Archiving the Ephemeral: Home Movies, Poligcal Movements

5/27/14

Archiving the Ephemeral: Home Movies, Polical Movements, Websites, Social Media Archiving the Ephemeral: Home • Types of Orphan Films and their Communies of Movies, Polical Movements, Interest Websites, Social Media – Home Movie Day – Orphans Film Symposium – Sponsored Films Howard Besser – Prelinger Collecon – YouTube Moving Image Archiving & Preservaon • Convenonal Archives & Communies of Interest New York University • Occupy

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Historically, Film Archives primarily Even when Archives collected Orphans, preserved narrave feature films they gave them low priority • Types of “ephemeral” films that were • Some people say that Film Archives are like neglected: Prisons, where some types of films disappear – Amateur films, Home movies forever – Industrial films – Educaonal films – Anthropological footage – Shorts – Adversements – Sll neglected, but perhaps not so ephemeral: Newsreels, Documentaries, avant-garde

• What we call Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 Orphan Films 3 Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 4

In recent years, communies have come Home Movies together to try to save and make Orphan & Ephemeral ﬁlms available

• These are modern versions of the Ciné-Clubs of the 1950s and 1960s • And, as happened in earlier Ciné-Clubs, many in these communies decide to make ﬁlms themselves (but most use more eding skills than camera skills, as many are made by re-eding other Orphan ﬁlms)

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Home Movies Home Movies

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Home Movie Day Home Movie Day • Began in a few cies August 2003 • Has grown exponenally

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HMD-now throughout HMD-now also Worldwide North America

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HMD has made inroads with DVD from Home Movie Day tradional film preservaonists • “Saving our film heritage should not be limited only to commercially produced films. Home movies do not just capture the important private moments of our family's lives, but they are historical and cultural documents as well. Consider Abraham Zapruder's 8mm film that recorded the assassinaon of President Kennedy or Nickolas Muray's famously vibrant color footage of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera shot with his 16mm camera. Imagine how different our view of history would be without these precious films. Home Movie Day is a celebraon of these films and the people who shot them. I urge anyone with an interest in learning more about how to care for and preserve their own personal memories to join in the fesvies being offered in their community...” -Marn Scorsese

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Formed Center for Home Movies CHM Summit (Sept 2010)

• Oﬃce at Library of Congress Naonal Audiovisual Conservaon Center • Non-proﬁt fundraising organizaon • hp://www.centerforhomemovies.org/

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HMD uses Internet for Web directory of HMD locaons Community Building • Though no distribuon or archiving takes place on the Internet, HMD community building does: – Collaboraon across US to give birth to the HMD acvies – Coordinang HMD acvies around the world – Recruitment of new parcipants-

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Orphan Films

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Orphan Films Old Television

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Educaonal Film Educaonal Film

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Educaonal Film Educaonal Film

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Sponsored Films Adversements

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Adversements Orphans

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Orphans Film Symposium Orphans Films

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Orphans Orphans

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Orphans Orphans

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Orphans Blog Sponsored Films

• The 6th Orphan Film Symposium.html - • 300,000 Industrial & instuonal ﬁlms were Orphans 2009 Blog ( commissioned by businesses, charies, educaonal hp://blogs.nyu.edu/orphanﬁlm/) instuons, and advocacy groups • Interest in these developed through stock footage, Prelinger Films, Ephemeral Films, … • Interest grew much wider when 1,000 from Prelinger collecon were put onto archives.org • More intense interest from Orphans Film Symposium • More scholarly interest-

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Field Guide Field Guide-Scholarly

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Newer methods for archiving & Field Guide distribung Orphan Media • Used Internet to collaborate on this scholarly study of 452 ﬁlms • Over 100 collaborators coordinated their eﬀorts

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Prelinger Collecon Prelinger sub-collecons

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Prelinger Tag Cloud Prelinger Archive Social Engagement

• People comment and add metadata • People create mash-ups from these, then upload those mash-ups to the Archive – “What happens when you make close to 2,000 ephemeral public domain ﬁlms freely available on the Web? People make art and more ﬁlms are born!”

