"The images that we capture on film are a universal language for telling the stories of our times. The medium of film is today’s Rosetta Stone* which will preserve our stories so future generations will know who we were and what we thought and did."
- Guillermo Navarro, ASC, AMC

The letters after Guillermo Navarro’s name indicates that he is a member of both the American Society of Cinematographers and the Association of Mexican Cinematographers. Membership in both organizations is by invitation based on the individual’s body of work. Navarro made history in 2006 when he earned an Oscar nomination for El laberin del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth). It was only the second time in 80 years that a cinematographer has earned a nomination for a foreign language film.

Navarro has launched a personal initiative asking the global community of cinematographers to join him in creating a heightened awareness about the medium of film being a legacy for future generations. His initiative was inspired by "The Digital Dilemma" report published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The report compares practices, costs and effectiveness of archiving film and digital media based on interviews with more than 70 archivists, technology gurus and studio executives. Preservationist Milt Shefter and Academy Science and Technology Council Director Andy Maltz co-authored the report which was published in late 2007.

Journalist Michael Cieply focused on both economic and legacy issues in an article that he wrote "The Digital Dilemma" report for the New York Times on December 23, 2007. His story cited a "Global Media Intelligence" study which concluded that one-third of the average annual $36 billion earned by the Hollywood studios comes from re-purposing films in their libraries for television syndication and home video sales.

On the downside, Cieply outlined the dramatically higher costs for maintaining archives of content produced and/or post produced in digital format. He reported that the average annual costs for archiving all elements of "the swarm of data" created for a feature film produced in digital format is $208, 569. In comparison, the report says that the average cost for archiving all elements of a movie produced on film, including the negative, audio tracks, still photos and the annotated script is $486.

Cieply also noted that technology vendors recommend that digital master files should be migrated to new files every four to five years, because of both the volatility of the media and the ongoing obsolescence of digital formats and equipment. He concluded with a direct quote from "The Digital Dilemma" report, "If we allow technological obsolescence to repeat itself, we are tied to either continuously increasing costs… or worse, the failure to save important assets."

The final words of his article put the issue into perspective, "…we could be watching Wallace Beery movies long after more contemporary images are gone."

The moral of this story is that today’s filmmakers and tomorrow’s audiences may pay a steep cultural and financial price for a transition from film to digital media.

Visionaries have appreciated the historic and cultural value of archiving narrative and non-fiction stories recorded on film for decades. After Robert Rosen joined the UCLA film school faculty in 1974, he led an effort to find, restore and archive "orphan films" for posterity. There are more than 200,000 narrative films and 27 million feet of newsreels and documentaries in the UCLA archives today.

Rosen said in a 2001 article published by Documentary Magazine, "Moving images represent our history and our cultural development, and even more, they represent our collective memory… the legacy of who we were and what we thought."

When Martin Scorsese founded The Film Foundation in 1990 for the purpose of locating, restoring and preserving "orphan films," he said, "Film is an art form that is part of our culture and history." The Foundation has restored and archived some 500 films.

Barney Rosenzweig produced Cagney and Lacey: The Return, a television film featuring Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, in 1994. The film was a sequel to Cagney and Lacey, his award winning 1982 to 1988 television series about two women detectives.

The series and telefilm were both produced and edited on 35 mm film that was initially archived at the CFI lab in Los Angeles. In a 1994 interview, Rosenzweig said that he cut Cagney and Lacey on film because several of his colleagues discovered after the fact that the image quality of television programs they edited on videotape at NTSC resolution wasn’t up to par for syndication at PAL resolution in Europe.

"Cagney and Lacey was the first television series to feature women in what was traditionally seen as a male role," Rosenzweig said during that interview, "If we are going to put our hearts and souls into telling the stories of our times, we want them to be there for future generations, including our grandchildren, to see and experience."

Shefter is the president and founder of Miljoy Ent., Inc., a Los Angeles-based consulting firm which provides archiving strategies and guidance. He has been a guardian at the gate since questions about the archive-ability of video and film media were raised. "I was the east coast representative for a film lab, which provided kinescope and other post-production services," he says. "After they were acquired by CFI, I moved to Los Angeles where I eventually ran the video department. One of the services we provided was duplicating live television shows onto videotape for syndication."

"Since analog video came on the scene during the mid- 1950’s, some 75 video formats with different standards have been introduced, and none of them are upward or downward compatible. The result is that a tremendous amount of content has been lost."

Looking back, Shefter credits CFI President Sid Solow with providing an invaluable service to both the filmmakers and future audiences by archiving the original negative and edited film for I Love Lucy (1951 to 1957), various other Desilu programs and such other classic series as The Andy Griffith Show (1960 to 1968).

Paramount Pictures retained Shefter to help establish an asset protection program for the studio in 1987. He supervised the construction of an environmentally controlled, 40,000 square foot archive on the Hollywood studio lot, mirror image facilities in an underground mine in Pennsylvania and in London, England. He also helped to plan and implement a strategy for preserving the studio’s film, audio and video assets.

