4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 1
Conservation, Digitisation and Preservation
The need for digitisation
Preservation planningmapping your collections;setting priorities;making a collection strategy, a
preservation strategy and a preservation plan
The Preservation Factory approach
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Terminology
Preservation – “Everything needed to ensure permanent access” = maintenance Conservation: keeping what you have (for as long
as you can) = safe storage and handling Preservation actions: interventions. Changing what
you have = repair and replace Making a new negative or interneg Copying from an old carrier to a new carrier Digitising
Which separates content from carrier = liberation
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Conservation
VFI in Ho Chi Minh City showed excellent film conservation
packaging, handling and shelving environmental conditions: temperature and
humidity; protection from pollution, dirt etc protecting the masters; and condition monitoring = checking the stock
Full description on Preservation Guide wiki: http://wiki.prestospace.org/pmwiki.php?n=Main.PreservationStrategy#Conservation
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The need for digitisation
Only three ways to preserve:
1.Keep what you have
2.Copy using same technology
3.Copy using new technology
Keep what you have: only works for film Audio, Video: analogue technology obsolete
Copy on same technology: only works for film Audio, Video: analogue technology obsolete
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What about vinyl?
Gramophone records: lacquer, shellac and vinyl Lacquer = a master
recording (acetate, instantaneous disc); very fragile !
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More on gramophone records
Shellac was used for 78 rpm commercial recordings
Also fragile – the main risk is handling; the shellac itself is stable (compared to laquer)
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But, what about vinyl?
Used for 45 and 33 1/3 rpm recordings They are fragile (though less fragile than
shellac) Warp from heat (can be fixed with care) Easily scratched, and can get very dirty The groove can be damaged in playback (if the
needle and tone arm adjustment is not right) Vinyl is soft !!! Vinyl and shellac can suffer chemical damage
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Gramophone damage
Dropping a needle onto a vinyl disc
Oil coming to the surface on a lacquer disc
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Where was I?
Only three ways to preserve:
Keep what you have: only works for film Audio, Video: analogue technology obsolete
Copy on same technology:only works for film Audio, Video: analogue technology obsolete
So we are left with only one option (for audio and video):
Copy using new technology
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Preservation of Film
VFI provides excellent example of conservation Film technology still exists BUT – the situation is rapidly changing
Kodak in severe economic trouble Commercial cinemas changing to digital projection
Norway changed completely in 2011-2012
Commercial cinema will change or go out of business
Commercial cinema will not keep old projectors
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The end of film projection?
“ We're About to Lose 1,000 Small Theaters That Can't Convert to Digital. Does It Matter?”Indiewire, USA
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Digitisation of Film
Now: needed for access Internet Digital cinema
Soon: needed for preservation When manufacture of film stock is stopped
Result: ALL media needs to be digitised, audio and video and film That's a lot of content that has to be digitised There isn't enough time There isn't enough money
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PRESTO Digitisation
“Better Faster Cheaper” Daniel Teruggi, Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA), Paris
Basic concepts:
1) Dealing with the whole collection
2) Developing a strategy For the institution and its collection For the preservation work
3) Developing a preservation plan
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Digitisation Planning
All the Presto information on a wiki: http://wiki.prestospace.org/
StrategyStrategy – what does your institution do? What does the collection do? What can digitisation do?
PlanningPlanning – making a preservation plan How to estimate a budget Building a business case
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Collection Strategy
Long-term purpose of the digitisation Preserving the collection Maintaining services (old business) Creating new services (new business)
Physical Outcomes: Digital files Mass storage Cheaper, better maintenance Cheaper, better digital access copies Web access
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Access Outcomes
Collection access from computer stations Mediatheque approach
Collection access via the Internet With restricted access
British Film Institute: higher education, public libraries … and on YouTube
British Library Sound Archive: higher education institutions only
Or even unrestricted access INA has 30 000 hours of broadcast content online !
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Restrictions on Access
Attitudes: we don't do that Fear: somebody might complain Rights: we don't hold the rights
A solution:
1) public institutions create public value by opening their collections as widely as possible
2) non-fiction content has the most information and the least rights problems
We have a public service obligation to create access to our collections !
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Access:Technical Requirements
A usable catalogue Online support services: questions, linking to
online sales, dealing with faults Logins, access control, authentication, data
protection … Computing power to support what could be
large numbers of people requiring access UK National Archive crashed; Europeana crashed
Managing lots of information technology
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Digital Archive: workflow
Everything changes when shelves disappear: Acquisition: digital ingest Cataloguing: complex metadata issues: embedded
metadata, preservation metadata, mapping Curation: huge opportunity to create online
collections Research: self-research, fast scanning of 'hits' –
changes the requirements of cataloguing Access: requirements need to be built into the
digitisation workflow (access copies, public metadata, rights clearance, censorship?)
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Getting Started
Map – The collection needs to be divided by format, condition, purpose ...
Priorities – arrange the “areas on the map” according to what needs to be done first
wiki: Make a Map of your CollectionDivide the collection by physical formats, and collect the following information on each format:
age rangestorage historygenre or valuephysical condition
Getting Started
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BBC film examples from wiki
Map: http://wiki.prestospace.org/pmwiki.php?n=Main.GettingStarted
Strategy: http://wiki.prestospace.org/pmwiki.php?n=Main.PreservationStrategy
Plan:
http://wiki.prestospace.org/pmwiki.php?n=Main.PresPlan
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The Factory Approach
Photo by Toban Black
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The Factory Approach
The division of labour in pin manufacturing: (and the great increase in the quantity of work that results)
Approach: NOT about cutting corners or reducing quality
Instead: about cutting wasted time and wasted effort
Batches: doing one thing at a time, and then doing it again (and again, and again)
Problem: how to keep the work interesting!
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A BBC Preservation Factory
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The Factory Approach
“Division of labour” requires having specialists, which means having a team
Which means having a middle-sized or larger project
But: even a single person can use a batch approach, and get some efficiencies
BBC Preservation:£5M per year (for 20 years)
Audio: 7000 hours per year of ¼ inch tapeAlso digitised 63 000 “sepmag” elements:
separate magnetic sound tracks for film; Transferred to CD (good!) and to polyester (bad!)
Also 35 000 shellac and vinyl recordingsAlso DAT and MD digital recordings
2” videotape: 46 000 tapes, transferred to D3 or Digibeta, done over 7 years
1” videotape: 80 000 in 5 yrs, to D3/Digibeta U-matic: 40 000 in 3 yrs, to MPEG-2 files
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News film: 43 000 items in 3 years Ektachrome; digitised to SD video (Digibeta)
10% of total cost is cataloguing 20 to 30% is quality control (checking) Since 2008: transfer 40k D3 videotape to files:
Uncompressed; MXF wrapper = INGEX Now: transfer of BetaSP and Digibeta to files Major confusion over High Definition formats !
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Discussion
Digitisation projects of delegates
In the afternoon we will discuss technical issues, but we need to begin with knowing what projects the delegates are working on:
Audio, video, film Which physical formats (eg ¼-inch audio tape,
1-inch video tape, 16mm B&W film … ) ? Size: how much content, how many people,
how many years ?
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Time for Lunch
This afternoon:
1) Practical Session on Digitisation What is your long-term plan? What are your immediate problems?
2) Digital Formats and Hardware (tomorrow is software)