Moving to a new home is an exciting time, but the actual transportation of your belongings can cause a massive headache. If you still have some old cine reels lying around, you might be concerned about how to transport them to your new house. Cine reels are very delicate and prone to breaking, especially if they have not been stored in optimal conditions.
So, if you’re planning a big move, you need to plan for how to get those cine reels moved across to your new home without them getting damaged. Here’s how you can keep your films safe when moving house.
Handle the Film with Care
When moving and packing your belongings, you always need to ensure everything is done with care. You wouldn’t just throw your crockery in a box with no padding or protection from breakage; the same applies to your film. Everything in your home will require a certain level of care when moving to a new house, and cine reels need specific care to keep them from breaking.
When handling the film, always ensure you touch it at the edges, not on the flat surface of the film as dirt and oils from your hands can harm the film. If you intend to watch your film in the future on a projector, you need to ensure there are no breakages or tears, especially in the sprocket holes as this is how the projector pulls the film through its path.
Make sure your hands are clean before handling and consider a pair of nitrile gloves to protect the film from fingerprints. When handling the film, ensure you are in a clean environment to minimise the exposure to dust and airborne particles that could damage the film. The process of moving your cine reels should be done carefully and with consideration, so set aside time in the moving process to do this properly.
Store in Proper Conditions
The images on your film will be highly sensitive to environmental conditions, including temperature and humidity, so make sure you are storing your reels in the best conditions. This can be difficult if you’re doing a move that requires a long journey of many hours, but you should try your best.
Cine film requires between 20 – 30% humidity and a cool temperature. They should also be blocked from coming into contact with direct light and wound securely. So, if you’ve got a long journey to your new home, you’re better off keeping your cine reels in a location where you have more control over the environmental conditions. Consider keeping them in the car with you rather than putting them in a moving van or lorry. That way, you can control the internal temperature of the vehicle and keep things dry and cool to minimise the possibility of the film breaking during transit.
Prepare Space in the New House
If possible, you should try to set up a new home for your film in the new house before moving them. Too much exposure to the elements or a high level of humidity can cause disaster for your cine reels, so try not to bring them into a house that isn’t prepared for their storage.
Set aside a spot for them in a dry, cool place away from radiators and vents. Also, don’t break out the projector right away after the move. The film will need some time to acclimatise to the room temperature for at least 24 hours before playing back.
Convert them to DVDs Beforehand
One of the best ways to ensure the safety of your film is by future-proofing the footage with a DVD or MP4 conversion from Cine2DVD. When you convert cine film to DVD, you get the reassurance that your footage has been preserved on a more reliable format should the worst happen.
It’s better to put a contingency plan in place by backing up your precious footage before you move house, rather than getting settled only to discover that the film was damaged during transit. When you convert your reels to DVDs, you can have them ready as a backup so you can still view your footage should your reels become unwatchable.
At Cine2DVD, we have over 30 years of experience transferring family memories to DVDs or digital files on USB. We strive to provide the best possible results to every film we convert using our archive-quality equipment for scanning and digitising cine film to perfection. The process is simple and inexpensive, and we present the final product to you in industry-standard quality library cases.
There’s no need to worry about losing your cine reels, as we post these back to you along with your DVDs, so you can still watch them for as long as they work. Once they start to degrade, you have your backup available so you can always watch your precious footage. Contact us today to learn more about cine conversions.
