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TRANSCRIPT
MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVES
Ian BloomfieldGSLIS 733 Presentation
Dr. AlexanderApril, 2014
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MEDIUM CONCERNS
Film flammableexpensive
Television recycling of tape stockmagnets
Video DurabilityObsolescence
Recorded Sound Repeated playback = limited fidelity
Digital Media
Storage: estimated holdings of the LOC as text files = 20 TB; single feature film (hrs) digitized = 8 TB+ associated data files (edits, FX) = approx. 400 TB(Greene, 2007)
Obsolescence
Deletable, corruptable
PRESERVATION CHALLENGES
MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVES ~ TIMELINE
1888 First patented film camera designed by Louis Le Prince
International phenomenon
125+ years of moving image heritage & culture
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk
Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2011/05/win-a-newsroom-fellowship-by-rethinking-video-storytelling121/
Retrieved from http://www.louisleprince.co.uk/
“a history marked by shifting politics, standards and ideals as much by the changing technologies of preservation that continues to expand and control our understanding of the historical nature of the moving image.” (Fletcher & Yumibe, 2013, p.15)
“lack of preservation, lack of information and lack of accessibility” (Catterall & Morris, 1996, p.4)
“lack of a consistent public policy defines the terms of action.” (Knapskog, 2010, p.31)
”“the often intentional and sometimes accidental, preservation of the national cultural memory.”(Jenkins, 2013, p.231)
“fifty percent of our television history is destroyed” (Schreibman, 1991, p.89)
“The widespread recognition of the significance of motion pictures in American life is a fairly recent phenomenon, and to many people it is still a revelation that the films of their childhood had a value beyond the entertainment of the moment. It is a sad fact that this recognition has come too late to save more than half of the films produced in the land renowned for the development of this vibrant 20th Century art.” - Gregory Peck, The American Film Heritage, Impressions from the AFI Archives (1972) (quoted in Spehr, 2013, p.158)
MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVES ~ A QUOTABLE HISTORY
Primary source materials are assembled
Primary source materials can be isolated
Source materials includes paper records
Technology that requires technology
Multiple formats
Varied, obsolescing technology:
Scarcity of replacement parts
Lost operation documentation (instructions)
Skilled technicians to operate
Lack of documentation (tape logs, shot sheets)
Research vs. Corporate missions
SPECIFIC CHALLENGES
Legal/Political/Social agents
Technology
Funding
Bureaucracy
Provenance
Selection & Appraisal
Arrangement & Description
Preservation & Access
SHARED CHALLENGES
Consortia
Ethics & Standards
Professional Development
Education/Training
Awareness & Advocacy
Moral Rights
Social Memory
Narrative of Absence
Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/avconservation/packard
National Audiovisual Conservation CenterCulpeper, VA
Library of CongressNational Archives and Records
AdministrationUCLA Film & Television Archive
The Paley Center for MediaGeorge Eastman House International
Museum of Photography & Film
MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVES
Museum of Modern Art British Film Institute
Institute National de l’audiovisuelleEYE National Film Institute Netherlands
Canadian Broadcasting CorporationNew Zealand Film Archive
Archives of the Planet
National Public Broadcasting Archives at University of Maryland http://www.lib.umd.edu/special
University of Georgia Peabody Collection of TV and Radio http://www.libs.uga.edu/media/collections/peabody/
University of Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research http://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu
Vanderbilt Television News Archive http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/
1894 “Landmark acquisitions” (Murphy, 2011, p.103)
LOC decides to accept paper prints as copyright deposit copies for motion pictures
1912 LOC decides not to keep copies of films registered for copyrightPolitics of Preservation?
1915-1940 tremendous loss
1941 LOC reverses 1912 decision, decides to keep filmsPilot project with MoMa 1943-1945
1976 U.S. Copyright ActEncouraged taping off-air taping of hard news broadcasts and established within the LOC the American Television and Radio Archives
Permitted the LOC to tape any program off the air and gave the Library the power to require deposits of works.
