Conference Sessions & Workshops: Friday
Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday
Workshops | Vendor Cafe | Poster Sessions | DAS
Schedule at a Glance
FRIDAY . November 20, 2015
8:00am – 9:00pm | Parlor A
Hack Day Lounge
9:15am – 2:00pm | Vendor Cafe
The Vendor Café
9:30am – 10:00am | Galleria South
Annotating and Mapping Ephemeral Films of National Socialism in Austria
Speaker
Lindsay Zarwell, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Take a glimpse into everyday life in Austria before and during the Holocaust, and see what amateur filmmakers who were there saw. The “Ephemeral Films Project: National Socialism in Austria,” completed in fall 2015, has preserved, analyzed, and made accessible approximately 50 films related to the history of the Nazi period and the Holocaust. Learn about the features of this open-source, innovative web application and how to apply this new technology to your archival projects. The online film player pulls from a high-resolution film scan, which preserves both the structure and content of the original films, and combines a frame-by-frame level of analysis with dynamic annotations that synchronously change as the historic film plays. One can see a modern-day image of a building or the plotting of locations on an interactive map. This project provides an opportunity to reexamine the relationships between film, history, historiography, and technology.
9:30am – 10:30am | Broadway III&IV
Play Ball! Wrestling with the Challenges of Sports Collections
Chair
Hannah Palin, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Speakers
Karin Carlson, Northeast Historic Film
Kimberly Tarr, Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department, NYU Libraries
Molly Rose Steed, University of Utah
Sports collections, typically representing decades of athletic competitions, are fraught with preservation challenges, funding issues, and licensing roadblocks that prevent free access and use. These materials are simultaneously neglected by their creators, fetishized by collectors, ignored by scholars and adored by fans. No matter how you feel about athletics in our culture, institutions ranging from small regional archives to large university archives inevitably wind up with sports-related film and videotape collections. As archivists, we have an obligation to make these materials available to our constituents, but how are we doing? Archivists from the Big Ten and Pac-12 sports conferences come together with Chicago Film Archives and Northeast Historic Film to discuss creative approaches to funding, copyright and licensing, digital preservation and storage.
9:30am – 10:30am | Broadway I & II
Designing and Building the Post-Analogue Audiovisual Archive
Speaker
Jan Müller, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, FIAT/IFTA President
This presentation addresses the challenges related to the role and function of audiovisual archive institutions as the environment they operate in becomes more and more digital and networked. The context is the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision; a leading audiovisual archive that successfully made the transition to the digital domain. Its ever-growing collections today comprise over a million hours of audiovisual content – from film, television and radio broadcasts, music recording and web videos. Operating in such a new, post-analogue context has profound implications institutions must respond to. The fundamental challenge is how the public mission of archives (i.e. supporting a myriad of users to utilize collections to learn, experience and create) can be achieved in a digital context. ‘Creative Technology’ plays an important role in building the audiovisual archive of the future. To manage the transition, Sound and Vision launched a process of internal review and assessment. In the course of this two-year process, it drafted a new mission statement, defined a new strategic plan and built a new organizational structure from the ground up.
9:30am – 10:30am | Galleria North
Advocacy: International Reference Points
Chair
Caroline Yeager, George Eastman House; co-chair AMIA Advocacy Committee
Speakers
Hila Abraham, Jerusalem Cinémathèque – Israel Film Archive
Christophe Dupin, International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)
Joie Springer, Former Senior Program Specialist UNESCO
Authoritative international reference points and mechanisms which film archivists can employ in confidently advocating for their work include UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage; the codes of ethics adopted by professional associations; and the literature of advocacy, which can be both an inspiration and a guide. Getting each of these reference points in place required its own advocacy exercise: international organizations don’t spontaneously change their status quo. Cases have to be made, people have to be persuaded and it can take years. But once in place, they carry the weight and authority of such organizations. Do they actually work? Does anything change because they are there?
