Hollywood veteran turns home movies into classics

Posted at: 09/03/2009 12:37 PM | Updated at: 09/03/2009 2:15 PM
By: Sarah McCarthy and Pat McGonigle | WHEC.com

Rochester, N.Y. - Taylor Whitney believes that a home video of your great-grandmother is no less significant than a classic Hollywood film.

"We can save 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Wizard of Oz', but somebody's home movies are just as important to rescue in my opinion," Whitney says.

Whitney is the owner of "Preserving The Past", a business that specializes in helping people save their prized memories, be it film or photographs.

Originally located in California, Whitney moved the firm to Rochester in the spring of last year. Whitney worked as a film preservationist in the Hollywood film industry and fell in love with this area while pursuing a master's degree in Toronto.

"Rochester is the birth of film," Whitney explains.

It gradually occurred to Whitney that preserving family's cherished home movies and photo albums and organizing them into stories that can be easily told is more rewarding that restoring Hollywood films.

"The difference is that Hollywood studios have the budget to restore the original films," Whitney explains. "What I'm trying to do is offer the same service to private families at an affordable rate."

Preserving the Past offers either to place photos in an album or to move them to safe housing. She can also videotape clients as they view their final product and reminisce.

"It's an amazing experience," Whitney says. "It's like a history lesson every day. I love it."

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.

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