[4K, 60fps] Raw 8th Air Force Colour Footage (1943) - Memphis Belle Outtakes - Reel 1 of 34

[wokelly]

 

This is uncut colour footage, filmed in 1943 by American cameramen, for what became the famous documentary "Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress" (1944). There is roughly 34 reels of this footage available on the US national archives website (around 10 hours in total). The majority of this footage has not been widely seen as it was not used in the Memphis Belle documentary (clips from that 60 minute film has been heavily used in WWII documentaries), but it is interesting to watch none the less.

 

Unfortunately the footage on the US National Archives website is rather faded, with a bright grey colour covering up the footage which drowns out the colour. I've retouched the footage to bring the colours out. I up-scaled the footage to 4K using an AI driven program to try to bring some more detail out and help with the recolouring process. I also decided to convert the footage to 60 frames to per second to make the movements more life-like. I found it made the footage seem a bit more alive and reduces that unreality feeling you get that the original 23 frames per second creates.

 

I'm aiming to get all 34 reels converted, but given the time it takes (about 24 hours for the computer to upscale the footage, 4-5 hours to turn into 60 fps, plus a some time to manually retouch the colour) I probably will get only one per week uploaded. I'll post subsequent uploads to this thread so keep dropping by if you are interested.

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by wokelly

[wokelly]

 

Second reel up. Time stamps in description on youtube page.

[RaginCajunULL]

Great footage!!  I added comments on some of the individual airplanes that I could see serial numbers.  Sobering when you read the fate of the crews :(.  These missions without escort were insane.  Here a couple of photos I took a while back of the CAF B-17.  

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by RaginCajunULL

[von_Tom]

 

I'm really not a fan of the heavies but this is an excellent job that is very well done.

 

S!

 

von Tom