iMemories saving old video to new technology #PreservingMemories #cbias

Looking through boxes of old odds and ends I found a couple VHS tapes from Junior High and High School. Luckily I still have a working VCR but there really is no guarantee it is going to last, so I wanted to save these memories, especially since the building where most of these were shot is no longer standing.  

photo from The Oregonian 11/2009

A little back ground, when I was in the 8th grade I was a photographer.. I love all things camera and loved playing with lighting and contrast. When the all school play came along , my photography teacher asked me to take some black and white shots of the play. I showed up ready to take some standard shots, little did I know that photo assignment would forever change my path.  It may sound cliche' but I really didn't know anything about theater, and I hadn't really given it a second thought, until I met the director/ Drama teacher.. Shelly Cole was a force to be reckoned with and she knew what you were capable of and what she expected. If you chose not to do that , well get out of her way and let her find someone who would.  She asked me if I knew anything about lighting and foolishly I said, "yes" not realizing she meant stage/ theatrical lighting not photography lighting.  From that moment forward I was whole heartily involved in the theater.
During my freshman year, I performed in class, but mostly  assistant directed or did lighting in some capcity for every production we did, I also wrote storylines and scripts for a couple things; one of which was found on a VHS tape title "Murder Crimson Beach High".
If I remember right, it was a project for not only Drama but also our Freshman Language Arts class.
Fast foward to 2009 when we found out the school district had made the decision to tear down the building formally known as J.B. Thomas Jr. High and before that it was Hillsboro High School. The building had been built in 1928 and was no longer considered a viable structure for the school district.  A few people collected pictures of the building in its final days but I wanted to preserve the memories I had from my 6 years of theater inside those walls.
I knew as soon as I accepted the opportunity to work with iMemories this would be the perfect project, saving the memories even if the video is over the top silliness

The boys and I took the VHS tape to The UPS store in McMinnville and had the staff help us ship it off to iMemories in Arizona.

The process was easy. Simply ship them the tape and they would take care of the rest.  They scanned the video and even tried to include some parts of the tape that were worn.
Once they were done scanning the tape I received an email letting me know my videos were online for viewing.  It took a little over a week to get them all scanned and a day or 2 after for them to all show up in my account.

Once the clips were in my account, I could then arrange them however I wanted, even clip and rearrange sections of the video.
The ordering process was very smooth once I had the clips placed in a gallery and a DVD created.

We had one minor issue, but a quick email to customer service cleared that up and I was able to order the DVD with overnight shipping. I ordered on a Monday mid day, and received notice Tuesday afternoon that my DVD would arrive on Wednesday.

The DVD arrived and included screen shots of the movie clips on the cover (front and back) as well as the DVD itself.

Overall this was a fun journey and I hope the first on many more as I continue to find more of the old VHS tapes from my years in theater.

Get the whole journey Here in our Google Plus Album

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This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias, the experiences and story are my own although the memories included on the DVD are shared among some very special friends.