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Preserve Your Home Movies!

The Basics for Saving Your

Moving Image Memories

Siobhan C. Hagan

Project Manager of the Memory Lab Network

DC Public Library

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Home Movies will most likely hold the most importance to family members, but even if no one currently takes an interest in these personal documents, a future family member most likely will! Your home movies are also important historical materials--they not only document your family, but the traditions, values, and landscapes of a place and its people. Many people are surprised to learn that their home movies can hold great interest for a much wider public, including local historians, international scholars, artists, and more. For example, the home movie you see here belonged to a family, the Garretts, that not only included footage of their newborn baby, but it also included their wedding reception that was held in the 1950s. Through interviewing the family we learned that the reception was actually filmed in and documented what would become a famous jazz venue in the 1970s and 1980s in Baltimore City.

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1. Identification

2. Assessment

3. Storage

4. Digitization

5. Documentation

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Identification

Challenge: Find the Content

Lack of labels
Inadequate labels
Lack of equipment to view
Lack of expertise
Lack of other re$ource$

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Identification

Challenge: Find the Format

Film

Ex: 16mm

Video

Ex: VHS

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Film

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Film

16mm Motion Picture Film

16mm wide
1923-present

16mm Sound

16mm Silent

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Film

8mm wide
1932-1980s

3.3mm

0.130”

8mm

IMAGE HEIGHT

IMAGE WIDTH

4.55mm/0.177”

8mm Motion Picture Film

16mm Silent

8mm Silent

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Film

8mm wide
1965-present

Super 8mm Motion Picture Film

4.01mm

0.158”

8mm

IMAGE HEIGHT

IMAGE WIDTH

5.79mm/0.228”

Super 8mm Sound

8mm Silent

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Video

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Video

0.5” wide tape
1976-2008

VHS

Insert this side into recorder Do not touch the tape inside

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Video

8mm video family
1984-1990s

Video8

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Video

0.5” wide tape
1982-1990s

VHS-C

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Video

8mm video family
1989-1990s

Hi8

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Video

8mm video family
1999-present

Digital8

Hi8 Logo

Digital8 Logo

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Video

0.25” wide tape
1995-present

MiniDV

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1. Identification

2. Assessment

3. Storage

4. Digitization

5. Documentation

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Assessment

Challenge: Rate the Condition

Degradation
Damage from viewing
Damage from storage

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Assessment

Film Degradation

Vinegar syndrome

Shrinking
Warping
Brittle

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Assessment

Film Degradation

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Assessment

Video Degradation

Sticky Shed Syndrome

Screeching noises during playback
Lots of “snow” or dropouts during playback

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Assessment

Video Degradation

Courtesy of AV Artifact Atlas

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Assessment

Film and Video

Mold
Poor storage
Projecting or playing back

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Assessment

Safe Viewing

Home Movie Day event
Digitize professionally
Access to professional equipment

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Prioritization

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Video before Film

Magnetic tape
Playback machines
Condition assessment

Prioritization

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1. Identification

2. Assessment

3. Storage

4. Digitization

5. Documentation

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Storage

Keep Originals

Even if you make digital copies
Copies are lower quality
Newer copies degrade too!

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Storage

Best Practices

Cool and dry
No sunlight
Off the floor
Breathable containers, not stacked
Films=flat, video=vertical like books

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1. Identification

2. Assessment

3. Storage

4. Digitization

5. Documentation

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Digitization

Pros v. Cons

No damage to originals
No loss of image quality
Ease of access and editing

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Digitization

Pros v. Cons

Loss of digital files

Need multiple copies
Need multiple storage options

Expensive

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Digitization

Transfer Vendors

They must answer questions

http://www.centerforhomemovies.org/questions-to-ask-2/

Lists

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Digitization

Other Options: Memory Lab!

Free but DIY
Lower resolution than best practices
Only certain formats

Safe on originals
Affordable
Easy to use

Digital preservation classes

Transferring some of your home movies is FREE at your local Memory Lab, but you have to do the work: it takes time, energy, and creates large files that you have to take care of! They are lower resolution files since the uncompressed files that somewhere like the Library of Congress makes of their collections are so huge and most of the times people have a lot of home videos, so your computers won’t even be able to play these huge files back even if you could afford enough storage. Unfortunately, there just isn’t an option for safe, relatively affordable, AND easy-to-use motion picture film digitization stations for us to include in Memory Labs. But we are hoping that sometime in the near future something might be developed and eventually added to the Memory Lab Network models. Keep your eyes peeled for free Digital Preservation classes to help you teach you how to take care of your recently created digital files at your local Memory Lab and public library.

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Digitization...

...is just the beginning

Preservation is ongoing

∞

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1. Identification

2. Assessment

3. Storage

4. Digitization

5. Documentation

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Preserve Your Story

Documentation

Who, What, Where, When, How, Why?
Record it

Paper
Text file
Audio file

Living Will

Include people’s names, events, place names, street addresses, who is filming, and more! Try to describe everything for someone who is not part of your family and has never seen this movie before. Include facts and stories about people, places, traditions, rituals, and any related memories

○ How to record this? Write it down on paper and put it together with your important files, save it as a digital text file, or you can record an audio file (every smartphone can do this!show where/how on an iphone and Android) captured during a screening of the films, commenting with what you see as the film plays. You can even keep recording the audio after the film is finished to document more memories

--or do all three!

● Come up with a Living Will for your home movies so that they aren’t lost after you are gone, or look into donating to a library or archive

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Documentation

Remember this family you saw in the beginning? [Hit next button to dissolve into current photo] This is the couple in 2017, Mr. and Mrs. Garrett, and their baby daughter in the back (with her husband). They recorded a simple soundtrack on my smartphone while we watched their home movies for the first time: I asked them all sorts of questions, and they had a lot of answers and great stories and memories. This was not only special to document the people and places in the films, but it was also special for the family: Mrs. Garrett passed away only a few months later, making an extra special memory and record for our community and the family. There is nothing like hearing a lost loved one’s voice again. Documenting home movies is also an absolutely wonderful activity for families to conduct together, and stimulates memory in older generations and furthers human interaction and feelings of connection.

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Resources

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Thank you!

memory.lab@dc.gov

@MemLabNet