October 21, 2017 was National Home Movie Day in which local organizations open their doors to host a celebration of amateur films and family home movies. The Berkeley Public Library held this local event for guests to bring their 8mm, Super 8mm and 16mm films and their have an archivist inspect the condition of their films for their treasured memories to be projected onto the screen for the audience to enjoy. When I arrived to the event I introduced myself to the organizer and explained my potential Master’s Project about film collections in museums. She jokingly said that I’d found my people because here I was surrounded by film archivists and film enthusiasts. The 3 hour celebration included the screening of 9 films ranging in content from travel films to everyday family home movie footage as well as student film school projects. Guests were invited to narrate the events being seen on screen and to help identify locations and dates of orphan films. Also included were some film preservation trivia questions and prizes from local digital transfer houses and a question and answer session with the volunteer film archivists. By the end of the event I’d realized that Pamela was right, I have found my people! I hope to volunteer to assist in the inspecting of collections for the next Home Movie Day!
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This post is cross-listed on the JFKU Museum Studies Blog. This Spring quarter 2017, under the supervision of faculty member Brianna Cutts of the Sibbett Group, the Museum Studies Exhibition Development class was challenged with the task of developing the content and designing a prototype exhibition about water. Initially, when we first learned that our topic was water we were not very excited. Most of us thought it was boring and too general a topic to catch anyone’s attention in an exhibition. Yet, as we began brainstorming we soon realized that while the topic was general, it left both the content development and design open to many possibilities. After a one hour silent group brainstorming session, we began to organize our thoughts, discovering water topic patterns. Several topics overlapped and became larger themes for our prototype exhibition and, as expected, other topics eventually became irrelevant to the direction that we chose to take for the visitor experience. The topic evolved in another class a smaller group of us expanded the ways in which those topics could come to life to tell a story in our prototype exhibition. Many of us had deep personal connections to water; stories that touched us, songs and poems that connected our emotions to water, our fears of drowning and truths about not being able to swim. We tossed around strong, powerful metaphors about water such as “the ripple effect”, “a drop in the bucket” and what would become the most influential quote by the Dalai Lama, “Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects.” We used these metaphors to make connections between local stories about water and personal connections to water as seen in our objects. As a small group, we determined our main themes: tapping into the visitor’s emotions and personal connections to water, its power, its value, its weight. Our goal was for the visitor to leave our space feeling both like they had learned something and like they had experienced something, ideally creating a mesmerizing experience. Poetry and metaphors seemed the perfect vehicle for tapping into visitor’s emotions. In subsequent classes we figured out what we needed to do to achieve our goals of educating our visitor and giving them an experience. We divided into teams in order to conquer this huge task in only 10 weeks. The teams included project managers, the content team and the design team. After much debate about what the kind of experience we wanted our visitors to have and ways we thought might work to execute it, we decided that we wanted our visitors to feel like they were floating on water. We realized that we liked the idea of using some flowy fabric somewhere, somehow in our design, and that we wanted the visitor to experience the movement of water. We eventually determined fabric hanging from the ceiling paired with an oscillating fan gave that floating effect we wanted. Executing this was certainly easier said than done. We would continue to make adjustments to this piece of the puzzle up until minutes before our guests began arriving to our opening event. Such is life in the exhibition world. Our content team understood our vision to tap into visitor’s personal connections to water and tirelessly researched, wrote and developed stories for many weeks to come up with six poems or quotes, local stories that connect to those poems or quotes and an object that symbolizes that connection. As a group we decided that the less content, the better, as we’ve all been to those exhibitions where they have wall to wall content. We wanted to make bold statements about people’s connections to water in as little words as possible. No doubt editing these stories was the most challenging element of developing the content for this exhibition. We also aimed to make the best use of our small space by focusing on overall details and design elements to make our visitors feel like they were floating, despite the brief but inspiring content on the walls. Our exhibition title came to us in the middle of all of this. We were discussing metaphors that we could use for content connection and one of the content team members brought up the term water bound. The term water bound explained exactly what we were trying to bring to light. The duality of water in that it is powerful and can be restraining but can also be the key to holding societies