Workshop 2 audiovisual conservation, preservation and digitisation

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


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


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


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


What about vinyl?

Gramophone records: lacquer, shellac and vinyl Lacquer = a master

recording (acetate, instantaneous disc); very fragile !


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)


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


Gramophone damage

Dropping a needle onto a vinyl disc

Oil coming to the surface on a lacquer disc


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


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


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


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


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


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

http://wiki.prestospace.org/


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


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 !


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 !


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


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?)


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


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


The Factory Approach

Photo by Toban Black



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!


A BBC Preservation Factory



“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


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 !


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 ?


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)

Technology

Workshop 2 audiovisual conservation, preservation and digitisation