Preserving Your Memories II - Preserving old Films

In the last blog I talked about preserving old photos and slides by converting them to digital formats that are easy to share. In this KEMEdia Moment I will talk about 8mm, Super 8, Super 8 Sound, 9.5 mm and 16 mm films, the various ways they can be processed and what to watch out for in a quality transfer.

You may remember Dad dragging out the projector and screen, fiddling with splices and reels and the old family home movie night. I certainly do because my Dad was all thumbs when it came to anything mechanical and so I was usually the one called to be the projectionist and splicer.

16 millimeter

The first home film format was 16mm and you pretty much had to be well off or well connected to be able to afford the camera, film stock and developing.  This format can be silent, meaning it normally has sprocket holes on both edges of the film or with an optical sound track on one side of the frame with sprocket perforations on the other. There are variations on 16mm stock but Standard 16 is by far the most common.

The earliest films KEMEdia ever transferred were from the late 1920's. They were in fantastic shape and came out extremely well. It was fascinating to see footage of my native Montreal almost a hundred years ago.

Standard 8 millimeter

Later, Standard 8mm film (also known as Regular 8 or Double 8) came around. This was a much more affordable home movie format than 16mm and soon became a great addition to family souvenirs. It was developed by Kodak in the 30's and was in reality 16mm film stock that had more sprocket perforations than normal. The film was exposed along half of its width and then the reel was flopped in the camera to expose the other half. During processing the film was split into two 8mm widths and spliced together for projection. It was an exceedingly clever idea that allowed 4 times the number of images than 16mm making it much more economical for the masses. The format exploded and soon everyone was shooting home movies. Normal shooting speed was 16 frames per second and a roll lasted approximately 3 minutes.

Super 8 millimeter

Super-8 film was released in 1965 and was quickly adopted as the new standard as it It featured a better quality image, and was much easier to use. It was now a cartridge-loading system which did not require re-loading your film stock halfway through exposure.  At one point Super-8 was available with a magnetic sound track at the edge of the film but as video cameras became more readily available it was doomed and was discontinued.

Oddly enough in this "video age", there has been a bit of a renaissance  of Super-8 film use. Because of advances in film stocks and digital technology, real film aficionados can shoot on low cost Super 8 equipment and then transfer the footage to a digital format for editing. Film is much more versatile than video and so those who want a different look and feel to their projects have found this an interesting alternative. I have seen wedding videographers advertise this as an option for their clients.

9.5 millimeter

Developed by Pathé this format uses a single, central sprocket hole between each frame. This is different than 8 mm film, where the holes are along one edge, or most other film formats, which have them on each side of the frame. This format was popular in Europe but was not used much in North America. In fact in all of my years of media production I have only seen one reel come through my doors.

Transferring Film to Video

The transfer of film to video is called telecine. There are many different ways to transfer film. Some are excellent others are poor.

At a bare minimum the projectors used have to be in some way or other, synchronized for video and the video camera that captures the image should have 3 image sensors for best results.

The important things to remember are frame rates and parallax.

Frame rates

Most film runs at 16 or 24 frames per second with 16 fps being the norm. Video works at 30 frames per second (29.97). If you do not compensate for the the frame rate difference your image will have a flicker to it. In simple terms every few frames of image will have the black bar of the frame projected in the image. In other words, each frame is not shot fully registered (full image frame). This happens very fast and your eyes interpret it as a shadow or flicker. It is most annoying to watch films with this especially when it is easily removed by having a synchronized projector. Synchronization can be achieved in three ways; a speed rheostat (good), a 5 blade gate (better) or a spot scanning system (best).

A scanning system allows you to scan a distinct frame of digital video for each frame of film, providing higher quality than a traditional telecine system can achieve. Without sounding too technical, best results are achieved by using software that uses a smoothing (interpolating algorithm) rather than a frame duplication algorithm to adjust for speed differences between the film and video frame rate. All you really need to know is that it works.

Wall Projection

This is where someone projects the film on a wall or screen and then sets the video camera up above or beside it to capture the image. There are a number of reasons why this results in poor quality and should be avoided at all costs. First. true good results can only be achieved by having the recording camera in a non-parallax position. That is to say at complete right angle to the projected image. Wall Projection won't allow for this because the video camera lens would have to be exactly where the projector lens is in order for it to be perfect. The end result is that it is exceedingly difficult to get corner to corner coverage and something in the image will be soft or out of focus. If the projector used can't compensate for frame rate differences then the results just frankly suck. This is the setup used by people who just want to make a quick buck.

Telecine Chain

This is the most popular setup. The projector projects the image into a box that has a mirror which refracts the image at a 90 degree angle. This allows the placement of the video camera at right angles to the projector which eliminates parallax and the aforementioned softness in the resulting image. If the operator has the right gear and pays great attention to the setup and execution, the results can be excellent. As this type of chain allows for a huge diversity of projector and camera combinations you should ask about their gear and to see some examples before going ahead.

