Film-to-Video Tutorial:
Who I Am

About Selecting "The Best" Regular 8mm Film, Super 8 Movie Film, and 16mm Movie Film to Video Transfer Method for You.

Who I am.

Me, first haircut, 1955. (Picture from 8mm film)	Me, thankful for hair, 2005

Bruce Mayfield

Resume

Experience: Doing business as Mayfield Productions and as a former Producer at WFGX TV, Bruce has over 20 years experience in photography, videography, and television.

Film-to-DVD: "The first" small format film transfer company to switch to MiniDV -- literally a couple of days after MiniDV technology was introduced in the national press. Bruce invested in the first "fully digital studio" dedicated to 8mm film transfer in the USA and is a pioneer in Digital Film Transfers.

Bruce literally trashed much of the analogue video technology that is still being used today by film transfer studios -- to which he refers to as "the transfer mills". As a Computer Systems Specialist, he was able to side-step the error of using MPEG2 (DVD) digital technology for archiving film -- instead, choosing MiniDV -- which has since become "the standard" of consumer, prosumer, and professional studios.  Today, he is a consume advocate in the Film Transfer Industry -- making the public conscience of the pros and cons of domestic film preservation.

Education: BS in Computer Systems, MBA in Marketing & Management, and MS in Clinical Counseling & Psychology. Minor in Music and Theater Arts with an emphasis in Media Arts.

Other: Currently earning CEU credits, as a student in Landmark Education, Bruce continues both his professional and personal education. 

Personal

Bruce has a personal interest in helping families preserve their sense of identity and unity. "Who we are as a family?" and "Where we come from?", are very important questions that a family must answer -- to stay a family. Home movies are nothing short of a resurrection of both the images and memories of our "loved ones" past and present.

Old "home movies" allow family members, of all ages, to celebrate own own "cycle of life" -- birth, rites of passage, mythological motifs, survival, and death -- in a very personal way.

Bruce says, "I know of no better way to get families to talk to each other again than letting them watch their Film-to-DVD Legacy together. It invites families think about what is really important!"

Now we are one of the few companies that offer a true "master" tape -- from which DVDs are made, not visa versa. This is more expensive and time consuming, but it is "the right way to do it" -- so we do it. It is something I am personally proud of.

Ultimately, when my clients are able to adapt their archives to technology shifts in the future, with "full frame", "high resolution" masters, I will feel like I have rendered a "true service" that will prove a "true value" -- time and time again.

My Staff

One of my best kept secrets is that I hire some of the best people in the world to work for me. You can have the best equipment in the world to work with, but if the person running it has not both the "head and the heart" to do a superior job, you will only get a mediocre result. However, given some one with both the "head and heart" to do their best -- even with only "adequate" equipment -- you will get a superior result.

Most of my staff have degrees from prestigious film schools or else they are already accomplished in the media arts. As such, they are to be regarded as artists -- not technicians -- which makes all the difference. Finally, but not lastly, they truly care about you and your film.

A Leader in the Film Transfer Industry:

We have earned the right to claim the status of one of the top film transfer studios in the world. We have work in museums around the world. We have done work destined for national museums of Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan -- say nothing of the Smithsonian -- and scores of small museums, like several Firefighters Museums. We have produced work for PBS and the National Film Archives. We have preserved declassified films from the "Cold War" on Remote Sensing for our US Military archives, and we have done our share digitalization of high speed missile tests. As of this writing, we have footage from the rescue at Los Baños, Philippines, the only footage of 1200 POWs rescued from the Japanese, 2 hours before they were to be executed. Our list of clients ranges from Hollywood producers, to Federal Judges, to Generals in the Military, to Executives of the Fortune 500. We have been entrusted with historical, never before seen footage of Presidents Roosevelt thru JFK, LBJ, Nixon and Regan -- before he, too, was President. The list goes on; However, our passion is in the preservation of the American family -- like yours. 

We were informed by a member of the Smithsonian that our clients may well constitute a majority of film archives that are "acceptable" by the Library of Congress as apart of our National Domestic Archive.  The great tragedy is that almost all footage now on VHS and DVD does not qualify, and will be lost to future generations because of "transfer mills". 

For years now, we have been the only consumer advocate in our industry -- pleading the virtues of digital longevity of digitizing to metal particle tape -- shunning DVD as an archive medium. As the archive world, including the Library of Congress and IBM, now take a firm stand against DVDs as an archive medium, stating that only film footage preserved on digital metal particle tape will stand the test of time, we now rest our case -- triumphantly -- against the damages to our domestic archives -- wrought by the "transfer mills".  Both our products and our quality will endure the test of time -- at the shame of the "transfer mills", and (unfortunately) at the expense of their clients. It is our opinion, in light of public data now available about the longevity of DVDs, that any "transfer mill" selling that DVDs as an archive, may well be inflicting damages upon the public -- for which they may be liable. In short, we are proud of our work, of our stance -- to archive films with integrity and longevity; and we are proud of what we have done to preserve the National Legacy of the American Family -- which is predominated by a long list of our clients. In context of our success, we do not need your business, but rather, we want your business, and, it is now your choice to add your name to that list of proud successes.

Finally, the highest honor I have -- though out the years, comes not from money, nor big clients, nor even the high visibility of some of my work. My highest honor, sadly, comes from my hospice clients. They choose my service to preserve their memory as a last act of their love to their family. This is a holy charge that I do not take lightly. I am deeply honored and humbled and made to realize -- with true gratitude for what is important in life, and life itself -- the work I do is so important. It is a sweet sorrow where laughter is found in tears and the restful repose in a smile and nodding of the head becomes the ultimate gift of letting go -- in order to just let go. As one of my clients said to me, "My video is nothing short of a brief, but priceless resurrection of so many people I have loved..", chuckled, "...and, now finally, learned to love. The most important thing to me now, is to want to watch this thing with my family -- one last time -- and know I have passed our memories on to my kids -- and know these memories will become the only memories for their kids, and their kids -- of us, our lives, and our times".

That I strive to be a leader in this industry, comes from the inspiration from my clients, not the desperation for clients. I think you understand.

Now that you know who I am and why I've made this tutorial, let's go to my Tutorial.