c/best-found-footage

Found 14 minutes of my family's 1997 Disney trip on an old Hi8 tape

I was digitizing tapes from my parents' closet last week and one had just static until minute 17, then suddenly my sister at 6 years old is waving at a parade crowd that isn't there. Creepy part is the audio has this low humming sound that isn't in any other footage on the same tape. Has anyone else had random blank segments turn into actual memories, or am I just losing it?

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spencerw72•2d ago

Found a 3 hour VHS of a church potluck from 1987 and the last 10 minutes are something else

I grabbed a random tape from an estate sale in Boise last weekend for 50 cents. Most of it is exactly what you expect, folding chairs, Jell-O salads, someone's grandma waving at the camera. But around the 2 hour 50 minute mark the tape cuts to a different recording entirely. It looks like the same church but at night, and there's a guy in a dark hoodie standing in the back pew just staring at the camera without moving for like 5 straight minutes. The audio is dead quiet too, no organ hum or anything. Then it just snaps back to the potluck like nothing happened. I've watched it 4 times now and I can't figure out if it's a prank or a bad splice or what. Anyone else ever found a tape where the mood shifts that hard that fast?

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tyler368•6d ago

That thrift store VHS in Fargo that had someone else's family trip

Found this tape at a Goodwill in Fargo about 6 years back, just labeled 'Summer 87' in shaky marker. The first 20 minutes were a kid's birthday party, then it cut to a random gas station parking lot for like an hour. This one guy walked by the camera and just stared into it for a solid 10 seconds without blinking. I still wonder if he knew it was recording, or if he was just weird about the sun. Has anyone else found a tape where the boring parts somehow stick with you more than the actual events?

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gray_gibson•8d ago

That VHS tape with the wedding and the hidden room, I watched it 6 times before I got it

Found this tape at an estate sale in Tulsa for $2. It was a wedding from 1989, real boring stuff for the first 20 minutes. Then the cameraman wanders off during the reception and films a hallway. There's a door that's slightly open, and you can see a hand pull it shut real slow. I thought it was a guest messing around. Watched it 5 times and laughed each time. On the 6th watch I noticed the hand was coming from inside the room, not the hall. And the door had a padlock on the outside. Has anyone else had a tape that took multiple viewings before the creepy part hit you?

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xena_williams•9d ago

Thrift store VHS had a wedding and a funeral in the same tape

Last month I grabbed a box of old VHS tapes at a flea market outside Tulsa for 5 bucks. One tape was just labeled 'Family Stuff' with a marker. I popped it in and it was someone's whole life mashed together, a wedding from 1987 and then a funeral maybe 2 years later. The wedding had this hilarious moment where the ring bearer tripped over the cake table. Then the tape cut to the funeral and I could see the same people in black, same backyard setup. Creepy part is there's no audio on either part, just silent footage. It felt like I was intruding on something private, but I couldn't stop watching. Has anyone else found a tape that mixes happy and sad moments like that?

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ivangrant•11d ago

That thrift store VHS camcorder turned out to be a blessing in disguise

I found an old VHS-C camcorder at a thrift store in Spokane for $15, mostly for the nostalgia of shooting like it was 1996. Last Tuesday it started eating tapes, making this terrible grinding sound that got worse every time I tried to rewind. I popped the battery out and shook it, cleaned the heads with a cotton swab and alcohol, and still it chewed up my only copy of a local punk show from 1999. Instead of pitching it, I pulled the whole outer shell off and noticed a tiny gear that looked cracked, so I 3D printed a replacement using a file I found on a forgotten forum. It runs perfect now, plays every tape smoothly, and honestly feels way more satisfying than buying something new. Is it smarter to fix these relics or just hunt down a working model online when the repair eats a whole evening like this one did?

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kellymurphy•13d ago

That $4 VHS from a church sale in Reno had a whole wedding on it, now I check every tape's runtime first

Went to a church rummage sale last month, grabbed a random unmarked VHS for pocket change. Popped it in and it was someone's 1987 wedding, full ceremony, no label. Kinda cool but also weird. Now I always look at the tape length before buying. If it's 60 minutes and the label says "Family" I skip it. Found out the hard way that most home recordings are boring family stuff. Anyone else find random personal tapes like this and actually watch them all the way through?

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umasullivan•17d ago

The 2006 wedding tape that made me stop trusting "family" labels

Last month I dug through a box at a yard sale in Boise and grabbed a mini DV tape labeled "Sullivan Wedding, June 2006." I figured it was just some stranger's boring reception, but popped it in out of curiosity. The first 20 minutes are normal, then the camera pans to a guy in a blue shirt who is clearly not part of the wedding party, just standing by the buffet. He stares into the lens for a solid minute, then walks off, and the tape cuts to static for the rest of the hour. Three weeks later I found the same guy in a 1998 home video I bought off eBay from a seller in Ohio, same blue shirt, same stare. I contacted the seller and she said the tape belonged to her uncle who died in 2003, and he never owned that shirt. So now I'm wondering, how many of these random tapes have the same face in them? Has anyone else run into a repeat person across totally unrelated found footage?

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