Home Movies

The Best of Family Memories

By Dave Whittle

I don’t know if I actualy remember eating watermelon with my younger brother sitting on the steps of our home, or just watching Dad’s home movie of it. It’s probably a little of both, because one second, I can see my face, and the next, I can see through my own eyes. But then I wonder if I’m just imagining seeing through my own eyes. One thing is for sure, though – I’m glad my Dad took those early home movies capture on film.

My family is lucky. Dad wasn’t the richest guy on the planet, but he had his priorities straight. He bought a Super 8 movie camera, took pictures when he could, developed the film, and delighted in setting up the projector so we could relive those happy, somewhat self-conscious moments captured in the glory of a few moments of home movies.

And now, he’s taken those priceless memories and digitized them. The great thing about digital media (unless you ask the robber barons of the recording industry) is that it can be shared. And since Dad “owns the copyright” on all that film, he can share the digital video with whomever (sorry, Sony) he pleases.

So we have movies of Mom looking younger and even prettier than I remembered, in pedal pushers in one scene and an angle-long puffed-out skirt in the next. Sorry I don’t know what those dresses are called, but it’s very fifties or early sixties, I’m guessing by my age in the films. Then there’s Loree, playing the role of Lucy in Peanuts, and my longsuffering, smiling sister Janee (sorry, Jana), and the fun-loving Julie – all squinting at the camera through that glaring light dad used whenever he shot a scene indoors.

But Christmas! That’s when we knew to expect the camera coming out of the closet. We’d line up, youngest to oldest, and once we got the word, racing into the living room to see what Santa had brought. To this day, I’m proud of myself for never trampling or injuring any of my numerous younger siblings. And you should see the video Dad took. He liked to get the faces – and I’m glad he did. Those faces are burned into my brain, but I’m not sure they would be if I didn’t have home movies to look back on.

And now, look at how easy it all is. Camcorders as easy and inexpensive as the Flip take better video with less hassle than my dad dared dream of. Software as easy to use and fast as muvee autoProducer 6 can automatically analyze your digital home movies, select the best scenes, mash them up with your digital photos, sync them to the music, and produce a professional-looking music video slideshow in mere seconds. So if you're capturing your child's first steps, or simply filming your shiny new Alienware PC run Dawn of War II, email and play at www.foxybingo.com; at the same time, then it's as simple as getting the camera out, hitting record and starting up your PC. And on top of that, you can burn your video production to a DVD or Video CD and mail the disc to family and friends anywhere on the continent, and they can pop the disc into a player and share the joy.

So whether I’m reveling in the simple childhood joys of watermelon in July, or the elderly thrill on the face of a grandfather watching a granddaughters first steps, today’s technology makes my Dad’s efforts to capture those many moments from our youth look downright heroic. Thanks, Dad.

Aaahhhh, the digital life is good.