Categories: Organizations | Guides | Reports | Projects | Festivals and Conferences | Case Studies | Color Grading
Organizations
International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)
Association of the worlds leading film archives, activities, news, forums, congresses, publications
Association of Moving Image Archivists AMIA
Association of Moving Image Archivists, non-profit organization, collaborations, education, annual conference, newsletter, debates, standards, AMIA codes of ethics
FIAT / IFTA. International Federation of Television Archives
Forum for exchange of knowledge and experience between its members, to promote the study of any topic relevant to the development and use of audiovisual archives and to establish international standards on key issues regarding all aspects of audiovisual media archive management.
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
Technical society for the motion imaging industry. SMPTE advances moving-imagery education and engineering across the communications, technology, media, and entertainment industries.
Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI)
A joint venture of Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios. DCI’s primary purpose is to establish and document voluntary specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema.
ACE. Association des cinémathèques européennes
History of the institution, further articles, links, case studies, events, training&education, europeana, state of digitisation of the European archives
Film Foundation. Filmmakers for Preservation
The Film Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1990 by Martin Scorsese, dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history by providing annual support for preservation and restoration projects at the leading film archives.
Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage
Created in 2006, the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage (formerly Thomson Foundation) is a non-profit entity, acting in the field of preservation and promotion of film and audiovisual heritage, which reflects the history and the culture of a country.
The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA)
Medium for international co-operation between archives that preserve recorded sound and audiovisual documents, archival management of audiovisual material, digital mass storage, systems, analogue technology, all types of recordings and format, collection policies, organising knowledge task force: standards and rules for the documentation and cataloguing of audiovisual media.
Presto Centre
The PrestoCentre is a non-profit, membership-driven organisation that brings together a global community of stakeholders in the audiovisual industry. As intermediary, the Centre offers a platform by connecting and facilitating interactions between these groups. Goal: long-term digital access to cultural heritage; only for members: library with further readings, Presto broker, standards register, market dashboard, tools catalogue, events calendar etc.
Image Permanence Institute
Physical-chemical preservation, state of the art research, training
German Association of Restorers
Activities and information about German restorers (more general, not esp. focused on audiovisual material), in German
The Swiss association of conservators and restorers
Cinémathèque Suisse
Preservation, collection, museum, restoration, conservation, in German and French
Domitor
The international society for the study of early cinema, an association for people interested in cinema from its beginnings to 1915. Recognizing that the work of the world’s film archives has made accessible a growing body of early films and research materials pertaining to early cinema, Domitor also seeks to promote close relationships between scholars and archivists.
Memoriav. Preserving the Audiovisual Heritage
As a national organization, Memoriav is mandated with preserving and developing Switzerland’s audiovisual heritage – photographs, recordings, films and videos as well as context-relevant information.
digital humanities lab. University of Basel
Services and expertise: database systems, virtual research environments (VRE), computational photography, digital photo restoration, project guidance during image stock digitizations, digital archiving and data hosting, color management consulting and training
Guides
Film Forever
Simple guidelines for preserving motion picture film materials outside of specialized archives, with a focus on storage at home, film stocks, film identification, damage, handling, storage, glossary, charts, sponsored by AMIA
Digitization Guidelines
Technical information for the digitization of historical material (still images and audiovisual material), Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (US), initially formed under the auspices of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
Filmstandards.org
Filmstandards.org is a site about metadata for moving images. This wiki-style site has announcements, discussions, reference materials, and tutorials about describing audiovisual works (and their various incarnations and derivates) using metadata schemas. Hosting of filmstandards.org is provided by Deutsches Filminstitut (DIF) e.V., Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Ray Edmondson / Unesco (2004): Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles
Ethical, philosophical and memopolitical implications/challenges of digitization: obsolescence, artefact value, marketing, access, ethical challenges, internet, copyright, historical contextualization, technological memory, terms and definitions, tension: physical carrier, conceptual descriptors, content, key-concepts of audiovisual heritage, historical emergence, characteristics of the institutions, specifics of audiovisual archives (see table in appendix), context-dependence, management principles, appendix: glossary, formats and obsolescence
Venice Charter
Role of the original, restoration ethics, in French, English and German. Download PDF
Code of Ethics FIAF
Ethical guidelines for the handling of audiovisual heritage
Image Permanence Institute (IPI)
Further literature about photochemical preservation, bibliography: stability and storage issues, PDF-documents
Video Preservation Website
Video preservation, further links to guidelines: migration, create use copy, videotape storage, history of imaging technology, conversion: analog videotapes to digital, museum with links to all the major video equipment image repositories, library, video guide by Charles Bensinger (1981), tools to identify and use historic video equipment.
