Fall 2004 - Tuesdays 6-10pm, Rm 651
Introduction to Moving Image Archiving and Preservation
H72.1800
Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:
- Films/Videos/DVDs on the act of moving image preservation, as well
as how preserved material is reused and represented in different ways
- Why is conservation and preservation important?
- Who has taken on the responsibility for moving image and sound preservation?
- What are the issues involved in making visual materials persist
over time? How do we decide which materials should persist over time?
- What are some of the organizations that hold moving image and sound
material? (Film Studios, TV stations, large public film & television
archives, media preservation depts. w/i larger collecting institutions,
small non-profits preserving their own media, ...)
- What are some of the Professional Organizations that Moving Image
Archivists belong to? And at what conferences can one learn about professional
issues? (AMIA, FIAF, FIAT, AIC, AAM, MCN, SMPTE, ALA, Orphans, SCS)
- What are basic functions? (identification, selection [of both "content"
and equipment], appraisal, ...)
- What are the various professional practices that moving image archiving
and preservation professionals draw from? (cataloging, reference, exhibition,
fundraising, budgeting, management, ...)
- What are the various roles or tasks we are responsible for?
- What are the structures like of film and other moving image works?
- Identification of different formats and gages of video and film,
as well as when they evolved. Who makes/has made moving image and
sound material? Different eras, modes of production have different artifacts.
Role of manufacturers and information industries.
- View video: Keepers of the Frame.
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Assignments due before class:
- Visit American Museum of the Moving
Image for a minimum 90-minute visit. Must see core exhibit "Behind the
Screen", and be familiar with basic concepts of film/video/audio recording
and playback per "Shutters, Sprockets, and Tools"
- Visit http://www.paulmessier.com/VideoID/
- Visit: http://www.paulmessier.com/VideoID/audio/
- Visit Section 2 (Film Specifics: Stocks and Soundtracks) of the Home
Film Preservation Guide
- Visit the descriptions of the 4 film gauges on the homepage of http://www.littlefilm.org/
- Bring an audio or video recording device, if you own one, and a tape
that can be recorded upon.
- Read:
- Ascher, Steven and Edward Pincus, "Introduction to Film and Video Systems"
in The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age,
New York: Plume, 1999, pp 1-44
- Annette Melville, ed., "Understanding
Film and How It Decays", The Film Preservation Guide, San
Francisco: The Film Preservation Foundation, 2004, pp 6-18.
- Recommended:
Topics covered:
- Guest speaker: Diane Bonder, film and video maker
- What artifacts exist as a result of the production? What gets saved and
what gets lost? Knowing production process can aid identification. Detective
work and how ancillary materials are both cultural artifacts and clues. Sources
for gauges & types of moving image material.
- Introduction of the Case Study of Production History assignment
- Technical Handout
- Next Monday: Rick Prelinger at Anthology
showing Panorama Ephemera, 8PM
- Next Tuesday: Rick Prelinger talks to MIAP Program, 5-6PM, room 651,
"Navigating
the Future: How Archivists Can Thrive, Not Just Survive"
Assignments due before class:
- Read:
- Packer, Randall and Ken Jordan (eds.) "Overture" in Multimedia: From
Wagner to Virtual Reality (2001), p. xiii - xxxi.
- Besser, Howard (1994). Fast
Forward: The Future of Moving Image Collections , in Gary Handman
(ed.), Video Collection Management and Development: A Multi-Type Library
Perspective, Westport, CT: Greenwood, p. 411-426.
- Roosa, Mark, "Videotape Analysis and Evaluation" and Adelstein, Peter,
"Videotape Storage" in Playback: A Preservation Primer for Video
(1998), p.5-17. On reserve in Bobst Library.
- Further Readings
Topics covered:
- Who makes/has made new media? What artifacts exist as a result of
the production? What gets saved and is lost?
- Knowing more about film/video/sound/new media artifacts, what does
that tell you about risks to the materials? What about their needs for
description and care?