together in survival. The subtitle, taking on water, came to us in another metaphor discussion. It also has a dual meaning in that it can mean taking on water in a way that can sink a boat and taking on water as in taking on the challenge to bring humanities struggles with the power and politics of access to water to the forefront, to fight for water. In terms of overall design, we knew almost immediately that we wanted to make the center of the room a seating space for reflection. A place to take it all in. It was also a happy accident that made the space feel larger than it actually is. We measured the space and created a small scale model (1”=1”) so that we could better imagine the space we were working with. The space has one wall almost entirely covered in windows as well as a few poles and support structures near the entryway. It was important to keep these things in mind when designing and deciding the placement of our six stories and objects and without obstructing our seating and reflection space in the center of the room. In an effort to keep with our vision of bringing people’s personal connections to water to light, we wanted our exhibition to have a handcrafted, artistic feel in order to mimic those personal connections. We also knew that we wanted to use the flowing fabric hanging from the ceiling. The challenge was how to create that floating effect without going overboard in terms of design elements, less is more, and without going over our $300 budget for the entire project. One of the members of our design team suggested some water lights projected on the walls or ceiling to add to the floating effect. The biggest challenge with these water lights was where to place them and how to mount them. In the end it was easier and had more of an effect to centralize the water lights and project them onto one wall. This allowed for more readability of the content and solved the problem of mounting them to the back of our object pedestals and projecting them onto our content panels. In the end, despite all of our challenges and differences of opinions as a group, the final result of our prototype exhibition is something that we are all proud of. It received high praise as “Simple, powerful, and timely.” We could not have done this project without the guidance and expertise of Brianna Cutts as well as the support of the entire Museum Studies program and all of the friends and family who let us borrow materials and objects to make this exhibition a reality. Water Bound: Taking on Water is not open to the public on a regular basis, however, if you’d like to check it out you can email [email protected] to schedule an appointment. Thanks to the Museum Studies Spring 2017 Exhibition Development class for teaming up to put together such a compelling exhibition! Brianna Cutts Ilene Conde Soledad Edmondson Anna Escobedo Leslie Evens Ashley Franks-McGill Mari Lau Roberto Martinez Devin McGrane Bronwen Phillips Stacey Stern Sarah Winer It is amazing to think that film is the longest lasting moving image medium. Over time, many different film bases have been developed to allow the moving images on film to survive for little over a century. Below are a few of the many online resources for the preservation, conservation and researching of film collections. Library of Congress Library of Congress-Packard Campus National Film Preservation Board Resources Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Image Permanence Institute Film Forever (this site also contains a downloadable PDF resource) While cataloging a small collection of films I came across two major agents of deterioration caused by poor storage conditions. The first agent of deterioration I encountered was rust. Rust is a form of corrosion and comes from metal being stored in high humidity. It affects the metal reels and cans that films are stored inside. In order to combat the rust from scratching the film I changed the reels they were stored on, cleaned out the can and also cleaned the film. After doing so, I realized that I should have changed the film from being stored on a reel to being stored on a core. Storing films on cores is considered more archival because cores are made of an inert polypropylene plastic that does not corrode and cause rust like metal reels. Oddball Films stores most films on reels for easy viewing access. The second agent of deterioration I encountered was acetate decomposition, also known as vinegar syndrome. Vinegar syndrome is most commonly brought on by poor storage conditions for film collections such as high temperature and high humidity. It is easily identified by its strong smell of vinegar. These conditions can cause cupping in the film as well as shrinkage, buckling, warpage and embrittlement. Oddball Films has a process for treating vinegar syndrome since it is contagious within film collections. First, contaminated film must be segregated away from other healthy films and then a molecular sieve or silica gel must be placed inside the closed film can to act as a scavenger and absorb the moisture within the can that is causing the film to deteriorate. Oddball Films uses sieves temporarily inside cans until the film can be transferred, then the sieve is disposed. After being segregated for a few weeks these films are then evaluated for their potential to be transferred. It is not good for either the film or projector to try to run damaged film. If the film is deemed non transferable it goes back into segregation or is disposed of if it is too far deteriorated. If there is sufficient funding and equipment available it may be more desirable to transfer the film and also make a print copy before disposing of the contaminated original. Another widely seen agent