Super 8 Transfer

> Who's tested the waters? Do folks here have recommendations
> for reliable, good-quality, reasonably-priced outfits to do the work?
> We have a bunch of reels, and I don't want to spend a mint on the
> job.

A few years ago I wanted to do the same thing. I had about 6 rolls
of Super 8 films that I've never seen and were supposed to show
me as a kid about 25years ago.

I sent them to a German company:

<http://www.gedav.de>

Their service was absolutely wonderful and professional. All the films
were very well conserved and watching these films for the first time
was overwhelming...

They've charged me about 320 Deutschmarks (~$180) for about 30 minutes
of film (shipping one way included).
It was in 2001, transfer was to DVD-R.

Probably not much help for you because all this happened in Europe
but maybe interesting for other Euro-readers with old films.

Michael

> Who's tested the waters? Do folks here have recommendations
> for reliable, good-quality, reasonably-priced outfits to do the work?

You might try Brodsky & Treadway in Boston ( http://www.littlefilm.com/)

I haven't used them (yet) but that's a name that was suggested to me
when I first looked into it. Apparently they do very high quality
work, however, I also hear that they are quite expensive. But it
doesn't hurt to give them a call.

On Jan 3, 2006, at 3:55 PM, Chris Pepper wrote:

>
>
> Who's tested the waters? Do folks here have recommendations
> for reliable, good-quality, reasonably-priced outfits to do the work?
> We have a bunch of reels, and I don't want to spend a mint on the
> job. Once I have one or more candidates, I'll look through the sack
> and figure out how much they'd charge for the whole thing (some offer
> multiple rates for different levels of service/quality, complicating
> things). I will probably send a single reel to start, and more if I'm
> happy with the output.

Years ago a friend had some old B&W Super 8 films converted to VCR
format by a local independent video store (it was the days before
Blockbuster, etc.), who did a great job of inexpensively converting
the film to tape, and was able to consolidate a box of Super 8
movies, along with an older home film format from the 1940s & 50s, on
to one VCR cassette. Not long ago, the friend used a VCR/DVD machine
they got in Costco to convert the cassette into DVDs.

Super 8s don't look that great to begin with, and the cassette and
DVD look about as good as the original films. It's not an elegant
solution, but it did work.

Marilyn

Super 8s don't look that great to begin with, and the cassette and DVD look about as good as the original films. It's not an elegant solution, but it did work.

I beg to differ -- super 8 can look great if they were shot in good light with a decent camera. I have seen super 8 that looks as professional and crisp as larger film formats can look. -S

On Jan 5, 2006, at 1:22 PM, r2g wrote:

> Super 8s don't look that great to begin with, and the cassette and
> DVD look about as good as the original films. It's not an elegant
> solution, but it did work.
>
> I beg to differ -- super 8 can look great if they were shot in good
> light with a decent camera. I have seen super 8 that looks as
> professional and crisp as larger film formats can look.

There were many exceptional still shots taken on Brownie cameras too,
but the majority of them were less than spectacular. The genius of
the format was that they put a complicated and expensive technology
inexpensively into the hands of everyman/woman/child.

These particular Super 8s were home movies of wedding and birthday
parties, etc., and were not shot by anyone resembling a professional
or even an advanced amateur. But though they were sometimes grainy,
jerky and a little out of focus, they do record some wonderful,
joyous family moments, and many of the people in the videos have
since died. So finding an inexpensive way to preserve them (which
included some clean up) and share them can be in many ways a blessing.

Marilyn

[OK, enough kibbitzing about the pros and cons of Super 8; let's get back to how to transfer it to digital format. -Adam]


I was only referring to what seemed like a blanket statement about
all super 8 films, but maybe I didn't realize it was in context.
The opposite of the brownie camera example may also be true -- you
can shoot 35mm film that looks terrible, it doesn't mean that 35mm
film "doesn't look great to begin with..."

On 8 Jan 2006, at 14:21, Marilyn Matty wrote:
> These particular Super 8s were home movies of wedding and birthday
> parties, etc., and were not shot by anyone resembling a professional
> or even an advanced amateur. But though they were sometimes grainy,
> jerky and a little out of focus, they do record some wonderful,
> joyous family moments, and many of the people in the videos have
> since died. So finding an inexpensive way to preserve them (which
> included some clean up) and share them can be in many ways a blessing.
>
> Marilyn

Many a museum and archive project are focusing more on such materials
these days as more accurate records of our everyday lives than the
more professionally made documentary. Two recent documentaries on UK
TV were based around Super 8 footage shot by Peter Sellars and Eric
Morecombe of moments in their personal lives. Each told me more
about the man than any glossy TV profile.