- New Media
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Assignments due before class:
- Sign up for library use class
- Come prepared to report on progress of Case Study of Production History
assignment
- Read:
- Edmondson, Ray. Audiovisual
archiving: Philosophy and Principles. Paris: UNESCO, April 30,
2004 June (CI/2004/WS/2) (http://www.ccaaa.org/news_010504.htm)
- Brooks, Connie, "Videotape Preservation: Ethical Considerations", Playback:
A Preservation Primer for Video, p. 18-24. On reserve in Bobst Library
and study center.
- Come with questions for panelists about archival practice, conservation
practice, library preservation practice, and independent preservationist
practice.
- Recommended: View video Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human
Record. Available in Bobst Library and in the Film Study Center.
Topics covered:
- What are the basic guiding principles of conservation/preservation
coming from different professions and/or communities? How were they shaped?
- How have they been utilized and/or affected by moving image and
recorded sound materials, through such factors as multiple copies, "born
digital" formats, and changing definitions of appropriate archival mediums?
- Discussion Panel including professionals from different organizations
and fields
- What are some of the issues that the archive, conservation, library
and independent preservation communities are addressing with regard to
moving image and sound preservation?
- What are the role(s) of a moving image specialist in relation to
other professionals caring for moving images and sound collections?
- Ray Edmundson, in Audiovisual archiving: Philosophy
and Principles, proposes that moving image archiving is evolving as
a synthesis of other archiving and preservation practices. What are the
pros and cons of such an approach? What would be aspects of this synthesis
from various professions?
- What are ethical considerations are fundamental to our work as moving
image archiving and preservation specialists?
- Where do "de facto" archives - those organizations with important
materials but untrained as preservationists - fit?
- What is the role of producers in preservation practice?
- Discuss visit to Museum of Television and Radio
- Panel discussion with:
- Jon Gartenberg, independent preservation consultant
- Carol Stringari, Senior Conservator, Contemporary Art, Guggenheim
Museum
- Duane Watson, retired Head of Conservation, New York Public Library
- Barbara Mathe, Senior Special Collections Librarian,American Museum
of Natural History
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Assignments due before class:
- Read:
- Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland. Enduring Paradigm, New
Opportunities: The Value of the Archival Perspective in the Digital Environment
, Council on Library & Information Resources, pub89, pp 1-16 [document
pages 1-16, not Acrobat pages 1-16]
- Belk, Russell W. "A Brief History of Collecting," in Collecting in Consumer
Society. New York: Routledge, 1995, pages 22-64
- Benjamin, Walter. "Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting."
Illuminations. Ed. and intro. by Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn.
New York: Schocken Books, 1969, pp 59-67
- Pearce, Susan M. "Collecting Processes," in On Collecting: An Investigation
into collecting in the European tradition . New York: Routledge, 1995,
pages 3-35
- Jean Baudrillardís "The System of Collecting." In John Elsner and
Roger Cardinal, eds., Cultures of Collecting, pp. 7-24. London: Reaktion,
1994, translated by Roger Cardinal.
- Further Readings
- Pierre Bourdieu, The field of cultural production: essays on art and
literature, Cambridge: Polity, 1993
- Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright in Practices of Looking: An Introduction
to Visual Culture (Oxford University Press, 2001)
- Buckland, Michael. (1997) What is a Document?", Journal of the American
Society for Information Science 48 (9), pp. 804-809
- Harrison, Helen P. (ed.). Audiovisual
Archives. A practical reader for the AV Archivists. 1997
- Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"
Illuminations. Ed. and intro. by Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn.
New York: Schocken Books, 1969, pp 217-251
- John Berger. Ways of Seeing , New York: Viking, 1972
- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett "Objects of Ethnography" in Ivan Karp and
Steven Lavine (eds.) Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics
of Museum Display, Washington: Smithsonian Press, 1991, pp 386-443
- Pearce, Susan M. "Collecting in Time" in On Collecting: An Investigation
into collecting in the European tradition. New York: Routledge, 1995 pages
235-254
- Drucker, Johanna. "The Codex and Its Variations." The Century of Artists'
Books. New York: Granary Books, 1997. 121-59
Topics covered:
- Discussion of Final Projects
- In-class presentations of case studies
- Introduction to Orphans Assignment
- Why do we collect?
