Digitizing 100 miles of old 16mm educational films

August 13, 2012 8:39 AM

Digitizing 100 miles of old 16mm educational films
I have over 24,000 16mm educational films from the 1920s thru 1980s and have been sharing them at avgeeks.com (previously). But I still have a ton of films no one else has made available online in good quality, if at all. So every day during the month of August, I'm digitizing and uploading public domain 16mm films that anyone can watch, download and/or repurpose for their own projects, free of charge. They're being collected at av-geeks.tumblr.com, and include The Potheads, a bizarre amateur anti-drug film from 1968, a 1958 interview with Ansel Adams about his craft, sexy industrial porn, Any Boy USA, in which Mr. Whiskey explains the perils of the big city to our hero, and lots more. I'm uploading at least 3 new films a day; the goal is to get to 100 miles (240 hours) of film by the end of the summer.

Role: designer, curator, archivist

posted by avgeeks (3 comments total)

This project was posted to MetaFilter by timsteil on August 16, 2012: Digitizing 100 miles of old 16mm educational films

YOU make the Internet sparkle!
posted by Theta States at 7:51 PM on August 13, 2012

What method are you using to digitize these -- specialized equipment?
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:08 AM on August 16, 2012

We are using a MWA Nova Flashtransfer16. It's very gentle on the films
posted by avgeeks at 8:49 AM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]