Each week we’ll be sharing updates about what our teams of archivists, conservators, curators, engineers and technicians have been working on.
In this inaugural edition, learn about new technology we’ve installed at the Conservation Centre, how we’ve been working with community groups to share details of our work and how we’ve been training up our newest recruits.
BFI National Archive Film Laboratory
This last fortnight has seen the very satisfying culmination of fundamental work by the Film Laboratory and Archive Technology teams. They have reestablished the Conservation Centre’s black and white film process and produced, as a first run, new 35mm prints of restored titles from the recent Film Foundation-supported project The Camera is Ours: Britain’s Women Documentary Makers.
A film laboratory is made up of various pieces of technology and specialised spaces, as well as controlled chemical and photographic processes – and all the skills and knowledge that go into running them consistently and safely. Our team have worked to build the lab around the newly-installed Photomec Silver Light processor, the BHP modular contact printer, and the process control that supports their work. They are now moving on to re-incorporating the optical printer – by which we can use many controls to accurately and safely print damaged original film copies – and commissioning an Arrilaser system through which we can put digitally-restored titles back onto film negatives for long-term preservation in the BFI’s Master Film Store. The digitally-recorded negatives can also make excellent new prints for screening.
Silver is inherent in film photography and printing – it’s the very stuff of which film imagery is made. It’s also a byproduct of film printing and processing, since the ‘unused’ silver is fixed out of the new copies. Thanks to a process of electrolysis, this silver is recovered from the film processor. The Archive’s teams have ensured our new recovery unit is working well and playing its part in ensuring a silver future for the lab.
– Kieron Webb, Head of Conservation
World Digital Preservation Day
7 November is World Digital Preservation Day and is a day when the digital preservation community likes to celebrate the world’s digital heritage and the work done preserving it for future generations. This year’s theme was community, so with that theme to guide me, I wrote a blog post to highlight how the archive’s Our Screen Heritage project is benefitting from the generously shared expertise of the digital preservation community.
To read the article in full, you can visit the website of the Digital Preservation Coalition: https://www.dpconline.org/blog/wdpd/blog-tom-wilson-wdpd2024
– Tom Wilson, Digital Preservation Archivist
Film Handling Workshop
In October, six colleagues from across our curatorial archivist and film conservator teams spent two days with film consultant Brian Pritchard.
Brian began working for Kodak in 1962 and has dedicated his career to the production and technology of film material. He is also, we learned, a PowerPoint aficionado, fond of the gothic-font swirl-animated title.
Our workshoppers are all relatively new to the BFI National Archive and were upskilling their film knowledge and practical handling skills. The training included identifying rare film samples, such as coloured nitrate, aluminum film and 2 ½ inch film.
Over the course of the film conservation training, Brian’s website and the book he co-wrote were invaluable resources. Brian has an impressive reputation within the archive and a remarkable amount of knowledge, so we felt very lucky to learn from him firsthand.
– Caitlin Lynch, Curatorial Archivist
BFI Replay @ Libraries in Leeds Festival
Leeds – home to beautiful architecture, three universities, Elland Road, and now BFI Replay!
Following the roll out of Replay across the city’s libraries, this week we visited to promote and share the story with the local community. Invited to present at the Libraries in Leeds Festival, I partnered with Graham Relton from the Yorkshire Film Archive. We spoke to an enthusiastic audience about the rich and varied stories that archives hold and the collaborative work that brought BFI Replay to life.
The following day, my colleague Kitty joined me, and we headed straight for Leeds Central Library. After we’d been suitably stunned by the beautiful interior (if you get the opportunity, do visit), we got down to work, ‘Exploring the past through Replay’ with a group of library visitors, and running two staff ‘Welcome to Replay’ sessions.
It was a jam-packed afternoon filled with brilliant conversation, great questions, and a genuine delight at what Replay has to offer. So, the question now is – where next?
– Sinéad Beverland, BFI Replay Engagement Officer
Coming soon… how we use 3D printing video
Last week we took a small film crew up to Berkhamsted to film how our Archive Technology team is using state-of-the-art 3D printing technology to help maintain Conservation Centre equipment. Watch this space for a brand new ‘Inside the Archive’ video, coming soon!
– Alex Prideaux, Marketing & Events Manager
The Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.