- Extensive questions to ponder
- Issues of evidence and authenticity
- Issues of representation
- Who collects what? for whom? and why? How do collections
define their collectors? How have museums influenced colonialism,
nationalism, and taxonomies (categories) of knowledge? What kinds
of interdependence exists between institutions of collecting and certain
methodological goals of art history and anthropology? How can
we learn to read exhibits critically? What is a ërhetoricí
or ëpoeticsí of display? Why do people keep personal
collections of objects? How do ethnicities and genders appear--or
disappear--in museum contexts? How do museums also function to
support a local community memory and history? How do artists view
museums as social institutions? How can we imagine collecting
practices and museums in the future? How can the history of collecting
be read as an interdisciplinary intellectual practice?
- Why do we need museums? What should they look like?
Why do we collect things? What kinds of museums and collections
might we have in the future? What role might electronic media
play in the rethinking of the museum? Would changes in museum
practice necessitate changes in the disciplines of art history
and anthropology?
- How are moving images and sound part of the larger visual culture
and ways of looking and seeing? How does our understanding of visual
culture impact our role in moving image archiving and preservation?
- How do reformatting and multiple formats of the same work change
how we look at a work? (e.g., are videos the same as films? Are digital
photographs the same as analog photos?)
- Is there a social context to viewing an object? (is viewing a
video at home the same as viewing a film in a theater? Is viewing a
mural on a screen the same as viewing it in-situ?)
- Who attributes value to a work, and under what circumstances?
How does one deal with the different values that different communities
may have towards any particular set of works?
- Are there ethical considerations in format conversions (e.g.,
film colorization, pan-and-scan?)
- Tomorrow Nancy Goldman speaks, 12th floor Dean's Conference Room,
5:30. The
International Federation of Film Archives; & The CineFiles online film
clippings database (2 separate Talks)
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Assignments due before class:
- Read:
- Position Paper On Conservation
& Preservation In Collecting Institutions
- Whitson, Helene and Gerry Yeager, "Arrangement and Description" in
Steven Davidson and Gregory Lukow, The Administration of Television
Newsfilm and Videotape Collections: A Curatorial Manual, Los Angeles:
American Film Institute (1997), p. 127 - 148.
- Annette Melville, ed., "Film Handling",
The Film Preservation Guide, San Francisco: The Film Preservation
Foundation, 2004, pp 19-33.
- Newborg, Gerald G., "A Case Study: Newsfilm Preservation Project at
The State Historical Society of North Dakota" in Steven Davidson and Gregory
Lukow, The Administration of Television Newsfilm and Videotape Collections:
A Curatorial Manual, Los Angeles: American Film Institute (1997),
p. 59 - 68.
- Further Readings
Topics covered:
- Appraisal, selection, description, sorting, organizing
- Continue with Risk Management discussion
- Intro to cataloging and value of description (EAD, MARC, DBs, ...)
- Film Inspecction
- Examining uncataloged boxes of media in Bobst and filling out cataloging
templates
- What is the impact of appraisal and selection (or the lack thereof)
on what gets preserved?
- What are practices for tracking information about moving images?
- What are other typical tasks in collection management of archival
collections?
- How might they differ for moving image/sound materials and other
materials such as paper or photographs?
For Next Week
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Assignments due before class:
- Visit: Museum of Television
and Radio Fri Oct 15, 11:00-12:30
- Have final project topic approved
- Mann, Sarah Ziebell. "The Evolution of American Moving Image Preservation:
Defining the Preservation Landscape (1967-1977)",
The Moving Image
1:2 (Fall 2001), pp 1-20
- Magliozzi, Ronald. "Film Archiving as a Profession: An Interview with
Eileen Bowser",
The Moving Image 3:1 (Spring 2003), pp 132-146
- Edmondson, Ray. "You Only Live Once: On Being a Troublemaking Professional",
The Moving Image 2:1 (Spring 2002), pp 175-183
- International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)Code
of Ethics ,
- Besser, Howard (1997). The Changing
Role of Photographic Collections with the Advent of Digitization ,
in Katherine Jones-Garmil (ed.), The Wired Museum, Washington:
American Association of Museums, pages 115-127.