10:00am – 10:30am | Galleria South
Providing Digital Access to C-SPAN’s Video Record
Speaker
Robert X Browning, C-SPAN
The C-SPAN Archives is twenty-seven years old and contains over 210,000 hours of free online, indexed, digital content that can be viewed, clipped, and shared. The collection won a George Foster Peabody Award in 2010 for these archiving and access efforts. C-SPAN is the only national network saving every minute of its three twenty-four hour broadcasts. All the video is indexed, much with closed caption or text searching with tools for viewing, clipping, and sharing online. Personal accounts allow one to save clips and get updates on programs, people and organizations. This presentation by founder and director, Professor Robert X Browning, will focus on some of the challenges of creating the archive, how digitization and indexing is done, the present technology being used, and how access is provided to the public, politicians, journalists and documentarians. He will also discuss the lessons learned in the almost three decades of the Archives.
11:00am – 12:00pm | Broadway I & II
21st Century Film Preservation: A Case Study – Paramount Pictures
Chair
Andrea Kalas, Paramount Pictures
Speakers
Laura Thornburg, Paramount Pictures
Nikki Jee, Paramount Pictures
Sean Vilbert, Paramount Pictures
Charlotte Johnson, Paramount Pictures
In 2009, a new team was formed to take over the work of archiving at Paramount Pictures. The team needed to determine what films would be preserved, in what order the films should be preserved, what technical approach was best for films of every era. This panel will describe the steps the team has made over the last six years including the work to assess the condition of everything from original negatives to hard drives; to develop the process of prioritization; to establish principles of digital preservation. The panelists are all members of the Archive team who have had direct experience with the approaches and workflows. Specific title-based case studies that demonstrate how theory worked in practice will be presented.
11:00am – 12:00pm | Broadway III&IV
Processing Film Collections Labeled in Non-Latin Alphabets
Chair
Liz Coffey, Harvard University
Speakers
Amy Sloper, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research
Travis Wagner, University of South Carolina
Spencer Churchill, George Eastman House
What do you do when a large collection arrives at your archive and it is all labeled not only in a foreign tongue, but also in a completely different alphabet? How do you identify titles and how do you catalog them? Different institutions have found different methods of tackling these issues, but one thing is common amongst them – the Internet is making this kind of work much easier than it was in the last century. This panel includes people from disparate institutions who have tackled similar collections in different ways. We will share problems solved, lessons learned, issues that remain to be dealt with, and the joys of sight-learning new alphabets.
11:00am – 12:00pm | Galleria South
AO&U: Tools and Technologies for Enhancing Access to Audiovisual
Chair
Jack Brighton, Illinois Public Media
Speakers
Lai Tee Phang, National Archives of Singapore
Anne Wootton, Pop Up Archive
Mark Williams, The Media Ecology Project, Dartmouth College
Allison Schein, Studs Terkel Archive
A/V collections are increasingly digital; in theory, that also means increasingly accessible. However, on the web, media has a distinct disadvantage — because it’s not text-based, it’s hard to search, hard to skim, and hard to share. More than for any other kind of digital collection, effective use of technology is crucial in helping users to discover and engage with digital audiovisual collections. Digital tools for audiovisual materials can allow collections to develop a meaningful web presence, improve searchability, create new distribution channels, and develop access points for users. This session will explore some of the technology currently being used and developed by audiovisual archives, libraries, and scholarly communities, such as speech-to-text software, data harmonization, scholarly research metadata, and online remix programs, and how these tools can be used to improve access to a/v.
11:00am – 12:00pm | Galleria North
Advocacy: Personal Advocacy – The Power of One
Chair
Benedict Olgado, University of the Philippines Diliman
Speakers
Ray Edmondson, Archive Associates Pty Ltd
Débora Butruce, Mnemosine Ltd
Chalida Uabumrungjit, Thai Film Archive
This session is focused on what the individual can and/or should do in his/her own situation to bring about change within an archive or institution. The single voice and positive intent of one individual can be extremely effective in bringing about reform and spurring interest in cultural heritage.
