Film Transfer
Your family’s reels are the only copy that exists. So here’s the part that matters most: your film never leaves my studio. Nothing gets shipped to a processing center in another state. Nothing gets handed to a courier. You drop it off here in the Kansas City metro, or mail it directly to me, and I run every scan myself.
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Formats I transfer
8mm
Regular 8mm, the standard home-movie format from the 1930s through the 1960s.
Super 8
The cartridge format that replaced 8mm from the mid-1960s onward.
16mm
Wider gauge used for home movies, industrial films, and local documentary work.
I handle reels up to 7 inches, and there’s no cap on how many you send. If you’re not sure what you’ve got, bring the whole box. Measuring the footage is part of the quote, and it costs you nothing to find out.
Working with VHS, VHS-C, or Hi8? That’s outside what I offer, but reach out and I’ll point you to someone reputable.
How it works
1. Get me the film
Drop it off by appointment anywhere in the Kansas City metro, or mail it in. We’ll go through what you have and its condition together.
2. Frame-by-frame scan
Every frame is captured individually in HD, then color corrected, stabilized, and split into scenes so it’s actually watchable.
3. Files and originals back
You get digital files however you want them, and every reel you gave me comes back to you.
Why frame-by-frame matters
The cheap way to digitize film is to project it onto a screen and point a camcorder at it. It’s fast, and it looks it becauise you get flicker, a bright hot spot in the middle, blown-out highlights, and washed-out color. I scan each frame individually, which is slower and produces a clean, steady image with the color the film actually holds.
Pricing and turnaround
$15 per 50 feet of film
You pay for the footage you actually have, not for the reel it came on. Most reels hold a standard amount:
| Reel size | Film length | Runtime (approx.) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 inch | 50 ft | 3 minutes | $15 |
| 4 inch | 100 ft | 6 minutes | $30 |
| 5 inch | 200 ft | 13 minutes | $60 |
| 7 inch | 400 ft | 26 minutes | $120 |
- $75 minimum order. Small orders take nearly as much setup as large ones.
- Partially filled reels are measured, not rounded up. A 7-inch reel with 150 feet is charged at 150 feet. I’ll confirm the total with you before I start.
- Everything is included: scan, color correction, stabilization, scene splitting, and digital delivery. Nothing is priced as an add-on.
Turnaround
Orders up to 10 reels: about 7 days. Beyond that, scanning time adds up quickly as a single full 7-inch reel takes hours to capture frame by frame. For larger collections, I’ll quote you a realistic date before I start rather than letting it drift, and I’d rather tell you three weeks and mean it than tell you one and miss it.
How you get your footage
Digital delivery is part of the price, and you choose the method:
- Direct download — standard video files you keep and back up yourself.
- Google Drive — a shared folder, easy to pass around the family.
- Private YouTube — a link for relatives who just want to watch, not manage files.
- Your own drive — hand me a USB drive or external disk, and I’ll load it up.
Whatever you pick, take the download too. Cloud links move, accounts get closed, and the whole point of this is that you own a copy that doesn’t depend on anyone else, including me.
If your film is in rough shape
Film that’s sat in a basement or attic for fifty years is often brittle, warped, faded, or coming apart at the splices. I’ll do everything I can with what you’ve got, and I’ll be straight with you about what I’m seeing before I charge you. What I won’t do is promise a rescue I can’t deliver. If a reel can’t be safely run, I’ll tell you and return it rather than risk further damage.
Worth knowing: film keeps degrading. Color fades, vinegar syndrome spreads to nearby reels, and splices get more fragile every year. Reels that are borderline today are harder to save in five years.
Tape and record transfers too
Audio usually lives in the same closet as the film. If you’ve got reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, or records you want captured and cleaned up, I do that as well; just send me a note about what you have, and I’ll provide a quote.
Want it turned into something watchable?
Nobody sits through four hours of raw home movies. If you want the good parts pulled into a short piece with music, say, for a milestone birthday, an anniversary, or a memorial service, that’s editing work I do separately. See video production.
Common questions
How much footage is on one reel?
A 3-inch reel holds roughly 50 feet of footage, about 3 minutes. A 7-inch reel holds around 400 feet, closer to half an hour. That eight-to-one difference is why I price by footage rather than charge a flat rate per reel; otherwise, small reels subsidize large ones, and nobody with a shoebox of 3-inch reels should pay for that.
Does my film have sound?
The large majority of 8mm and Super 8 home movies are silent. Some Super 8 shots from after the early 1970s have a magnetic sound stripe along the edge. My transfers are picture-only, but if your reels have a stripe and the audio matters to you, tell me before you order so I can point you to someone equipped to handle it.
Do I get my original reels back?
Always. Digitizing doesn’t consume the film, and the original is still the highest-quality copy in existence. Keep it somewhere cool and dry.
Can I mail film from outside Kansas City?
Yes. Mail-in works fine, but get in touch first, and I’ll walk you through packing it so nothing shifts in transit. Local drop-off is by appointment, and I travel up to 150 miles for on-site work.
Who actually handles my film?
I do. 6i Productions is a small operation, not a mail-order chain; the person you email is the one running the scanner and handing your reels back.
Start a transfer
Tell me roughly what you have, including the format, how many reels, and their condition if you know, and I’ll come back with a timeline and a total.