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What is Film Made Out Of?

What is film made of?

Many of us have seen the traditional roll or reel of film. The most common type we see when we are doing film to DVD orders is 8mm film. There is also quite a bit of 16mm film out there as well. But of course we’ve all seen these things, but what is the technology behind them? How does a picture of what we’ve seen in the past appear on this material in a manner that allows to rewatch history at our leisure.

The film industry basically got it’s start after people were creating series of 2 dimensional drawings, and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. The images that were being shown needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

Movie film was created shortly after celluloid film for still photography had been achieved as it allowed capture of images in real time. An 1878 experiment by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge in the United States using 24 cameras produced a series of stereoscopic images of a galloping horse, is arguably the first “motion picture”, though it was not called by this name. Check out what it looked like below.

The film industry basically got its start after people were creating series of 2 dimensional drawings, and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. The images that were being shown needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

Throughout time, film and the art of filmmaking has been considered to be an important art form and a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for influencing ordinary people. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication, and can easily send a message to a large group of people which has even lasted to this day. Many families have fond memories recorded on this format, and we’re here to help you convert your 8mm film to DVD here at our local offices.

How to Splice and Clean 8mm Film – 8mm Film Cleaning & Splicing

Before film is viewed, or ready to transfer to DVD, it must first be properly cleaned and inspected for breaks in the film. If no cleaning is done, the film will appear dark, grainy, and often times much harder to watch. To properly clean and lubricate your film, you’re going to want to get some manual 8mm film rewinders. These can be mounted to ply wood, or other wood base to help with your project. In addition to the hand cranks, you’ll also need to obtain a spare reel, or tak-eup reel. The photo below shows a typical pair of film rewinders. If you’re a hardcore DIYer, you could probably fashion something similar out of parts you find around the house.

The materials you’ll need to clean the film are some silicon cleaning cloth, and some film cleaning solution, which can be purchased from our friends at urbanskifilm.

Once all the pieces are gathered, and assembled, it’s time to begin inspecting and cleaning your film. Make sure you’re hand cranks are mounted properly.

1. Use the right winder as the take-up reel Load the film into the reels so that the emulsion or dull side is facing up and the sprocket holes should face you.

2. Use a small amount of cleaning solution on the silicon cleaning cloth.

3. Fold the cloth over the film and pinch it between your fingers.

4. Slowly load the film onto the take-up making sure some gentle pressure is applied to the cleaning cloth and the film. Change cloth frequently as it will gather lots of dirt.

5. Repeat the process and load the film back onto the original reel.

6. Repeat if film isn’t cleaned entirely.

During this cleaning process, it’s common for splices to break which puts a halt into your efforts. When a break happens, you’ll need to splice them back to gether. If at all possible, you want to avoid using tape to splice the film back together. For best results you’ll want to use a splicing kit, and some film cement. Use the picture below to see what the splicer looks like. The splicing process isn’t complicated, but needs to be pretty precise.

1. Place the film on the splicer, spocket holes facing you and line them up in the pins.

2. Raise the lower and upper left arm and upper right arm. Place film on the right of the registration pins, dull side up, and clamp it in place with the upper right arm.

3. Press the left arm down, which cuts the film. Then raise the upper and lower right arm.

4. Place the film to be spliced on the registration pins on the lower left arm, dull side up, and clamp it down with the left arm. Then cut the film using the right arm.

5. Now dip one end of a small cloth into some water, and moisten the film protruding beyond the left arm. Scrape all of the emulsion from this portion using a scraping tool. Wipe away all emulsion with a cloth. Make sure surface is dry, and apply small amount of film cement.

6. Bring right arm down over the cemented portion and wait at least one minute for the cement to dry. Lift all arms and remove film and inspect to make sure splice is complete.a

This is obviously a lot of work and setup involved, but is an absolute must for the ideal film conversion. For small amounts of film, we recommend simply taking it in for a 8mm to DVD transfer or hard drive conversion. Prior to each film to DVD transfer, we clean every inch of your film and make sure it is spliced together neatly.