Copyright Data
Copyright probes/case studies, Charlie Chaplin, The Abbott & Costello TV series, further links to foreign copyright laws (outside the US), state of the art 2007
Adelstein, Peter (2004). IPI Media Storage Quick Reference. Rochester: Image Permanence Institute.
Quick reference chart, download pdf
The Film Preservation Guide (2004). San Francisco: The National Film Preservation Foundation
Film preservation (handling, identification, pragmatics and ethics)
Joanneum Diamant
Description of film defects
Memoriav Inventory by Mariann Sträuli
Inventory of Swiss archives by Mariann Sträuli [Lewinsky] (2006), in German
Library of Congress Preservation Documentation 1993
Film preservation, state of the art 1993, historical report/snapshot 1993, memopolitics in the US, technical background, film bases, emulsions, color fading, storage, US institutions, federal funding, benefits of film preservation, public access, copyright
US Library of Congress Site Digital Preservation
Digital preservation, digital stewardship, alliances, further initiatives, monthly newsletter
Poynton, Charles: Specialist in engineeringof digital colour and imaging systems
Color specification and image coding, computer graphics, image processing, video and the transfer of digital images to print, physical spectral power, CIE system, other color systems, linear and nonlinear, standards, SMPTE, EBU and ITU-R (formerly CCIR), CMY, CMYK, further links to the problem of color space conversions, FAQs about gamma, color physics, radiometry and photometry
IASA Publications, Rules, Guidelines
Safeguarding of the audio heritage: ethics, principles and preservation strategy (2005), guidelines on the production and preservation of digital audio objects (2009), handling and storage of audio and video carriers (2014), ethical principles for sound and audiovisual archives (2010)
IASA cataloguing rules (1999), task force on selection for digital transfer (2003)
Lavoie, Brian (2004): The Open Archival Information System Reference model: Introductory Guide. (Digital Preservation Coalition Technology Watch Report).
Securing the long-term persistence of information in digital form, unifying framework: a reference model for an open archival information system. The reference model defines the basic functional components of a system dedicated to the long-term preservation of digital information, details the key internal and external system interfaces, and characterizes the information objects managed by the system.
Beagrie, Neil/Jones, Maggie/DPC (2008): Preservation Management of Digital Materials: The Handbook. (Digital Preservation Coalition).
The handbook provides an internationally authoritative and practical guide to the subject of managing digital resources over time and the issues in sustaining access to them.
Reports
Digital Agenda for Europe. Protection of Film Heritage
Recommendations of the EU to member states on film heritage, Europe’s film heritage has to be methodically collected, catalogued, preserved and restored, EU countries are asked to inform the Commission every two years of what they have done in this connection, implementation reports online from 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, further links
A.M.P.A.S. (2007): The Digital Dilemma. Stategic Issues in Archiving and Accessing Digital Motion Picture Material.
Strategic Issues in archiving and accessing digital motion picture material, practices in the movie business and major industries.
A.M.P.A.S. (2012): The Digital Dilemma 2.
