Conservation of analogue audiovisual content; planning for preservation; planning a digitisation project

1. Conservation, Digitisation
and Preservation
The need for digitisation
Preservation planning
mapping your collections;
setting priorities;
making a collection strategy, a
preservation strategy and a preservation
plan
The Preservation Factory approach
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 1

2. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 2

3. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 3

4. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 4

5. What about vinyl?

Gramophone
records: lacquer,
shellac and vinyl

Lacquer = a master
recording (acetate,
instantaneous disc);
very fragile !
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 5

6. 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)
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 6

7. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 7

8. Gramophone
damage

Dropping a
needle onto a
vinyl disc

Oil coming to
the surface
on a lacquer
disc
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 8

9. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 9

10. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 10

11. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 11

12. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 12

13. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 13

14. Digitisation Planning

All the Presto information on a wiki:
http://wiki.prestospace.org/

Strategy – what does your institution do?

What does the collection do?

What can digitisation do?

Planning – making a preservation plan

How to estimate a budget

Building a business case
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 14

15. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 15

16. 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 !
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 16

17. 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 !
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 17

18. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 18

19. 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?)
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 19

20. 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 Collection
Divide the collection by physical formats, and
collect the following information on each format:
age range
storage history
genre or value
physical condition
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 20

21. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 21

22. The Factory Approach
Photo by Toban Black
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 22

23. 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!
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 23

24. A BBC Preservation Factory
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 24

25. 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
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 25

26. BBC Preservation:
£5M per year (for 20 years)
Audio: 7000 hours per year of ¼ inch tape
Also 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 recordings
Also 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

27. 
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 !
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 27

28. 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 ?
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 28

29. 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)
4-5 September 2012 Vietnam Film Institute Workshops 29