This post features a standard 8 home movie taken on the Austrian Ski slopes in 1957 when a family made a film of themselves skiing at Igls.
The first thing I noticed when this film was scanned was how well preserved it was. The colours seem to pour out of the film and the clarity is much better than many old films. That could be because the snow meant there was a lot of light available and the camera lens was stopped down - most lenses perform best when stopped down a bit. The light could also have increased the shutter speed which would have reduced the chances of motion blur. Anyway, whatever the reason, this film seemed much crisper and better than many.
The other thing I observed is how well exposed the film is. Snow actually makes photography difficult because it is so bright. If you rely on a light meter you will normally under expose a film in snow, so whoever took this film was experienced enough to get it right. Incidentally, that photographer also produced some of the other films on vintage-home-moves - this link lists their films.
The film covers a family or possibly a couple on a skiing holiday in Igls in Austria in what I estimate to be 1957. The only actual clue to the age of the film is the fact that the box says on it 'Develop before April 1958'. It is possible that the film was kept beyond the develop before date, but not likely. Film was a fairly expensive commodity and most people would have bought a reel for a specific purpose and used it well ahead of that date.
Skiing at Igls
The actual film shows fairly typical scenes from a skiing holiday.
There are views of the cable cars travelling through the wooded scenery and some mountain ranges covered in snow. The section showing dancing in the evening was fairly unsuccessful because there wasn't enough light to properly capture it so it's mostly dark, but I left it in the film to keep it true to the original.
I think the thing I found most interesting was the sequence at about 2 minutes which shows some children on the ski slopes. Most of those children would now be about 70 to 80 years old. I wonder if any of them would ever see themselves in this on-line version of the film and remember it?
