Film Preservation Guide: Chapters 1 and 4

National Film Preservation Foundation. The Film Preservation Guide: The Basics for
Archives, Libraries, and Museums. San Francisco, Calif.: National Film Preservation Foundation, 2004. Chapters 1, 4 (1-6, 34-41). Available online at
http://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation/film_guide.html

Some notes on this comprehensive document:

As mentioned in the preface, this guide was created to give relatively jargon-free advice to archives and libraries that hold collections of motion pictures at their respective institutions. It gave a good list of potential categories of content held on film:

1) Feature films
2) Regional documentaries
3) Amateur films (Home movies)
4) Newsreels
5) Scientific and Anthropological Footage
6) Expeditionary Documentation
7) Politcal Ads
8) Educational and Training Films
9) Avant-Garde works
10) Silent-era films

While film studios have an interest in their own valuable features and shorts, and news footage companies preserve historic newsreels, clips, video, TV shows, etc; the non-profit film and video preservation community exist to catch all of the content that is missed by these two types of institutions. Sometimes, this material is called "orphan film." The Library of Congress's 1993 film preservation study defined these materials as either lacking a clear copyright holder, or those that were of insignificant commercial potential for pay for their continued preservation. The latter definitely sounds like a job for the non-profit sector.

They defined several different terms used in the film archivists' vocabulary; many of which are in usage in the general preservation community.

PRESERVATION: Formerly a synonym for "duplication," by transferring content onto "new and more stable film stock." Now this area includes storage, handling, duplication, and access. Also, as it has been generally recognized in other areas, film preservation "is not a one-time operation but an ongoing process."

CONSERVATION: "Protection of the original film artifact." It's the carrier, not just the content, in other words. Making sure the film is in proper cold and dry storage, and that preservation master copies exist for exhibition, research, and further access uses.

DUPLICATION: The process of creating a "surrogate copy." Much as I learned with audio preservation, the quality of duplication is judged by the fidelity of the copy to the master's original signal (audio and visual). The guide further notes that "preservationists generally try to work from the material that most closely represents the film as it was originally shown."

RESTORATION: An attempt to re-engineer a specific version of a film. This involves inspection of the film and any other masters/negatives/positives that might exist; as well as any accompanying documentation or external references that could aid both the physical and intellectual restoration of a specific concept of a work. (Notice, I didn't say, original concept.) This process involves duplication, and sometimes conservation or enhancement of image and sound. A controversial topic, whether you're talking about sound, art, or Turner Classic movies.

ACCESS: "The process through which film content is shared with the public." Private showings, research access to either a copy or the original, film festivals, exhibitions, etc. Caveat: Copyright. Future hope: Creative Commons licensing.

The case study of the Oklahoma Historical Society was interesting. In the late 1940s, there was a bond issue raised in Oklahoma City to modernize the city (to build streets, sanitation systems, library, airport, etc). As part of the campaign, the local chamber of commerce created a movie ad to promote the bond issue (it passeed). The Oklahoma Historical Society reformatted the film on 35 mm safety stock and made access copies. This is why I think that material history is so fascinating. It can bring us to the event in a way that secondary materials cannot. In this case, however, it's also essentially a propaganda piece; but as a piece of media (and PR) history, it is very valuable.

DOCUMENTATION

How does an archive know what it really has? Even before you can put a film on a projector to view it, institutional records (relating to accesssioning of the material), published sources, and industry contacts play a valuable role in the documentation process. The value of the object lies in its context, how unique the object is (in relation to other negatives and prints), its provenance, and whether the copy you have is the "best surviving source material."

Does your archive have the best source? The Guide gives some guidance on this, as well as a handy table. Here are some thumbnail generalizations it makes:

Films acquired from professional filmmakers/organizations can consist of A and B rolls, interpositive, magnetic sound tracks and negatives. Usually the best copies.

8 mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm reversal original: Unique objects.

Prints hand-colored by artists: probably the best.

Other prints are harder to determine. They note that "the smaller and more specialized the film's target audience, the fewer the number of prints that were made." That should help some. Subject matter, and source also influence this.

"8 mm or 16 mm sound copies of Hollywood cartoons, shorts, and features": Probably preserved or held by commercial collections who more than likely have better quality sources.

A disturbing note about early silent film history: "Some 75% of American silent feature production" is "thought to be lost." Check out the silent film database of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), which includes some 37,000 titles.

Government films: held by the National Archives (NARA). I could go on, but you get the point. Check out Chapter 4, Table 6, p. 39 for the table called "Assessing the Uniqueness of Film Materials: Summary."

I'll be getting around to defining a lot of the terms I've used in this post. Since film is essentially photography with or without a magnetic track for sound; general knowledge of photography and its materials is essential for understanding where I'm going with all this.