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“Purists” on film screening “Purists” on reformang environment “ ” • Of course we all want to replicate the original way in which • Purists say that film should only be shown films were screened on the original type of media that it was • But not always. We don’t try to replicate: • uncomfortable benches created (35mm should be 35mm; nothing • noisy projectors should ever be shown on digital projectors) • smoke in front of the screen • And many “purists” release high quality DVDs or re-mastered • But that doesn’t happen in reality films with a music track fixed onto a film that was originally silent (fixing a single music performance, when originally each – Nitrate is shown on safety film performance was different) – 8mm is reformaed onto 16mm • Aempts at idealisc authencity (purism) are important, but can exist alongside other types of distribuon. It’s not a choice of one vs the other.

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And where can we ﬁnd the orphan or ephemeral ﬁlms that are being made today? Occupy Wall Street (10/17/11)

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Occupy Times Square (10/15/11) Occupy Wall Street (10/11/11)

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Occupy Wall Street (10/11/11) Occupy Wall Street (10/11/11)

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Occupy Dallas (1/21/12) Occupy DC (12/12/11)

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Occupy Dallas (1/20/12) Occupy Harvard (1/10/12)

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Occupy Finsbury Square (12/9/11) Occupy St Paul Church (12/9/11)

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Occupy Bristol (12/6/11) Occupy Rio (11/14/11)

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March 24, 2012 Flickr stats But w/all these photos & videos (just 6 months aer start of movement) ﬂoang around the Web: • “#Occupy” 632,089 • How do we know which was taken when? • “Occupy Wall Street” 164,304 • How do we ﬁnd the media taken before a • “Occupy Protest” 179,454 parcular crackdown (at that site or another)? • “Occupy Movement” 40,572 • How do we know if it’s okay to re-use one of • “#OWS” 113,904 these posted photos or videos (or even to migrate it for preservaon purposes)? • “Occupy Oakland” 27,202 • “Zuco Park” 9,164

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Study of metadata loss through To try to address these quesons uploading to services • we formed the group “Acvist Archivists” • and tried to address issues of preservaon & access to these works

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Aer establishing that many social Is YouTube an Archive? media sites stripped out metadata:

• We decided to focus on trying to affect the pracces of the photographers and videographers • This was consistent with the findings of prior projects I had been involved in (InterPARES, PDPTV) – Digital works are more likely preservable if an archivist can modify the workflows in the creaon stage (WorldFocus)

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Youtomb YouTomb

• monitoring 435,900 YouTube videos • 23,712 videos taken down for alleged copyright violaon • 109,428 videos taken down for other reasons • hp://youtomb.mit.edu/

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Acvist Archivists YouTube User Agreement hp://acvist-archivists.org/

• 5B “You shall not download any Content • MIAP students and grads originally working on unless you see a ‘download’ or similar link archiving media from the Occupy movement displayed by YouTube on the Service for that • Guidelines for recorders to make their works Content.” more easily preservable: make notes, turn on GPS, upload to service that doesn’t strip out metadata, keep raw footage, don’t compress • For meeng recordings, have them read a script at start of the recording

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Acvist Archivist Website

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Acvist Archivists Projects-

• Study of metadata loss through uploading to services • “Why Archive” postcard & video • 7 Tips to Ensure Your Video Is Usable in the Long Term • Best Pracces for Creators/Collectors • “Toolkit” for Occupy archiving • Coordinang discussions among various groups archiving diﬀerent parts of Occupy • Exploring methods for obscuring idenes

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“Why Archive” video “Why Archive” postcard

• ACCOUNTABILITY. Archives collect evidence that can hold those in power accountable. • SELF-DETERMINATION. We deﬁne our own movement. We need to create and maintain our own historical record. • SHARE. Archives are a point of entry to our movement’s rich record. We can use them to ensure transparency, generate discussion, and enable direct acon. • EDUCATE. Today’s videos, ﬂyers, web-pages, and signs are material for tomorrow’s skill-shares, classes, and mobilizaons. • CONTINUITY. Just as past movements inspire us, new acvists will learn from the experiences we document.

