Gun camera film

My sisters and I have been carefully going through my fathers War chests, (he has 4 full of all his Navy stuff) and we have been finding so much very cool stuff that I would like to share with you all as time goes by. We have so much to do with my fathers estate. What a pain in the *ss. But every now and then, we stop the "no-fun" stuff to look at the "fun-stuff" like photos and great items my father collected over the years, but his Navy chests are what I really enjoy looking at. Many of these items I have never seen, yet alone knew he had. Well I have several scrap books of his Navy career, purple hearts (2) I have found, ... I have no idea about so much of my fathers career, but I have a lot of research to do. Many, many photo albums though. Lots of photos of Hellcats, Corsairs, aircraft carriers, etc.

Now to what this thread is about. I have about 12 reels of gun camera film. I know it's gun camera film because I held some of it up to the light and could see some of what was on it. I'm not a film expert, so I wonder if there is anyone out there who can direct me to someone who can take this film and convert it in some way to a DVD or something so we all can view it. I could see some scenes of Japanese ships being straffed, etc.

These chests are very cool as well, they have squadron ensignias on them and lots of uniforms, mae west, my fathers sidearm and holster, so much stuff. One problem is my older sisters are preventing me from getting too carried away with the chests until most of the rest of the estate matters are cleaned up ... , I'm 45 and they still treat me like I'm the baby ... boo hoo!!! ... I still love em though, so I am excited to share as much as I can with you all as time goes by ... If your interested, ... remember I'm not trying to blow my fathers own horn, I just thought some of you might enjoy seeing a little WW2 Navy time capsule items and possibly some interesting gun camera film.

Last edited by Hellcat on Thu Dec 20, 2007 4:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[tulsaboy]

Hellcat,

There are plenty of folks who can do that for you. Lots of outfits are set up with equipment to do so, largely because of people's old home movies. Here in Tulsa, there is a firm called Video Revolution that is quite experienced and I would guess could help you out easily. Here are the web links for you. Give them a call, if there's not anyone in your area who has such experience.

http://www.videorevolution.com/

http://www.videorevolution.com/production/

kevin

[51fixer]

My sisters and I have been carefully going through my fathers War chests, (he has 4 full of all his Navy stuff) and we have been finding so much very cool stuff that I would like to share with you all as time goes by. We have so much to do with my fathers estate. What a pain in the *ss. But every now and then, we stop the "no-fun" stuff to look at the "fun-stuff" like photos and great items my father collected over the years, but his Navy chests are what I really enjoy looking at. Many of these items I have never seen, yet alone knew he had. Well I have several scrap books of his Navy career, purple hearts (2) I have found, ... I have no idea about so much of my fathers career, but I have a lot of research to do. Many, many photo albums though. Lots of photos of Hellcats, Corsairs, aircraft carriers, etc.

Now to what this thread is about. I have about 12 reals of gun camera film. I know it's gun camera film because I held some of it up to the light and could see some of what was on it. I'm not a film expert, so I wonder if there is anyone out there who can direct me to someone who can take this film and convert it in some way to a DVD or something so we all can view it. I could see some scenes of Japanese ships being straffed, etc.

These chests are very cool as well, they have squadron ensignias on them and lots of uniforms, mae west, my fathers sidearm and holster, so much stuff. One problem is my older sisters are preventing me from getting too carried away with the chests until most of the rest of the estate matters are cleaned up ... , I'm 45 and they still treat me like I'm the baby ... boo hoo!!! ... I still love em though, so I am excited to share as much as I can with you all as time goes by ... If your interested, ... remember I'm not trying to blow my fathers own horn, I just thought some of you might enjoy seeing a little WW2 Navy time capsule items and possibly some interesting gun camera film.

The gun camera stuff could be cool. Today you can have it transferred to DVD so it will last longer than the film will.
Years ago at a gathering at John Paul's house I got to watch Bob Love show his gun camera footage when he flew F-86's in the Korean War.
A priceless moment.
Rich

Thanks Kevin, yes I knew there would be a few places out there. Very good information I will certainly look into. The reels are back in Michigan right now and I need to have them sent to California. I may just fly beck to get them myself, I would hate for anything to happen to them if I had them shipped here.

[Cubs]

That is fascinating stuff. Go ahead and toot your dad's horn. What a treasure, to go through all that stuff. My dad was in the Marines during WWII. He had a
non-spectacular tour of duty(no medals or such). but, to me it was really a thrill to find something like an old photo or his USMC insignia in a box. He talked very little about the war. What few stories he did tell me are a treasure.

[Jack Cook]

Get it and take it all home!
If they don't have a personal interest in it keep it all!

Oh you can count on that .... and they very much do have an interest as well, they just have more patience than I do ....

[Rogue]

I'd be interested in a DVD of that.

[Lightjug]

I'm working on transferring my Dad's old home movies to DVD. Couple of things I've learned so far. It's recommended to get a transfer to mini-dv for a good digital copy as a back up as DVDs don't last forever. Also watch the compression rates if they are going from film to DVD as some may poor quality. Try This Link

thanks all, good stuff.

[Jim MacDonald]

Hellcat,

What was your father's name & what squadron was he with during the war? Sorry if you've posted it before.

Mac

[Mgawa]

Hellcat- this is great that you keep all of this relics from your father. There is studios where is easy to scan and convert the material into the movie. To regret prices are high and they charge per minute. Note that if the move was long time stay in the case it could become fragile during the time. First thing which have to be is special solution to recover its original flexibility.

Cheers

[gary1954]

Concur with Mr Cook, take these chests home before they are found in the For Sale bidding war Been there, done that, and it ain't pretty....Run Forrest RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

[warbird1]

You should look just down the road there in Hollywood. I have a LOT of old 8 mm film that my father took of old airshows and airplanes from the 60's and 70's that I was going to get converted onto DVD. I did some research and found one of the premier places in the States that does Hollywood film restoration and studio work, also does film to DVD conversions. There are a TON of film studios and labs down there that will do it. Just remember one thing that is EXTREMELY important! Whatever you do, do NOT throw away or discard the original film masters. DVD's are NOT archival material. A lot of people don't know this, but DVD's compress video data. Once that video information is compressed, some of it is lost forever, never to be recovered. What this means is that DVD's can't be edited. DVD's are a final delivery format only. They were never designed to be edited in any manner whatsoever.

BTW, is the gun camera footage in color or black and white?

One person that I'm fairly sure would be interested in archiving and possibly selling your father's footage on DVD would be this guy:

http://rareaviation.com/store/cart.php? ... ory_id=922

Perhaps, he could give you a cut of the proceeds. He seems to be genuinely interested in preserving gun camera footage. At the least, he could give you some info on the conversion process. I've ordered some of his DVD's and corresponded with him through e-mail. He's a nice, down-to-earth guy, seems pretty honest, and his DVD's are second to none - the absolute best quality!

Hellcat,

What was your father's name & what squadron was he with during the war? Sorry if you've posted it before.

Mac

Thanks again all, I posted a thread two months ago, I believe I called it "We lost another hero" .... Tells a little bit about my father.

The film is in Black & White

Mark