Thread by @Variety

#TheBeatlesGetBack director Peter Jackson reveals how his team of filmmakers took on the task of restoring archival footage of the Fab Four into crystal-clear quality for the new Beatles docuseries.

Watch Variety’s exclusive, behind-the-scenes clip: bit.ly/3ppPTpV

“In 1969 that film had a quite chunky, grainy desaturated look to it. One of the purposes was to try to restore it, sort of making it look as natural as possible,” says Jackson. bit.ly/3ppPTpV

“Suddenly the colors were just unbelievable,” he adds. “People say, ‘So how did you do all those colors?’ And I’m saying, we didn’t do the colors, they were there.” bit.ly/3ppPTpV

Restoring the picture was only part of the challenge. Next was the sound, which involved machine learning.

“To me the sound restoration is the most exciting thing,” says Jackson. “We made some huge breakthroughs in audio.” bit.ly/3ppPTpV

In the clip, the #GetBack director demonstrates how they isolated each track while the Beatles were recording: “We developed a machine learning system that we taught what a guitar sounds like, what a bass sounds like, what a voice sounds like.” bit.ly/3ppPTpV

“In fact, we taught the computer what John sounds like and what Paul sounds like,” he continues. “We can take these mono tracks and split up all the instruments so we can just hear the vocals, the guitars.” bit.ly/3ppPTpV

“You see Ringo thumping the drums in the background but you don’t hear the drums at all," says the director. "That allows us to remix it really cleanly.” bit.ly/3ppPTpV

Watch Variety's exclusive featurette, in which #TheBeatlesGetBack director Peter Jackson dives into the details of restoring the archival footage. bit.ly/3ppPTpV