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Post by Vin de Silva on Aug 9, 2004 21:14:58 GMT
I haven't posted here before, but being a Doctow Who fan I find myself interested in and concerned about television and film archiving. I don't know if anyone has posted on this subject before. Anyway: The British Film Institute have recently(-ish) announced some far-reaching plans to restructure the National Film and Television Archive. A significant aspect of these plans is that the 4.5 million pound annual budget will be cut back to 2 million, and the conservation unit (responsible for preserving the materials in the archive) has been downsized by two-thirds. Many in the archiving community feel that the changes will be disastrous to the status and value of the Archive as a national resource. A petition has been started to campaign against these changes: www.filmarchiveaction.org/The new Director of the BFI has her own optimistic version of the story: www.bfi.org.uk/about/archive/letter.htmlDoes anyone here with connections in the archivist community have a real sense for what is going on, and what the truth of the matter is? My own instinct is to be suspicious of the motives of the BFI and to take the campaigners seriously, but perhaps others have different opinions. cheers Vin
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Post by Kev on Aug 9, 2004 22:33:54 GMT
This director's speech is full of gobbledigook business jargon. Don't detect much love for the archive here!
She sounds like Maggie Thatch in the 1980's!
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Post by H Hartley on Aug 10, 2004 9:55:43 GMT
IMHO what you are seeing now is the fall out from death of JP Getty.The BFI management was quite happy to lumber on over the years, not bothering much about anything, just popping out a film or two, while generous donations kept them in the splendour to which they become accustomed to. If they had been a business exposed to elements, they would have had to put their wares on display and sell hard. Film/Tape storage is square feet. Businesses are rented out by square feet so every square foot has to earn money.(imperially speaking of course).
What would be the point of going to Tesco's and trying find fig rolls and getting the answer "oh sorry we have some out the back somewhere, that we have have not packaged up yet"
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Post by Laurence Piper on Aug 10, 2004 12:30:32 GMT
...I know a few supermarkets that DO run that way! Seriously though, this is worrying news. We need MORE resources for preservation (and specifically TV, as opposed to cinema, which has always received the most money / profile anyway) rather than LESS. I wonder what anyone can do about this? I am most concerned about what implications this has for TV restoration and preservation specifically, which SEEMED (until recently) to be going the right way, with all the digital transfers underway. I wonder what exactly will suffer from these cutbacks? There are still Rediffusion negs in need of restoration, for instance - will all this stuff be pushed aside as "unimportant"? Ironically, the stuff at the BFI that would probably be "safest" in any downsizing / rationalisation (call it whatever bullshit you like) is the stuff that is most dispensable; e.g. the popular series that are "safely" held by the broadcasters themselves anyway and are making them money! The obscure / recordings in need of saving (e.g. any 405 line tapes, poorly kept negs of obscure shows where only one episode remain etc) are what a body like the BFI should be focussing on. They have a unique collection - but who at the organisation cares or has the power to do something about this apalling situation? The new BFI director talks of the taxpayers' justifiable demands for better access to their collection - but if material is lost in the meantime, that's access to a further portion of TV's past that is denied them. Yet again. I agree, the BFI should have got themselves on the ball years ago and tried harder to move into the 21st century. But what will the result be now, as things stand? More of our heritage lost?
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Post by Laurence Piper on Aug 10, 2004 12:32:03 GMT
...and I didn't use the word "bullnuts" either. I'm too angry about the situation to resort to pretend swear words when REAL ones are called for!
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Post by Andrew Doherty on Aug 10, 2004 17:26:03 GMT
Twenty Years ago I joined Wider Television Access, which acted as a pressure group to get archive television programming on the air, and was successful. It would show examples of programmes, which had not been seen for many years at various venues.
It was this group that inspired me (starting in 1987) to search out missing programmes. So a positive and constructive approach by a "pressure group" can work.
The point is that petitions may or may not work, and the ‘open letter’ from the ‘new’ Chief Executive does seem to be in rather general terms.
What is needed is a group like the long since defunct W.T.A., which can push the case for a dedicated archive channel. There is a need for a commercial structure, which can compliment the preservation work. A dedicated channel would help in this regard as well as being a financing force for preservation (if you don’t use it you are certainly in danger of losing it).
On an upbeat and more optimistic note, I am told that the BFI are in contact with the Bob Monkhouse Estate and next year they will be having a season of programmes from his collection. So, the work of the Archive is still going on and may well be enriched with more television recoveries.
It is not a lot of use just complaining. Only positive ideas, suggestions and proposals will solve this potential hazard to the television heritage of this Country.
Television has been in my family since 1948. I have seen the very best of what “The Golden Age of Television” had (and has to offer) from both the BBC and from the first Saturday in November 1958, I.T.V. It gives an insight into a more professional approach and makes you wonder what television of today has become. For Big Brother read Television Squalor. If, by the saving of any programme from the “Golden Era” and the showing of such archive programming, it diverts somebody away from producing squalor then the maintenance of our television heritage will have paid dividends.
