Making Surveillance Less Boring

posted June 11, 2011

Surveillance, one of the earmarks of modern life, is in good part an archiving challenge. How do technicians sort through masses of captured visual data, or how do they engineer storage systems to make the job more efficient, and less boring. Just zipping through favorite movies for the best bits can be an aggravating undertaking;

Bray Animation Project Rolls Out

posted June 11, 2011

Years in preparation, the Bray Animation Project has rolled out as an extensive research tool devoted to animated films from Bray Studios made between 1913 and 1927. The studio was headed by J.R. Bray, a pioneer of early comics who opened the New York facility as the first successful commercial animated-cartoon studio. Creator, researcher, and

Archiving the “Mother of the California Coastal Zone Conservation Act of 1972”

posted May 11, 2011

Like many a figure of huge accomplishment, Ellen Stern Harris (1929-2006), the “mother of the California Coastal Zone Conservation Act of 1972,” never quite got around to getting together all the records of her activities.

Chasing Down the Film Noir

posted April 26, 2011

In Siren City: Sound and Source Music in Classic American Noir (Rutgers University Press), Robert Miklitsch evidences a consuming passion for the form. And he achieves marvelous results, says Krin Gabbard, author of Hotter Than That: The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture: “Robert Miklitsch has convinced me. Sound and music in film noir are every

Filming New York’s Finest

posted April 4, 2011

The New York City Police Museum in downtown Manhattan has artifacts dating from the city’s first settlement by Dutch pioneers, 300 years ago, to September 11 2001. It has early officer-identification forms; it has back issues of Spring 3100, a publication written by and about members of the force; and it has film and video

Huck Finn the First

posted March 29, 2011

George Eastman House has announced completion of its restoration of Huckleberry Finn (William Desmond Taylor, 1920), the first feature-length film adaptation of Mark Twain’s most popular novel. As the Eastman House’s website and trailer of the restored film explains, the film hasn’t been exhibited since its initial release. The restoration was made from a nitrate

Thesis Time in New York City

posted March 20, 2011

Thesis-presentation time is upon students in New York University’s two-year Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. March 28, as part of the requirements for a master of arts degree, candidates will present an academic paper, a preservation project, or a professional portfolio. Do their subjects provide some sense of the moving-image-archivist zeitgeist? Their topics range

Archives Preservation Roadshow

posted March 19, 2011

Here’s an event in Seattle to emulate, in your home town. On May 14 2011 – all free of charge – archivists and museum professionals will answer questions from members of the public interested in learning how to better preserve their personal and family archival materials – photographs, books, movies, and other materials including digital

UCLA Festival of Preservation

posted March 16, 2011

If you’re in Los Angeles between now and the end of this month (March 2011), you can catch what remains of the 2011 UCLA Festival of Preservation. The series presents an extraordinary range of the gems that UCLA Film & Television Archive has preserved and restored. The Archive’s internationally recognized preservationists introduce many of the