Follow up report, perspectives from independent filmmakers, documentarians and nonpronfit audiovisual archives, collaboration with Library of Congress’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
A.M.P.A.S. (2011/2012): Long-Term Management and Storage of Digital Motion Picture Materials. A Digital Motion Picture Archive Framework Project Case Study
Managing digital motion picture material, digital archiving case study project, practical realities of various digital archiving strategies and technologies, using the Standard Test and Evaluation Material (StEM), requirements and design specifications for a digital preservation system based on motion picture film archiving best practices and current digital data management theory
Fraunhofer IIS (2009): JPEG 2000 process for the project “Images for the Future” at the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision. Final Report.
Final report, JPEG 2000 process, collaboration: Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and Fraunhofer IIS, state of the art 2009, download pdf
Wright, Richard (2012): Preserving Moving Pictures and Sound. (Digital Preservation Coalition Technology Watch Report).
The scope of the report includes analogue material on physical carriers such as film, audiotape and videotape (and so stored on shelves); digital material on physical carriers such as CD, DVD, digital videotape and digital audio tape (also stored on shelves); and finally, digital content in files and so held on some form of mass storage.
The Library of Congress: Conversations about Digital Preservation.
A series of podcasts on the topic available from their website, e.g.: data management and digital preservation in the UK, digital preservation challenges facing television content etc.
Digital Preservation 2012 Meeting: Papers.
Digital Preservation 2012 is the annual meeting of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance. The theme of the meeting is access to digital content under stewardship.
Anderson, Chris (2004): The Long Tail. In: Wired 10 (2004).
Digital entertainment industry, digital distribution
Gracy, Karen F. (2003): Documenting the Process of Film Preservation. In: The Moving Image. Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2003.
Analysis of values and selection criteria using ethnograpic methods and fieldwork, social reality of film archivists, PDF download available, state of the art 2003
Cave, Dylan (2008): Born Digital – Raised an Orphan? Acquiring Digital Media through an Analog Paradigm In: Muse, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 2008.
Digital long-term preservation, digital born media, technical and cultural strategies, PDF download available
Turci, Arianna (2006): The Use of Digital Restoration within European Film Archives: A Case Study. In: The Moving Image. Volume 6, No 1, Spring 2006.
Historical development, beginnings and acceptance of digital restoration in European archives, state of the art in 2005
Stephen G. Nichols/ Smith, Abby (2001): The Evidence in Hand: Report of the Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections, pp. 35-38.
Role of artifacts/originals in libraries 1800-2000, collections, print/paper, audiovisual material, sound, still and moving images, broadcast media, criteria for selection, distinction of value, copyright vs. preservation? case-studies, pdf download available
New York Times: Kodak will retire Kodakchrome. 23.06.2009.
Photochemical material in the digital age, Kodak politics, state of the art 2009
Owen, J.S. Mackenzie (2005): The Scientific Article in the Age of Digitization. Amsterdam.
Digitization and communication, aspects of the original
Projects
Beelden voor de toekomst / Images for the Future
National Dutch project for mass-digitization of the audiovisual heritage, organigramm, project duration from 2007 for 7 years
European Film Gateway (EFG)
The EFG Portal provides access to hundreds of thousands of film historical documents as preserved in European film archives and cinémathèques: photos, posters, programmes, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials.
EFG 1914
Since February 2013, the European Film Gateway gives access to around 3’000 historic films related to the First World War. All films digitised in the project EFG 1914 are now searchable through the European Film Gateway. The films cover different genres like newsreels, documentaries, fiction and propaganda.
Europeana
Internet portal that acts like an interface, virtual library, Europeana brings together the digitised content of Europe’s galleries, libraries, museums, archives and audiovisual collections. Europeana gives integrated access to over 27 million books, films, paintings, museum objects and archival documents from some 2,200 content providers.
Presto Centre 4U
Presto4U is a two-year project supported by a core network of 14 PrestoCentre members. The project aims to identify useful results of research into digital audiovisual preservation and to raise awareness and improve the adoption of these both by technology and service providers as well as media owners, project duration: 2013/01 till 2014/12.
