what is film preservation?

What is the oldest film you’ve ever seen? Do you remember how you felt about it?

Moving Image is a magical art. The feeling you get is always so real and touches us all, even if the film was made long before we were born, and sometimes films even change our lives.

Why, by the way, can we still see such old films?

It’s because the film survived. Survived not because of the films’ own efforts, but behind the films’ survival so much effort has been put in for such a long time to keep them. Like other art forms such as paintings or architecture, in order to pass the films on as historical cultural heritage to future generations we have to undertake various long-term tasks to protect them from disasters like deterioration and loss. We suppose “Film Preservation” means these kinds of tasks as a whole.

1. Nitrate Won’t Wait

Film Preservation in this website means specifically the preservation of motion picture films. Motion picture films consist of the plastic base side with a gelatin emulsion coating. Up until the 1950s, 35mm (theatrical use) films’ base was nitrate, which is highly flammable. Though it is said that nitrate has the greatest look and strength, unfortunately they are rarely shown in Japan anymore. Film suffers damage every time it runs through the projector, such as scratches, broken perforations, and dirt. But it doesn’t mean that if you keep it in the can and leave it, a film stays in good condition. Especially under high temperatures and high humidity, films deteriorate without being touched. At first, there’s mirroring, which means shiny stains appear on the surface of parts of the film. Then the whole film changes to a brownish color and shrinks unpredictably, which makes it wavy and curled. At the same time, the emulsion becomes sticky, and sometimes honey-like substances form on the roll. Finally, the roll becomes stiff like a stone, and it crumbles like sand. As the deterioration advances, the burning point gets lower, so the danger increases. Nitrate fires were recorded in so many theaters, labs, or film vaults all over the world, and countless films burned. For this reason, nitrate was replaced by the acetate base called safety film. “Nitrate Won’t Wait” became the slogan of film archivists and to make a safety copy of surviving nitrate meant film preservation at the time. However…..,

2. Vinegar Syndrome

The safety copies in the early days had some problems such as, for example tinting or toning techniques, the original format, the sound information – silent/sound – were sometimes neglected during copying, and after copying, nitrate films were not always kept properly. Preservation techniques were not as good as nowadays, and deterioration was also printed through onto the safety print. In a lot of cases, the process of preservation was not recorded in detail. These are not the only problems. In fact, it was revealed that acetate base deteriorates faster and more severely than nitrate. This deterioration brings a strong vinegar odour so it’s called “Vinegar Syndrome”. It’s possible to slow down the speed of the deterioration, but impossible to stop it. Once it gets smelly, you can never heal it as before. Also color fading is a serious problem; you even find films from the 70s to 80s fading to pink if you don’t store them properly. In the 1990s, the base of the release prints became very strong polyester. There’s not yet enough information about deterioration of polyester. Rumor has it that the surface cracks, but nobody’s sure.

3. Cold & Dry

The suitable macro environment for film preservation is simply low temperature and low humidity. The ideal temperature is said to be 4 to 10 degrees centigrade and relative humidity 20-40%. To store films in stable conditions is also important. Storing films in a climate-controlled vault and carrying out regular inspection work is the bottom line. In addition, it’s necessary to think about the material of film cans and cores, and about how to store films; emulsion/base in or out, head/tails out or in, use a desiccant (Fuji’s Keepwell is common) or not…, such concerns about micro environment are also necessary. Also, a state of the art fire hazard facility is important. 

4. Film Archivists

Film archives around the world do tremendous work on film preservation, as do film archivists (keepers) who have special knowledge and skills. They follow The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)’s Code of Ethics and films are preserved, restored and exhibited. Also they build up good relationships across borders. From Japan, National Film Center in Tokyo and Fukuoka Film Archive have joined FIAF. An archive represents a country’s collection of domestic feature films, documentaries and newsreels as a whole, but other than that, a variety of foundations and university libraries, local governments and TV companies often have their own archives. Information about their collections is recorded on a database and is quite often accessible by the public. In the US and Europe, there are regional archives which actively collect small gauges such as home movies. FIAF is only for non-profit organizations, but not only the archivists of FIAF member archives but also people from archives outwith FIAF and profit organizations (studios, labs, archival suppliers, and vault companies etc.), academics and students can join The Association of Moving Image Archives (AMIA) and exchange and learn more about specific areas of this field. AMIA’s annual conference attracts more than 600 delegates. Other examples of archival groups are The Society of American Archivists (SAA), whose members form the backbone of AMIA, The Film Archive Forum (FAF) in the UK, and SEAPAVAA in South East Asia and Oceania. In each archive, important films are preserved on a special budget, and the aim is to make a copy of the original as close as possible to the way the film was first made and shown. Naturally, after preservation the nitrate films are kept in a proper vault for good. There are, however, misunderstandings and criticism about film preservation sometimes, as a result of its massive budget. There is a rapid movement towards digital archiving in a lot of places, quite apart from making good use of digital technology in the process of preservation. The look is totally different from the silver images, and the speed of format changes and how quickly the hardware becomes obsolete are some of the reasons why it is not enough to say that digital is the ultimate archival media, but in the face of this new technology, film preservation is undoubtedly at a turning point.

5. Archival Training

There are not so many schools where you can learn about film preservation. As far as we know, there are none in Japan, but you can find them in Italy, France, Holland, US, UK and Australia. In the US, at NYU, U of Rochester and UCLA, and U of East Anglia in the UK, you can study for an MA in Film Archiving. The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation has a one year course which is actually located in the Film Archive, George Eastman House, which has a joint program with U of Rochester from the year 2004-2005. As for short programs, there are Archimedia or FIAF summer school, which are well-reputed, and also AMIA, SEAPAVAA or other film archiving-related organizations occasionally have some training sessions or symposiums for basic knowledge or training in the field.

6. Film Collectors

In Japan, the survival rate of pre-war films was extremely low, and it is said more than 90% of Japanese silent films were lost. But this rate is more or less figured out from the films stored in archives and film companies. There are always possibilities for lost films to be discovered. For example, a lot of films returned from Russia or the Library of Congress in the US to the National FIlm Archive in Tokyo were films which never had been kept in Japan. They were rare and precious films taken from the former Manchuria or Japan when it was occupied by the US army after the war. Even in Japan nowadays, there are possibilities left for us to discover long-lost films. Private film collectors who love collecting films to enjoy at home

th the archive. On the other hand, there is always a danger of destroying surviving films without knowing how valuable they are, or without the knowledge of proper storage, they might deteriorate at the fastest speed. To prevent such mistakes, we have to promote the importance of film preservation for all.

7. Orphan Films

Film preservation is not only for the historical feature films, documentaries and newsreels but also so-called “Orphan Films”, for which the copyright owner is not clear, and also amateur footage and small gauge film is important as part of our heritage. Regardless of the contents, films as a material or product are already rare items, but that is not the only reason. Home Movies, for example, look as if they have no value whatsoever, but we sometimes find a gem from them unexpectedly. Not being directed or having too much editing made the home movies able to capture the slower flow of the atmosphere of the times, and the beautiful scenery which we unconsciously lost; the architecture already disappeared, the tram lines which were replaced, the life with retro looking outfits and interiors, very realistically. We can see the magical power of these films which have, for some reason, never been transfered to video or digital media. What we are trying to discover and preserve to pass them on to future generations might be this mysterious magic of films which can never be revealed without the light passing out of the projector, and the history of our own selves who were once amazed by such magic.

February 23, 2007 FPS