I have a bunch of 20-year old 8mm film. I’d like to have it transfered to DV tape of DVD before those precious memories are gone forever.
In a nutshell, how does this process work?
Where (in Montreal, Quebec, Ontario, or the US north east) can I get this done?
How much money am I going to have to divert away from massage to pay for this?
Usually its sent to VHS video. Might be some companies on the web that could do it cheaper. Our local stores in the USA charge 10 cents per foot plus the cassette. sigh
As to how it’s done, most folks (including at least some of the professionals) actually just set the film up to project normally onto a screen, and aim a camcorder at the screen. Ask around at the places that do it, and if that’s all they do, you may just want to do it at home.
I used to work in a camera store. We offered video transfer services and also sold equipment to do transfers yourself. The service we used had a machine that basically did as chronos said. It had a regular projector reflected off a mirror aimed at a rear projection screen. A video camera ( usually VHS) is aimed at the front of the screen. The devices we sold in the store were just gimmicky pieces of crap that don’t work any better than doing as chronos suggested.
If you do want to do the work yourself you can get pretty good results. A few hints:
Use a high quality projection screen if you can or a clean white wall.
Move the projector as close to the screen as you can and still focus. This will give you a brighter image with better resolution.
Set up the video camera on a tripod right over the projector.
You don’t say anything about the condition of your 8mm movies. If they have been properly stored, in there metal cans away from heat and moisture, than there is no reason to pay lots to have it transferred. If the films are in poor shape you might want to send them to a pro lab that will restore the film before transferring it to video. They can clean and lubricate the film to help prevent damage.
and as a side note what type of film is it?
If it is Kodachrome (as opposed to ektachrome), and was stored properly, than your film will last a lot longer than VHS tape. Kodachrome is stable for 80 to 100 years if stored properly.
If you know anyone that has access to a Telecine unit, then that might be your best bet.
A Telecine looks like a projector, and film is fed through in the same way. Instead of projecting the image, it changes it into a digital signal, and you hook up a VCR.
Thing is, in the film department at my university we only have 16mm Telecines (I’ve used them before). 8mm Telecines are hard to come by. Your best bet is probably the company handy suggested, or doing the project & shoot thing. I know of several companies in Vancouver that do transfers, but they’re fairly expensive (they’re generally used by filmmakers making transfers).
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
FYI, your 8mm film is more archival than videotape.
you can make a box to bounce the image offa mirror onto a small screen and film the screen. all you need is wood, black paint, a mirror, a few nails and the translucent plastic that serves as a screen,
We had one someone had built when i worked as an AV tech.
Sure you can do the box mirror trick.
However, the store I took it to didn’t use that, they have a real projector that records to vhs. Its a direct method & the quality is the best you can do. Mirror boxes do the job but don’t expect the best quality.
How can a projector to VHS solution work? Film is 24 fps, isn’t it, while NTSC is 30 fps (or 60 half-fps, if you prefer). Wouldn’t you get a lot of flickering, since the frames won’t always coincide? I thought that that was the whole point of a telecine, that it did the “pulldown” that was required that a standard projector couldn’t do.