Think Beyond the Obvious: Careers in Media Archiving

What are media archives?

• Oldest in UK – Imperial War Museum

• Preservation, collection, curation, public access, commercial and cultural repurposing of footage

• Not “dusty”

The Master Film Store of the British Film Institute's National Film & Television Archive, Gaydon, Warwickshire

“It is not just a question of preservation of materials, it has to be a question of continual transfer, copying and restoration of the originals” UNESCO

• Often at the cutting edge of technology

Universal restoration of Jaws, 2012

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Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)

Andy Murray, Wimbledon, 2013

UK media archive industry

• 800 companies in the UK work in audio visual archiving

• 8,700 employees

• Majority are small to medium employers. Less than 3% employ 50 people +. 58% employ fewer than 5 people

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UK media archive industry Public sector Major commercial Specialised

• 13 in UK

• Regional film and TV collections

• Amateur filmmaking collections

• Corporate and instructional videos

e.g.

BFI National Archive Northern Island Screen Yorkshire Film Archive

East Anglian Film Archive

Commercial AV archives e.g.

Getty Images ITN Source

and stock footage

collections e.g.

Getty Images

Specific collections based on themes,

genres or time periods

e.g.

Clips & Footage – The Greenpark

Collection

Types of roles and Skills

Inside archives Outside archives

Curator

Library/collections management

Digital Asset Management

Preservation/Conservation

Public access and screenings

Archive researcher

Archive producer

Production company roles

Broadcaster roles

Content creators

Post-production, digital restoration - Colourists

Training • No current formal qualifications in UK since

end of UEA MA in Film and TV Archiving

• Lack of structured training and entry routes into industry

It is now widely assumed that 75-80% of all silent

films ever produced have been lost to history

Media archive traineeships

• Heritage Lottery Fund grant from “Skills for the Future” programme

• 14 trainees for 2015

• 4 weeks class training

• 2 x 10 weeks paid archive work placements nationwide

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Useful Links

• Focal International

• UNESCO Audiovisual Archives: A Practical Reader

• Film Archives UK

• Keepers of the Frame - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytt1eehq_jI

• FIAF

• FIAT

• Historypin

• Creative Skillset

• London Screen Archives