Life's best moments, relived.
Tape, film and photographs, brought back to the screen by the people who have been doing it in Red Bank for forty years. And now, the stories that were never filmed at all.
From a shoebox in the closet to the screen in your hand.
Whatever your memories are trapped in, we have the equipment to get them out, and the craft to make them worth sitting down to watch.
Tape Transfers
Whatever tape format you have, we have the deck to play it and the hands to bring it to your screen.
See the formats
Film Transfers
8mm, Super 8, 16mm and 35mm, transferred frame by frame on a telecine, before the reels fade any further.
See the process
Slide and Photo Scanning
From a messy box of slides and prints to clean digital files, ready to share with everyone at once.
See what we scan
Legacy Documentary
What is left in the end? A filmed life story, researched, interviewed and edited, that your family will still be watching in a hundred years.
Our flagship service
Photo Montage
Give your photographs more life than they have ever had: motion, music, titles and a story with a beginning and an end.
See how it works
Video Editing
Our editors take your footage and photographs and craft them into a moving journey down memory lane.
Talk to an editor
The film nobody thought to shoot.
A legacy documentary is a kind of love letter. A gift to ourselves, to the people we love, and to the generations who will marvel at how we lived.
Everything else we do rescues footage that already exists. This one creates it. We sit down with you, we film the day, and we weave the interview together with your photographs, your home movies and the history of the world you grew up in.
Forty years of professional film, on your side.
rewindyourtime.com is the family side of Custom Video Productions, a working video house that has produced for Bell Labs, AT&T, Rutgers and Hackensack Meridian Health since 1978. The same editors, the same suites, the same care. Just pointed at your shoebox instead of a boardroom.
Relive, share and archive your most cherished memories.
Drop your treasures off in Red Bank, or start with a conversation. Either way, the first consult is free.
A legacy documentary is a love letter.
Imagine your great-great-grandmother telling you stories about her life and walking you around her neighbourhood as it was. Her gift to you would be priceless. With today's cameras, we can do exactly that for your family. We will be among the first generation ever to have done it.
For forty years this company has rescued other people's footage: reels and cassettes and shoeboxes full of pictures, all of it shot by somebody who thought to pick up a camera at the right moment.
A legacy documentary is what we make when nobody did. We sit down with you, we listen, and we film the answer properly. Then we go and find the world you are describing and put it on the screen beside you. It is the most meaningful work we do, and I look forward to meeting your family and helping you tell this story.
A gift to the people who come after you.
A legacy documentary is a beautiful way to share the story of your life. It is a gift for your children, your grandchildren, and the generations who will marvel at the world where you grew up and where you live today.
With your photographs, home movies, clippings, artwork and the music of the time, we tell your story in an extraordinary way: not a slideshow with narration over it, but a film with a shape, a thread and an ending.
It works for a parent turning eighty, a founder handing over a business, a couple marking a fiftieth anniversary, or anyone who has noticed that the stories only get told at the table and never get written down.
Most of it is a conversation. The camera fades.
A small crew, one or two people. No difficult questions. No rush. We stay with any topic until you feel good about your answer.
Three movements, at a relaxed pace.
Most legacy documentaries are filmed in a single day. Everything around that day is designed to make the day feel easy.
Research and preparation
The first step is getting to know each other. We explain the work, then begin to explore your story together, at an enjoyable pace. As we gather material we stay in touch with any family members who want to contribute their own photographs, questions and memories.
Filming
We plan a whole day around filming, so the interview can breathe and we can capture a day in the life: a walk around the house, the neighbourhood, the workshop. If the story needs a second day, we come back. Some things are worth more than a schedule.
Editing
Editing a life story is sacred work, and we get entirely immersed in it. As archivists we can bring almost any material you give us into the film, and we know how to find the historical footage and photographs of the periods you talk about. Eight to twelve weeks.
What it costs.
One conversation, one filming day, and a finished film your family keeps forever. Every package begins with the free consultation.
- Initial consultation, talking points, and gathering of your photos, videos and movies
- Two-camera interview, plus B-roll of the home and surroundings, including drone footage
- Digitising of your photographs, videotapes and old movies
- Research and use of supporting historical footage and photographs
- Delivery in a range of formats, for archiving and for sharing with family
- Two additional days of filming, for multiple locations and interviews with friends and family
- A coffee-table book of selected photographs to accompany the film
- A printed transcript of the full interview or interviews
- We meet, and talk about whose story it is and what you already have
- We tell you honestly whether a documentary is the right thing, or whether a montage or a transfer would serve you better
- You receive a written scope and timeline before anything is committed
Most legacy interviews finish in one day together. Occasionally there is more story than a day holds, or the day we came was not the right day. We would rather come back than rush it.