1960s: Department of Defense: kinescoping network news stories re: Vietnam war
1968 CBS vs. Vanderbilt University: recording network coverage of election campaign
1975 introduction of standardized videocassette becomes the major distribution medium for education production and industrial video
precursor to home video market
Moving Image Archives ~ Copyright
Preservation Legislation
1968 American Film Institute (AFI) 1965 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)1966 Stanford Report: planning study“to seek out and acquire endangered films and place them in existing archives” (Spehr, 2013, p.155)
1988 National Film & Video Preservation Act 1986 Ted Turner purchases MGM archive to air on cable Viewers preferred colorized versionCopies for coloring on video were improvementsMoral Rights buried in final legislationIntroduces concept of Orphan Works
1983 National Center for Film and Video Preservation
Independent organization of archivistsTook over administration of film preservation grants from the NEA managed National Moving Image Database1986 issued “two-year national moratorium on the destruction of tv programs” Produced guidelines for archival selection and preservation of video documents (Schreibman, 1991, p.93)
http://www.archives.gov/research/guides/catalog-film-sound-video.htmlhttp://www.loc.gov/film/arch.htmlhttp://www.loc.gov/film/pdfs/tvncfvp.pdf
Frankly, my Frankly, my dear, we lit this dear, we lit this scene for black scene for black
& white.& white.
Retrieved from http://best-ofthepast.blogspot.com/2013/01/top-10-advantages-of-technicolor.html
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
FIAF Federation Internationale des Archives du FilmParis, 1938: British Film Institute (BFI), Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), Cinematheque Francaise, Reichsfilmarchive (Berlin)
Institutional Membership
1969 MoMa hosts annual conference1970 Library of Congress applies for membership
150 institutions in over 77 countries Journal of Film Preservation
AMIA Association of Moving Image ArchivistsPortland, 1990: outgrowth of Film & Television Archives Advisory Committee (F/TAAC)
Individual & Institutional Membership
2008 Peak membership 1,033 (Horak, 2011)Moving Image
CASE STUDY: DAVID TURCONI
PROJECT
Josef Joye (1852-1919) Swiss Jesuit AbbottBasel, Switzerland: founded Borromaum in 1898, a community-based institution still in existence http://www.borromaeum.ch/index.php
Early adopter: late 1800’s, used hand-painted lanterns (personally created over 16,000)
Used 35mm films as teaching aides to illustrate the educational and religious lectures he gave in his parish.
Collected an estimated 1,540 international films produced between 1908-1912
Davide Turconi (1911-2005)Historian, advocate for early Italian silent film preservation
1964 founded Rome’s L’Associazone Italian per le Richerche di Storia del Cinema (AIRSC) archive
1970s: created 23,491 frame clippings from Joye collection
Contained remarkable examples of early film coloring, in particular stenciling, hand coloring, tinting and toning
Process of selecting single frames not far removed from today’s standards of creating and managing digital moving image records, i.e. key frames & thumbnails (Fletcher & Yumibe, 2013)
http://licensing.eastmanhouse.org/GEH/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&ALID=274408LZOB&CT=Album
http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/progettoturconi/
Retrieved from http://www-3.unipv.it/cinema/extra/extraturconi.htm
Retrieved from http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/progettoturconi/davide_turconi/josef_joye.html
TURCONI CLIPPINGS
FROM THE JOYE COLLECTION
Retrieved from http://payload8.cargocollective.com/1/2/88505/2461689/00062_900.jpg
Retrieved from http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/GEH_Turconi_01018-517x1024.jpg
Retrieved from http://www.eastmanhouse.org/museum/publications/annual-report/2011/media/8-1.jpg
Retrieved from http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/Feuillade-3001.jp
Contact Info
Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/explore/publications/modern_women/history
Catterall, P., & Morris, K. (1996). Flickering images? Importance of maintaining television archives in Britain. History Today, 46, 4-6.
Fletcher, A., & Yumibe, J. (2013). From Nitrate to Digital Archive: The David Turconi Project. Moving Image, 13(1), 1-32.
Greene, S. (2007). Chasing Technology. Prologue. 39(2), 1-7.
Horak, J.C. (2011.) Surveying AMIA’s First Twenty Years. Moving Image 10(1). 113-126.
Jenkins, J.L. (2013). The Past Is a Moving Picture: Preserving the Twentieth Century on Film. Moving Image 13(1), 230-233.
Knapskog, K. (2010). Archives in Public Service. Critical Studies in Television, 5(2), 20-33.
Murphy, W.T. (2011). Genesis of A Profession. Moving Image 11(1), 103-112.
Schreibman, F.C. (1991). A Succinct History of American Television Archives. Film & History, 21(2), 88-95.
Spehr, P.C. (2013). The Education of an Archivist. Moving Image, 13(1), 151-178.
Tarr, K., & Shay, W. (2013). How Film (and Video) Found Its Way into "Our Nation's Attic". Moving Image 13(1), 178-184.
Thompson, L.J. (2011). Histories of the digital future: archives of the audio-visual’ workshop, University of Warwick, 19 May 2011. Screen, 52(4), 522-527.
References