- "Why Ethics?" in Marie Malaro, Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics,
Policy, pages 16-21
- "Controlled Collecting: Drafting a Collection Management Policy" in
Marie Malaro, Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics, Policy , pages
43-49
- O'Toole, James. (1990) "The History of the Archives Profession." In
Understanding Archives and Manuscripts. Chicago: Society of American Archivists.,
pp. 27-47
-
Further Readings:
- Douglas, Mary. (1986) "Institutions Cannot Have Minds of Their Own."
In How Institutions Think. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,
pp 9-19
- Jane R. Glaser with Artemis A. Zenetou, "Museum Professional Positions:
Qualifications, Duties, and Responsibilities," Museums: A Place to
Work: Planning Museum Careers (London; New York: Routledge, 1996),
65-125
- Libbie Rifkin, "Association/Value:
Creative Collaborations in the Library ", RBM: A Journal of Rare
Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, 2:2
Topics covered:
- Discussion of Final Projects
- How do the mission, goals, history, other activities, etc., of various
repositories affect how moving images and sound are preserved and accessed?
- What are the roles of different professionals in each type of institution?
- What type of Professionalism is associated with each type of role
& each institution
- How has the role of collecting institutions changed as more and more
people have started taking photographs of everyday life? How might changes
in popular attitude towards this media effect expectations on collecting
institutions? How will collecting institutions handle personal archives
that no longer are only paper? And how will this all change even more as
the number of home video cameras and digital editing vastly increases?
- How do politics affect cultural heritage institutions as they strive
to serve new audiences? (the Enola Gay incident?)
For next week:
- Take Tour of Cineric -- Fri
Oct 22, 11:30-1:30
- Take Tour of Vidipax either
Thurs Oct 21 12:00-1:30
or Fri Oct 22 2:00-3:30
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Assignments due before class :
- Take Tour of Cineric -- Fri
Oct 22, 11:30-1:30
- Take Tour of Vidipax either
Thurs Oct 21 12:00-1:30 or
Fri Oct 22 2:00-3:30
- Read:
- Gracy, Karen. "Documenting the Process of Film Preservation",
The
Moving Image 3:1 (Spring 2003), pp 1-41
- Read, Paul and Mark-Paul Meyer. "Introduction to the Restoration of
Motion Picture Film" and "Menschen am Sonntag--a Reconstruction
and Documentation Case Study", Restoration of Motion Picture Film,
Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000, pp 1-5 and pp 231-241
- Gartenberg, Jon, "The Fragile Emulsion",
The Moving Image
2:2 (Fall 2002), pp 142-152
- Frye, Brian. "The Accidental Preservationist: An Interview with Bill
Brand",
Film History 15:2 (2003), p 214
- Screen Sound Australia Film
Preservation Handbook (parts you havenít read yet)
- Screen
Sound Australia Film Preservation Handbook (first 5 sections: Film
Construction through Damage to Film)
- Baker, Nicholson. (1996) The Size of Thoughts. New York: Random House,
pp. 36-50 "The Projector."
- Recommended
Topics covered:
- Guest Speaker: Ray Edmondson
- Knowing more about film artifacts, what does that tell you about
risks to the material? What about its needs for description and care?
- What are some of the major issues with film preservation?
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Assignments due before class
:
- Orphans Assignment due
- Read:
- AMIA Preservation Committee, Video
Preservation Fact Sheets, 2003.
- Wheeler, Jim. Video
Preservation Handbook, 2002.
- Norris, Debbie Hess, "Videotape Collections: Establishing Priorities
for Preservation" in Playback: A Preservation Primer for Video San
Francisco: Bay Area Video Coalition (1998), p.60 - 69. On reserve in Bobst
Library.