Presto Prime Project
Storage and handling of digital born/digitzed material and the related metadata, long-term preservation of digital media objects, practical solutions, digital preservation framework: tools, services and competence center. Project duration: 2009/01 to 2012/06
Presto Space Project
General information about mass digitization/digital preservation: technical solutions for a complete digital preservation, all kinds of audio-visual collections, adaptable to different European memopolitical interest,. asset-management, industrial, semi-automated systems, access, audiovisual material as historical, cultural and commercial assets. Project duration: Start in 2004 for 40 months
filmarchives online. Finding Moving Images in European Collections
Free access to catalogue information of film archives from all over Europe. Search results provide information about existence and location of the materials. The focus of the database is on non-fiction material; i.e. documentary and educational films, newsreels, travelogue, advertising, scientific, industrial, experimental, sports films, as well as animation films. filmarchives online is the result of the MIDAS project (2006-2009).
Festivals and Conferences
Il Cinema Ritrovato (Bologna/Italy)
Film festival in Bologna, Italy, one of the world’s major festivals of film restoration, dedicated to the history of film, website of the edition in 2014
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone/Italy)
Silent film festival in Pordenone/Italy, workshops and Collegium Sessions on the restoration and preservation of silent film.
AMIA Conference
The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Annual Conference
FIAF Congress
The Congress of the International Federation of Film Archives is held every year in a different country, and consists of scientific, cultural, legal and administrative programs.
Reel Thing
Technical symposium in Los Angeles
ARRI Archive Workshop
Workshop with service providers, engineers, restorers and scientists
Toute la mémoire du monde. Festival international du film restauré.
Film restoration festival in Paris organized by the Cinémathèque françaiseLink to the 2015 edition
Orphan Film Symposium
A festival and symposium dedicated to the study of films outside the commercial mainstream, such as amateur, educational, ethnographic, industrial, government, experimental and censored. Addressing questions in research as well as in preservation.
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about silent film as an art form and as a culturally valuable historical record. Throughout the year, SFSFF produces events that showcase important titles from the silent era, often in restored or preserved prints, with live musical accompaniment.
Berlinale. Retrospektive
Retrospective of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival: The Retrospective will present around 30 Technicolor films, some of which have been elaborately restored.
The Colour Fantastic: Chromatic Worlds of Silent Cinema
Conference co-organised by EYE, Giovanna Fossati (University of Amsterdam/ASCA), and the Leverhulme Trust research project Colour in the 1920s: Cinema and Its Intermedial Contexts, run by Sarah Street (University of Bristol) and Joshua Yumibe (University of St Andrews / Michigan State University), Amsterdam 28.-31.03.2015
Internationale Stummfilmtage / Bonner Sommerkino (Bonn/Germany)
Silent film festival in Bonn / Germany, usually in August, screening of (recent) restorations and reconstructions of historical films.
Slapstick Festival (Bristol/UK)
Festival dedicated to film comedy from the golden era of the silents, often introduced and commented by contemporary British comediens
Case Studies
Palm, Jonas (2004): The Digital Black Hole
Costs of long-term preservation of digital files, general costs of (mass-)digitization, costs of access, management/administration costs for the data and storage, scanning processes and their costs, fluid definition of “true quality”, PDF download available
Chapman, Stephen: Counting the Costs of Digital Preservation: Is Repository Storage Affordable?
