On June 25th of this year we were honored to capture for future generations the memories in motion of the Waszkiewicz-Whittemore wedding. Presented here is an eight minute highlights video from that incredible day. This wedding included many elememts of the Polish culture.
Waszkiewicz-Whittemore Wedding Highlights
November 6th, 2011Dana and Chad’s First Dance
September 21st, 2011Dana Featherly and Chad Postlewait drilled months for a dynamite dance to present to their guests on their wedding day. Their hard work paid off absolutely stunning their guests! Please view the 2 minute film.
Featherly-Postlewait Wedding Highlights
July 19th, 2011On July 16th we were honored to capture memories in motion as Dana Featherly and Chad Postlewait married in holy matrimony at Dexter United Methodist Church. Presented here are some simple and quick highlights we assembled from their special day.
Buske-Sigal Wedding Highlights
July 15th, 2011Jennifer Buske and Dan Sigal married on July 9th in Midland, Michigan. This was a combination Roman Catholic and Jewish wedding. Presented here are some quick highlights from their day.
Wedding Ceremony Entrance–Liz Beresh and Brett Arnkoff
July 6th, 2011Each and every one of the wedding ceremonies that we capture memories in motion from are special and unique. Jewish weddings as a group are absolutely fascinating to watch and moving if you are aware of traditions that go back literally thousands of years.
When it is possible we like to present quick and simple video elements from a wedding mere days after the event. We are pleased to be able to do such with the wedding of Liz Beresh and Dr. Brett Arnkoff. Presented here is the entrance for their wedding ceremony. The wedding was Sunday, July 3rd. Running time is about ten minutes for this brief video. If you are up on your Bible history and traditions, see if you can identify actions in it that you can trace to God’s Word.
A Wedding Party Limosine Reminder
June 8th, 2011Last year we wrote up a blog post on why we think you should book a party bus for your wedding day transportation in Detroit instead of a stretch limo. This is just a reminder that we urge you to avoid those stretch limos. They may look really kool but they break down routinely. Last year we were at two Detroit weddings where the guests in the sanctuary waited patiently for 30 minutes for the bride to arrive late due to a limo breakdown.
Book yourself a party bus!
A Special 16mm Transfer to DVD Nuance
May 27th, 2011We are presenting a continuing series to explain what effects, phenomenon, and peculiarities one should look for in evaluating the quality of a home movie film conversion and transfer to DVD. Many of these considerations are applicable to regular 8mm, Super 8mm, as well as 16mm film conversion and transfers. The consumer does not have to be an expert but merely needs to know some key elements to be aware of. There are many transfer service providers that will perform these services with varying degrees of excellent quality. However, it only makes sense to do some homework first so that you can avoid others which might give you disappointing results.
In this sixth installment we will examine the “choppiness of 16mm” transfers.
The rewards in the conversion and transfer of 16mm home movies to DVD are immense in that the quality of 16mm relative to 8mm films is breath taking. Yet conversion to digital media of 16mm silent home movie film represents some very daunting challenges.
The following discussion delves into technical issues so if you get lost and just want to know what it all means skip the next two paragraphs.
The first battle we have is with eliminating the flicker or rolling bar effect. With 8mm home movies all we have to do is vary the projection speed to null out the differences between the projector shutter speed and the video scan rate. It is a much different story with 16mm silent home movies. These were typically shot at a frame rate of 18 frames per second (fps). The actual speed varied somewhat due to tolerances in the consumer grade equipment. Attempting to capture to video at this speed and synchronize the projector shutter speed to the video camera scan rate (including adjustment of the video scan rate itself) to null out the rolling bar is a losing battle. The synchronization, however, is simple when the film is played at 24fps but that introduces still another problem.
When we play film originally shot at 18fps (plus or minus maybe 1fps) at an accelerated rate (24fps) we get a “Keystone Cops” effect. That is, everything moves fast: people strolling in the park appear as if they are doing a power walk; 1934 Model-A Ford cars turn corners at the speed of light and do not roll over; and more silly things to watch. But synchronization of the projector shutter with the video camera scan rate is doable and the motion is smooth and fluid—just fast. The “Keystone Cops” effect is then nulled out in post editing where the video is slowed down 40-50%. But this produces its own negative effect in that motion has a slight choppy appearance if not properly addressed. Often times though it will go unnoticed because the effect is so slight.
When you review 16mm silent home movie film pay careful attention to slow moving objects such as a boat floating down a river. If you look carefully you may be able to detect that the boat is moving in tiny increments rather than having a fluid motion. This is not necessarily bad as there are times when it is unavoidable or not discernable except under close scrutiny. Remember, we are dealing with decades old legacy technology so there is only so much that can be done. It is, however, something to look for when judging the quality of a given 16mm silent home movie film transfer to DVD.
At W. Cardone Productions we utilize a process that either minimizes or eliminates this effect.
Please look for additional posts where we will discuss still other considerations relating to home movie film conversion and transfer to DVD. And also please remember that at W. Cardone Productions we are among the top service providers treating your family treasures with the respect they deserve.
DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Film to Video
May 25th, 2011With the advent of very doable consumer video editing it seems ashamed to have to send your family legacy 8mm home movie films out to a pro shop to be converted to modern digital media and DVD. It would seem that you should be able to do the conversion yourself. In its simplest form, if you can project your home movies onto a viewable surface then you can point your video camera at the image and record it. The only question is: will you then want to watch what you have produced?
Our conclusion on the matter is that after spending massive amounts of your time and resources on developing your own conversion mechanism that you will be disheartened with the quality you are able to produce. But that is only our opinion and of course subject to our own selfish interests in drawing in your business for ourselves.
