Preserving Memory in the Age of Forgetting: An Interview with Paul Schneider

Welcome to our interview series, Before we begin, Paul, could you introduce yourself in your own words?

Thanks for having me! My name is Paul Schneider and I run a Media Transfer company called Remember Whenever, serving Fairfield County, Connecticut. I help families, individuals and businesses convert their old video tapes, photos, slides, film reels, audio recordings and other media into digital formats they can watch, use, share and preserve for future generations.

I spent 14 years working at possibly the largest media digitization company in Southern California, where I did everything from transferring video tapes and scanning photos to working with audio cassettes, vinyl records, and old film reels. I eventually worked my way up to Operations Manager for our order processing center, so I saw firsthand pretty much every part of the business.

When I moved to Connecticut in January 2025, I decided to take everything I’d learned and build something of my own.

1. What was the very first moment you realized that preserving memories wasn’t just a job for you, but something you deeply cared about?

It happened pretty early on in my old job, actually. I remember a customer who hadn’t heard her mother’s voice since she had passed, decades before. She brought some old reel-to-reel tapes to have digitized and when she picked them up, she asked to take a listen and just broke down. She was so overjoyed that something like this could be salvaged and she was able to hear her mother speak again.

That’s when I realized that this work wasn’t just about the conversion of old formats. It’s giving people back pieces of their lives they thought were gone.

2. After 14 years in L.A. working your way up to operations manager, what was one lesson from that chapter that directly shaped the way you now run Remember Whenever?

I learned to build systems that work consistently and efficiently. Systems that were honed over decades of being tested daily, and systems that I use in my business today to ensure things run smoothly and nothing gets lost or damaged. I run a business that is currently less than a year old but has 20 years of experience behind it!

3. Moving cross-country and launching a business in the same season is a huge life leap. What personal mindset or belief helped you stay grounded during that transition?

Honestly, it was knowing that even though I was starting a business from scratch, I was an expert in my field and knew exactly how to get the ball rolling right away. I’d done thousands of transfers, solved countless technical problems, worked with every type of media you can imagine. I was now finally able to put all that experience to work for myself.

I also grew up watching my dad run his own business, so running my own business has always been a dream. The move to Connecticut just felt like the right time to make it happen.

4. Each type of media, VHS, slides, film, vinyl, negatives, carries a different kind of nostalgia. Which format feels most powerful or emotional for you when you revive it?

I think that old film definitely has the most power to it, especially if it has sound. There’s something about seeing people moving, sometimes nearly 100 years ago that has me in awe every time I see it. Some of the reels I’ve seen have been locked up in cans since they were shot and never even watched before, so to be the first person in a century to see some old family footage is truly amazing. You get to see so many slices of life that you don’t get from seeing old Hollywood movies from the same era. People’s homes, family pets, cars and clothes. I love it!

5. When handling delicate items like old photo albums or brittle film reels, what techniques or habits have you developed to ensure nothing is ever rushed or overlooked?

Years of professional experience have taught me that patience isn’t optional, it’s often 90% of the job. You cannot rush this type of work. Everything gets inspected before I start and I never take on more than I can handle carefully. If something is brittle, it’s going to be handled with the utmost TLC because it is likely the only copy of it in existence.

6. You offer services from tapes to data extraction. Which service do customers seem most surprised or relieved to learn you can handle?

It truly seems like every time a new customer calls me, they seem surprised that any of their media can be transferred! I think we’ve gone so far past the time of having the machines that can play these old recordings in our homes, that we think they’re just gone. If anyone reading this has something they thought nobody could possibly do anything with, there’s definitely people out there who can help!

7. Free pickup and delivery isn’t common in the digitization industry. What motivated you to include it, and how has it shaped your connection with the local community?

It isn’t common, and it’s even less common to have someone come out for any size order. And even less common again for the owner to be the one doing it! I will drive out personally to pick up one video tape or a thousand photos, and if you’re in our free pickup area, it’s no charge.