- American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works (AIC)
"Caring for your Videotape
"
- Recommended
- Bachman, Rebecca, Video Preservation:
Glossary of Terms, originally published in Playback: A Preservation
Primer for Video (1998), p.72-76.
- Council on Library & Information Resources
(2004) The State of Audio Collections
in Academic Libraries
- Schoenherr, Stephen, Recording
Technology History, Feb. 16, 2004.
Topics covered:
- Orphans presentations
- Sound
- Tape Cleaning
- "Playback" DVD
- What are some of the major issues with video and sound preservation?
- What are typical approaches to caring for and preserving video and
sound?
- What is the effect of digital formats and digitization on media
preservation?
- Knowing more about video/sound artifacts, what does that tell you
about risks to the material? What about its needs for description and
care?
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Assignments due before class:
- View video Into the Future: On the Preservation of Knowledge in
the Digital Age. Available at the Bobst Library and in the Film Study Center.
- Read:
- Besser, Howard (2001). Digital
Preservation of Moving Image Materia l,The Moving Image,
Fall, pages 39-55
- Besser, Howard (2000). Digital
Longevity , in Maxine K. Sitts (ed.) Handbook for Digital Projects:
A Management Tool for Preservation and Access
- Andover Mass: Northeast Document Conservation Center, pages 155-166
- Variable media Initiative
- Preserving the Rhizome
ArtBase . Richard Rinehart
- Richard Rinehart, " Archiving the
Avant Garde: Documenting and Preserving Variable Media ," D-Lib
Magazine, 8 (5), May 2002
- Rinehart, Richard," The Straw that Broke the
Museum's Back? Collecting and Preserving Digital Media Art Works for the
Next Century "
- Besser, Howard (1997). The Transformation
of the Museum and the way itís Perceived , in Katherine
Jones-Garmil (ed.), The Wired Museum, Washington: American Association
of Museums, pages 153-169
- Variable Media case study (from monograph)
- "Quick Reference Guide for Care and Handling" (see "the Checklist" in
Byers, Fred R.. Care and Handling Guide for
the Preservation of CDs and DVDs - A Guide for Librarians and Archivists.
(24 June 2003).
Topics covered:
- Introduction NYU/Public Television preservation project
- Knowing more about digital media artifacts, what does that tell you
about risks to the material? What about its needs for description and
care?
- What are some of the major issues with new media preservation?
- What are the major issues facing moving image and sound archivists
in the "digital age"?
- What are some of the practicalities that preservationists must address?
- What theories and predictions are being advanced?
- Does this evidential value change when materials are reformatted?What
are the advantages and disadvantages of keeping different versions of
materials?
- What is different between the preservation needs of material that
is "born digital" and that which has been digitized?
- Is it possible to preserve digital materials unchanged?
- What are the strengths and limitations of the various proposed methods
of digital preservation for different uses of cultural materials?
- As the digital world moves toward multiple uses and viewing works
from different angles, how does this affect notions of context and its
preservation?
- How do digital objects challenge traditional archival notions of
evidence? Can ways be found to authenticate digital works, and track
provenance and versioning?
- Documentaries, Actuality Footage, media art, installation art, performance
art
- Documentation, treatment
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Assignments due before class:
- Read:
- Besser, Howard. Commodification of Culture
Harms Creators,The Information Commons, New Technologies, and the Future
of Libraries , Issue #1, June 2002, American Library Association
- Lessig, Lawrence. Copyrighting
the President: Does Big Media have a vested interest in protecting Bush?
You betcha. Wired Magazine 12:8, August 2004
- Hirtel, Peter B (2003) Digital
Preservation and Copyright, Copyright
& Fair Use, Stanford University Libraries , November
- Bricklin, Dan (2004) Software that Lasts 200
Years
- Coyle, Karen (2003) The Technology of Copyright:
Digital Rights Management, Lecture at Library of Congress (streaming
video and written paper)
- Bricklin, Dan (2004) Copy Protection Robs The Future
- Bricklin, Dan (2002) The Recording Industry is Trying
to Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg
- Bricklin, Dan (2003) How will the Artists Get Paid?