A Hand-Held Digital Camcorder that Looks like 8mm Film!

A neat little toy has been found for the 8mm film enthusiast. The camcorder is called the Fuuvi Bee Camera, and it’s actually capable of shooting over 100 minutes of footage on a single charge. What makes it even more interesting, is that because of the low specs on the camera, the resulting footage has the look and feel of a vintage 8mm film. They even took the care to design the camera as a 8mm look-a-like!

The specs on the camera are far below what you’d find on it’s competitors. The video is recorded at 640×480 at 30fps and the camera is a 1.3MP also capable of taking still shots. The camera is pretty tiny, and you don’t have to worry about changing out reels of film every few minutes. When you’re finished shooting, the camera plugs right into your computer with a USB plug housed on the camera itself.

Here’s a short sample of the quality it can provide.

Maybe once finished transferring all of the 8mm film to DVD, you can start recording even more 8mm movies with everyone grown up, and combine them with your film transfer DVD for a comedic effect!

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8mm Film Editing Tips and Tactics

When it comes down to old film such as 8mm, 16mm, or super 8, transferring film to a digital format will help prolong the life of your footage indefinitely. Once transferred, a whole new world opens up in the form of editing and media manipulation. If you decide to convert your old film, the first question to ask yourself is whether to transfer your film to DVD or to Hard Drive?

When your film is transferred, there are three possible routes you can take.

1. The first is to put all the film onto DVDs. This is the quickest and most inexpensive method available. We can even add background music. However, if the film is not marked as to the proper order (ie: #1, #2, #3, etc.) there is no way to ensure that it will be in proper chronological order on the DVD – which is why many people are now opting to edit their film…

2. The second option is to transfer the footage onto an external hard drive. This method allows you to edit your footage after it has been transferred. Most customers prefer to edit with one of our experienced editors at one of our local offices. This is the quickest and most professional way to edit. While editing, we can move the film into proper chronological order. We can also add music, titles, voice-overs, etc. Customers tend to enjoy this process and can learn a lot about video editing in the process.

3. Alternatively, we can transfer film onto your hard drive. Then you can take the film home and edit it yourself. You will have more success with this method if you have a powerful computer.

Notes for Home Video Editing:
You should check to make sure that your drive is in NTSF file format. NTSF file format is preferred for large fules due to the fact that FAT32 drives cannot contain files over 4 gigabytes (~20 minutes).

Video editing software
Mac Users: You can use iMovie or most any other software.
PC Users: We do not recommend using Windows Movie Maker or any version of Pinnacle or a variety of reasons. For a relatively low cost, you can download Sony Vegas Studio from their website ( http://www.sonycreativesuite.com). At the time this was written you can also download a 30-day trial version to test it out. This program is more stable than any other video editing software in its class.

If you opt to transfer your film with us, the output files we give to you will be in the AVI format. File size typically runs about 13 gigabytes per hour of video.

Types of Files
AVI (Audio video interleave) – This is the file format your video will be in when it comes back to you on your external hard drive
VOB (DVD-Video Object) – This is the container video format for DVD discs and is encoded very similar to MPEG-2. Since this format has been compressed, it is not recommended to use these files to edit.
MOV (QuickTime video) – This is the preferred type of file for editing on the Macintosh platform. Mac users may want to convert the AVI files in to MOV files before starting to edit for better efficiency.
WMV (Windows Media Video) – a generic name for the set of video formats developed by Microsoft. Windows Movie Maker will only export into this type of file, which is why we don’t recommend using that program to edit video.
VEG (Sony Vegas file) – The files that Sony Vegas and Sony Vegas Studio use to save video projects. There is no actual video in these files (why their file size is so small).

Storing and Preserving Film and Negatives

Despite fragile appearances, film, such as negatives and home movies, can be stored for quite a while under the right conditions. The most important thing to keep in mind when storing important film or negatives is that they are adversely affected by sunlight, heat, moisture, dust and fingerprints. You often may not notice any damage at first, but a long-term exposure to these elements can be severely damaging to your films. Storing them in a dark, dry, cool location is your best bet for the longest life out of your film.

