoot the same scene late in the afternoon, so the exposure was different. Sometimes there were bright skies, sometimes there was cloud coverage. The team literally had to go through, scene by scene, and manage color.&amp;quot; The team also tweaked certain scenes at director Steven Spielberg&amp;#039;s request\u2014making the opening attack sequence slightly brighter, for example, so more detail could be seen. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re always trying to make sure that it looks exactly as the filmmaker intended it to,&amp;quot; Daruty says.  Step Five: Better Audio Using a 5.1 audio mix from a 2000 DVD, which was created from the original film&amp;#039;s mono track, the team made a new, 7.1 mix. It incorporates two additional rear speakers, for a total of three front channels and four surround channels, creating a 360-degree sound for the home theater environment. &amp;quot;Not too many titles that we&amp;#039;re releasing have 7.1,&amp;quot; Daruty says. Step Six: Create Another Negative When the restoration was finished, Daruty&amp;#039;s team returned the original negative, as well as a restored 35-mm digital negative, to Universal&amp;#039;s vault. &amp;quot;We have digital files and high-definition masters that will be archived and backed up outside of California,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;so in case something happens, we have backup.&amp;quot; The challenging aspects of restoring Jaws, and the rest of Universal&amp;#039;s classic films, was well worth the effort. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been here for 25 years,&amp;quot; Daruty says, &amp;quot;and the work we&amp;#039;ve done on these titles\u2014and the time we&amp;#039;ve taken to do so\u2014is unprecedented. We&amp;#039;re very pleased with the outcome.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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