7 Easy Home Movie Organizing Tips

Do you take home movies?  What do you do with them after you make the movie?  Do you transfer them to your computer, do you upload them to social media?  What is the use of having home movies if you don’t watch them? I have done home movies since I was a teenager.  I took after my dad; he would always have a Sony video camera in his hand.  And, I see myself doing the same thing.  Every event, family gathering, vacations, I have on DVD.  Just to prove it to you how crazy I am about home movie organizing, here are my DVD binders.  I have three of them!

Yes, I know, I have made my fair share of movies.  Depending on how busy I was, would depend on how detailed the video was.

Here are 7 tips to help you with your home movie organizing:

• Gather all the DVDs, VHS tapes, and digital files together and determine an order: By doing this at the beginning, it helps you decide what you want to keep and what you want to discard. Some categories I have used in the past are Order by date, by the person, by the trip, and by the event.

• Not all footage is good quality footage:  You do not need to use all the images.  Cutting down your videos is OK.

• Convert VCR tapes to digital yourself by buying a software package: If you want to get your VHS tapes converted, buy a software converter that plugs into your VHS and your computer and converts the footage that way. Sending it out to get converted is quite expensive, and you need to check their copyrighting restrictions because you may not be able to edit the footage after you get it back.

• Converting Super 8 or 8 mm silent movies to digital can be tricky, but it can be done: First, you need to have a white background like a white tri-fold poster board.  Then setup the Super 8 or 8 mm projector facing the trifold and next to it, place the video camera and zoom in on the projected image from the Super 8 or 8 mm.  It works nicely, and if the movie is silent, you can add music to it.

• Save on DVDs or have a secure personal cloud drive just for the home movies: I am planning on gathering up the kid’s footage and placing them on the drive and have each kid have their collections of their videos for a high school graduation gift. Click on the image and buy on Amazon.

• Use a journal to keep track of all the videos or events you want to create: I have a little red journal that I wrote all my videos in when I had a lot to convert to digital.

Home movies allow you to bring back special moments in your wonderful life. ~ Sabrina M-Quairoli

• Back-up the videos: If anything happens to the DVDs you will have a back-up of them.

Recently, I have finally completed my parent’s silent movie collection.  It has taken me several years and about two specialty bulbs and a lot of hard work and time.  But, I did it, and now all the silent movies are on DVDs.  So, happy to get it done.  Now I can get rid of the Super 8 projector that has been in my house for years.

I hope this helps you get your home movies organized. Now it is your turn, do you have a family home movie collection?  How do you store it?  Do you make a movie or just keep the raw footage on your devices?  Do you have any times to organize your home movies? Please leave a comment below.