The Yorkshire Film Archive (YFA) is an independent charity focused on preserving and showcasing Yorkshire-related moving images, aiming to digitize its collections to enhance accessibility. With over 15,000 items and a commitment to outreach and education, YFA plans to expand its digital presence with a new project funded largely by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project, launching in July 2007, aims to provide structured access to these collections while managing risks related to time, quality, and cost.

1. Yorkshire Film Archive
• YFA is one of eight English Regional
Film Archives
• ERFA’s work with the BFI National
Archive, the Imperial War Museum
Film Archive and the home nations’
film archives in Scotland, Ireland and
Wales
• Public sector archives from a UK wide
network known as the UK Film Archive
Forum
• The Film Archive Forum represents all
of the public sector film and television
archives which care for the UK's
moving image heritage. ...
www.bufvc.ac.uk/faf/

2. Yorkshire Film Archive
• Yorkshire is the largest county in
England
• 15,000 sq kilometres
• Population of 5.4 million
• Geographically and culturally
diverse
• Urban, industrial, coastal and rural
areas
• YFA needs to find a way of
providing a service to the whole
region – hence plans around
digitisation of the collections.

3. Yorkshire Film Archive
• YFA is an independent registered
charity, with a Board of Trustees
• The aim of the YFA is find, preserve,
and show moving image made in, or
about, Yorkshire
• YFA moved to new premises in York in
2004, and has collections of around
15,000 items of film, video and now
digital images
• YFA has 5 full time, 2 part time staff –
archival and administrative – it has to
be entirely self sufficient

5. How YFA provides access to the Collections
YFA is committed to making it’s collections open and accessible to everyone
• On site viewing – for researchers, small interest groups, students etc
• Community Outreach Programmes – touring film shows and events across
the region
• Education programmes – from primary school projects to Higher Education
degree modules
• Curated material as ongoing displays in museums, galleries and libraries
• Television programmes – regional and national - such as ‘The Way We
Were’ and ‘Nation on Film’
• Sell through themed DVD compilations
• Access via the YFA website
• Access via specific on-line projects with partners – regional and national
All of these have been successful, but as we enter the digital world, there
are new opportunities and YFA needs to respond to these positively

6. Research into online resources
• BFI Screenonline
www.screenonline.org.uk
• British Pathe
www.britishpathe.com
• Northern Ireland Digital Film Archive
www.digitalfilmarchive.net/dfa/
• Britons at War online
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Learning/britonsatwar/home.asp
• YFA website
www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com
• Moving History
http://www.movinghistory.ac.uk/archives/index.html
( now incorporates Films from the Home Front )

8. A Digital Film Archive for Yorkshire
Questions
• Why do we want to do this?
• Who are we doing it for?
• How are we going to build it?
• What footage will be included?
• Do we have the skills and/or
capacity?
• Who would fund it – and why?
• What are the risks?
• Where will we be at the end of the
process?

9. Principles of the Plan for the DFAY
• Beware of simply creating another online resource – always keep in mind
who we are doing this for
• Look at what we already do well:
Community outreach programmes,
Education programmes
Working with partners across the region
• Create a resource that provides structured, mediated and meaningful
access
• Incorporate those principles into the DFAY Plan
• Make the project beneficial to everyone involved in the process by planning
audience development programmes and active participation throughout the
lifespan of the project

10. Partners for the DFAY
• National Media Museum, Bradford
Great regional/national audience figures, but has difficulty in attracting very
local audiences, predominantly Asian community.
Plan: outreach programmes of screenings, film searches for local material
• The Showroom Cinema, Sheffield
Good ‘cinema literate’ audiences, but wants to build programmes for
children and families
Plan: schools workshops, teacher training, footage in Children’s Film Festival
• Hull Archives Services
Wants to provide outreach to hard to reach and disadvantaged audiences
including older people
Plan: outreach reminiscence programmes, community film shows
• Rural Arts North Yorkshire
Provides access to the arts in rural communities, want to incorporate
moving image
Plan: screenings in communities where there is no other film provision

11. YFA + DAFY Implications
• Skills and/or capacity?
• YFA already at full stretch, DFAY needs staff team of 3
• Project Manager – work with partners on programmes and manage
development of the DFAY
• Film Technician – preparation of the collections for telecine and encoding
• Information Officer – cataloguing and collating of contextual information
DFAY will also involve the core staff:
YFA Director’s time in overall management
YFA Head of Learning in helping to develop the education section
YFA Head of Access in supporting outreach work with partners
YFA will need to work with specialist contractors, TMR, to telecine, encode,
design, build and host DFAY.

12. The Archivist System
• In early 2006, TMR launched The Archivist, a unique online management
system designed specifically for the archive market, allowing one, flexible,
affordable system.
• The Archivist allows any archive to:
– • Store, search, preview, verify, download and upload video and still
images
– • Track orders and run audits
– • Securely access archive material from anywhere in the world
– • Allow researchers, students or the general public to browse the entire
archive without the need for viewing copies
– • Content manage and administer the archive database

13. Funding for the DFAY
• Little statutory funding for the regional film archives
• Would not be possible to take on a project of this size without additional
funding
• YFA applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund
• The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) enables communities to celebrate, look
after and learn more about our diverse heritage. We fund the entire spread
of heritage – including buildings, museums, natural heritage and the
heritage of cultural traditions and language.
• Since 1994 the HLF has awarded over £3.97 billion to more than 26,000
projects across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• 6 month application process, but in March 2007 YFA was awarded over
80% ( £363,000 ) of the total project costs ( £420,000 ) to create
The Digital Film Archive for Yorkshire

14. Where are we now?
3 year project goes live in July 2007
Risks
As with all projects there are risks, which can be split into 3 categories:
• Time – is there enough time to do all the outreach work, address the
technical and cataloguing needs of the collection, and export all of this to a
newly designed online resource?
• Quality – the images have to telecined and encoded to high standards, and
the website itself must be clear, informed and easy to use
• Cost – both of the above have to work within the set costs of the project.
Any overspends would have serious consequences for the YFA.
This is why the project has been planned around a ‘pilot, test, evaluate’ model,
so that YFA has checks and balances at key stages during the project.
• Risks are minimal to the collections – nothing changes in the way we
acquire, care for and preserve original film collections

15. Where will YFA be at the end of the Project?
• Core work will have continued, so the YFA collections will continue to grow
• Traditional forms of access work will have continued, but the DFAY will be
planned into this work, giving YFA more flexiblity and greater access to new
audiences
• DFAY will be completed with:
At least 50 hours of moving image material on line
Detailed catalogue notes and contextual information
Background information including stills, journals etc
Dedicated education section for National Curriculum use
Flexible system that will allow for dedicated viewing stations at partner venues
Portable laptop/projector viewing for community audiences, and ability for large
scale projections.