Select a room where you can have full control of the light entering inside. Cover the windows with thick clothes or boards. During setup, use the room light, then turn it off prior to beginning the recording of the 8mm home movie with the video camera. You may also prefer to cover the windows after setting up the projector and video camera. However, doing this ahead of time is beneficial so you can readily test your projector and camera setup.
Put the prepared 8mm film on the 8mm film projector. Old 8mm films may require gentle cleaning using soft, lint-free cloth dampened with film cleaner available in most film shops. If you don't have a projector, check out Goodwill, eBay or any vintage camera store that sell such projectors.
Set up your white screen on a wall. Make sure the projector is properly aligned for projection on your white screen.
Set up your digital video camera right next to the projector so you can maintain the proper angle when acquiring the footage coming from it. Secure it in a tripod, then use the zoom and focus features of the camera to complete the setup for the recording of the footage from the white screen. Depending on the required storage device for your camera, load the tape, memory card, P2 card, DVD disc or camera hard drive in it. Plug the camera to an outlet to ensure you have continuous power throughout the duration of the recording.
Attach the unidirectional microphone to the camera so that you can acquire better quality audio from the recording. You may also use the camera's built-in mic, but you may have to contend with the noise coming from the projector during playback. As an alternative, make a separate recording of the sound with the camera placed farther from the projector to acquire better sound quality.
Turn off the lights and make a test shoot by pressing "Record" in your video camera, then start playback on the projector. After a few seconds, stop the recording and playback and check the footage recorded in your camera. Make any adjustments on the zoom, focus, sound, exposure, white balance and distance of the camera and projector to the white screen. Once done, cue everything for the actual recording.
Start the actual recording on your camera, then follow up with the playing of the 8mm film loaded in your projector. Although you may be lucky to get a quality recording in one pass, you may have to repeat the recording process another one or two times.
Connect the camera to the computer for the digitizing of the footage.
Open the video editing program and select "Capture" or "Import" so you can acquire the footage of the original 8mm home movie from the camera to the computer. Play the video in the camera and make a real-time recording of the footage to your computer.
Archive the digitized footage in your hard drive. You may want to burn a DVD copy of the movie file for more convenient playback options using standard DVD players or convert it to a compatible movie format for playback in multimedia players like an iPod, MP4 player or mobile phone.