- Coyle, Karen. (1994) "Copyright in the Digital Age." Coyle's Information
Highway Handbook. Chicago : ALA, pp. 96-113
- Mosco, Vincent. (1998) "Information in the Pay-per Society." In V. Mosco
and J. Wasko (eds.), The Political Economy of Information,pp. 3-26. Madison,
WI : University of Wisconsin Press
- The
Coming of Copyright Perpetuity , New York Times Editorial, January
16, 2003
- The Eric Eldred Act FAQ
- Save Orphan Films
- Look over:
Topics covered:
- Issuse of term, territory, and market
- What are some of the practices with regard to copyright, ownership,
licensing, and the use of "talent" or footage that are part of the history
of a particular form of production or genre of work?
- What are some of the recent or anticipated changes in the legal arena
that affect moving image/sound preservation or use?
- Effects of copyright on preservation and programming
- Avoidance of intellectual property issues
- Fair Use guidelines
- How do intellectual property issues affect preservation, access, and
use of visual materials ? (e.g., the implications of the digital millennium
copyright act?
- Complexity of underlying rights
- Other legal issues
- Policy issues
- Friday Nov 19 Dan Streible, Director of the Orphans Film Symposium,
speaks on Newsreel
Archiving as Revisionist Historiography, room 656, 5:30.
Nov 23 Thanksgiving Holiday (no class)
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Assignments due before class:
- Read:
- Each student should read one article from The Moving Image 4:1, Spring
2004, pages 1-88, and be prepared to present a short (5 min) summary
to the rest of the class
- Atkinson, Jane. AGCS
Occupational Profile: Programme Researcher: Broadcasting/film/video
- At least 3 of the papers from the March 2003 Toronto Conference Terms
of Address: The Pedagogy and Politics of Film and Video Programming and Curating
- In Focus: a guide to using films / by Linda Blakaby, Dan Georgakas and
Barbara Margolis. NY: Cine Information, 1980.
- American Film Distribution: the changing marketplace / by Suzanne Mary
Donahue. MI: UMI Research Press, 1987
- Noriega, Chon A. "On curating," Wide Angle Vol XVII nr 1-4 (1995); p 292-304
- Gilmore, Geoff. "Sundance's agenda," Scenario Vol II nr 3 (Fall 1996);
p 4-5
- Peary, Gerald. "Season of the hunt; On the practice of film festival programming,"
American Film Vol XVI nr 10 (Nov-Dec 1991); p 20
- PaÔni, Dominique. "Comme dans un musee" Journal of Film Preservation
no 53 (Nov 1996); p 8-11 (Argues that programming in archives should be directed
at building collections. Explores current explosion in film restorations within
the context of archival programming.)
- MacDonald, Scott. "Avant-garde at the Flaherty," Wide Angle Vol XVII nr
1-4 (1995); p 256-267
- Besser, Howard (1998). The Shape of the 21st Century Library, in Milton
Wolf et. al. (eds.), Information Imagineering:
Meeting at the Interface , Chicago: American Library Association, pages
133-146
- Moving Image Collections (MIC) General
Information
- Schiller, Daniel. (1988) "How to think about information." In. V. Mosco and
J. Wasko (eds.), The Political Economy of Information (pp. 27-43). Madison,
WI : University of Wisonsin Press. 1988
- Lievrouw, L.A. (1994) "Information Resources and Democracy: Understanding
the Paradox." Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 45(6),
July, pp. 350-357
- AMIA Compendium of Moving Image Cataloging Practice, edited by Abigail
Leab Martin and compiled by Jane D. Johnson, Linda Tadic, Linda Elkins, Christine
Lee, and Amy Wood. Society of American Archivists & AMIA, 2001. ca. 275
pp.
- Archival Moving Image Materials: A Cataloging Manual (AMIM2) . 2nd
ed. revised by the AMIM Revision Committee, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and
Recorded Sound Division.Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, Cataloging Distribution
Service, 2000. 1 v. ISBN 0-8444-1008-X
- Harrison, Harriet W. (comp. and ed.), for the Cataloging Commission of the
International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). The FIAF Cataloging
Rules for Film Archives. Film-Television-Sound Archive Series: Volume 1.