Shefter subsequently organized a company which provided the same service for other studios. He was also part of the team that designed The Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) and archives at Culpeper, Virginia, which is a repository for all motion pictures and television programs that go through the U.S. copyright office.

"TheDigital Dilemma" report primarily focuses on films produced for the cinema, however Shefter emphasizes that all of the same issues pertain to television.

"Producers and other people in the television industry began to focus on issues related to preservation during the mid-late 1980’s when cable networks created new markets," he observes. "Awareness was heightened when Ted Turner purchased MGM in 1986 to get the studio’s library as program content for the TNT cable network."

He notes that the home video market for content initially in VCR and now in DVD format at HD resolution has been steadily evolving and expanding.

The general perception is that film that is archived in proper temperature and humidity controlled environments will retain imaging characteristics for 100 years, but Shefter believes that it is a conservative estimate.

Rick Utley, president of Pro-Tek Media and Preservation Vault, in LosAngeles, agrees with Shefter. He cites a Rochester Institute of Technology study, which indicates that properly archived negative will last for 600 years. Utley adds that since images on the original film can be copied onto a new negative, the right answer is infinity.

When asked about the shelf life of video or digital media, Utley responds, "Ask 10 experts that question, and you will get 10 different answers."

Shefter adds, "One problem is trying to find equipment to play back older programs. The joke we used to tell each other was that we had to provide video archives with two machines… one machine to play it back and the other one for spare parts."

Emilio Estevez got an objective lesson while he was directing Bobby, a cinema bio-pic about the life and times of Robert Kennedy, Jr.. Estevez wanted to insert footage taken by television news crews on that sad day in 1968 when Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. No U.S. network or local television station had useable videotape archives of that seminal event in history. However, Estevez was able to intercut 16 mm film in the UCLA archives that was taken by a freelance news photographer from The BBC, in England, who also had a film copy of a kinescope.

Shefter estimates that only five to ten percent of television programs that were produced and/or archived on videotape are playable today.

He points to a potential problem with the future retrieval of contemporary content produced on film for television. Content produced in Super 16 and 35 mm film formats for television programming is typically scanned at either HDSR or 2K resolution and converted to digital files, which frequently incorporate data compression technology.

"You can edit quicker and do other post-production more efficiently with compressed data files, but you risk compromising the intentions of the director, cinematographer, set designer and everyone else who was involved in creating the right looks to augment the sense of time, place and dramatic flow of the story," he observes.

Shefter also cautions that the use of data compression technology could create downstream archiving problems if filmmakers aren’t able to access shots in the post-production file of a TV series or movie for use in sequels.

Before there were VCR and DVD players, no one anticipated a need for archiving film out-takes.

Cynthia Kanner has overseen postproduction for some 110 motion pictures and mini-series since she joined HBO as head of post-production for motion pictures in 1994. The short list includes Angels in America, Conspiracy, John Adams, Elizabeth, Recount, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Lackawanna Blues, Generation Kill and Grey Gardens.

"We don’t compromise because we feel passionate about the films we produce," Kanner says. "The more information you capture on film, the more you can manipulate in post-production. Our budget allows for 2K scanning, but as 4K television and other advances in display devices approach, one wonders whether today’s digital masters are going to look good enough on the next generation of television screens.

"We want the ability to protect our assets in the best possible manner to allow for re-mastering when necessary. Our policy is to archive a film element and often more than one. We archive either the original cut negative and the D.I. master file that was recorded out to film along with an interpositive."

We asked Shefter what route independent filmmakers should follow in order to ensure that the content they create today will be compatible with tomorrow’s home theater display technologies and distribution opportunities.

"Don’t assume that a distributor or the network which aired your program or movie are properly archiving the master file," he cautions. "A hard drive can freeze up in as little as two years and DVD files will eventually degrade. About half of them are not expected to last for more than 15 years. It is also important to think ahead. Before there were VCR and DVD players, no one anticipated a need for archiving film out-takes.

"Keeping films that you produced in a closet or garage isn’t preservation archiving. The most important thing is to get your films archived in a proper temperature and humidity controlled environment. If you have analog or digital video content, check to see if there is anything worth preserving. Proponents of digital archiving claim you will also need to periodically migrate your content until there is a standard, universal technology with guaranteed long term access. However, people in the storage industry in their 100th year report admit that migrating digital data files doesn’t always work.”

He recommends visiting The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) website at www.amia.net.org for contact information on film laboratories, archival service facilities and libraries.

Stay tuned: Shefter and Maltz are currently engaged in conducting a study focusing on independent and documentary filmmakers and archives as a joint venture by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and The Library of Congress NDIIPP project. For information visit www.oscars.org/council.

* The Rosetta Stone provides an authentic verbal snapshot of what life was like in ancient Greece. The hieroglyphics carved onto the surface of the stone in 196 B.C. describe the repealing of certain taxes by order of the emperor and instructions for erecting statues in various temples.