Chicago Home Movie Day 2009 provided me with the perfect opportunity to interview Chicago Film Archives Executive Director, Nancy Watrous. She gave me some great tips on home movie preservation. Two words for you: dry and cool.
It’s imperative you keep your film reels and tapes dry and cool. Dry, meaning not in a basement where they could either be flooded or prone to condensation. Cool, meaning not in an attic.
Ideally your media would be stored at 30% relative humidity with almost no fluctuation in temperature, but that’s not realistic in a home setting. Cool and dry is good enough for general preservation (as opposed to historic archival).
Ok, so you’ve heard that before. Have you ever thought it might be a good idea to seal your tapes or film reels in a ziploc or rubbermaid container, to better preserve them? Think again, they might get condensation in a sealed environment.
Storing them in a plastic container is fine, but they need some airflow to prevent condensation. So perhaps leave the lid slightly askew.
What about stacking your reels or storing them vertically? It’s actually better to stack them horizontally as they could get warped when stored vertically.
What about securing your film to the reel with a rubber band? Bad idea. It will cause a crease in the film itself, causing it to bounce a bit as it’s being played back on a film projector.
Speaking of projectors, how can you even tell if your film reel is in good enough shape to be run through a projector. A quick check is to see if the sprockets (holes) on the film are intact. The projector needs to grab those sprockets. If the sprockets are torn, the film cannot be projected without repair.
Where do you get projectors nowadays? Well, ebay is a good start. What you want to look for is a projector that allows you to manually load the film. An autoload projector may get jammed, or worse, damage your film.
What is the best way to prevent your film reels or videotapes from fading or deteriorating any further? Of course, keep them cool and dry. But also, try not to view them from the original source.
Even film, when run through a projector, will begin to deteriorate from usage. Nancy recommended transfer to DVD for convenient viewing.
What about those old super8 tapes? Same thing. Transfer to DVD as soon as possible to prevent further wear and tear. Professional transfer services, such as those offered by Chicago Film Archives, perform a frame-by-frame transfer using telecine equipment.
This is important because the frame rate of 16mm film and current video, such as HDV, is not the same. Uncorrected, inconsistent frame rates will produce flickering in the final movie.
There are a couple of drawbacks with direct transfer to DVD, however. One is that your original silent film may remain a silent film. Some services do offer a music soundtrack, but make certain it is a licensed soundtrack.
Many places advertise that you can use your own music, or they will buy something from iTunes for you. That is still not legal. This will limit where you can play your movie. Forget funeral homes. They know better.
Another drawback is that your two hours of old movies, including excellent footage of the floor or lens cap, are now two hours of DVD. This would be much more enjoyable to view if edited down to a palatable 20 or 30 minutes.
An excellent option is to have your footage transferred to hard drive so that you may edit in the future at your leisure. If it’s for your own personal viewing, you may add your own songs to your footage on your own computer.
What do you do with your home movies? We’re gathering feedback from our readers in order to provide you with the most up-to-date and useful information for your home movie needs. Take the home movie survey here.
Basically, there are two routes for preservation of your home movie footage – stabilization and restoration. Stabilization means trying to stabilize the amount of deterioration. Keep it cool and dry. Restoration means you pay an archival service a phenomenal amount of money to restore your footage.
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