Evaluating Film Model For Controlled Missing-Frame Reconstruction In Low-Light Smartphone Video

This study evaluates Frame Interpolation for Large Motion (FILM) for the controlled reconstruction of intentionally withheld frames from a researcher-owned low-light video recorded with a smartphone camera. The source video was standardized to 1280 x 720 pixels and prepared in four editorial transition conditions: no transition, cross dissolve, dip to black, and dip to white. Ten target frames were selected from each condition and evaluated at frame gaps of 1, 3, and 5, producing 120 primary Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) observations. For each observation, FILM synthesized an intermediate frame from two retained boundary frames; the synthesized image was compared with the withheld original frame. The aggregate mean SSIM was 0.9504 at frame gap 1, 0.9354 at frame gap 3, and 0.9152 at frame gap 5. These results indicate high structural similarity throughout the evaluated conditions, while also showing the expected degradation as temporal separation increases. The study establishes a traceable, narrowly scoped baseline for a single low-light smartphone asset. It does not evaluate network packet loss, end-to-end video quality of service.