We suggest that you surf the web looking for comments other people have made who have been down that road. If you want to call us on the phone we would be happy to talk with you about some of the ins and outs of DIY film conversion on at least a superficial level. But meanwhile we can offer some hints that may help you along if you choose to venture down that path.
First we recommend that you obtain a quality 8mm home movie projector with a variable speed control from someone on eBay or CraigsList. Projectors made by Elmo are certainly excellent though there are others you will see mentioned on the web. Try to avoid a projector that has been used for professional movie transfer as these have run many hundreds of thousands of feet of movie film. Look for a projector sold by an individual or someone knowledgeable on projectors if possible.
The really big problem with home movie projectors is that in most cases they have been sitting in somebody’s closet for twenty years and the belts have become rotted from non-use. Replacement belts are readily available but you will have to find the service manual for that projector (also usually readily available).
Avoid vintage projectors as these have very hot bulbs that will burn your film if it stops for some reason. Later models manufactured in the 1970s or 1980s are what you are looking for. Again, Elmo is a trusted name for quality.
Once you have purchased a projector, hunt around on eBay for junk 8mm home movie film that you can practice on. It is almost guaranteed that your first use of the projector will result in the first few feet of your home movie film being transformed into an accordion.
Find a nice surface to project your image onto that is free of any irregularities. You would think that ordinary copy paper taken from your computer printer would work but usually this has a surface texture that the video camera will see. It is good enough to practice on at least, anyhow. Try to find something as bright a white as possible.
Don’t let the projected image show any larger than maybe six inches. Any larger and it may not have enough light for the video camera to capture without increasing its video gain.
You really need a pro-grade video camera to capture the image properly but use your consumer grade camcorder for now.
Now point the video camera at the projected image and start recording.
But here’s a better idea: Why not consider deleting the final step and just start enjoying your legacy family home movies the old-fashioned way. You have a true quality projector and you’ve learned how to maintain it. The images it will show will be absolutely the finest quality available and you can let the image size be as large as you like, even as large as many large screen televisions.
More than likely your film is in good condition and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Find a quality film editor on eBay to check every foot of your film for bad splices or torn sprocket holes. Consider buying a pint of film cleaner and clean your films.
On the downside, every time you play your film a little life leaves it and more so if a splice fails or the projector jams. Also, you only have one copy of your film so it is impossible to share it between homes whereas you could run off as many DVD copies as you need.
OUR CONCLUSION: Admittedly, paying a pro to convert and transfer your 8mm home movie film to modern media can be an expense you are not prepared for. Being old-fashioned in how you show your films can produce breath-taking quality. It just takes a few hundred dollars for a quality projector and a little time learning how to maintain it.
Tell A Story with Video Using Professional Voiceover
May 19th, 2011Have you considered telling your story using a professional photo montage? These can be done to engage the viewer using carefully selected royalty free music with a professional voiceover. The professional voiceover is much more than someone saying the words he or she has been given. The pro artist has studied speaking techniques and drilled on elocution in order to deliver a new dimension to a presentation that will captivate an audience.
The sample photo montage below is narrated by Lucy Ann Lance who is a noted radio personality (1290AM, WLYY) in the Ann Arbor area. As you view the video please pay careful note to mannerisms of her voice and timing of her delivery.
Splicing Dozens of 3” Film Reels to 7” Reels
May 18th, 2011There are some home movie transfer to video service providers that will accept your shoebox full of 3” movie reels and splice them onto much larger reels. We don’t think that this is a kool idea for a variety of reasons.
From the business standpoint we must maintain our profit margin if we are to stay in business. Every time we touch a client’s films we erode our margin. Most of the transfer to video orders we receive come in on fifty foot 3” diameter reels. Splicing them to larger reels would mean an increased cost in terms of both labor and hardware which would of necessity be passed on to the client. If splicing the film reels results in increased quality then we would do it and adjust our prices accordingly. If, however, it results in no tangible benefit to the client, then we will not splice.
Once spliced the resulting home movie film reels will play unattended for upwards of twenty-five minutes. This will free up the film transfer operator to do other tasks such as rewinding other movie movie film, splicing or repairing others, grabbing a bite to eat, etc. Our transfer process requires constant attention to the film projection so we would not realize a benefit from splicing.
Another advantage to the transfer service provider is that if using consumer grade equipment it is quite likely that merely touching the projector will change the alignment between itself, the projected image, and the capturing video camera. Minimizing “projector touches” at the expense of “film touches” will represent a net time savings to that transfer service provider.
For advantages to the client, if he or she were going to project the movie films in the future then splicing to larger reels would be a clear advantage. It is unrealistic to think that this will be the case.
Another possible advantage to the client might be for ease of storage. Instead of keeping a shoebox full of dozens of 3” reels the client will only need to keep three or four easily stackable reels in a convenient location.
Let’s consider some of the disadvantages. Probably the biggest disadvantage to movie reel splicing is that in many cases a level of archival documentation will be lost or made unavailable. It was a common practice in the days of home movie film to write information about a film’s content on its leader. In most splicing operations the extra leader is simply discarded losing forever any documentation that might be written thereon. If not discarded it becomes inaccessible buried under many tens of feet of home movie film. Consider also that spliced home movie film is separated from any box and/or reel that it came in. A service provider will at least almost never discard these items but it now becomes a difficult task to associate the film transferred to video to its corresponding archival information.
Some of the transfer service providers advertise that they will splice your movie film at no additional charge suggesting there is an advantage. We recommend, though, that you ask them not to splice your movie films. Fortunately, most home movie conversion and transfer service providers that we know of do not splice.