Transfer Film to Video

• 1). Find a lab that does Super8/8mm transfers. There are a few around the country, although you may need to mail your footage to a lab. There is an avid subculture of Super8/8mm filmmaking that maintains good websites that list quality labs. Or, if you live in a large urban area, contact a local filmmakers' group for a referral.
  
  
• 2). Call the lab and ask a lot of questions. Film labs vary widely. Some have highly qualified professionals and others do not. Some labs specialize in working with small-format films like Super8/8mm, and a few places specialize in doing transfers of home movies.
  
  
• 3). Send or take your film to the lab. Make sure to clearly label all film reels with your name and phone number. Tell them what kind of stock it was--BW, color reversal or something else--if you know. Tell them what type of digital tape to transfer it to--DV, HDV, digital8, HD--whatever tape works with your deck.
  
  If you have any information on the quality of the film, put a note with your film. The lab might be able to help correct minor over- or under-exposure issues (typically for an additional charge).
  
  

Digitize Your Footage

• 1). Start your deck and computer. Usually the deck or camera you use to digitize needs to be on before launching the software.
  
  
• 2). Launch your software. It should find your deck so you can start playing your tape. The most common editing software programs are iMovie, Vegas, Windows MovieMaker, Final Cut Pro and Premiere. You might also be able to use AfterEffects, Quicktime Pro or other software.
  
  
• 3). Find the tool to digitize or capture. Each video editing program is slightly different, but each has a tool to capture video. It is usually located in the "File" menu, but some programs will have it in another place. If you cannot find it easily, use your software's help menu.
  
  
• 4). Start playing the tape. Watch your footage on the computer. Your memories are now easily visible! Make sure you are happy with the quality of the transfer, but transfers cannot clear up focus, composition and some exposure problems. A bad transfer will look jagged, and the images might shake in the frame.
  
  
• 5). Set the capture preferences. You need to tell the computer what kind of resolution and format the capture will be. The usual choices are 720x480 NTSC DV in a .mov or .avi file. Depending on your computer system, you might also capture at 1080 HDV, H264 or as a Flash movie.
  
  
• 6). Play the tape and hit "capture." Your footage will digitize in real time--meaning 3 minutes of tape takes 3 minutes to digitize. Save the film in a place you can find it and under a name you will remember. Once your film is digitized, you can burn it to a DVD, put it online, export it in a web- or iPhone-compatible format or do other things with it.