August 2006

I’ve just discovered a new link to add to the “blogs of interest” category:

FOUND is a magazine and website of found stuff, such as “love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone else’s life.” These ephemera are collected from people around the country and then collected into issues of FOUND magazine and daily posts on their site. It seems to be a sort of anonymous preservation project, an archive of the lost and forgotten.

Many of these items are reader submitted, so keep your eyes peeled and submit something you’ve found and want to share with the world.

Browsing on the web today, I came across a 2004 PC Magazine article on video conversion quality, which places side by side stills from CinePost and MovieStuff, two transfer houses I profiled in an earlier post this month. Quite suprisingly, MovieStuff’s DV8 Sniper Pro unit, an affordable telecine manufactured in-house by MovieStuff, really stands up to CinePost’s “wet-gate” Rank Turbo transfer, a top of the line telecine machine combined with a transfer process that reduces the appearance of scratches by coating film with a liquid before the transfer. Though I think most would agree the Rank Turbo is, in the end, a superior transfer, the quality of the Sniper stills is a coup for DIY telecines.

I also read that the Academy of Motion Picture Film Archives purchased some Sniper units from MovieStuff and has been pleased with the results they are able to get transferring home movies in-house (not to mention the cost savings!) Read about it here.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of transfering film yourself, for a mere $2690 plus shipping and handling, you, too, can have your own Sniper. Here’s to all the DIY-ers out there.

Yesterday was International Home Movie Day, and being in the midst of a massive home movie preservation effort, I made the trek from Roanoke to Richmond, VA to attend the nearest Home Movie Day celebration. In addition to the synopsis below of the days events, you can also download a PDF of the handouts I received from Home Movie Day, which include a listing of transfer houses, information about determining whether a film is damaged or safe to project, and a short directory of websites for home movie info.

On the ground floor of the Richmond library, Jere Kittle and James Parrish of the Richmond Moving Image Co-Op set-up a film drop-off and inspection table and home movie screening as part of the day’s festivities. The Co-Op offered to inspect and clean one reel per person who came to the event and to project that film in the early afternoon if it was determined to be safe.
About a dozen or so individuals came by between 10am and 1pm with their home movies in tow. One individual had films from the 1940s that she had inherited but never seen, another had several “found” 8mm reels with no idea what was on them. Yet another brought in a 16mm film she had completed in art school, but couldn’t remember what she had shot. Jere and James meticulously inspected a reel from each person in order to detect any damage, repair splices, add leader and prepare for projecting that afternoon in the library auditorium.

While I was there, I had James inspect a reel of the film I recently had transferred by Home Movie Depot to give me feedback on their cleaning. While the cleaning of the film was “ok” in James’s opinion, the Depot did not put enough leader at the beginning of each reel. James advises placing an arm’s length (demonstrated below) or at least 3 ft of leader at the beginning of your reel. (A big thanks goes out to Paul for taking photos of me at the event!)

By leaving lots of leader at the head of the film, you create a sort of safe guard: if there is a problem with the projection you use, hopefully only the leader will be damaged. James also advises putting leader on the end of each reel. This prevents the tail of the film from getting stuck the to reel in the instance it is exposed to excessive heat. Finally, he also noted that a small amount of film tape should have been used to secure the film from unraveling off the 400ft film reel and to avoid excessive rubbing of the film (shame on you Home Movie Depot!)

(Damaged film fragment courtesy of Sara Ferguson)

In addition to my film, over the course of the day we saw films in varying states of preservation and decay. One film, which appeared fine upon initial inspection for shrinkage, was discovered to have severe stripping damage from a previous projection detected while cleaning the film with a soft film cloth and light solvent/cleaner. If you look closely at the image of this film above, you will see the sprocket holes of film have been visibly stripped, or made bigger, by the claw of a projector. Films in this condition are not suitable for projection and must be repaired before they can be digitally transferred.

Another participant’s home movies presented tell-tale signs of vinegar syndrome, formally known as acetate film base degradation: a white, powdery dust was on the sides and emulsion of the film and the film smelled of vinegar or acetic acid. Vinegar syndrome is often caused when films are exposed to excessive moisture or humidity. Film found in rusted metal cans is typically victim to this decay. If you suspect any of your film has developed vinegar syndrome, you should immediately separate that reel from all other film. This “disease” is contagious and can spread to other films. (Hint: Do not project this film!) There are things you can do to slow the decomposition, but you will want to have this film transferred as soon as possible to avoid loss as there is no way to completely stop vinegar syndrome once it has begun.

Though we didn’t see any examples at Home Movie Day, film can also develop mold. Like vinegar syndrome, mold is contagious. You should not project this film and should separate it from other films until it is properly cleaned. Thankfully, most forms of mold can be cured with a thorough cleaning, though some image quality might be lost.