Organization is a very helpful thing to do prior to storing your film or negatives. Instead of fumbling around looking for a particular image, you’ll be able to pinpoint it in seconds. There are actually a few ways to go about this, such as grouping, or separating them out but most people organize them chronologically by using negative sleeves as pictured below.

If you have a collection of negatives you’re looking to store, you’ll also want to ensure that they are protected from dust, dirt, and potential fingerprints. It’s best to use the plastic sleeves that are given when they are first processed, however, if you don’t have these sleeves, you can use airtight ziplock bags instead. For old home movie film such as 8mm, 16mm, or super 8, it’s best to store them on plastic film reels and in plastic canisters (metal reels and canisters can leave rust and other deposits on your film) away from heat, sunlight, or humidity.

If you have personally valuable or historically important film or negatives, it’s best to scan, convert or duplicate them, in case something were to happen as there is no way to replace the original once lost!

Enjoying Your Old Film on DVD

Have you ever thought about converting your old 8mm film over to a digital format? Much of the film we have, hasn’t been seen for over 20-30 years and is perfect to bring out during a special family gathering or event. Being able to see footage of your family from 50+ years ago is an incredible experience, and it’s amazing that technology has allowed us the privilege to watch important events from the past.

Here is one example of an 8mm film transfer, taken from an amusement park. The screen has been split to show the original colors on the left, and the restored film on the right. As you can see the film had been heavily color-shifted to red/magenta.

At DVD Your Memories, we can even take your old film and restore it to it’s original colors and vibrancy. Now you can watch your film, digitized, and fully restored to it’s original quality. You can even combine your film with images from slide scanning, or photo scanning jobs as well. Watching this old footage will definitely bring a tear to your eye! This is truly a priceless service.

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8mm to DVD Los Angeles

Near the Los Angeles or Culver City area? If so, did you know that converting your 8mm film was right in your neighborhood? DVD Your Memories is now serving Los Angeles county and helping our newest customers transfer their precious memories recorded on film, video, audio and images. We actually specialize in transferring this type of media and we use dedicated technicians for each type of order!

8mm film is an older type of media that is still taking up room in many closets. Due to the nature of 8mm film, and the material it’s composed of, the images stored will not last forever, and depending on how it was stored, it could be at an advanced stage of decomposition. When it comes to precious memories such as your families archive of 8mm film, or 16mm film, you now have the option to digitally transfer these home movies to archival quality DVDs, or put them onto an external hard drive.

Over the years, film such as 8mm or 16mm will actually color-shift generally to either blue, purple, or magenta, depending on the material of the film. With the premium film transfer, you can have your film completely restored to it’s original colors, and make sure that your under and over-exposed scenes are corrected in real time. Take a look below for a couple of examples of some restoration work on some of our film to DVD Los Angeles transfers.

The Premium frame-by-frame film transfer is by far the highest quality film transfer available today, as each full frame of film is individually transferred one after another.

Our retrofitted projector is one of the few in the world that has a manually adjustable brightness control which can make under or overexposed scenes look much better. We use this machine for both 8mm Film to DVD Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Super8 to DVD orders. The transfer technician will watch your film on a standard monitor as well as a waveform monitor and adjust the back-light brightness accordingly. This type of brightness adjustment is a custom fitted attachment, and is not available at most other companies. With a frame-by-frame transfer, you are then easily able to manipulate the film once it’s been captured to your computer.

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8mm Film vs Super 8 Film, What’s the Difference?

8mm film and Super 8 film look surprisingly similar at first glance, which can make it difficult to figure out which is which, especially if you have both types of film. Fortunately, when you get it up close, it’s easy to spot a couple key differences which will make telling them apart much easier in the future. 16mm film should be instantly recognizable, as it’s twice the width of 8mm and super 8 film.

