Home movie

The 1970s saw the advent of consumer camcorders that could record an hour or two of video on one relatively inexpensive videocassette which also had audio and did not need to be developed the way film did.

The development of home movie-making has depended critically on the availability of equipment and media formats (film stock, video tape, etc.)

[8] This format split the standard 35 mm film into two strips half as wide and could be loaded into the camera in daylight.

The resulting frames were nearly as large and clear as with the slightly later 16 mm format, which devoted much of its width to the stabilizing perforations.

Used both for making home movies and for showing shortened "cinema-at-home" versions of professionally made feature films, it enjoyed popularity for several decades in Europe, including the UK, but was virtually unknown in the US.

The film usually came in 16 mm wide "Double 8" form, which ran through the camera in two passes (one in each direction) and was slit in half after processing.

The availability of reversal film, both black-and-white and Kodachrome, was very important to the economics of home movie-making because it avoided the expense of separate negatives and positive prints.

The Super 8 format used the same film width as standard 8 mm, but the perforations were smaller, making room for larger frames that yielded a clearer image.

High-end Super 8 also could be purchased with a magnetic audio track, allowing for synchronized sound home movies.

Portability and small size of digital home movie equipment, such as smartphones, has led to the banning of such devices from various places, due to privacy and security concerns.

[10] Portability of digital equipment helps fuel other controversies as well, such as the incident on November 17, 2006, in which comedian Michael Richards got into a racist war of words with an audience member during his comedy club act.