I want to make the process as easy as I possibly can for my customers, as they’ve likely spent a lot of time organizing their media or putting off doing something with it. If I can remove that one extra step of hauling it across town, I will. Customers love it, and the most common thing I hear people say when I pick up is, “That was so easy”.

Plus from a selfish point of view, being fairly new to the area I get to drive to places I’d likely never get to and explore my beautiful new home!

8. You grew up watching your dad run his own business. What is one small routine or philosophy of his that you’ve brought into Remember Whenever?

Treat every customer like they’re your only customer. He would always give his customers his full attention, and would always go above and beyond for people. Even seeing that as a ten year old, that got engrained in me. At a big company, you’re often just another job. But with me, you’re another human being and your memories matter. I want every customer of mine to feel like they’re getting the same care that I’d give my own family’s media.

9. Have you ever digitized something that stopped you in your tracks, not because of the content itself, but because of the story or meaning attached to it?

I’m glad you said “not because of the content” because I’ve seen some things that I definitely wish I could forget!

I’ve seen some really beautiful things, historically important things and helped digitize some truly incredible collections of media and art. Most recently I worked with a customer who had Civil War-era documents and family letters going back generations. Holding something that old, knowing you’re helping preserve it forever – it’s humbling. He had a handwritten diary of an ancestor who started the diary on the day he decided to take up arms in the Civil War, and detailed his experience throughout.

10. From a technical perspective, which format is the most challenging to restore, and what makes the challenge satisfying?

Photo restoration can be very tricky, especially if the photo is very old and you have cracks and folds in the photo that cross over someone’s face. You might have to rebuild parts of the photo from other parts of the photo and it can be very tricky and time consuming. But once you have it done and you can look at the before and after side-by-side, it’s so satisfying to see.

11. Many people hesitate to digitize their media because they’re afraid it’s too damaged or too old. What’s a misconception you wish you could clear up for them?

That “too old” is rarely true, and “too damaged” is often less severe than they think. I’ve transferred tapes from the 70s and 80s that play beautifully. Even when there’s obvious damage, it’s often salvageable and we can recover most of the content.

I’d always say, take it to a professional even if you think it’s too far gone, because people who have been doing this for a while have a lot of tricks to recover your media.

12. Some memories don’t just bring back nostalgia, they bring closure, joy, connection, even healing. Have you seen this emotional impact firsthand through your customers?

As I mentioned before with the lady hearing her mother’s voice for the first time in decades, this is a common occurrence and I often say that I have one of the very few jobs where making your customer cry is a good thing! That emotional impact is such a rewarding part of my job.

These old pieces of tape, paper and plastic are so much more than the sum of their parts. They very rarely bring about anything less than a smile when people view them or listen back. I’m sure that there have been so many emotional moments where I don’t get to see it – like when people first see it at home, or share these digitized versions with family and friends.

13. Your service list includes rescuing data from floppy and Zip disks, things most people forget they still own. What’s one unexpected item someone rediscovered this way?

I had a customer once who had written a book in the 90’s that he had never had published. I guess he saved it and misplaced it, and didn’t realize it was stored on one of the floppy disks he’d brought to us. He was so happy to have found it and later had it published and sent me a copy!

14. Running a new business means learning constantly. What’s been the biggest business skill you’ve developed since opening in Connecticut?

Something I had never touched in my previous job was online visibility and SEO. I was always focused on operations and the job itself, and never had anything to do with how our customers would find us. Now it’s all on me. I’ve spent a lot of time learning how people actually search for these services, and it’s interesting to realize that what seems like normal language to me can sound like industry jargon to customers – and they have their own terms for what we do. Understanding that language and making sure people can find me has been a huge learning curve, but a valuable one.

15. Looking toward the future, what new possibilities or innovations excite you most about the world of media preservation?

The technology for restoration keeps getting better and now with the dawn of AI assistance for upscaling and reducing noise I think we’re going to see some incredible innovations. It’s not quite at a point where it’s affordable to the average person to upscale hours of video tape footage, but I think within the next few years it will hopefully be a service we can offer to our customers.

I think we’ll get to a point where old VHS tape footage will be able to be turned into crisp, HD video and I’m truly excited about that possibility!