Miles and Miles of Film: What to do with it?

Some of us who shot film back in its heyday, have closets and cabinets stacked high with metal cans with thousands of feet of film. You keep thinking that you will have the time to go through it and the cash to have it all transferred to digital, but somehow the closet remains full.

And in the back of your mind, there's that little tweak that reminds you that over time, film deteriorates, it shrinks, it loses color, and becomes more brittle. And you no longer have your Steenbeck flat bed editing setup, so you have no way to look at what you've got, and there is no way you are going to transfer all of it.

There are several paths available--you could just say to yourself, screw it, I am not going to go through the hassle or the cost, and just dump all of it (if you do that, make sure you do it responsibly--there are plenty of toxic elements to celluloid). If cash flow is not a problem, then you could transfer the whole lot, but that means you most likely will end up with a lot of files that you don't really need.

What I recommend is this--find someone in your vicinity that has either a Steenbeck or Magsync Moviola flat bed, and that will allow you to go through your inventory and select only the material that you wish to save. How to find someone who has a flat bed editor? You know the answer to this---social media at its best--put the word out on all your platforms, contact film schools, --you know the drill.

I would not recommend projecting the film to view it for three key reasons---it will take forever as you cannot fast forward like you can on a flatbed editor, projecting the film can possibly scratch or damage the film (particularly if it has shrunk), and you cannot cut and splice film using a projector (which you can do on a flatbed).

After you make the selections of what you want to transfer, now comes the choice as to who to use, and what method to use, to have that done. It is at this stage, that people often get tripped up. There are film transfer companies that are very affordable, but in most cases they are using a system of projecting your film into a video camera. Yes, its cheap, but the risk is that the focus will not be optimum, you will see a lot of shutter flutter, and in some cases you will see the edge of the frame, and they do not use any image enhancement or exposure adjustment.

I strongly recommend using a company that uses frame by frame digitization (some of you are familiar with the RANK)--which eliminates the shutter flutter, provides optimum focus, and does not reveal the frame lines. The downside to going this route is it takes quite a bit of time, and is usually 25-30% more costly. If your footage is important to you, I highly recommend using a company that does frame by frame--it is worth the extra time and money.

Most of these companies have film cleaning options, (I highly recommend doing this as celluloid is a dust magnet)--just be aware that if the film has at some point been projected, some of the dust will be melted into the film, so film cleaning may not remove it.

You can select what quality digital file you want to end up with (720, 1080, 4k etc.)--obviously the higher resolution, the more expensive the cost--your choice will probably be dependent on what your end use will be (just for archival or memory use, or to use in a demo reel etc.)

Most companies can provide your footage either as a download or they send you a USB hard drive. You can ask them to hang on to your film until you get your films and have backed them up.

If you have any questions or would like any further info, just message me.

Here are several companies that in my experience provide high quality service:

https://www.filmtransfercompany.com/

https://www.mymovietransfer.com/