12:00pm – 1:00pm | Broadway III&IV
Education Committee Open Session:
Entering the A/V Archiving Profession – Tips, Tricks and Advice
Chair
Tressa Graves
Kelle Anzalone, Mission Hills High School
Speakers
Bryce Roe, Simmons College
Kathryn Gronsbell, Carnegie Hall
Michele Winn
Ashley Blewer
The AMIA Education Committee, in collaboration with a cohort of AMIA student and professional members, will host this lightning talk/Q+A session to address issues and questions relevant to AV archivists in the first stages of their careers. With so few accessible academic opportunities focused on AV archiving, many students and early professionals must strategically gain these skills and experiences outside of the classroom. The panel offers an opportunity to discuss the need for curriculum development, while offering professional development strategies for early professionals, as well as tips for inreach and quality mentorship from experienced professionals. Speakers will cover topics addressed to both early and experienced professionals, including networking advice and job seeking and resume tips.
This Open Session is hosted by the AMIA Education Committee and open to all.
12:00pm – 1:00pm | Forum
Meeting: Independent Media Committee
12:00pm – 1:00pm | Directors
Meeting: PBCore Advisory Sub-Committee
12:00pm – 1:00pm | Council
Meeting: Projection & Technical Presentation Committee
12:00pm – 2:00pm | Vendor Café
Poster Session: Friday Presentations
- Preserving KUHT: America’s First Public Television Station
Emily Vinson, University of Houston Special Collections - “Copyright be damned!” User Justifications for Reproducing Copyrighted Materials
Ellen LeClere, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison - Metadata for the Digitization History of Time-based Media Art
Peggy Griesinger, George Mason University Libraries - The Silent Film Project at the Library of Congress
Amy Jo Stanfill, Library of Congress, National AV Conservation Center - The Teeterboard Act: The Circus World Museum Film Collection
Molly McBride, University of Wisconsin – Madison - Digital Access to Sri Lankan Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions
Kamani Perera, Regional Centre for Strategic Studies - Academic Library VHS Preservation: A collaborative Section 108 log
Christopher Lewis, American University Library - Preserving Malware in Archives, Libraries, and Museums
Jonathan Farbowitz, New York University, MIAP - No Archives? No Problem! How to Create and Maintain a Moving Image Archive
Rachel Behnke, University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Library and Information Studies - Providing Access to Audiovisual Collections in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives
Tali Han, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum - Video Data Bank Digitization Project
Kristin MacDonough, Video Data Bank - The BPA Film Collection: Out of the Archives and Into the Public Eye
Libby Burke, Bonneville Power Administration Library - AMIA@NYU: New York University’s Student Chapter of the Association of Moving Image Archivists
Luke Moses, New York University – Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program - Jan Baross: Films of Enduring Vision
Peter Schreiner, Lewis & Clark College Special Collections and Archives
1:00pm – 2:00pm | Forum
Meeting: Access Committee
1:00pm – 2:00pm | Directors
Meeting: Moving Image Related Materials & Documentation Committee
1:00pm – 2:00pm | Council
Meeting: News, Documentary & Television Committee
1:00pm – 2:00pm | Studio
Meeting: Online Continuing Education Task Force
2:00pm – 3:00pm | Galleria South
The Academy Color Encoding System: A Standard for Long-term Archiving of Digital Motion Picture Materials
Speaker
Andy Maltz, Science and Technology Council, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science
The Academy Color Encoding System, known as ACES, was released to the industry in December, 2014 as a production-ready suite of technical standards, best practices and support tools. Developed and tested by equipment manufacturers, facilities and filmmakers over the last 11 years, ACES is intended to be the standardized digital production infrastructure that enables the industry to take full advantage of coming high dynamic range and wide color gamut capture, processing and display technologies. ACES includes file format standards suitable for long-term archiving, an essential component of a complete digital archiving strategy. This presentation explains how productions using ACES will generate archive-ready files and the file formats and related standards that support long-term archiving of digital motion picture materials.
2:00pm – 3:00pm | Broadway III&IV
Automated Metadata Extraction – Where are we Now?
