The First Monochrome Video Quality Enhanced by Brady Marshall Now Available on YouTube

Posted On 2020-06-09

Great news! I just finished enhancing the quality of, this time, a monochrome (black-and-white) commercial, one that aired in the 1960s here in America. And yes, this really is the first monochrome video of which I have enhanced the quality with software!

ADLORD says that this particular advertisement aired in the 1960s, but the title of my modified version clearly specifies that it aired in 1965, because that’s the exact year it reportedly aired. I managed to find this out by finding a video of this exact same commercial from TV TOY MEMORIES’s channel and one from Ron Flaviano’s channel, on the latter of which Barry I. Grauman specified in a comment that it was “originally seen in 1965, at the time Instant Breakfast was introduced”. And I must confess, just watching this advertisement has really made me want to try it! I’ve looked for it at a Walmart in my native Missouri with no luck, but at least I did manage to find Carnation Breakfast Essentials, which is similar.

My modified version of this commercial, as well as the original, are now available to view on YouTube and the list of old videos of which I have enhanced the quality here on my website.

Original version, from ADLORD’s channel
Enhanced-quality version. I color-corrected and sharpened the footage, and took off parts of the grain therein, on Premiere Pro; took out the background hiss, particularly that in the beginning, on Audition; and slightly sharpened the footage even further with a special tool called Detail-preserving Upscale on After Effects. Now, by color-correcting the footage, I simply tried to make it look more perfectly grayscale than ADLORD’s version, which looks slightly tinted.

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About The Author

Brady Marshall

Former freelance voice talent and video editor on the autism spectrum, from the Ozarks region of Missouri, born and raised. I completed an Associate of Arts with Honors from Ozarks Technical Community College in 2018 and a Bachelor of Science in Digital Film & Television from Missouri State University in 2020. In college, I was a volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House of the Ozarks, and received the 2018 Outstanding Young Volunteer Award. I completed a paid internship at The Hive of the Ozarks in the spring and summer of 2022. The Hive is a café in Willard, Missouri, devoted to providing work experience and work skills to persons with disabilities.