• R E C O R D & C O L L E C T what’s happening around you. • P R E S E R V E the record. Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 81 Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 82

Why Archive Postcard 7 Tips to Ensure Your Video Is Usable in the Long Term • Collect details while ﬁlming • Keep your original raw footage, unaltered • Make your video discoverable • Contextualize it • Make it veriﬁable • Allow others to collect and archive • Or archive it yourself

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Best Pracces for Content Collectors Best Pracces for Content Creators

• Security • Security – Sensive material – Hidden camera laws, pares’ consent laws – Scraping for content • Capturing Content • Content Search – Highest quality, set date and me-stamps, note locaon – Internet Archive, Archive-It, YouTube, Vimeo, Bit-Torrent • Offloading Content • Receiving Content – Raw files directly onto computer, keep material organized • Metadata Extracon • Uploading Content • Copyright – Importance of tagging, review of diff services • Deposing with an Archive • Copyright Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 85 Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 86

OWS Self-help acvies: Occupy Archiving Kit Downloaded FLICKR image

• Why Archive? • What is an “archive”? How do I create an archive? • Creang archiving-friendly content • How can I collect materials for the archive? • What should I save? • How should I organize my materials? How do I get it into the archive? • Descripon/Metadata • Media Management • Storage & Preservaon • Access • Exhibion and Presentaon/Outreach • Rights and Re-Use

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Creave Commons Guidance Marking Creave Commons licenses

• Creave Commons lets you mix-and-match four different • There are a few ways to mark your video with a Creave Commons condions: license. One way is to include a Creave Commons “bumper” or text card in your video. Creave Commons has created some with graphics that you – Aribuon: You let others copy, re-use and distribute your video, but they must credit you. can download from their website. This method is useful if your video is going to be shared offline (e.g. on DVD, live screenings), as the license – Share-Alike: You let others copy, re-use and distribute your video, only if they do the same with the work they create. informaon is aached to the video itself. – Non-Commercial: You let others copy, re-use and distribute your video for • Another way to mark your video with a Creave Commons license is to non-commercial purposes only. publish your video on plaorms that are Creave Commons-enabled, such – No Derivave Works: You let others copy and distribute your video, but not to as YouTube, Vimeo, or Internet Archive. These plaorms allow you to create new works using it. easily select a license during the upload process. This method is useful • You can use these condions in different combinaons to share your work because the license is machine-readable. A search engine, for example, in a controlled way. Creave Commons licenses are legal tools that can detect the license. depend on pre-exisng copyright laws. Having a Creave Commons license on your work may give you legal recourse, but it may not actually prevent people from downloading and re-using your video illegally. Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 89 Besser-Seapavaa 27/05/2014 90

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Promong ObscuraCam ObscuraCam

• “ObscuraCam is a visual privacy app for photo and video, that gives you the power to beer protect the identy of those captures in your photos, before you post them online” • Developed by Guardian Project in conjuncon w/Human Rights group WITNESS-

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ObscuraCam Acvist Archivist Collaboraons-

• With Occupy Wall Street groups – Helping store and manage Media Working Group’s media streams • With Tamiment Collecon – Methods for extracng metadata from recordings – Methods for collaborave selecon of YouTube videos

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AA Collaboraon with Tamiment Collecng – Think Tank on Collecng OWS Content- • Think Tank meeng recordings • YouTube videos • Other Tamiment OWS acvies – Websites – Meeng notes – Ephemera – Oral/video history – Google, Facebook groups

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Collecng – Think Tank Think Tank metadata redundancies

• • Guidelines spulate that person holding recording Daily, 2 hours device will check to see that me and date stamp are • Audio capture hardware provided by NYU correct before beginning recording (mostly didn’t happen) library (Zoom-H2n) • Guidelines spulate that a script be read verbam at • Bi-weekly digital ﬁle transfers the beginning of the recording, with date, me, proposed subject, etc. (and would eventually allow voice-recognion soware to create appropriate metadata). Script also stated that all parcipants agreed to Creave Commons licensing of the recording • Guidelines requested that date/me be embedded in the applied ﬁle-name

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Think Tank Guidelines Tamiment YouTube collecng

• plug-in for FireFox (downloadhelper.net) • As of April, ca. 250 items, policy: large events • Fair Use: 2012 ARL Code of Best Pracces – “transformave” collecng with context • Tamiment has been selecvely browsing through YouTube Occupy videos, trying to choose which ones to keep, then cataloging them with – Title, Creator, Creaon Date, Upload Date, Descripon, URL, Youtube Username, License, Format, Codec, Source Media, On Internet Archive, CC License type

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Tamiment YouTube Cataloging But this won’t scale!

