The quality of old home movies is more than nostalgia. The constraints of the capture media, VHS and 8mm, forced us to create and “publish” individual documents.

The blessing of unconstrained high-quality cameras in our pockets comes with a significant curse.

For many of us, and particularly those of us with children, our camera rolls are sources of anxiety. We know we have so many lovely moments, but:

  1. There are too many of them to look through
  2. They can only be enjoyed one at a time
  3. Surely, some moments are lost forever

For those of us with old VHS/super8 home movies, beyond the task of getting them preserved in digital form, they have NEVER been sources of anxiety. We love them each in their own unedited (but time-limited) way.

How can we recreate these critical constraints in the iPhone age?

The first method is available only to (psycho) pros and hobbyists (psychos like me): Actually shoot film. Or, in the absence of film, get a camera like the OG Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera (the little small one) or, even better, a Digital Bolex D16.

The battery life on the BMPCC OG is so bad that you find yourself incredibly selective about what you shoot. And the file sizes from the Digital Bolex are SO BIG that you’re equally selective about when to pull the trigger.

But regular people aren’t going to use these cameras.

By the way, here’s a little one shot at Sesame Place on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera OG (about $400):

The option of letting the AI in your phone put together little “memories” for you is pretty lame if you ask me. There might be moments of magic, but listening to Muzak with the occasional random shot of a Diet Coke can is hardly a special experience.

The last option is to really shoot an experience with your phone, for just 15-30 minutes. Move. Get close-ups. Wide shots. Hold for reactions. Stay with the shot. Get CLOSE.

Then pick a favorite song that goes with the experience, and cut it down to the length of that song.

“Wait, EDIT, you say? Don’t get crazy now… We never EDITED our Super8 and VHS!” That’s true, but unfortunately, unless you’re willing to become an enthusiast (psycho) like me, you’re stuck with your totally unconstrained phone that makes individual clips.

Throw the song on a timeline, drag the clips in from Photos, trim those suckers until they fit the length of the song, DONE: You’ve got a nice little fully-encapsulated memory document, dare I say BETTER than our old VHS tapes (but maybe still not as good as those Super8 reels).

You can learn to do an edit like this really, really quickly. I made the video here in less than 30 minutes (but I, importantly, only shot for 7 minutes). This is 1-year-old Wendell’s first real experience in the snow, from last night:

Here are three examples that I’ve shot on actual 16mm film:

And here’s when we spread my grandmother’s ashes on Skaneateles Lake:

But when we went to spread my wife’s grandmother’s ashes in the San Francisco Bay, I done forgot my Bolex (I guess I’m a bad husband), and all I had was my iPhone. Here’s what I got:

It’s one of the great ironies that now that we all have incredible, 4K cameras in our pockets, no one actually makes any home movies anymore. Let’s bring back home movies.

And for God’s sake, make sure you’re shooting at 24 frames per second.