Speakers
Pam Fisher, The Media Institute (University College London)
For many years, automated metadata generation for moving image content has been an attractive goal, but largely unrealized in modern systems. This talk combines a review of past initiatives, which help to illuminate requirements articulated over time, and discusses a long term project underway between BAFTA and University College London (UCL) – Video Clarity. This asks the question: “What can be learned by pointing a computer at video?” – what semantic, rights and engineering metadata can be discovered automatically? Video Clarity began as a ‘search and discovery’ technology project aiming to perform extremely rapid search of moving image files using embedded hidden metadata, and was soon able to search 100,000 files in under ten seconds. Two more things were needed: richer semantic meaning, and support for the modern metadata context of linked data and a multitude of standards. This talk looks at the current state of metadata extraction, search, and open tools.
2:00pm – 3:00pm | Broadway I & II
Seeding and Leeching: Collaborative Preservation using BitTorrent
Chair
Justin Mckinney, Independent Consultant
Speakers
Mark Simon Haydn, Collections Manager
Rick Prelinger, UC Santa Cruz and Internet Archive
Ashley Blewer, New York Public Library
Using private tracker communities circulating film material as a model, this panel explores the potential for BitTorrent to work as a preservation tool. Studying the development of film sharing sites, and exploring the standards imposed on content and users, this discussion will evaluate the suitability of BitTorrent for creating an accessible, sustainable, stable network to aid the preservation of significant digital and digitized materials. Presenters will discuss the benefits and limitations of the protocol, and the work that can be done in the field to make decentralized hosting a feasible option for archives.
2:00pm – 3:00pm | Galleria North
Advocacy: Campaigns and Projects
Chair
Gloria Ana Diez, Cinema Gotika; co-chair AMIA Advocacy Committee
Speakers
Grace Lile, WITNESS
Andrea McCarty, The Albanian Cinema Project
Elena Rossi-Snook, New York Public Library
This session will look at current Advocacy campaigns and projects by organized groups and their impact on the field of audio-visual archiving. The tools used by these advocates and the course of their projects can become blueprints to inspire others. The session will also have reference to the phenomenon of internet-based petitions, letter writing (e.g. the Moscow Film Museum protest) and websites (e.g. the failed Custodes Lucis protest). As this is the final session, there will be a summing up of the whole stream at the end of the session.
3:30pm – 4:30pm | Galleria South
Confronting the Crisis: Sustainable Preservation and Access Solutions at Scale
Chair
Joshua Sternfeld, National Endowment for the Humanities
Speakers
Chris Lacinak, AVPreserve
Rachael Stoeltje, Indiana University
Jean-Louis Bigourdan, Image Permanence Institute
Bono Olgado, University of the Philippines Film Institute
Recent work suggests that moving image preservation and access is in the midst of a “crisis” with a narrow window for taking action. Limited infrastructural and financial resources, coupled with expanding digital collections and the deterioration of magnetic media, could potentially lead to the obsolescence of much of our audiovisual heritage. This panel, structured as a series of brief presentations followed by an open discussion among panelists and the audience, will explore current and emerging options for conducting preservation and access at scale that can occur at the institutional, regional, and international levels. Sustainable options under consideration include basic assessment for at-risk materials, mass digitization, consortia planning, and preventive conservation of analog formats. The panelists will present a mixture of tools and methodologies coupled with anecdotal evidence of their real-world application that may assist preservationists in navigating this complex decision-making process.
3:30pm – 4:30pm | Broadway I & II
Reanimating Archives: Graeme Ferguson’s Multi-screen Polar Life of Expo 67
Speakers
Jean Gagnon, Cinémathèque Québécoise
Monika Gagnon, Concordia University
The presentation is a case study of the digital restoration and digital simulation of the Expo 67 multiscreen film, Polar Life, and its resulting exhibition presentation in Fall 2014. It explores the capacities of multimedia archiving to bring complex multiscreen films to expanded audiences through different access points of public presentation. Providing photographic documentation and descriptions of the restoration process, accompanied by filmed interviews with director Graeme Ferguson, and assistant editor, Toni Myers, this presentation will also show excerpts from the final digitized film. It will chronicle the partnership of institutions, scholars and film archives that realized the various stages leading to the restoration, exhibition and immersive screening of Polar Life.
