“Every picture tells a story”

“Every picture tells a story”. How many times have we heard that saying? And it’s true, but not always in the way that we think.

Old Video becomes new DVD entertainment

There’s possibly a goldmine of untold stories in your house; hidden in your attic, tucked into the hall drawer, slipped into that box in the garage that you use to hold all those things you can’t bear to throw away, but really don’t know what to do with. A single roll of 35mm film, one reel of cine film, an old VHS video tape. These are the archives of history that will remain unexplored unless you do something to excavate them.

Have you ever looked at a photograph and tried to remember the name of the person in the background you went to school with? Run an old 8mm or 16mm cine film on an antique projector and struggled to remember what the occasion was; birthday, anniversary, national celebration? Isn’t it fascinating to look at your great-grandmother and see she has the same eyes as you, or to watch your long-dead grand-uncle Albert driving his horse and cart?

Social history and VHS film transfer

“A picture paints a thousand words” is another saying that relates to the transfer of cine film and video to accessible formats. VHS transfer has become huge in recent years, partly because people are downsizing and those old VHS systems just don’t fit with flat screen TVs. Also partly because old VHS cassettes become increasingly unplayable as they age and nobody wants to lose the precious events recorded on them.

These personal memories aren’t just delightful moments, they are part of a world archive of recorded history and we can easily forget that our little snaps and cine films might contain details of life in the past that would help historians and social researchers with their work. The wonderful details of incredibly successful programmes like Mad Men are carefully collated by TV researchers to make the world of the past look real. To do this they draw upon real home movies and photo albums as well as on footage in national archives. Transferring old cine films to new formats – whether it’s Betamax to DVD or VHS video to digital – means that our treasured history is instantly accessible to us, and to many others who may find this information valuable.

International Film Project

There’s even an international project that attempts to ‘save’ photographic film, especially old reels of film that have been damaged by time, heat or damp. It’s called The Rescued Film Project and it specialises in images taken between the 1930s and 1990s. It undertakes its work for free and even attempts to reunite the rescued images with their original photographers or the people captured in the photos. It’s a race against time of course, and sometimes they can’t succeed in bringing those snapshots back.

Transfer cine film to DVD while you still can

We recognise that responsibility too. Movie film degrades over time, even faster than stills camera film because it is exposed to movement and light whenever it’s played. Our commitment is to restore your old movies, from Hi-8mm to DVD or mini-DVD to DVD, before they are lost forever.

Give us a call today on: 0208 397 5444, or drop us an e-mail at the following address: info@rutlandproductions.co.uk.