Historic amateur 8mm films are certainly of value. I work for the British Film Institute and we are planning on using some on our current project which involves putting 1,000 hours of moving image (motion picture) on the web for education purposes (bfi screen online). Old film, especially the 'un-safe' nitrate film, can fall apart and requires specialist handling. One needs to go to a specialist laboratory who will 'bake' it and copy to a new master. Because of the fragility of the emulsion they usually get just one attempt. This may not be a cheap process! Another route involves the same baking process but then the film goes through a 'telecine' to produce whatever video format you would like. Telecine machines are very expensive and the going rate in Soho (London) would be 200 to 700 pounds sterling per hour of film depending on the quality of transfer, how much of a rush etc and the cost of the output video tape is extra. Typically one would go onto Sony Digital Betacam which is roughly 20 pounds per hour for the tape medium. It would not be worth telecine-ing to VHS as the VHS quality is so poor. There is a national archive in the UK that has a regular trawl for amateur 8mm film in order that they can preserve it for posterity and one would hope there are similar archives in other countries. I can't remember the name of the UK archive. With moving image as with stills there is the problem of 'rights'. It may be that your father's employer has the rights to the films and would have to agree to their copying, re-use, archiving etc. Rights are a massive legal mine-field! -----Original Message----- From: Maria Anna Esparza [mailto:MESPARZA1@satx.rr.com] Sent: 13 January 2002 20:30 To: VINTAGE-PHOTOS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [VINTAGE-PHOTOS] Re: VINTAGE-PHOTOS-D Digest V02 #5 I have in my possession some old 8mm films of my hometown, taken by my father's employer in the 1930's to 1950's. He has passed away, as has his wife and my father. The films have historical value, and I invested in converting one of them to video format, as he filmed my parents' wedding in 1940. They are in a metal can with a lid. They are kept sealed as they emit a horrible odor when uncovered. When we did try viewing them, some of them were falling apart. How do I continue to preserve them? And would anyone know of a historical society interested in restoring them? I have already tried contacting the county historical society and have had no luck there. Any suggestions? Thanks. Maria

One of the archives that collects amateur films is the Northeast Historic Film Archive. They can answer your questions. I've found them very helpful. You can reach them at Northeast Historic Film http://www.oldfilm.org/ Maureen Taylor www.taylorandstrong.com -----Original Message----- From: Thomas H F Kidman [mailto:kidman@onetel.net.uk] Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2002 4:47 PM To: VINTAGE-PHOTOS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [VINTAGE-PHOTOS] RE: Historical 8mm film preservation Historic amateur 8mm films are certainly of value. I work for the British Film Institute and we are planning on using some on our current project which involves putting 1,000 hours of moving image (motion picture) on the web for education purposes (bfi screen online). Old film, especially the 'un-safe' nitrate film, can fall apart and requires specialist handling. One needs to go to a specialist laboratory who will 'bake' it and copy to a new master. Because of the fragility of the emulsion they usually get just one attempt. This may not be a cheap process! Another route involves the same baking process but then the film goes through a 'telecine' to produce whatever video format you would like. Telecine machines are very expensive and the going rate in Soho (London) would be 200 to 700 pounds sterling per hour of film depending on the quality of transfer, how much of a rush etc and the cost of the output video tape is extra. Typically one would go onto Sony Digital Betacam which is roughly 20 pounds per hour for the tape medium. It would not be worth telecine-ing to VHS as the VHS quality is so poor. There is a national archive in the UK that has a regular trawl for amateur 8mm film in order that they can preserve it for posterity and one would hope there are similar archives in other countries. I can't remember the name of the UK archive. With moving image as with stills there is the problem of 'rights'. It may be that your father's employer has the rights to the films and would have to agree to their copying, re-use, archiving etc. Rights are a massive legal mine-field! -----Original Message----- From: Maria Anna Esparza [mailto:MESPARZA1@satx.rr.com] Sent: 13 January 2002 20:30 To: VINTAGE-PHOTOS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [VINTAGE-PHOTOS] Re: VINTAGE-PHOTOS-D Digest V02 #5 I have in my possession some old 8mm films of my hometown, taken by my father's employer in the 1930's to 1950's. He has passed away, as has his wife and my father. The films have historical value, and I invested in converting one of them to video format, as he filmed my parents' wedding in 1940. They are in a metal can with a lid. They are kept sealed as they emit a horrible odor when uncovered. When we did try viewing them, some of them were falling apart. How do I continue to preserve them? And would anyone know of a historical society interested in restoring them? I have already tried contacting the county historical society and have had no luck there. Any suggestions? Thanks. Maria ==== VINTAGE-PHOTOS Mailing List ==== We have over 223 members of the Vintage-Photos Mailing List. Posting back to the list helps the whole group, not just one person. If we work as a team, we'll succeed as a team. To learn more about my world visit http://dwp.bigplanet.com/kburnett ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237