If you would like to find out more about film damage and restoration for using small formats, check out these wonderful resources:

The Home Film Preservation Guide sponsored by AMIA - An all-you-need-to-know guide to preserving your films. Free for download and printing from online.

Northeast Historic Film - a resource for professional film preservation and storage. They provided a handout on how to identify film and film damage to Home Movie Day. Unfortunately, it is copywritted and I cannot post it here.

Keep Moving Images - An informative site with preservation information for artists working with the moving image.

National Film Preservation Foundation -A site for film preservation info geared more towards libraries but usable for anyone. You can download their extensive and very informative Film Preservation Guide free from online, which was compiled thanks to a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A great place to learn more about film damage, storage, etc.

Small Format Magazine - A pricey (about $80/year) quarterly magazine from Europe devoted to small formats, including 8mm, 9.5mm, and 16mm. On first look, it seemed to be worth every penny.

Super 8 Today Magazine - A more affordable magazine devoted to Super 8.

The Reel Image - Though this website looks a little messy (it’s being renovated), James recommends them for film collectors and makers who would like copies of films in Super 8 format. Write to: Steve Osborne, editor, 2520 Blackhawk Rd. Kettering, OH 45420 Tel: 937.296.9036. FAX: 937.296.1084 for more info.

As the cleaning and repairing came to an end, James gathered everyone around to talk a little bit about the purpose of Home Movie Day. As he put it, unlike Hollywood films, mainstream documentaries, and even independent films, home movies are a record of community history and therein lies their value. Home Movie Day was founded by a group of film archivists on this premise. They feared these precious records of community history of the 20th century were being lost, whether the result of improper care or being seen as “obsolete” by those who owned them or transferred them to video.

Unlike, say, fiction films, home movies are not fabrications or “representations” of reality but are rather documentations of reality, of the way people have lived their lives. They instill in us a sense of nostalgia, allow us to see time and people that no longer exist, and can serve as a cultural (and even perhaps an ethnographic) record of everything from birthday parties to parades and places to the idiosyncrasies of simple, everyday human living.

If you missed out on the Home Movie Day experience, mark you calendar for next year (it’s held on the second Saturday of August each year). Or better yet, if there’s not a Home Movie Day near you, start making plans to organize your own.

My comparison of transfer houses and, ultimately, my decision on which one to use, was based upon how I plan to use my grandmother’s films. I wasn’t simply interested in making a DVD to show at the next family reunion. Here’s a run-down of what I needed to get out of the transfer:

First, I wanted to find out what footage is on each reel. Having digital copies of the footage would allow me to catalogue, log, and transcribe each reel for use in future projects.

Next, I wanted to determine what shape the films are in and especially any damage they might have incurred while living in my grandma’s attic (e.g. scratches, mold, faded colors). This information is vital should I want to have a supervised scene-by-scene transfer later on.

Finally, I wanted the highest quality image for the most reasonable price. I’m working with a low (read: almost non-existent) budget and need to stretch funds as far as they will go. I also took into consideration that my initial uses of the footage might be web-based and thus a super fine quality transfer might not be the best use of my funds for an initial transfer.

After calling, researching, and considering my needs, I finally settled on Home Movie Depot.

As you might notice from their website, they tend to cater more toward the amateur movie maker crowd, but when I sent emails to their customer service, I was able to get technicians to respond back to me with reliable information on their equipment and transfer process. Though I thought that CinePost, Brodsky and Treadway, and others would deliver more quality, in the end Home Movie Depot was able to offer about half the quality for a third of the price (or even less) than the other transfer houses. (You can compare stills from a sample reel sent to both Home Movie Depot and CinePost in Part I of Home Movie Preservation).

Before I sent my film off to them, I had to add unique barcodes to each of the reels, printable from the Depot website, to ensure that each film is identified as part of my order and not someone else’s. The barcodes also served to specify the order I wanted each reel to appear in as part of the transfer. Note: If you change your mind afterwards, Home Movie Depot allows you to reorder a DVD or miniDV by using their online “editor” for up to 35 days to rearrange your footage in a new order. (You can also add cheesy music and titles if you’re so inclined–another hint about their target customer audience).

I sent off my film on July 10th and they were sent back to me on July 20th. I was able to specify my shipping options as 2-day air via FedEx. My films came back from the transfer house in the white boxes pictured above, which I promptly labeled. The Depot left clear notes on each of the boxes as to which of my original 3-inch reels was on each new 400ft reel. These notes were essential as all the regular 8mm and Super 8 were separated from one another.

