Stinky-Dinkins said:
Adding hairs/dirt/specks of dust/etc. would be insanity. Dirt and hair is not inherent to the composition of film - it's a byproduct of poor projection and dirty reels. Are you trying to recreate the film as it originally existed under ideal conditions or the film as it would've been projected in the worst case scenario in some random shitty cinema? If it's the latter there are a billion different ways it could've appeared. Why not make it purposely out of focus at times? Many theaters had poor focus and even worse projectionists.
Grain is inherent to film but other anomalies specific to certain individual reels and theaters are not.
Also, adding in artificial grain is silly. By removing the original grain a certain amount of fine detail was forever lost, by adding in artificial grain you're further obscuring what fine detail remains. You can never restore the natural grain that was wiped by away DNR, it's best to work with what grain structure remains and not try to make a bad situation worse than it already is. By adding in grain you're making a decision based on how you feel you'd like it to appear, not how you're certain it once appeared given the evidence at hand. You can never restore the original grain structure, you have no idea how it would appear or how finely it would've been resolved had the movie been mastered properly.
Sign me up as one of the people who would prefer a version without all these artificial "enhancements" added into the presentation - if that counts for anything.
It's weird when Stinky makes this much sense...but it happens from time to time. I'm in full agreement.