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March 24, 2012 YouTube stats Alternave approach to YouTube (just 6 months aer start of movement) Selecon process • “#Occupy” 169,000 • Develop categories of important YouTube • “Occupy Wall Street” 98,400 videos • “Occupy Protest” 70,500 – Celebrity visits, Internal workings (library, kitchen, media), Confrontaons with police, Labor, • “Occupy Movement” 54,800 Housing, etc. • “#OWS” 50,300 • Have Occupiers ﬁll in an online form lisng the • “Occupy Oakland” 13,400 5 most important videos in each category • “Zuco Park” 6,690

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Advantages of YouTube How Occupy material resembles what Collaborave Filtering Selecon Process we’ll be facing in the future • Vast quanty of user-contributed material • Scalable and manageable • No easy way to control for quality, file format, metadata • Consistent with Occupy ideas of inclusiveness – no enforcing guidelines as with organizaonal records and of managing own story – no semi-consistency as in a single individual’s personal records • Tamiment can sll choose to be selecve in • Much of the material can most easily be found on collecng only a poron of what is voted in, Social Networks but the total set for review is a manageable • …we need to find smart ways to harvest scale metadata and analyze files, as well as to influence behavior of potenal contributors

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Copyright is a Serious Issue We can’t see the one-me stream of restored Metropolis at this very moment “Accidental Archives”

• Many of our most valuable archival collecons only became archival by accident – Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) started out as distribuon for Bill Viola and other arsts (also Paper Tiger) – Russian consulates had some of the best remaining prints of revoluonary era cinema – NYPL Donnell Library & NYU A/V circulang collecons are now the only remaining copies of works now out-of-print – Footage collecons become only copies of material later recognized as valuable (Prelinger)

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Convenonal Archives Communies of Interest

• Are embedded in instuons that have some degree of • Collectors and hobbyists showed interest in educaonal, stability (buildings, storage, employees, a source of ongoing industrial, amature, and home movies decades before film funding,…) archives did. They are responsible for saving tens of • The Public recognizes that their mission is to preserve thousands of works that would have disappeared. • Never have enough resources to fulfill their mission, and so • Are good at generang interest and excitement over niche constantly have to set priories that leave many objects not- types of works. cared-for • Are great at finding new ways of providing access to these • Oen their priorizaon favors feature films over more works (streaming and download, engaging the public in social marginal works (Orphans) networks and online discussions, …) • Concern over Conservaon oen inhibits Access; don’t want • Engage the public to become acve creators instead of to act like prison guards merely passive viewers. (appropriate for a DIY era)

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But Access is not the same as Communies are great for Preservaon generang interest • Preservaon requires long-term sustainability • But we can’t rely upon them, parcularly for (not only of the ﬁlms, but also of the long-term preservaon custodians--organizaonal stability) – They oen don’t have the shared ethics to stand up to bullying from © holders (though, as acvists, they do • Access is an important component of engage in Civil Disobedience—Eyes on the Prize) Preservaon, and a community of support – There is no connuous long-term funding, and oen they really helps make preservaon work must rely upon a single personal benefactor – Communies can disappear over me – Because they are so very interested in Access, somemes their short-term goals imperil long-term preservaon

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Convenonal Archives need to Archives need to work with listen to Communies of Interest Communies of Interest • and to partner with and collaborate with them • To make sure that both yesterday’s and • and to encourage their energy (think of Langlois and today’s orphan works don’t disappear the Ciné-Clubs of his me) • To preserve and make accessible marginal • and to learn something from them about Access, as works well as about building social networks dedicated towards parcular collecons • To ﬁnd smart ways to engage interested • and should recognize that much of their future communies in helping us to help us choose should be ed to viewers who curate and even re- which works to save, and to help us index this mix from their collecons vast quanty of works (100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute)

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Archiving the Ephemeral: Home Movies, Polical Movements, Websites, Social Media

Howard Besser Moving Image Archiving & Preservaon New York University hp://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/howard/Talks/ hp://www.nyu.edu/sch/preservaon/

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