Lost Video from 1945

65 Years Ago my Dad shot this film along Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki capturing spontaneous celebrations that broke out upon first hearing news of the Japanese surrender. Kodachrome 16mm film: God Bless Kodachrome, right? I was able to find an outfit (mymovietransfer.com) to do a much superior scan of this footage to what I had previously posted, so I re-did this film and replaced the older version There are more still images from this amazing day, in color, at http://www.discoveringhawaii.com

Many people email me to ask where I got my scan done, so I decided to post my standard reply here for those thinking about it:

I sent the same sample to 5 different video transfer services and all were horrible. Then I discovered www.mymovietransfer.com, and I chose them to do my scan.

The person below wrote recently to give me this intriguing lead, but I haven't checked it out yet:

"Have you considered having this film scanned on a "real" scanner. Check out www.scanyourfilm.com. 1080p scan for $.01/frame HD or $.02/frame 2K. He's scanning on a Spirit 2K. 100' of film costs $36... That's an insanely cheap prices. I'd love to see it in HD! Thanks for posting!!!"

My film is 16mm and thus has much more information than an 8mm film, so I would investigate the HD option if you have 8mm film in order to get the best quality.

iMovie is an easy program to learn and allowed me to improve contrast and color.

The sample I sent was NOT my precious VJ Day film, but an equally old short film I bought on eBay for $15 for this exact purpose. I didn't want to risk the VJ Day film until I was happy with mymovietransfer.com's results.

Good luck. Do your homework online.

Tell mymovietransfer that Richard Sullivan sent you if you contact them, and only go with a company that will do an inexpensive sample for you first.

You will need to supply a portable storage device for the scanned files. They will supply one, but it will most likely cost more than if you buy your own.