München; London; New York; Paris: K.G. Saur, 1991
Topics covered:
- Presenting and contextualizing historical material
- Programming a series
- Repurposing
- Issues of access
- Obtaining moving image materials:
- How does one find moving image collections? (Moving Image Gateway Project)
- What are sources for clips? For ancillary materials?
- What do you need to do research? General reference and resources (Pam
Bloom?)
- Types of resources (biographical, film indexes, union catalogs, almanacs,
periodical indexes, trades, dictionaries, encyclopedias, review compilations)
- What are issues for historical research and reconstruction?
- How are moving images and sound part of the larger visual culture and
ways of looking and seeing? How does our understanding of visual culture impact
our role in moving image archiving and preservation?
- Discussion of Pamela Bloom's workshop earlier in the semester
Assignments due before class:
- Be prepared to present your final project to the rest of the class
Topics covered:
- Final Individual presentations
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Major Assignments
Examples of student work from 2003-2004
Group Project -- Case Study of Production History : In this
assignment, groups of 3 to 4 students will collaborate to create a case study
that will be instructive in the identification and selection of moving image
and sound material. Each group will conduct 2 case studies that, through text
and image, demonstrate the production process for a particular project or
mode of production including:
- time period and brief description of the mode of production, the final
product, and its intended use or audience
- the steps to production
- the people involved and their roles
- film and/or recorded media that is produced at each stage, its format
and purpose
- documentation or ancillary materials that are produced at each stage (print,
electronic), and their purpose
- any identification clues or special tips when sorting
- the relative value of the film, media and documentation, and to whom it
may have value
- typical disposition of the materials at the end of a production process
- recommendations for materials to be archived and the rationale for why
they should be considered for long-term preservation (and because we haven't
yet had a chance to discuss this in detail, don't dwell on the preservation
treatments that should be done)
Imagine the audience for the case study is moving image and archiving professionals
who will utilize the information as they begin sorting and processing a collection.
The case study should be concise and easy to read, but with sufficient detail
for the task. Visual aids such as for key formats, special labeling, examples
of documentation, database screenshots, etc., will also be helpful.
To gain the necessary knowledge, the groups must conduct an audio or video
interview of one person per case study. In some cases, print and electronic
resources may be available or helpful.
-- Research Context of Historical news clips: In groups of 3 or 4, you
will be given a 4-15 minute VHS clip of nonfiction footage from the late 1920s
or early 1930s from the collection of the NewsFilm
Library at the University of South Carolina. You will also have access to
a temporary cataloging record for the clip by searching the catalog of the NewsFilm
Library. Your assignment is to research the context of this clip. All these
clips are in the process of being restored, and the restored versions will be
screened at the Orphans Film Symposium in early 2006. What you find out about
the clip will likely be presented there as well, as was much of last year's student
work. You will need to turn in both a written paper (both the paper and
word-processed version) and a Powerpoint presentation (which you will present
in class and hand in the file to Alicia).
Individual Final Project -- student choice, but must be related to
something covered during the semester: A major term project. Topic
must be approved by one of the instructors by Oct 14. Must be presented in class
during the last class sessions, and a written component must be turned in. Below
are a few examples:
- Do research for a film or video that needs to be restored. This might
include a combination of the following: locate existing prints, identify
differences btwn prints, do interviews or historical research about the
shooting and editing, create a fundraising plan for restoration, compare
plusses and minuses of different restoration processes, ...
- Write a paper comparing and contrasting the differences btwn 2 types of
institutions (eg. A public library and a state Historical Archive), and
how institutional differences affect moving image archival practice (acquisition,
cataloging, access, restoration, ...)
- Plan an exhibition series for historic moving image material. Select the
works to show, check print and date availability, write program notes, plan
a publicity campaign, coordinate with tie-in activities or events, ...
- list of other possibilities
- Due dates -- Nov 30; present in class Nov 30 and Dec 7
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Syllabus 6.1