My comparison of transfer houses and, ultimately, my decision on which one to use, was based upon how I plan to use my grandmother’s films. I wasn’t simply interested in making a DVD to show at the next family reunion. Here’s a run-down of what I needed to get out of the transfer:

First, I wanted to find out what footage is on each reel. Having digital copies of the footage would allow me to catalogue, log, and transcribe each reel for use in future projects.

Next, I wanted to determine what shape the films are in and especially any damage they might have incurred while living in my grandma’s attic (e.g. scratches, mold, faded colors). This information is vital should I want to have a supervised scene-by-scene transfer later on.

Finally, I wanted the highest quality image for the most reasonable price. I’m working with a low (read: almost non-existent) budget and need to stretch funds as far as they will go. I also took into consideration that my initial uses of the footage might be web-based and thus a super fine quality transfer might not be the best use of my funds for an initial transfer.

After calling, researching, and considering my needs, I finally settled on Home Movie Depot.

As you might notice from their website, they tend to cater more toward the amateur movie maker crowd, but when I sent emails to their customer service, I was able to get technicians to respond back to me with reliable information on their equipment and transfer process. Though I thought that CinePost, Brodsky and Treadway, and others would deliver more quality, in the end Home Movie Depot was able to offer about half the quality for a third of the price (or even less) than the other transfer houses. (You can compare stills from a sample reel sent to both Home Movie Depot and CinePost in Part I of Home Movie Preservation).

Before I sent my film off to them, I had to add unique barcodes to each of the reels, printable from the Depot website, to ensure that each film is identified as part of my order and not someone else’s. The barcodes also served to specify the order I wanted each reel to appear in as part of the transfer. Note: If you change your mind afterwards, Home Movie Depot allows you to reorder a DVD or miniDV by using their online “editor” for up to 35 days to rearrange your footage in a new order. (You can also add cheesy music and titles if you’re so inclined–another hint about their target customer audience).

I sent off my film on July 10th and they were sent back to me on July 20th. I was able to specify my shipping options as 2-day air via FedEx. My films came back from the transfer house in the white boxes pictured above, which I promptly labeled. The Depot left clear notes on each of the boxes as to which of my original 3-inch reels was on each new 400ft reel. These notes were essential as all the regular 8mm and Super 8 were separated from one another.

Not only did I get a free sample transfer from Home Movie Depot to test their services, but the total price of transfering all my film there was under $500! The exact total: $434.85. I was amazed at what that price included, considering all the extra charges associated with these services at other transfer houses :

• cleaning, prepping, and repairing (if necessary) all the film
• adding white leader between each reel
• putting all film onto new 400 ft cores
• transfering film to miniDV (tapestock included) in the order I specified, regardless of it being 8mm or Super 8
• no fee for switching between transfers of 8mm and Super 8
• 2 copies of the miniDV master
• Express 2-day air return shipping of the film, tapes, and my old cores
• a log of the transfer, indicating the state of the film (presence of scratches or other wear and tear) on each reel
• access to an online “editor” for 35 days, which includes thumbnails of each reel taken every 10 seconds and allows you to re-organize and reorder your footage

Though I wasn’t really interested in the online editor (I can do far more, after all, with Final Cut and make my own DVDs), when I saw the thumbnails (like the one below), it suddenly became very interesting. I plan on putting all of these films into a database for use in my projects and thumbnails could be a fast and easy way to know what is on each reel.

So, I called up the Depot to see if they could get me a CD of all the thumbnails and save me the countless hours it would take to download all of them individually from the web. The guy who took my call couldn’t seem to help me (he sounded like a high school kid), but when I sent an email to customer service I received a satisfactory response. Though they don’t offer a thumbnail CD as a regular service, for $25, they made me a “custom” order CD of all the images, almost 1500 thumbnails with burned in timecode. I really appreciate that kind of customer service.

Though I would have liked a transfer with sharper images and more vibrant colors, for the quantity of film that I needed to transfer, and the quality of the transfer (considering the price), I’m a satisfied customer. (Of the other transfer houses I consulted, the next best transfer would have cost over $1500).

In the next post on Home Movie Preservation, I’ll describe the process of creating a home movie database and digital archive of the footage.