Home Movies

Back in March, I wrote about transferring home movies to DVD or some other digital archival quality method. Yesterday, I finally transferred my masterpiece.

Okay, so really, it isn’t so much a masterpiece as it was a high school project done for my Audio Video class. However, with it safely transferred to a DVD I no longer have to worry about it degrading any further, and sadly, the footage has degraded quite a bit. This isn’t unexpected, mind you, as it was originally recorded onto VHS back in 1992 and 1993, but some parts look a little rough.

So what is this project, you ask? It was a short film loosely based off a radio show I wrote, starred in and directed for the same class. I say loosely because the “director” and I (yes, he’s in quotes because I was the director, he was just getting credit for the project because I’d already directed a one) agreed to try our hands at adlibbing, especially since we were all such fine thespians. Okay, so none of us could act and none of us had a clue what the hell we were doing, but the results are hilarious nonetheless. Of course, the trick is in the editing room, which come to think of it, I edited the original too. Let’s see, if my credits are correct, I wrote, acted, directed, casted, edited, produced, videoed, chose the music and created the animated beginning and ending credits. Hmmm… Sorry Grant, I’m taking credit for this project!

Yes, I created animated credits, thanks in no small part to Mario Paint for the Super Nintendo. Of course, this was the simplest part of the movie, since I’d already been making silly cartoons based off my little brother Brandon’s book series he wrote and illustrated and sold to neighbors for a ninety percent profit, with ten percent going to his mother for paper. I believe this money went towards a framed, autographed picture of Harrison Ford. No, this isn’t a joke. But back to the animated credits, I fear they are not going to work, as they appear to be almost unrecognizable. I’ll see what I can do in the editing room, which pretty much goes for the rest of the movie. Perhaps I will have to redo the credits using Flash or perhaps some other vector-based animation software (preferably free shareware) which I’m sure will make my Wacom Pen & Tablet happy.

I’m thinking that, just for fun, as this will not be some major Hollywood hit, of making a Special Almost 20th Anniversary Edition of the movie, and include the original radio show, script, an audio commentary and new interviews with the original cast. And, perhaps, just to make one of my two brothers named Ryan blush, include the video he had me take of him dancing to Bobby Brown’s “Humpin’ Around” as a special bonus.