Bringing my grandfather’s 8mm film of Scaborough from 1964 back to life

While clearing out my loft, I came across two 8mm film reels given to me by my late Grandmother. I remember my grandfather being a keen home movie maker, but I have never seen any of the films. With my grandparents and mother not being around anymore, I thought I would get the films digitized so we could see what’s on them.

I looked at a few different conversion services. As I have only two reels to convert, I didn’t need to buy a conversion projector (which would cost around £250), so I looked for online services. I did try a high street photo shop, but they wanted to charge £250! In the end, I used Bushey Digital, who charged just over £60 for the two films, and they arranged collection and delivery. It took a couple of weeks for Alan and his team to convert them and return the films along with a USB stick with the two converted films in mp4 format.

The quality of the conversion was fantastic, and my grandfather did a great job back in the 1960s putting together a film of the British seaside. I have two films, one of Scarborough in 1964 showing Scarborough harbour, a naval battle in Peasholm Park, the steam train, the tramway, Bridlington harbour, and the tree walk wonderland at night in Peasholm Park.

The second film is a family holiday from 1962, featuring my grandparents and my mother as a young girl enjoying their seaside holiday. I have to admit it was quite an emotional watch for me and my family.

As the films have no audio, I decided to add some 60’s style music to them. I used Mellotron tape loops from the 1960s to create an authentic-sounding soundtrack. I will probably do a separate post about that process.

So, it was well worth the time and money to bring the films to life for the next generation. Here is Scarborough in 1964. You can really get a feel for the British Seaside in the 1960s!