Not only did I get a free sample transfer from Home Movie Depot to test their services, but the total price of transfering all my film there was under $500! The exact total: $434.85. I was amazed at what that price included, considering all the extra charges associated with these services at other transfer houses :

• cleaning, prepping, and repairing (if necessary) all the film
• adding white leader between each reel
• putting all film onto new 400 ft cores
• transfering film to miniDV (tapestock included) in the order I specified, regardless of it being 8mm or Super 8
• no fee for switching between transfers of 8mm and Super 8
• 2 copies of the miniDV master
• Express 2-day air return shipping of the film, tapes, and my old cores
• a log of the transfer, indicating the state of the film (presence of scratches or other wear and tear) on each reel
• access to an online “editor” for 35 days, which includes thumbnails of each reel taken every 10 seconds and allows you to re-organize and reorder your footage

Though I wasn’t really interested in the online editor (I can do far more, after all, with Final Cut and make my own DVDs), when I saw the thumbnails (like the one below), it suddenly became very interesting. I plan on putting all of these films into a database for use in my projects and thumbnails could be a fast and easy way to know what is on each reel.

So, I called up the Depot to see if they could get me a CD of all the thumbnails and save me the countless hours it would take to download all of them individually from the web. The guy who took my call couldn’t seem to help me (he sounded like a high school kid), but when I sent an email to customer service I received a satisfactory response. Though they don’t offer a thumbnail CD as a regular service, for $25, they made me a “custom” order CD of all the images, almost 1500 thumbnails with burned in timecode. I really appreciate that kind of customer service.

Though I would have liked a transfer with sharper images and more vibrant colors, for the quantity of film that I needed to transfer, and the quality of the transfer (considering the price), I’m a satisfied customer. (Of the other transfer houses I consulted, the next best transfer would have cost over $1500).

In the next post on Home Movie Preservation, I’ll describe the process of creating a home movie database and digital archive of the footage.

If you haven’t heard the buzz, Home Movie Day, a worldwide celebration of amateur films and filmmaking, is held annually on the second Saturday in August and will next be held on August 12, 2006. Mark your calendars.

I’ll be attending a screening and preservation workshop in Richmond, Virginia. To see if there’s a Home Movie Day event near you, check out this website.

As the site proclaims, “Home Movie Day events provide an opportunity for individuals and families to learn more about their own family movies, how to care for films, and how home movies have helped capture 20th century history.” The site provides a host of information on the safe way to project home movies, film and projector cleaning and maintenance, how to start up a Home Movie Day in your area, and lots more.

Be on the lookout for my upcoming report on the day’s events.

Last Christmas (2005), my grandmother dug out all her home movies after repeated requests and handed them over to me. I was dying to get a hold of her films for a project I am working on (which will be discussed in subsequent posts) and to get the films into a workable state. A total of 79 3-inch cores, a hodge-podge of 8mm and Super 8 films, came in a musty, brown paper bag in a disorderly array. Over the holidays, I tried to decipher the labels on each reel, if any, and put them in chronological order. Some had years or seasons or brief descriptions of people or images that appear on the film. Others just had grocery store produce labels or faded writing that is now indecipherable. (I’ll explain the barcodes I added momentarily.)

Thanks to my OCD organizational skills and the help of my trusty Brother Home and Hobby Label-Maker, I created labels for each and every of the 79 reels, denoting the month and year (if known) of each canister. I appreciate the authenticity of handmade labels; however, I wanted to use something that will last a little longer than the labels my grandmother left for me, to make labels that will be legible for the someone who might come after me.

Though the old labels gave me a rough idea of what was on each reel, I was hesitant to put the films through a projector to see what material was actually there. I feared that (a) I might further damage the film, or (b) that if mold had begun to grow on any of the film I might spread the contamination to the other reels and my Super 8 projector. Also, many of the reels were 8mm, and I did not have projector that would screen them. So, I began investigating a number of telecine machines and transfer houses that would be able to digitize my home movie collection.

The first option was to buy (or make) a telecine machine. I considered a few different ones, including the Video Cine-Mate-15 (approx. $1095 plus S&H for 8mm film) and the related Video Cine-Mate- 20 (approx. $1095 plus S&H for Super 8 film) but they both require the addition of a video camera.
I also looked some Elmo-like telecines that can be hooked up to a dub-rack, like the TVT-R8 Type G or the TVT-S8 Type G, which will run you $3600 plus S&H for EITHER standard-8mm film or Super 8 film. Since I needed to transfer both 8mm and Super 8 film, I would have to purchase two machines to cover both gauges.

Without several thousand dollars to spend just to see what was on these films, I considered an alternate route: having the films transferred by a post house. I looked online (thanks to the wonderful resources and listings on www.onsuper8.org) and called about a dozen places to see how best to spend my money. Here is a summary of some of my findings: Read the rest of this entry »