A second pass to make adjustments or corrections to the finished film is included. Beyond that, further editing is available by the hour.
The things everybody asks.
And a few that people are too polite to ask, answered anyway.
It is a beautiful way to share the story of your life: a gift for your children, your grandchildren, and the generations who will marvel at the world where you grew up and where you live today. With your photographs, movies, clippings, artwork and the music of the period, we can tell your story in an extraordinary way.
We start with an introductory meeting to get to know each other, discuss questions and ideas, and begin gathering the material that contributes to your story. We also talk about where you feel most comfortable being interviewed. On the day, or days, of filming, we take our time.
We help you with that. Going through your photographs and movies together, we select the ones that best match the topics in the film.
There are a few standard questions, but most of the interview is built on your individual story: things we learn about you during the consultations, and questions that come from your family and friends.
By then we have already discussed the questions and the topics you and your family want to cover. For you, it is time to relax and look forward to a good day. The interview will be far easier than you expect.
That is not uncommon at all. Most of us feel self-conscious with a camera pointed at us, but a well-conducted interview feels much more like a conversation. After a while the camera fades into the background. There is no rush, there are no difficult questions, and we stay with any topic until you feel good about your answer.
Wherever feels most comfortable for you: your living room, your back yard, the shop, anywhere you like.
After we film together, editing usually takes eight to twelve weeks.
Whose story is it?
Call or write to learn more about legacy documentaries, rates and packages. The first conversation costs nothing.
Technical or creative, we have you covered.
Two halves of the same job. One brings your memories out of formats nothing plays any more. The other turns them into something worth sitting down to watch.
Specialised equipment, and the people who know how to run it.
Through equipment most places no longer own, and skills most places never had.
Tape Transfers
Wondering what is on all those videotapes still lying around? For over forty years we have brought those family memories back to life.
Whatever videotape you have, we transfer it to a digital file, thumb drive, hard drive or DVD that plays on any computer or television. Instantly shareable with your family, or with the world.
Film Transfers
Old reels stored away need transferring soon. Every year they deteriorate a little more, losing image and sound quality.
Film was the earliest way families captured moving memories; most home movies were shot between 1960 and the late 1970s. Imagine what is on them.
Our telecine process gives the best picture the film can give, and we transfer just about any gauge you have hidden away.
Slide and Photo Scanning
For those who remember the screen being set up and the click of the projector: 35mm slides were how a beautiful still was shown at home. Today we make viewing and sharing them a great deal easier.
Once your slides and prints are professionally digitised you have the option of instant digital delivery, a thumb drive, a hard drive or a DVD. Every original comes back to you.
If your project needs a creative flair, we can help there too.
The same editors and the same suites that produce CVP's commercial work, turned toward your family.
Legacy Videos
Your legacy video is an opportunity to recall the events and experiences that make you who you are, and to share that story with the people you love. Highlight the important people and milestones in your life, and say what you appreciate about them.
We build each legacy video from what already exists: old photographs, videos, film and slides. And, when the story needs it, new footage and a proper interview. That is the Legacy Documentary.
Photo Montages
Paper photographs are becoming a thing of the past: scattered in a drawer and long forgotten. "One day I will get to it" never happens. The time is now.
We craft a story from your pictures with titles, music, motion and narration. You took the time to make the photographs. Now is the time to share them.
Video Editing
Our editors and professional tools take your memories to the next level. A basic clean-up of old video, or photos, video, audio and text mixed into a compelling journey down memory lane, or any other presentation you need.
Once we see what you are working with, our team recommends how best to use the material and make the most of your memories.
Relive, share and archive your most cherished memories.
Contact us for a free custom quote, or just to ask whether the thing in your closet can still be played.
From a shoebox in your closet to a film on any screen.
No mail-in gamble, no anonymous warehouse. You hand your originals to a person in Red Bank, and a person hands them back. Here is everything that happens in between.
Drop off
Bring everything, even the formats you assume are dead, and the unlabelled tapes nobody can identify. We look at it with you, then give you an estimate and a timeline within the week.
Clean and repair
Tapes are checked for mould and broken splices, reels for shrinkage and brittle leader, slides for dust. Whatever needs repairing before it can be played, we repair.
Scan and transfer
Film goes frame by frame through the telecine. Tape plays on the deck it was made for. Slides and prints are scanned at full resolution. Everything happens on our own equipment, in our own building.
Digitise and retouch
Colour brought back, exposure evened out, dust and scratches removed, audio synced and cleaned. Not to make it look new, but to make it look the way you remember.
Edit and master
Trimmed, titled and, if you like, cut into a story with music. Then mastered for where it will live: a television, a phone, a website, or the family archive.
