there are countless differences in the technical aspects of films made throughout
history (different width, base, colour system, etc.), all films share the
characteristic of carrying successive photographic images on a relatively large
support.
With the introduction of digital technology film archives are for the first time
confronted with a new kind of support, which needs neither to be held in cans
nor to be counted by the meters and which carries images not directly visible by
the human eye.
Along with the change of film support, the introduction of digital technology in
modern filmmaking, in laboratory procedures, as well as in access practices, is
changing the way film archives operate. Not without some form of resistance,
digital tools have already been partially introduced in film archives' everyday
practices related to access and restoration. Concerning preservation and presen
tation, on the other hand, the situation is different, as analogue techniques still
prove to be preferable than digital ones today.
Let's now see how film archives make use of digital technology in these different
areas, what are the advantages and disadvantages and which discussions are
going on within the archival community.
1 Preservation
It is generally accepted that digital technology cannot offer a suitable alternative
to film for long-term storage yet. Different factors like instability, obsolescence,
continuously changing standards (e.g. file formats), lack of knowledge and
experience in the field, and, last but not least, the still very high costs make it
impossible to adopt digital media today in preservation strategies for film
collections.
A complete overview of all these factors has recently been provided by the project
FIRST, a two-year (2002-2004) research effort funded by the European Union,
focusing on questions related to digitisation and digital restoration of film
collections.3 The project has produced a report on digital facilities and state-of-
the-art digital tools for film digitisation and restoration. Most importantly, the
project's final report4 provides guidelines and recommended practices for film
archives. The results of FIRST show very clearly that traditional film,
notwithstanding some disadvantages, today still offers the best long-term
preservation medium for film collections.
Nevertheless, it is of great importance to keep researching solutions that digital
technology can offer to film preservation in the future. A time will most
probably come when film will not be manufactured anymore. Film archives will
then have no choice but resorting to alternative supports for long-term
preservation of their decaying film originals. And, apart from the film
manufacturing issue, digital technology will one day hopefully be sufficiently
reliable (with respect to quality and stability) and economically advantageous to
become a good alternative to film, even for long-term preservation.
2 Restoration
Digital technology has demonstrated to be an effective new tool for film
restoration. All damages to a film that are accompanied by the removal of part of
the image can be repaired only by using digital software. In this respect, for
example, digital technology is more powerful than traditional photochemical
technology and enables us to do things impossible before.
However, digital restoration software, being relatively new and in rapid
evolution, still has many limitations and drawbacks. Two of them are the still
very high costs5 and the lack of standardisation. For these reasons traditional
techniques still offer the most reliable form of restoration. It is actually the
combination of analogue and digital technologies that nowadays provides the
best results.6
BEHOUD
Afbeelding la en lb. Voor en na digitale restauratie van de zwaar verkleurde film
Drie Dagen met Monica (Nederland, Wil van Es, 1956), gerestaureerd door het
Filmmuseum i.s.m. het Gemeentearchief Rotterdam, [collectie Filmmuseum]
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GIOVANNA FOSSATI DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ENTERING FILM ARCHIVES
3 FIRST (Film Restoration and Conservation Strategies) was funded within the programme 1ST
(Information Society Technology) of the European Union. The partners of the project were Association des
Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE), Radio Télévision Beige de la Communauté Francaise de Belgique
(RTBF), Institut National de TAudiovisuel (INA), European Multimedia Forum (EMF),
ORF - Österreichischer Rundfunk and Belgacom.
4 European Film Heritage on the Threshold of Digital Era - The First Project's Final Report, publication and
cd-rom, Royal Film Archive, Brussels, 2004 (www.film-first.org). See also Paul Read, Film Archives on the
Threshold of a Digital Era: Technical Issues from the EU FIRST Project, in: FIAF Journal of Preservation,
Brussels, December 2004.
5 A digital restoration usually costs from twice to four times as much as a traditional photochemical
restoration.
6 More on this can be found in: Giovanna Fossati, 'From grain to pixels: digital technology and the film
archive', in: Restauro, conservazione e distruzione dei film/Restoration, Preservation and Destruction of Films,
ed. Luisa Comencini and Matteo Pavesi, II Castoro, Milano, 2001 and: 'Video images and digital restora
tion of archival film', in: Restoration of Motion Picture Film, ed. Paul Read and Mark-Paul Meyer,
Buttenworth, London, 2000
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