Costs and affordability of digital collections, case studies
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (Wiene, 1920): The Making-of a Restoration
Bertelsmann Chairman & CEO Thomas Rabe (sponsor), Murnau Foundation Chairman Ernst Szebedits, and restorer Anke Wilkening talk about the importance and challenges of the project, state of the art 2012/2013
Restoration „Beyond the Rocks“ (Wood, 1922)
Curator Giovanna Fossati explains the process of restoring“ Beyond the Rocks“, a film from 1922 starring Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson, state of the art 2003
Ask a curator: Restoring the „Hitchcock 9“
Q&A with curators and archivists (BFI) about the restoration project „Hitchcock 9“: restoring Hitchcock’s silent films (available elements and source material, colour references, missing parts), state of the art 2011/2012
Ask a curator: Restoring „The Great White Silence“ (Ponting, 1924)
„The Great White Silence“ is the official film record of Captain Scott’s trip to the South Pole. This is a clip where questions about the film’s restoration process are answered by curators and archivists (BFI): source material, colour references and schemes; state of the art 2011
The Film Who Warped Too Much – Restoration Demonstration
Criterion Collection promotes the restoration of „The Man Who Knew Too Much“ (Hitchcock, 1934), missing original negative, nitrate fine grain positive at BFI, element too warped, scanning problems, pinless scanning process, wetgate, state of the art 2013, see also
„The Umbrellas of Cherbourg“ (Demy, 1964) Restoration Demo
Criterion Collection promotes the restoration of „The Umbrellas of Cherbourg“, Agnès Varda, Eastmancolor, scanning three separation masters, colour grading, dirt, sound, theatre release, state of the art 2013, see also
„Jaws“ (Spielberg, 1975) – Blu-ray-restoration documentary
Universal 100th anniversary, promotion of the restoration of „Jaws“, Steven Spielberg on the restoration, wetgate, dirt, grading, contrast, TV-screen vs. film projection, sound restoration and remixing, new negative for archival means, state of the art 2012
100 Years of Universal – Restoring the Classics
Universal Pictures promotes its centennial in 2012 with the restoration and Blu-ray release of select films including “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Jaws”, “Dracula”, “Frankenstein”, “Bride of Frankenstein”, “The Birds” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Film preservationists and technicians discuss the process of restoring these films using digital technology.
Restoration „Mothra“ (Honda, 1961)
Restoration case study: Mothra, state of the art 2009
Restoration „Lola Montez“ (Ophüls, 1955)
Restoration documentary: „Lola Montez“, Munich Filmmuseum, in German, state of the art 2002/2009 (see also Asper: “Von den Rätseln des Daseins”)
Taglia Italia Archive
Philological research, online-archive of Italian censorship cards, in Italian
Shaman Project
Development of a digital long-term preservation framework for libraries and archives, sustaining heritage access through multivalent archiving, project duration: 2008-2011
Restoration „Rashomon“ (Kurosawa, 1950)
Restoration case study: Rashomon, state of the art 2008
Restoration „Dr. Strangelove“ (Kubrick, 1964)
Sony Pictures Museum, restoration „Dr. Strangelove“, state of the art 2009
Restoration „Dr. Strangelove“ (Kubrick, 1964)
Restoration case study Dr. Strangelove, distribution via Blu-Ray, discussion of the job quality, state of the art 2009
Restoration „Bucking Broadway“ (Ford, 1917)
Restoration case study „Bucking Broadway“, state of the art 2006 (?), in French
Cineric. Restoration and Preservation
Restoration Showcase; examples from restored films
Martin-Jung, Helmut (2012): Geduldsspiele am Monitor. In: Süddeutsche.de. 2.12.2012
Digital restoration, „The NeverEnding Story“ (Petersen, 1984), scanning, colour grading, sound, in German, state of the art 2012
Film Color, Grading and Restoration
Poynton, Charles: FAQs about Color.
Color specification and image coding, computer graphics, image processing, video and the transfer of digital images to print, physical spectral power, CIE system, other color systems, linear and nonlinear, standards, SMPTE, EBU and ITU-R (formerly CCIR), CMY, CMYK, further links to the problem of color space conversions, FAQs about gamma, color physics, radiometry and photometry
Bankston, Douglas (2005): “The Color-Space Conundrum”. In: American Cinematographer, Vol. 86, No. 1
An introduction to the history and standards of color spaces and their relevance for practical work 2005
Thompson, Kristin (2008): Digital Grading and the Color of Middle-Earth.
Color and color-grading in the digital domain 2008
Sturm, Julia (2001): Special Effects. Hightech in the Shire
Color and color-grading in the digital domain, state of the art 2001, in German
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