of deterioration is poor storage of cellulose nitrate film. Cellulose nitrate film was widely produced from 1890-1950. It is important to identify nitrate film versus safety film because nitrate film must be kept in cold storage to prevent irreversible deterioration. Furthermore, exposure to extremely high temperatures or an open flame could ignite the highly flammable film base. There are a large host of resources available for identifying, handling and storing cellulose nitrate film (see above). Oddball Films does not have any cellulose nitrate in their collection. Condition reporting is an important practice for any collection. I learned a whole new vocabulary in relation to film in order to properly identify agents of deterioration within a film collection and write informative condition reports. Some condition reporting can be done just by evaluating the way the film appears when wound onto a reel. The number of splices and any perforation damage can be easily seen from the edge of the film. Bad splices are also visible on the edge of a film. I worked with a small “b-roll” that had been poorly spliced with masking tape splices directly on the surface of the film. I removed all of the masking tape and re-spliced the elements back together to create one continuous roll. Any tape or tape residue left on the surface of a film should not be run through a projector. It could damage the projector or subsequent films viewed through the projector. Emulsion scratches, surface scratches, fading and color shift can also be seen by physically examining the film through a loop with a light box. Color shift is irreversible once deterioration has begun. Freezing can slow down most deterioration processes but once they have begun nothing can stop them entirely. Some condition reporting must be done by viewing the moving images on a film viewer. Lines or fine scratches in the surface of the film often cannot always be seen with the naked eye and a loop must be used. These conditions should be noted in the catalog record for future reference. This will allow for monitoring of worsening conditions.. Some minor warping can only be seen, or heard in the case of magnetic and optical sound tracks, when a film is played back in real time. Often times warped film will run through the gate slower than standard speed causing the sound track and the moving image to be played in slow motion.
Condition reporting is important for noting the deterioration of a film for the present as well as for the future. A compromised film’s condition can then be periodically checked for the progression of deterioration or it can be evaluated for the significance of keeping the original film versus transferring it and maintaining a digital copy. Inspecting, repairing, condition reporting and cleaning film are an important parts of managing a film collection. I learned how to clean film using Solvon film cleaning solvent with a cloth on the rewind reels. It is especially important to clean film before running it through a telecine for transfer. This will remove a great deal of dust and give the best quality digital transfer possible. The solvent used to clean film is toxic and requires the use of goggles, a respiration mask and rubber work gloves.
On Monday, August 29, 2016 I began my Film & Media Archivist internship at Oddball Films, a stock film footage archive in San Francisco. The collection is housed on the third and top floor of a warehouse building in the Mission District and is home to over 50,000 films and video tapes used for research, preservation and providing licensing for footage to be used in films all over the world.
I became interested in this position because I want to learn more about caring for film collections. In my experience I have found that a lot of smaller archives and historical societies don’t know how to care for the film they acquire and accession into in their collections. There are so few dedicated film archives out there to gain hands-on experience and Oddball Films was offering a unique opportunity to get some hands on experience in managing their collection.
In my time working at the Historical Society of Long Beach (HSLB) I had a lot of responsibilities including office management, program and exhibit development, assisting visitors with research in the archive, managing photographic rights and reproductions and many more. My favorite and most challenging ongoing task was managing volunteers.
Since the HSLB has only three staff, volunteers are absolutely vital to their success. Managing volunteers was a small percentage of my responsibilities but our gracious volunteers donated their time and talents to the HSLB and it greatly increased the organization’s capacity to carry out their mission. The goal of this blog is to provide a space for me to share my experiences working at a small historical society and the things I’ve learned about the museum field while pursuing my Master’s degree in Museum Studies. My experience working in museums stems from my 4 years at the Historical Society of Long Beach in Long Beach, CA. I began working as a catalog volunteer and transitioned into a full-time staff as the Gallery Coordinator. My duties were greeting visitors in the galleries, assisting researchers in the archives, training volunteers to catalog the collection into Past Perfect and properly store artifacts, managing rights and reproductions of the collection, assisting in program and exhibition development, and preparing and hanging exhibitions. |
ASHLEY FRANKS-MCGILLI will be updating this blog periodically with posts related to history, museums, collections and professional development. ARCHIVES
October 2017
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