Files, drive or disc
Instant digital delivery, a thumb drive, a hard drive or a DVD. From MOV masters down to something that plays on a grandparent's television. Tell us what you want to do with it and we will point you to the right one.
Every original comes home with you.
White-glove from drop-off to pickup. Your originals are one of a kind, they are handled that way throughout, and every one of them is returned. We keep a copy of your digital master on file, in case a drive is ever lost.
Plain answers to the plain questions.
Estimates and timelines
Schedule a time to drop off your treasures. We review them and come back with a no-pressure estimate and a delivery timeline within a week.
Payment
Payment is arranged once a job has started, never before you know what the work involves and what it costs.
White-glove handling
From drop-off to pickup. Your originals are irreplaceable and they are treated that way, by people, in one building.
Deliverables
A multitude to choose from, DVD through to MOV. Tell us what you are trying to accomplish and we will guide you to the assets that get you there.
Ready when you are.
Book a drop-off, or call and describe what you have found. We will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.
Forty years of trust for your one-of-a-kind treasures.
rewindyourtime.com is the family side of Custom Video Productions, Inc., a working video house on the Navesink in Red Bank, New Jersey, with four decades behind it.
No two stories are alike.
The team at rewindyourtime.com has forty years of experience crafting and preserving priceless memories. Through professionalism, creativity and accountability you can rest assured of a superior experience, transparency, and over-delivering at every step.
When it comes to family memories, no two stories are alike. That is the whole reason this is done by people, in one building, and not by a machine in a warehouse.
We love helping you relive, share and archive your precious memories.
Custom Video Productions, est. 1978.
It started with a curious kid who found his father's film equipment in the attic. By his junior year of high school Frank Farrell had launched Custom Video Productions; within a decade he was producing for Bell Labs and AT&T. Today CVP shoots, edits, animates and flies drones for hospitals, universities and manufacturers across New Jersey.
Your shoebox gets the same building, the same suites and the same people.
Pick up the phone.
All it takes is a quick, friendly chat. Tell us what you have found and we will tell you what it is worth doing. Free custom quotes, no pressure.
Custom Video Productions. Red Bank, since 1978.
rewindyourtime.com is one division of a full-service production house. This is the rest of it.
A curious kid, an attic, and a camera.
Frank Farrell discovered pictures through his father's film equipment in the attic of his parents' house. When his music teacher asked him to run the school's new black-and-white reel-to-reel video system, he mastered it quickly, bought his own gear, and started shooting weddings and sporting events.
In 1978, in his junior year of high school, he launched Custom Video Productions. During college a summer internship turned into becoming the primary video producer for Bell Laboratories in Holmdel. Over the following decade he produced hundreds of corporate and industrial films for Bell Labs, AT&T and Lucent Technologies.
Today CVP's team shoots video, flies drones, builds motion graphics and animation, photographs facilities and teams, and produces for hospitals, universities, pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers. Founded to feed the creative urges and technical obsession of one owner, it is more passionate than ever.
Four decades, one core service.
Founded
Frank launches Custom Video Productions while still in high school, already shooting weddings and sport.
Bell Labs
A summer internship becomes the primary producer role for Bell Laboratories in Holmdel. Hundreds of films for Bell Labs, AT&T and Lucent follow.
Full service
Motion graphics, animation, photography and a private studio join the offer. Health care, pharma and higher education become the core clients.
Red Bank HQ
Drone cinematography, time-lapse, explainer video and, on the family side, rewindyourtime.com. Awards from the NJ Ad Club, JSPRAA, NJBMA and a first place from the NJVA.
An all-star team of creative and business professionals.
The people who will be handling your family's memories.
Plus the sustainability division: Spring, Pearl, Betty and Barbara, who provide fresh eggs daily. Ask about them when you visit.
Watch what the same team makes for business.
Corporate video, animation, drone work and explainers for clients like Bayer, Eli Lilly, Hackensack Meridian Health, CentraState, Rutgers, AT&T, Kohl's and Bartlett Tree Experts.
Same building. Same hands. Your memories.
15 Lakeshore Drive, Red Bank. Come by, or call 732.930.2262.
From the closet to your whole family, with ease.
Right on the Navesink, at the foot of the Cooper Bridge. Walk in with a shoebox, or start with a call.
Opening hours
The studio
We share the building with Custom Video Productions, our parent company. Same door, same team. If you are here for corporate work, ask for CVP at cvpnj.com.
Free parking on site. The building sits between the bridge and the river, so if you can see the water you are close.
Tell us roughly what you have.
And what you would like to do with it. We answer every message, usually the same day.