Everyone has old video tapes tucked away with precious memories of weddings, family milestones and special holidays – I had half a shipping container full.
I couldn’t argue when my wife suggested it was time to konmari (clear out) the container. Like Harrison Ford cutting through the jungle in Raiders of the Lost Ark I dived in and was pleasantly surprised to find, packed away in crisp, heavy duty cardboard boxes, my vast video archive spanning 40 years. This large collection was on VHS, DV, Mini DV and Beta tapes, and it didn’t take me long to realise that if I didn't find a way to digitise this analogue content pretty soon all historical footage would be lost forever.
It all started in my early 20s after a stint as a Theatre Corporate actor when I became madly keen on becoming a filmmaker. In the 1980s one of my close friends was a TV editor and she too was passionate about social issues so we set up a company called Umbrella Films and started making documentaries.
At that time, the idea of American nuclear ships in Auckland harbour was very concerning, so when my dear friend Rex Le Grice (now departed) invited us to became the official videographers for the Peace Squadron we jumped aboard. The footage of the flotilla from those 5am escapades shot on borrowed equipment was the beginning of our video archive.
When the warship arrived, a group of women had set up the Devonport women’s peace camp to protest on land. This culminated in 40,000 people, mainly women, marching up Queen Street to rally for a Nuclear Free Pacific. Our small film crew was there to capture the mood of protest power. The crowd stretched the entire length of Queen Street and filled Aotea Square where the young MP from Mt Albert, Helen Clark, gave a rousing speech and the Topp Twins sung their iconic anti nuclear anthem.
Before the internet and YouTube, television programmes made outside the network system were difficult to sell or get screened. Our documentary called Women on the Move went on to win a special prize at the1984 Inaugural Media Peace Awards and was screened on TV One.
Throughout my life I have carried on filming events. However, because of the cost of traditional editing, have rarely been able to turn them into finished content until now. In 1999 I arranged to shoot the multiple stages at the Puhinui Sweetwaters Festival with over 20 video cameras. The creme de la creme of NZ musical talent performed at this festival and it will be a huge relief for me when this substantial musical archive is finally digitised and preserved, making it easy to access for all the Kiwi artists who took part.
A lot of our early footage was shot on old-fashioned Beta tapes with equipment that was begged, borrowed and always returned. Now the majority of the technicians who serviced the playback machines have retired and it is fun to watch a new generation, full of fascination for these obsolete machines, tinker away trying to get them going. In our archive waiting to be digitised is the Triangle TV launch and the Inaugural Hero Festival gala, along with a rainy Hero night parade down Ponsonby Road that capturers an amazing slice of Auckland’s pumping gay past.
In other boxes we found forgotten footage of the Bop Olympics, Aotearoa’s response to the burgeoning international break dancing movement in the 1980s.
My wife has material from her years acting, as well as pieces she made during her uni studies in broadcasting. One features her nana, now long passed, and the other her never screened short film Nudes. It was marvellous to find an early VHS of my very first beloved dog Rosy. Seeing significant snippets of our lives on these tapes has inspired me to let you know about the creation of Melva Media: currently occupying the unused Tiny Theatre at Garnet Station in Westmere. Our friend Peter is a master at cleaning old tapes, meticulously removing dust and mould then carefully digitising it before transferring the footage to a hard drive, USB stick and uploading to the Cloud, or any place you choose.
Setting up Melva Media means that now everyone's video tapes, no matter what format or condition they are in, can be saved, digitised and transferred so they are immediately able to be edited, watched and shared with all the people in your life who would love to see them. (Lisa Prager)
