The streets of New York City are busy and bustling at all hours of the day and night. Video footage from 1911 even shows that. But have you ever imagined what it would look like if we had sounds and color in those videos?
Denis Shiryaev took some old 1911 footage of New York City and added sound and color to it. He says that the footage was shot by the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern (if you click that link, you’ll have to ask Google to translate it for you) on a trip to the U.S. back in the day.
Here’s how Shiryaev updated the film.
- ✔ FPS boosted to 60 frames per second
- ✔ Image resolution boosted up to 4k
- ✔ Resorted video sharpness
- ✔ Colorized – I’m still unsure about this, but regarding to high request from the subscribers decided to test DeOldify NN on this video (his comments)
Some fun things I noted in the video are how everyone is staring at the guy in the camera as if they were trying to figure out what the heck he was holding and what he was doing. I also noticed that everyone is walking just as fast as they do now, so things weren’t that much more laid back in The Big Apple back in the day.
Another thing I noticed is that strangers aren’t really greeting one another. I think from watching old movies, we have this picture in our head of the streets being a fun and friendly place to hang out, but folks just seem to be going on about their days.
Also, everyone is so well-dressed. It’s like no one left their house without looking their best. What would they think of our sweats and leggings, eh?
There’s a country song I like called “You Should Have Seen It In Color.” Watching this footage of 1911 New York City made me think of that song. Shiryaev’s alterations really brought this footage to life for me. Enjoy.
Here’s the original film before the edits (speed corrected with added sound).
Featured image: screengrab