3:30pm – 4:30pm | Broadway III&IV
Validate Your Digital Assets: PREFORMA, MediaConch and File Compliance
Chair
David Rice, CUNY
Speakers
Ashley Blewer, MediaArea SARL
Erwin Verbruggen, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
The EU-funded PREFORMA project aims to develop robust file validation environments through collaborations with archives, archivists, software developers, and other cultural heritage stakeholders. The speakers will discuss file conformance checking and how the PREFORMA project envisions giving archives more control over their file validation processes. The panel includes a demonstration of MediaConch, an open-source file conformance checker from the developers of MediaInfo.
3:30pm – 4:30pm | Galleria North
AO&U: Navigating Copyright to Provide Access and Use
Chair
John Tariot, Film Video Digital
Andy Sellars, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School
Speakers
Casey Davis, WGBH
Janel Quirante, University of Hawaii – West Oahu
Nadia Ghasedi, Washington University
In order to maximize the potential of archival access in the digital realm, archivists need to understand the copyright issues, risks and exemptions, and the means of navigating those issues within their institutions. In this session, Andy Sellars will report on copyright legislation in the pipeline which will potentially affect access by libraries and archives. Casey Davis will discuss lessons learned through navigating copyright issues pertaining to digitized public media content in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Janel Quirante will describe the experience and workflows associated with copyrighted collection material at the University of Hawaii, including donor relations and University of Hawaii’s levels of access based on a fair use analysis. Finally, Nadia Ghasedi will share some of Washington University’s copyright dilemmas and make the case for a copyright best practices guidelines for moving image collections.
4:45pm – 5:45pm | Broadway III&IV
Item vs. Collection Level Censuses in University Libraries
Chair
Tre Berney, Cornell University
Speakers
Josh Harris, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Danielle Mericle, Cornell University
Many institutions are planning campus-wide assessments of media holdings as a way to begin systematic digitization of content for preservation and access, or to make arguments for broader institutional support. Josh Harris, Media Preservation Coordinator at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Danielle Mericle, Director, Digital Media Group, Cornell University Library, and Tre Berney, Director of Digitization and Conservation Services, Cornell University Library will compare and contrast two methods of conducting such an assessment, one which collects item-level data and the other which collects collection-level data. Both parties will discuss the decisions that informed their respective strategies, as well as the pros and cons of their approach. The overarching goal is to provide insight into what each organization did to identify need and scale of effort, make arguments for financial support, and how they went about shaping the necessary narrative for administrators and key stakeholders.
4:45pm – 5:45pm | Broadway I & II
Digital Age Metadata Services – Making Strides toward a Broadcast DAM
Speakers
Meghan Fitzgerald, HBO
Meredith Reese, HBO
How can moving image archivists secure the support and resources needed for a Digital Asset Management system to effectively contribute to the business objectives of our corporate parent institutions? Three metadata specialists from the cable television domain speak about their experiences in the media and entertainment industry, on topics including: the changing technological landscape in broadcast media and the obstacles it presents, how to evangelize for funding and support, how to plan roadmaps and initiatives to make progress in the business world, how to collaborate effectively, how to build a proof of concept project, and what kinds of tools are necessary to move forward into the twenty-first century with audiovisual archiving and metadata management in a corporate environment.
4:45pm – 5:45pm | Galleria South
Cataloging Home Movies: Current Challenges and Exploring Shared Solutions
Chair
Andy Uhrich, Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Speakers
Karianne Fiorini, Independent archivist and curator
Katrina Dixon, Independent archivist
Albert Steg, Center for Home Movies
Home movies present a number of challenges for catalogers. For example, many home movies do not have titles. Or, a short reel of film can include disparate footage shot in different locations over a long period of time. To deal with these problems, archives have created local solutions. This allows for the discovery and access of films in their collection, but it has resulted in a range in how home movies are cataloged. This panel will examine current procedures used to catalog home movies to ask if there is a need for or interest in cross-archival standardization. Panelists will report on the findings of an ongoing survey of in-use techniques for cataloging home movies, present a case study on how a national film archive catalogs its home movies, and argue that tropes may present a more useful classificatory metric for home movies than subject headings or genres.
