Super 8 Film Before

This is the "Corvette Canton Awards Banquet 1978" video as it appears on the physical film. It has shifted to red and a lot of grain is present. Several techniques were used to bring the film back to its original condition. See the next video for the finished product.

This Super 8mm film was shot under poor lighting conditions at an awards banquet in 1978.  It isn't unusual to see film in this condition after 30 years of storage. Typically films made in the 50's and 60's are actually in better condition than films made in the 70's. However, it is hard to predict what the true condition of the film is until you transfer it. During digital capture the camera was adjusted to minimize the red shift, but as you can see it didn't help. This was a Super 8 sound film, probably Ektachrome (introduced in 1971). In the film you can hear the camera motor running. Something you would never notice because typically you hear the projector which is much louder.

This is a digitally converted Super 8 sound movie from 1978. The original film had begun to deteriorate and this is a restored version. No work has been done for stabilization or sound clean-up in this example.

This is after applying fixes in post. There is still some work that can be done on the audio. How good the fixed video will look is very dependent on the quality of the original. Low light and the high amount of grain makes the task very difficult. There is a lot more editing that could be done to this film to improve its flow and make it more watchable.

This is a video of my friend Roger Henry who passed away just before his 35th birthday. This is the very first post I made on my Blog and I dedicate it to him.