Direct Transfer Telecine

This setup has a video camera mounted facing the projector lens. Usually the camera is built in to the projector. It is monitored by connecting the camera to an external monitor. results are good and much better if a 3 image sensor camera is used.

Scanning

As explained above, this is the current winner for high quality transfers as it compensates for all of the artifacts associated with film to video transfers. Newer HD units offer the best bang for your buck. While you can't improve on the original it is nice to be able to capture it in the best format possible. If this service is available it will be worth the extra cost.

Conclusion

Film transfers are a very time consuming and persnickety service for the provider to offer. All transfers happen in real time and have to be manipulated to the media of your choice. As a result, it can get expensive with rates ranging from 10 cents to 25 cents per foot. My advice is for you to strike up a relationship with your provider. Ask questions. Ask to see their set-up(s). Ask to see examples. How long have they been doing this? Do they do it in house or do they farm it out to a lab? Ask them to run a test reel for you. If you like what you see and the price is right then go for it. Films deteriorate with age. The sooner you have them transferred the better.

As always if we can help here at KEMEdia then contact us by email at info@keme.qc.ca and visit our website at:

www.keme.qc.ca

In coming KEMEdia Moments we will discuss preserving;

Vinyl Discs (45's. 33's, 78's) & Audio Tapes (Reel to Reel, Audio Cassettes, 8 Tracks etc.)

Tape media 
(Consumer & Prosumer formats VHS, S-VHS, Beta, Video 8, Hi8, Digital 8, Mini DV, DVCam)

Disc media CD & DVD (DVD 5, Dual Layer DVD 9, BluRay)

and Memory Cards and Drives

We will also talk about the care and storage of all media and how you can help preserve and prolong the life of older formats until they are placed in a digital form.

You can receive notice of new blog instalments automatically. Please subscribe to the Blog by "Joining this site" and becoming a member.

Mike Reid can be heard approximately once a month on the Dave Fisher Show, weekends on CJAD 800 in Montreal. Mike and Dave talk about technology and new directions during these ten minute spots.

Preserving Your Memories I - Preserving your precious memories in the digital age!

Since man has made inages many formats have come and gone.

Who would have thought that the 35 millimeter slide that was so ubiquitous for decades would not even be recognized by the youth of today. So too, the family photo albums are slowly going the way of the dodo bird as digital albums, digital frames and Cloud storage become all pervasive.

This leaves a huge problem for those who inherit or who wish to preserve the precious memories that almost every family has. Family members, relatives and genealogy amateurs and professionals mourn the loss of any type of family history or memorabilia, so it is important that we take steps to preserve them today and hopefully have them ready for any format that becomes available in the future.

Today the big bonus of preservation is that when you finally have everything processed you can share it all with family and friends more easily and cheaply than at any time in the past.

There have been many ways to preserve the old formats. In the next few KEMEdia Moments I will try to itemize and explain how different formats can be processed so as to keep them relevant in the digital age. In addition you will hopefully have them ready to jump to any new format of the future.

Keep in mind that quality will always be of the utmost importance in these articles. There are many solutions, not all of them good. At KEMEdia (www.keme.qc.ca) we specialize in many of these processes and I personally have almost 30 years of experience in the field. We have tried and discarded many formulas. In these blogs I will try to help you avoid many of the pitfalls associated with projects like this.

Let's start with the older formats. In this article we will talk about...

Photos and Slides
The most common and treasured memory device, photos have always had the advantage of being easy to make, reliable, long lasting, decent quality and easy to organize. Anyone who wants to preserve photos has to realize that there are a lot of different ways to do it.

You first have to decide what you eventually want to do with the finished files. Is it strictly for archiving? Do you want to share them with others using disc media or the cloud? Will you use them in multi media presentations? Will you want to re-print them using an on-line book printing service? Will you want to blow some up and print them in a larger format? Once you have answered these questions it will be a little easier to select a service or hardware/software solution in order to get started.

For my money you should always go for big files just in case you want to have the ability to do any of the above. A large file can be easily reduced for sharing but a small file will not stand up for blown up prints or HD media usage. Just be aware, capturing high quality may cost a lot and will take a lot of time and patience as well as the proper gear and software if you do it yourself.

Dots per Inch or DPI is the basic measurement for scanning. If you want to get more involved then colour depth (bit rates) and types of files (RGB or CMYK) will also come into play. These can generally be altered in your post production software and may or may not have destructive traits on your files.

There are scanning services available at some chain stores but beware. These generally offer low resolution files of 72 dpi and are only good for small reprints or smaller digital frames. Remember, you get what you pay for. If the provider can offer a higher DPI like 300 it will be worth the extra expense. It will cost more because these scans take longer to do, they make larger files and therefor need more storage on discs or hard drives.

