It was said that my grandfather spent more money on film than virtually anything else but perhaps his children’s education. Recording the memories of his family for generations to come was a great priority, as evidenced by the use of costly 16mm film, elaborate lighting setups, and obsessive care and organization of the film archives. The rapidly deteriorating film needed to be digitized in a way that stayed as true as possible to the media.

Maintaining the look and feel of the physical objects and the experience of watching home movies on a clumsy, noisy projector were design objectives for the digitized film archives. The opening sequence begins with the sound of the projector spooling up, and film leader was blended with shots of the six family members. A handwritten typeface was selected to match the handwritten labels on the cases. The music of Benny Goodman, my grandfather’s favorite musician, plays in the background. Lastly, individual frames of film were used as organizational elements in the menu.