As you can see from the above image, Super8 film has much smaller sprocket holes, and they are aligned to the middle of the frame, versus in between the frames on the standard 8mm. You’ll also notice that the size of the frame is 50% larger on the Super 8 film. Super 8 was an upgrade to the standard 8mm film which offered a sharper picture. This sharper picture can be attributed to the much larger frame size. Lots of times, people will have the first of their films shot in regular 8mm, and then over time switching over to the superior Super 8 format.

If your film is stored in film cans with leader tape, you can easily spot which film you have by examining the leader tape. Like in the actual film itself, the sprocket holes are much smaller. The leader tape does not contain actual frames, so the sprocket holes would be the only clue as to what type of film it is. Our film to DVD technicians are very knowledgeable and can answer all your questions about your film transfer. We are also one of the few companies who transfer 8mm film that clean every inch of the film prior to transferring. This cleaning process using silicon cloths will give you the best film to DVD transfer possible.

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8mm Film Transfer Process – Film to DVD

When it comes time to transfer 8mm film to DVDs, you may be wondering just how it’s done, and what the best quality transfer is. The type of film transfer service that is performed on your footage can make a world of difference in the end. It’s best to your own research to determine exactly what you want to get out of your film transfer, whether it be quality or cost. Many of the companies out there today will use cheaper, lower-quality methods such as a real-time transfer.

Real-Time Transfer

Film is naturally around 15-18fps, and when it’s telecined to 30fps video, you will get some blending of frames, which often creates a fuzzy or soft look to the picture when watching in real time. Many times with older film, you’ll notice that there are much more color problems with a real time transfer as opposed to a frame-by-frame transfer due to the way film naturally shifts in color over time. Also with this method, your frames will often be cropped off so you lose a lot of image data, and you’ll also notice some flickering when watching due to the frames being captured in real time.

Frame-By-Frame Transfer

The Premium frame-by-frame film transfer is by far the highest quality film transfer available today, as each full frame of film is individually transferred one after another.

Our retrofitted projector is one of the few in the world that has a manually adjustable brightness control which can make under or overexposed scenes look much better. We use this machine for both Film to DVD San Diego, and Film to DVD Orange County orders. The transfer technician will watch your film on a standard monitor as well as a waveform monitor and adjust the back-light brightness accordingly. This type of brightness adjustment is a custom fitted attachment, and is not available at most other companies. With a frame-by-frame transfer, you are then easily able to manipulate the film once it’s been captured to your computer.

Check below to find out more information about our great Film to DVD services:

Film Transfer San Diego – Film Transfer Orange County

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8mm to DVD, Premium Film to DVD Transfer

Throughout the years, millions of families have been capturing their memories and lives with hopes of preserving them for future generations. As most of us are aware, these older media types will not stand the test of time and last forever. Luckily, technology has progressed to the point where near complete restoration is possible on much of the older media people may have. With new advancements in digital video editing, whole new digital masterpieces can be created which could incorporate any combination of film, video, images, audio.

During the 80s and 90s, many people opted to have their 8mm and 16mm film transferred to VHS or S-VHS tapes. Due to the nature of VHS tapes, and the material it’s composed of, the data on these tapes will not last forever, and often the original film will outlast magnetic forms of media such as VHS tapes. When it comes to precious memories such as your families archive of 8mm film, or 16mm film, you now have the option to digitally transfer these home movies to archival quality DVDs, or put them onto an external hard drive.

Over the years, film such as 8mm or 16mm will color-shift generally to either blue, purple, or magenta, depending on the material of the film. With the premium film transfer, you can have your film completely restored to it’s original colors, and make sure that your under and over-exposed scenes are corrected in real time. Take a look below for a couple of examples of some restoration work on some of our film to DVD transfers.

Here is one example of an 8mm film transfer, taken from an amusement park. The screen has been split to show the original colors on the left, and the restored film on the right. As you can see the film had been heavily color-shifted to red/magenta.

Here is another example of a film transfer with heavy color degradation and blue color-shifting.

As you can see, the restoration process can make a huge difference in the end product of your film to DVD transfers. We perform these types of transfers and restorations on a daily basis in our San Diego and Irvine office’s and countless people have been amazed at the stunning quality of their DVD movies.

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