4:45pm – 5:45pm | Galleria North
AO & U: Understanding What Users Need to Understand Us (and Our Data)
Chair
Jean-Pierre Evain, EBU
Speakers
Amy Ciesielski, University of South Carolina
Sadie Roosa, WGBH
Ed Benoit, Louisiana State University
Laura Treat, University of North Texas
Julie Judkins, University of North Texas
How do different types of users access media archives? What are the searching methods of different types of users? How do archives take these needs into account in providing high quality and necessary descriptive metadata about moving image collections? Some archives have sought engagement with users to crowdsource description of archival holdings; what are the key differences in crowdsourcing requirements for moving image collections? These questions have largely been answered in general archival literature, but until now they have not been addressed in the area of audiovisual collections. Amy Ciesielski will present her research on user needs analysis of digital moving image collections. Laura Treat and Julie Rudkins will report on their preliminary findings of research into the information seeking behaviors of documentary filmmakers. Ed Benoit will report on research in crowdsourcing metadata for audiovisual collections. Sadie Roosa will discuss her workflows and experiences establishing guidelines for “Minimum Viable Cataloging” through the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
5:45pm – 6:45pm | Forum
Copyright Committee Open Session: Best Practices in Fair Use
Chair
John Tariot, Film Video Digital
“Best Practices in Fair Use” meeting hosted by the AMIA Copyright Committee. A strategy session for all AMIA members to discuss copyright scenarios that need to be addressed in a “best practices of fair use.” Discussion of the current AMIA Best Practices in Fair Use template, and how to apply it to different types of collections, as well as plans for 2016.
7:30pm – 8:30pm | Broadway I & II
Chicago’s First Home Video Day
Chair
Sara Chapman, Media Burn Archive
Speakers
Carolyn Faber, Flaxman Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Andy Uhrich, Center for Home Movies
Dan Erdman, independent Archivist
Home Video Day is a new spin on Home Movie Day, an international annual event held since 2002 that focuses on celluloid home movies–8mm, 16mm, and Super-8. Yet families and communities everywhere have also been videotaping public and private life for about three decades now, and few people realize just how endangered these documents of people’s history really are. Home Video Day is an engaging and fun way for the archival community to raise awareness about the importance of personal archiving, and it provides a communal experience that is hilarious, touching and uncomfortable in a way that only home video can be! The organizers of the first Chicago Home Video Day will discuss the success of their 2015 event and provide attendees with a blueprint to launch HVDs across the country. We will also screen some of the funny, heartwarming, and just plain baffling home videos that turned up at our Chicago event.
8:00pm – 10:00pm | Whitsell Auditorium | Wear your Conference badge for admission
Screening: The Realness Thing: The Remastered Paris is Burning
Released over 25 years ago, Paris is Burning has proved itself as withstanding the test of time within the LGBT community. At a time before Madonna released “Vogue”, this film put the concept of vogue-ing on the map. Following a handful of drag queens who compete in balls in New York City, this ethnographic piece opens the window to what it was like being openly gay in New York City back in the 1980s. With the help of technological advances and a dedicated team, Paris is Burning is being presented like never before, remastered from the original camera negative and, for the first time, being screened in its original aspect ratio so you can see the film as it was intended through the eyes of its director.
8:35pm – 9:35pm | Broadway & II
Reframing Portland (LIVE)
Chair
Timothy Wisniewski, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Stephen Parr, Oddball Films, San Francisco Media Archive
Speakers
Terry Baxter, Multnomah County Archives
This special screening event features live projections of expanded moving image works by local filmmakers and video artists using archival footage culled from the collections of Portland area archives and private collections with live scores performed by local musicians. Archival sources include color footage documenting the Vanport, Oregon Flood of 1948. Vanport was home to many of the workers that came to Portland during WWII to aid the war effort, and was the center of the African American community in Portland from WWII until the time of the flood. Other films include glimpses behind the scenes at the Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in the early 1940s and vibrant Kodachrome footage of the Victory Loan Company’s late 1930s talent show.