--
bignoseduglyguy
http://www.bignoseduglyguy.com
http://www.bignoseduglyguy.com/no8wire
http://www.bignoseduglyguy.com/bnugwiki

As a longtime TV producer who's had to transfer Super-8 film to video for professional use I strongly recommend that you NOT try to transfer the film yourself. Several reasons:

1) Film becomes brittle and dusty with age. If these images are valuable to you, have the film cleaned -- preferably automatically in a liquid bath instead of by hand. A film lab pro can also check and repair any splices in the film.

2) In order to transfer Super 8 (usually shot at 18 frames per second) to video (30 frames per second) you need a telecine projector or convertor. which are no longer made for consumer Super 8. Rear or side projection devices are usable but the frame rate difference will cause annoying flicker. Some video cameras have adjustable shutter speeds, but this will only lessen the flicker.

3) The better film labs or service bureaus have pro telecines that accomodate everything from 70 mm down to the old "Standard 8mm" film. The best telecines are frictionless "Wet gate" machines that gently transport the film through liquid without stressing (often tearing) the fragile old sprocket holes.

4) When you add in the value of your time, it's unlikely you'll save very much over the cost of professional transfer.

Finally, just prior to the advent of home camcorders, Kodak and others introduced Super 8 movies with sound -- containing a magnetic stripe along one side of the film. I have no idea if anyone on the planet can transfer this today. My advice: have the pictures transferred professionally, the haunt e-Bay for a compatible old projector. Record the audio digitally, feed that track into iMovie, along with your transferred film, then synchronize whatever parts seem worth the effort.

Hope this is helpful.

A couple of years ago, I had a small reel of 8 mm transferred to
digital media. Rather than simply have it made into a DVD-video, I
had it made into a QuickTime file so I could do some experimenting.
The method of conversion was to record the projection with a video
camera.

The results looked very good when simply viewing the QT file without
interruption. But there's a problem ...

You see a frame of grandpa from 65 years ago and you want to go to
that frame to get a still picture. But then you find that the frames
are: good frame; bad frame; good frame; &c. The bad video frames are
composites of two movie frames caused by the different frame rates.
And the frame you need is a bad frame.

Film projection to DVD-Video is OK if all you want to do is watch the
movie on a TV instead of a projection screen. If you want more, you
should consider a frame-by-frame copy to a QuickTime file.

I don't know of anyone offering this service, but I suspect it will
be expensive.

I'm not a regular poster but this guy

http://members.aol.com/filmtotape/

George Odell is hands down the best I've ever seen. He's everything
you want in transfer. He's picky, accurate, and he pays attention to
what you want.

His # is 1-800-773-2753 visit the page first though. There is a
downloadable info and forms packet that really answers most of your
questions.

I've worked for George in the past and would again in a minute if I
could. He's an old film guy and everything that goes with that.
If you think that these movies are worth transferring then by all means
call George. I have the highest respect for him and his work.

Mark Andrews

On Jan 9, 2006, at 11:32 AM, bignoseduglyguy wrote:

> Many a museum and archive project are focusing more on such materials
> these days as more accurate records of our everyday lives than the
> more professionally made documentary. Two recent documentaries on UK
> TV were based around Super 8 footage shot by Peter Sellars and Eric
> Morecombe of moments in their personal lives. Each told me more
> about the man than any glossy TV profile.

Two of my favorite all time comedians! I hope I can see them here in
the US, and maybe someone somewhere did some home videos of the Goons
(though they were probably too early for Super 8).

Marilyn

A very good source of information about the Mac et Video is the
french site :

www.macetvideo.com

They have also tried to transfer super 8 to mini dv (or dvd) and
finally they advise to have the job done by professionals such as
Digital Memory in Paris :
http://www.macetvideo.com/DigitalMemory/DigitalMemory.html

The price to transfer from Super 8 to mini DV is 30 €(36 $) for the
first 20 minutes and then 1.25 € (1.038 $) for each minutes. (see
price (Tarif in french).

Pierre