8mm Forum: Other folks homemovies

This is topic Other folks homemovies in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Knut Nordahl (Member # 518) on February 28, 2009, 02:19 AM:

I bought a lot of films some time a go. A long with the features and cut-downs there were private home movies ot the regular sort. You know weddings, holliday and that stuff.
My wife and I are currenly looking to relocate and hence cleaning out all we do not need and want. Ofcourse some reels of super8 does not take up that much space, but never the less. what would you do with films like these?

Posted by Barry Johnson (Member # 84) on February 28, 2009, 08:13 AM:

You MUST keep them or give them to someone who cares about social history.It is vitally important that our heritage is preserved on film.
I have many reels of my own over seventy years and have other peoples collections too,as they did not want them and were going to be trashed.I have spent many happy hours viewing other peoples lives on film,a very rewarding experience.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 28, 2009, 10:02 AM:

Wow Barry, those films must be magnificent, ranging all the way back to wartime England, (being 70 years of film history).

I agree with Barry. I have received in lots, a number of home movies, and it stuns me that people would get rid of these. True, many just place these (and rather cheaply, and it shows on screen) on video or DVD, and trash them ...

... but there's a larger segment of our culture that, when Grandma and Grandpa pass on, they just box up this film stuff and just throw it away. I saw this just a few weeks ago. A dear old lady, sweet as anything, passed on. Her greedy grandchildren, (her only son died some years back) just grabbed what jewelry and other valuables they could, and tossed the rest on the curb ... in two days flat!

In that "curb junk" was her whole life history, (she died at 97)
and there were home movies that started with double sprocket 16MM black and white, (as well as some obviously early color film), to early standard 8mm home movies. The family must have been well to do, as they used color from almost the beginning.

It appears that the film-making petered out in the 1970's (her husband died in 1980) and there was a good over fifty years of americana, saved on beatiful kodak safety film ... from a lovely "flapper girl" of the 1920's ...

... through seeing her man off to war in the early 40's ...

... to getting they're new house upon his return, (which they would spend the rest of thier lives in), the husband, holding his a few year old son with his one good arm, (the other being a claw) ...

... to myriads of images of the children, growing up, being seen less and less as they became teenagers ... flower power taking over ...

... and almost never being seen again. The grandchildren are never seen.

One of the last images on film was of her, holding her husband in the hospital, the two of them smiling together. A friend of the family took that film, she told me.

... and I even had a hand in the filming. It turned out that before her husband had died, he had bought four extra rolls that were never exposed and believe it or not, they had been stored in her refridgerator for fifteen years! In 1995, I took so,me reels of her, tending her garden in the backyard and stuff. It was fun filming with that old super 8mm camera.

... I snuck out the night that the "garbage" was thrown on the curb, (I had walked by a mere hour earlier at sunset) and got both that whole box of films and an old projector.

... and, to conclude the story, Gertrudes beautiful life lives on in the Osgood home!

Thank you for bringing up this topic! This was a FOND REMEMBRANCE FOR ME!

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on February 28, 2009, 12:27 PM:

I also have quite a lot of various "home movies" of other families from 50's thru the 80's. Originally, I had intended to practice my editing skills with them, but the more I screened them I changed my mind.

Some of the films are a bore but some are quite good and I have a notion that if I would ever run into someone (highly unlikely) that was looking for there old family films...and I had them I would gladly give them back. It's as if they really aren't mine I'm just storing them.

I enjoyed reading your story Osi...you did the right thing saving those memories.

Posted by Knut Nordahl (Member # 518) on March 01, 2009, 02:13 PM:

That's a great story Osi. There is a lot of great memories out there cought on film and why anybody would want to throw their films away is beyond me. It's also sad when someone in the family don't want to take care of the films.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 01, 2009, 04:57 PM:

To add a slight addition to that story related above ...

One of the great blessings about this is that; while others may have an old fading photo of Gertrude, I have a "moving" recollection of her in (most of the time) brilliant unfaded color.
She lives again on my big screen.

The sad aspect to all of this is that those, who should give a damn and care about her legacy, (her grandkids) couldn't give a s**t.

That's graphic but it's how I feel.

Posted by Joe McAllister (Member # 825) on March 16, 2009, 07:26 AM:

I love home movies and have picked up many over the years( always looking for more!)

Some are the apocryphal baby on the lawn variety but many are superior to that.

I have one that is a 20 min horror film with post synched sound made by a family in the 70's.
I find it strange that no one from the cast is still around to care for these gems and I wonder how they get seperated from their makers.

I know that some people have transferred their stuff to video -usually poorly. Given that technology is always improving I would never part with my own efforts and have kept my cine originals which I transferred 20 years ago and can now re digitise them to a computer edit title colour correct and add sound giving them a whole new lease of life.I dare say in 10 years time the standards will have improved again and I will be able to get results that compare favourably with 8 and 16 mm on a big bright screen

Posted by Yanis Tzortzis (Member # 434) on March 16, 2009, 08:41 AM:

Coming from a country the cinematic memory of which is so limited, I can but agree with what people have said here;I always look for old home movies portraying Greece in the 1950-80 time,most of which is to be found at eBay,shot by mostly German & French tourists. That is pure nostalgia for a country that has so drastically changed in the past 30-40 yrs that one can't recognize places today-only through the amateur lens!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 16, 2009, 10:03 AM:

Joe,

I have approximately 600ft of other peoples home movies (not Gertrudes, those are sacred to me), if your interested, shoot me an e-mail, they are american home movies, though.

Posted by Knut Nordahl (Member # 518) on March 18, 2009, 02:15 AM:

I'm currently undertaking a relatively huge 16mm project. I'm going to get telecined our own 16mm home movies that my grandpa shot in the period 1930 to 55/56. It's many reels and I'm stoked as the quality is so sweet!. (Just watched some K40 on my P7).

The strange family's home movie I have got does not mean that much to me so if anybody wants it, send me an email.

Posted by Barry Johnson (Member # 84) on March 18, 2009, 07:23 AM:

Well,fellow collectors,keep searching! My current archive of home movies stands at around 8000ft of the stuff on Std8 and 16mm,and I still keep scavenging ebay!!

Posted by David Erskine (Member # 1244) on March 18, 2009, 02:42 PM:

Further to Knut's note - I've been sorting out 16mm Kodachrome for a charming lady and her barrister hubby. So far Keith Wilton has done a magnificent job with the first 1200ft - entitled 'Tour of the Congo' sounds fairly ordinary BUT about 30secs in he's a guest at the wedding of the local king (Freddie - the Kabaka of Uganda) - so not exactly an average tourist!! I'm now finishing cleaning up etc the second 1200 ft (about 1600 ft) and a couple of them have vinegar syndrome - I guess it comes from being stored in Africa for 50 yrs. When they're done its 'Hey Nonny No' for about 1000 or so ft of Std 8. Great fun, and I mean that!

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