You may have seen cheap transfer units offered for sale in your credit card statements or at electronic stores. Their limiting factor is the size that can be scanned and the included software, which may not be compliant enough to offer you higher DPI rates. A little research will help you here. See if you can try before you buy.

Professional houses may offer you files using larger scanners that are adapted for photos and/or slides. Here you may be able to write your own formula for the product you want. Just be aware that bigger and better takes longer and so it will cost more.

Slides are more difficult because scanners have to have specialized apparatus to do them. They generally will scan 4 or more at a time as one file which means time must be spent cropping and correcting individual images. The eventual finished files are often much smaller and less versatile. Whenever possible get the largest file you can on a multiple image scan.

At our studio we have come up with a different technique for slides using Digital SLR's. We get excellent results while spending much less time than we would by scanning. Since we have been doing slides this way we have found the files to be very compliant for colour correction, resizing and retouching. For a premium we can process and deliver them to you in the RAW format. These are big and highly manipulative files. All-in-all we feel this is the best process for slides or negatives. It ends up being much less costly than scanning. This scenario will also work for photos and other art assuming the proper flat art table and jigs are used.

You may be able to negotiate unaltered files and do the corrections yourself using your software of choice at home. This will save you a lot of money, especially if you have an interest in getting your hands dirty and spending some time to make them perfect.

So decide what your eventual use will be and then research the services in your area or online to see what is available to you.

As always if we can help here at KEMEdia then contact us by email at info@keme.qc.ca

and visit our website at:

www.keme.qc.ca

In the next few articles will talk about:

8mm, Super 8, Super 8 Sound, 9.5 mm and 16 mm film


Vinyl Discs (45's. 33's, 78's) &Audio Tapes (Reel to Reel, Audio Cassettes, 8 Tracks etc.)

Tape media 
(Consumer & Prosumer formats VHS, S-VHS, Beta, Video 8, Hi8, Digital 8, Mini DV, DVCam)

Disc media CD & DVD (DVD 5, Dual Layer DVD 9, BluRay)

and Memory Cards and Drives

We will also talk about the care and storage of all media and how you can help preserve and prolong the life of older formats until they are placed in a digital form.

You can receive notice of new blog instalments automatically. Please subscribe to the Blog by "Joining this site" and becoming a member.

Mike Reid can be heard approximately once a month on the Dave Fisher Show, weekends on CJAD 800 in Montreal. Mike and Dave talk about technology and new directions during these ten minute spots.

Pros and Cons of Hard Copies (DVD's) vs. Downloads or Streaming Media or "Why DVD's will be here for awhile" (but not as long as some people think.)

Pros and Cons of Hard Copies (DVD's) vs. Downloads or Streaming Media or "Why DVD's will be here for awhile" (but not as long as some people think.)

Our generation likes to have the media in our hands but the download generation doesn't seem to mind having it as a file. But here a few reasons why DVD"s will be around for awhile.

1-For downloads you absolutely need hi speed Internet. Dial-up users need not apply. As fibre optic networks develop this will be less of an issue. One point each. 
Score DVD 1 - Download 1

2-With downloads you only get the movie. No director's cuts, special features, commentaries, sub titles or languages. So if you are a real student of film you will miss out on some neat stuff. Liner notes and printed content will only be with the DVD hard copy. One point for DVD's.
Score DVD 2 - Download 1

3-While both downloads and DVD's are compressed downloaded or streamed movies are more compressed. This means the quality is not as good as DVD, particularly BluRay. 
Another point for DVD's.
Score DVD 3 - Download 1

4-Download rentals are only for 24 hours. But you don't have to get into your car to return them and there are no late fees. One point for each. 
Score DVD 4 - Download 2

5-Availability - In most cases, Downloads are only available on average 30 days after the DVD release. So if you really want to be the first in your neighbourhood to see the latest Blockbuster you will have to rent or buy the DVD. One point DVD.
Score DVD 5 - Download 2

6-Can you imagine movie night with the family sitting around your computer? I can't, but the next generation of screens will be Smart TV's and stream ready. So services like Netflix will prosper. (God help us all if the internet goes down.) Another point for DVD's.
Score DVD 5 - Download 3

7-Selection - currently you will only find about 20 to 30% of what's available ready for download or streaming. This number will only go up but for now selection is limited. 
Point DVD.

Final Score DVD 6 - Download 3

So, aside from the download convenience factor, DVD's still have a considerable edge..

Thanks for reading! Don't hesitate to send me feedback and comments.

You can receive notice of new blog instalments automatically. Please subscribe to the Blog by "Joining this site" and becoming a member.

Mike Reid can be heard approximately once a month on the Dave Fisher Show, weekends on CJAD 800 in Montreal. Mike and Dave talk about technology and new directions during these ten minute spots.