DIGITIZING HOME VIDEOS

Being a sentimental person, I have always been fascinated by memories. During the quarantine of 2020, I decided to digitize my family home videos as a way to rediscover & preserve them. I found myself enamoured by the experience.

Since then, I have been providing these services to friends & family so that they too can rediscover moments that may have been forgotten. If you too have tapes you’re looking to digitize, I’d love to be able to be part of your journey.

How I Digitize

  • Collect

    Search the back of your closet or the depths of your attic, & count up all the family tapes you want saved. We won’t know exactly what or how much footage there is, but I can estimate based off the type of tape you have.

  • Digitize

    Digitizing these tapes is done in real time. I use a consumer grade USB capture stick software to record as they play. I do minor adjustments to the image, but sometimes I can’t do much as data can be lost as the tapes age.

  • Finalize

    The found footage will then be edited based on Year > Month, If Known > Event. The better past you labelled, the better the titles match their corresponding footage. Check FAQ below to see an example screenshot of my file organization!

“Dear Savina,
you made me feel so special when I saw the love you put into our family videos. I could see you spend time, effort, & lots of energy in making sure it was awesome, & it was just that!”
— My first customer, Lina

 FAQs

  • I always have tracked my hours editing and exporting. Having this information from past jobs allows me to estimate a realistic number for editing hours in the next project.

    There are times where editing can be longer than expected. This can include things like tapes with missing labels, a tape changing time & place consistently in its runtime, or minor technical difficulties that interrupt the usual process.

  • If there is footage that you want separated, or any title changes made, please contact me as soon as you can. I keep the original recorded files with my premiere project file for only 3 months after payment. After that, changes become much more difficult to make. The additional editing will also be charged at $17 per hour.

  • There are two methods for delivering digital files:
    First, you provide a hard drive or USB memory stick to backup the files. This will be returned along with all of your tapes upon completion.
    Second, I can purchased a USB memory stick with the amount of GBs needed to backup the files. This cost will be included in the final invoice for reimbursement.

    When discussing your initial estimate, I will confirm which option you prefer and plan accordingly.

  • As you can see in the screenshot below, I will organize the footage into folders by Year. Then, I will label them according to the event/what is taking place in that video file. If there are lots of clips in one year, I will include months in the titles to help make searching easier.

Get an Estimate.

In your message, please include:

  • What types of tapes do you have? (ie. VHS-c, miniDV, Hi8, etc.) If unsure, please include a photo of them & I can help identify.

  • How many individual tapes do you want to digitize? If you have various types of tapes, please specify the amount of each type.

  • Do you still have the old camera you recorded these on? Do you have the battery/charger to test if it still runs properly? (If you do but it no longer works, I am happy to properly recycle it for you, free of charge.)

  • Do you already have an empty hard drive to store the completed video files? If not, will can add a USB memory stick to your final receipt for easy delivery.