Editing 8 mm film

[toneil44]

Ran across this forum while Googling the subject of this post. Scanning the posts in this forum, the level of knowledge here appears to be waaay above my pay grade but here goes.

I had Yes Video transfer 4 hours of 8 mm film to DVD. Picked up the Adobe bundle of Photoshop/Primiere Elements 10 and am on the beginning of the learning curve. Starting on Sceneline, not even close to using Timeline. Now that you know my level of expertise, I'll post my question.

How do I edit out the artifacts (some may consider them to be part of the nostalgia but I do not share that sentiment) of 8 mm film: grainy, poor resolution, edges of film showing, fibers, alternating areas of too light and too dark, etc., before I burn to DVD? Please make your comments as specific as possible. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Steve Grisetti]

Hi, Toneil. Welcome to Muvipix!

You're going to be limited as to what you can do to improve your movies' quality, no matter which program you use. 8mm is a relatively low resolution film format that was never particularly crisp. Additionally, you're likely also dealing with scratches and aging. You'll be able to do some adjusting of light -- but it's not a digital format, so you're not going to be able to lighten a scene or bring out more details.

That said, make sure that, when you start a Premiere Elements project, you select the Hard Disk Camcorder settings for standard definition video. Otherwise, you're going to run into problems later working with DVD footage. (It's going to come out all jumpy when you output it.)

Then put the DVD in your computer's DVD drive and use Premiere Elements' Get Media/From DVD Camcorder or PC DVD drive to "rip" the files from the disc onto your computer and into your project. This will give you the best results and performance possible.

BTW, if you're new to the program, you may want to check out our free 8 part Basic Training tutorials.
http://muvipix.com/products.php?searchp ... 2&btn.y=15

And if you want to know step by step how to use every tool in the program, be sure to check out our books.
http://Muvipix.com/pe10.php

[Peru]

I strongly urge you watch the tutorials and give the timeline a try. Once you see how it works you will never go back to sceneline.

Steve's books are great references, too.

[RJ Johnston]

I have some 8mm film that I projected onto a white board while recording it with my Kodak Zi8 Videocamera at 29.97fps, 1920x1080p. The original Kodak 8mm film was recorded at 12 fps. That created a lot of flickering that I reduced quite a bit using the Posterize Time effect in Premiere Elements. I set the value of that effect to 12.

For the grainy noise I used the NewBlueFX Noise Remover plug-in (not included with PRE10).

Because my videocamera was pointing at the white board at a slight angle, the frames weren't perfectly rectangle. I used the Corner Pin effect to correct the perspective.

[sidd finch]

I also projected the movies on to a white sheet in a dark room (sounds wrong).

I used a Sony FX7 that allowed me to adjust the frame rate on the camcorder to match the film. It turned out pretty well the footage was all recorded in HD so I think I got the best possible transfer as possible.

That being said you might try to see if you can rent a camcorder that allows you to adjust the frame rate of the camcorder and see if you can make your transfer that way. There are companies that do it for a fee but this can get expensive.

SIdd