Motion pictures and Video
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Thousands of films and videos in various formats are available for copying at
the National Archives (NARA II) in College Park, Maryland. While
almost all of the footage is in the public domain and hence
royalty-free, some of it is not. Before ordering and copying footage, it must be located. The first step is to locate potentially responsive footage online using the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) on the NARA website, making note of its title and "Local Identifier" serial number. It is in this step that one can usually determine if the footage sought is royalty-free or not.* The next step is to look up the "Local Identifier" serial number in a loose-leaf binder called a Finding Aid. This contains information on the quantities and type of copies available - whether the footage is in the form of videotape on the publicly-accessible shelves or is a motion picture film which must be ordered by filling out a Reference Service Slip and waiting for a technician to retrieve it. There is one case, however, where things can grind temporarily to a halt: if there is only a single master copy available. In that case a new copy must be made by NARA for viewing and/or copying by researchers and this usually takes a week. The good news is that the film or the video is dubbed to DVD, which can then be copied to that format - the easiest format to deal with. 16 and 35 mm motion picture film: I use various techniques for copying (dubbing) media at the National Archives depending upon the type of media being copied. I copy 16 mm and 35mm film (color or Black & White, silent or with sound) by projecting it onto a monitor in a darkened room and taping it with a MiniDV video camera, or if necessary, with a 1920 x 1080 high-definition digital video camera. Because this is from a projected image, the quality of such recordings leaves something to be desired, but it high enough for some projects. 1/2" (VHS & S-VHS) & 3/4" (UMATIC) videotape: I can copy videotape to either 1/2" S-VHS tape or MiniDV, the 1/2"tape being the better of the two. MiniDV is running at $6.00 per hour-long tape and 1/2" tape is costs $10.00 - plus my rates. DVD format: DVD format is the easiest to work with as it can be copied directly to another DVD. Unfortunately, most of the film at the National Archives is not stored in this format. The cost of a DVD is $3.00 - plus my rates. Screening and the best quality: Regarding clients who require absolutely the highest quality copies and have a lot of time and money, I usually make copies of the material that they are interested in so that they can screen the material, decide exactly what they want and then contract a professional broadcast quality copying service to copy it from a master using the highest definition available. * In the rare case that film is copyrighted NARA has posted a "Source and Permission Contact List" that you can access by clicking here. |