So what are the proposals from members of this Forum or any other Forum?
Yours sincerely,
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Post by Laurence Piper on Aug 10, 2004 19:37:09 GMT
The idea of a dedicated archive channel is something that has been discussed on this and other forums in the past. I have long thought that a "BFI of the air" is the way forward to popularise archive TV (in a way that DVD releases cannot). Sadly though, some people take a dismissive "can't be done" view.
I also used to attend and support WTVA screenings many years ago, when they were just about the only body that were trying to offer access to - and raise awareness of - vintage TV. It's a shame they no longer exist - we need them more than ever. I agree with your comment about "use it or lose it"; part of the problem is that no one knows about some of the TV that is gathering dust on shelves and if bodies that are supposedly charged with the task of preserving and making accessible this material aren't doing so, it becomes a self-fullfilling prophesy of "no audience for it because no one has tried to build one...and the reason for not building one is a perveived lack of audience..." and so on it goes. Deadlock.
Pressure groups CAN work but it's helpful if they have a few sympathetic persons in positions of influence to help things along just a bit as well...
On the subject of the Monkhouse collection, it's good that material like this is accessed and maybe even added to the collection...in theory at least. But if the BFI unit is being drastically cut down, their ability to properly preserve such material is called inro question. What's the point in it being dumped in a corner and forgotten / categorised "low priority" along with so much other stuff due to lack of staffing?!? Makes you wonder. I WANT to believe in BFI, nut it's hard to do so (due to lack of government arts funding as much as to lack of focus at the BFI).
I'd be interested to know what people like Pan Rostron - who reads this site from time to time - have to say on it all...
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Post by Gareth R on Aug 11, 2004 12:56:41 GMT
Sadly though, some people take a dismissive "can't be done" view I don't recall *anyone* saying that it "can't be done". However, many people, myself included, have stated that it would be *difficult* to do, and laid out the obstacles that would have to be overcome. It *could* be done, but it would take a lot of money and a lot of time - you're looking at about £250,000 per year just to rent the satellite space for such a channel, and that's before you've hired any staff or bought any equipment or, indeed, cleared any programme rights. If you've got enough money, though, you can do anything you want... so the question is, how do we go about raising the necessary money? Surely then, Laurence, this is an opportunity for someone like yourself - with trenchant views about archive television - to start up a WTA for the 21st century and get cracking on some real, direct action that might actually achieve something instead of just moaning on obscure web forums. And there you go! So why don't you start your own? I reckon you'd be pretty good spearheading such an organisation. You'd certainly have *my* support, at least as long as you were thinking realistically and practically about ways that we could get archive programming back on TV.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Aug 12, 2004 10:35:11 GMT
Well, I think the idea is worth a few like minds getting together over a drink and discussing it and see what develops. What form would this "support" take then, Gareth?
Personally, I wouldn't have the time to "spearhead" anything at present (i've been involved as a committee member of a charitable trust in the past and I know how much time this sort of thing takes up) but would be prepared to be part of something that had others on board as well, sharing the workload.
Who else would be prepared to put bit of time where their mouth is? We do need a modern equivalent of WTVA , most certainly.... Gareth?
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Post by Andrew Doherty on Aug 12, 2004 11:08:32 GMT
I believe a starting point might be the Missing Believed Wiped event, which I am told is likely to be held on Saturday, December the 4th. This would guarantee individuals of a like mind to discuss what the possibilities might be. Also some relevant questions can be asked of the BFI about the way forward with respect to the Television Archive.
Too much time and effort has already been given for the purpose of restoring our television heritage to just stand by and do (and say) nothing.
Basically, it is what ever an interested group of individuals can bring to the ‘aid of the party’.
Yours,
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Post by Laurence Piper on Aug 12, 2004 11:13:40 GMT
Exactly, Andrew. Too much effort HAS been put in to let it all be for nothing.
OK, so that's two of us for a brainstorming session at MBW. Any more serious takers?
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Post by Gary Critcher on Aug 12, 2004 21:38:40 GMT
you can also count me in on anything TV archive related. I've worked in the BBC Film & VT Library, BBC radio tape libraries, and am currently freelance in transmission. My e-mail is gary@yesterdaysracers.com
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Post by john40dalek on Aug 12, 2004 22:18:05 GMT
Both BBC and ITV TV archive?
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Post by Gary C on Aug 13, 2004 0:17:48 GMT
erm...........as I said, BBC Film & VT Library and BBC Transcription Service tape library
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Post by Gareth R on Aug 15, 2004 18:04:56 GMT
What form would this "support" take then, Gareth? Whatever I can offer on a practical level. Just don't expect money, because I don't have any! Not a chance in hell - I have a full-time job and a life away from that job. To be successful, something like this needs someone who, to be brutally frank, has no life and can dedicate themselves to it totally. They also need to be hugely passionate, endlessly charismatic, have a strong business brain and be awfully good at getting large sums of money out of people, because if you're serious about a dedicated archive channel, we're talking million-pound-plus setup costs. It's a tall order, but then nobody said this was going to be easy!
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