8mm Forum: Edit & Conversion

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Topic: Edit & Conversion

John McIntosh
Junior
Posts: 4
From: Hillside, NJ, USA
Registered: Jul 2013

posted August 01, 2013 11:39 AM

Hello, a few weeks ago I discovered a box full of 8 & super 8 film reels that my father had done back in the 60's and 70's. this is a large box with thousands upon thousands of feet of film that had been missing for many years. I remember my father always had a camera in his hand.
My goal is to get this film converted to digital format but the cost would be to high with the amount of film I have. My father had a habit of filming landscape and trees and things like that for hours. Thease part of the films are not important to the family and I would like to edit them out before sending the film out to be digitilized.
I purchased a mint condition Elmo 912 Dual editor for $49 dollars, a Kodak presstape splicer and new presstape along with a fifty foot roll of leader for both the 8 & super 8 film.
My objective is to cut out all unwanted film and splice together the good stuff thus saving me hundreds of dollars in conversion fees.

My question... ( I should have asked before I bought the equiptment ) did I make the correct decision with the equiptment I purchased??? To reach my overall goal of digitilizing this film, am I going about this in the right way??

Comments and suggestions would be a great help and thanks in advance!!!

John

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Joe Taffis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1592
From: United States
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 01, 2013 12:15 PM

Hey John, Welcome to the Forum. What you have will do the job as far as editing goes. Let me know if you need a copy of the instruction manual for the Elmo 912....

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Joe Taffis

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Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013

posted August 01, 2013 12:34 PM

That's wonderful to have found these films back ! I wish you good time watching them.

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Dominique

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Janice Glesser
Film Goddess

Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted August 01, 2013 06:53 PM

Welcome to the forum John. You've got everything you'll need to do the splicing. You won't need to add leader because the transfer service will edit your 50 foot reels onto 400ft reels.

Here's my video on how to use the Kodak Presstape Splicer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7svDF_Gc8pk

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Janice

"I'm having a very good day!"
Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).

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John McIntosh
Junior
Posts: 4
From: Hillside, NJ, USA
Registered: Jul 2013

posted August 01, 2013 11:33 PM

@Joe, thanks for offering the instruction book for the 912. I ready downloaded one.

@Janice, The 912 has a reel capacity of 400ft. I was planning on making 400' completed reels to save money. Do you advise against doing that? I have done no research on conversion companies(was just about to start doing that in the next few days before starting to edit) and am unsure at this point what the standard reel size should be.
My plan on editing was to just get the good film together on reels regardless of date,size ect. I would do my own final editing on my IMac once it's in digital form.
Any more tips you can give on this would be great!!

Thanks
John

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Janice Glesser
Film Goddess

Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted August 02, 2013 12:33 AM

If you have the empty 400ft reels then by all means splice the small reels onto the bigger ones yourself. I haven't used a transfer service since I do my own telecine work, but from my research the transfer services always use 400ft. reels to reduce the frequency of setup. I do this too.

If you are going to edit the digital files, have the files put on a hard disk. You may have to provide the hard disk or the service may sell you one. You will probably have a choice of converting to Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD). If you choose HD...make sure the file format is one your editing software/computer can handle. Don't choose DVD/mpeg file format. The quality is poor and very difficult to edit.

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Janice

"I'm having a very good day!"
Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).

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Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013

posted August 02, 2013 12:53 AM

I would advice you not to rely completely to the digital version. Since you will spend time watching and splicing anyway, why not take this opportunity to edit and have films reels that you can save and even watch with a projector if you find out that some scenes have an interest for the family ? A projector is not difficult to use and of course it gives you much more pleasure than a computer or a tv set. Wathever you choose to do, enjoy. [Smile]

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Dominique

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John McIntosh
Junior
Posts: 4
From: Hillside, NJ, USA
Registered: Jul 2013

posted August 02, 2013 05:01 PM

@Janice, thanks for the advice. I will start to research and keep in mind the things you pointed out!! I notice your in CA. I'm on vacation and just spent a few days at my brothers house in Marysville CA. A little north if you and my nephew is right around the corner. He works at Google. I'm currently half way down the Pacific Coast Highway heading to LA for the last few days!
Back to the subject at hand, if you can recommend a service for the digital conversion that would be great.

@Dominique, the problem we have is that we are a family of 5 spread out all over the United States. None of us have a projector and that just complicates the viewing ect. I do a lot of extreme sports and have been editing my HD go pro videos on my Mac for years and have them all on YouTube for family viewing. My ultimate goal is to get the family videos on YouTube so that we all have the capability to view them at any time.

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Janice Glesser
Film Goddess

Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted August 02, 2013 05:25 PM

John, Marysville has a small airport. I landed there when I flew my cross country flight for my pilots license many years ago [Smile]

I'll be heading down to LA myself in a few weeks to visit my 2 sons and my grandkids. You picked a great time to visit the West coast. We've had beautiful weather the last couple of months.

I can't really recommend a transfer service, since I haven't used one. However, make sure they do frame-by-frame conversion for better quality. Sounds like your editing computer can handle HD so you shouldn't have any issues.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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Janice

"I'm having a very good day!"
Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).

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John McIntosh
Junior
Posts: 4
From: Hillside, NJ, USA
Registered: Jul 2013

posted August 03, 2013 05:51 PM

Janice, small world, I'm also a pilot. I share a Piper Arrow 200 with a friend.
When visiting my family in CA I've rented and flown out if Marysville many times. My brothers house is just a few hundred feet from the airport.

Frame by Frame, ok. Thanks for the tips!! Yes, I have a 27" IMac that does just about everything except cook breakfast. I'm very pleased with Its video editing capabilities.

I'll let you know how things go with this project!!
Enjoy your weekend!!

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