Merry Christmas from the 1950s! (vintage Kodachrome footage)

Just in time for the holidays, I discovered this amazing time warp movie: Christmas morning, sometime in the late 1950s, shot on Kodachrome 16mm film stock. Jeff Altman recently uncovered his grandfather’s rolls of the film and had it developed, then converted to digital, and he did professional color-correction on it using a very expensive machine. Then he put it to some nice music and suddenly you are there in practically HD quality watching his mother and sisters as young children open their presents, just like it was yesterday.

It’s very nostalgic to see the toys, the decorations, the clothes, the hairstyles, etc., from that era just as they were. Step back in time:

If you would like to see more of Jeff Altman’s amazing vintage 16mm film footage, you can click this link to go to his Vimeo page.

I also found a short animated Christmas card from a couple of years ago called “Xmas Frog,” which is about what happens when Santa’s sleigh becomes too attractive to let it get away…

This was the most interesting Christmas-related video I found, and no, there’s not much of a story, but it’s holiday-appropriate.

So in keeping with the theme of my blog, here’s an actual short film shot and edited by the Vimeo staff, and it IS a very funny one. The plot is pretty simple: Vimeo moved to a new office, and one very perky employee forgot. If you remember Marlo Thomas in “That Girl” it’s even funnier:

This little “New Office” video was actually shot on the Canon 7D, and you can see some of the problems with shooting HD video on a DSLR. Some of the shots are wobbly, and it’s not the best technical quality. But the story is so short, and the character is so naturally funny and endearing, you don’t really notice all that stuff, because there isn’t time. It’s well paced, it keeps the theme tight and focused and follows the joke through all the way to the end. Great example of what you can do with a clever idea and funny actors.

EDIT:

Merry Christmas!

JMG