National Lottery Open Week tour
This week, I had the pleasure of joining a tour of the BFI National Archive’s Conservation Centre at Berkhamsted, as part of National Lottery Open Week. Having started at the BFI in January, the world of film conservation is still relatively new to me, so I jumped at the chance of a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what goes on there.
Through the tour, we learnt about the history of film projection and how film has evolved as a medium over the decades. We were guided through different aspects of the archive’s operations – meeting colleagues from our video, television and film conservation teams plus film scanning, Special Collections and Digital Operations.
One highlight was visiting the storage vaults, where film and other related materials are kept in carefully controlled conditions to ensure their longevity. The vaults are huge, and (in the case of vault one) when at capacity can store enough film to circle the equator 4 times over.
Comparing notes over lunch, it was clear the day was a great learning experience for all the group. Meeting colleagues and learning about their work up close, you can see that the archive is not just a repository, but a living, breathing place where film history is actively preserved and made accessible for future generations.
– Molly Petter, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator
BFI Film Academy – new archivists in the making!
Nicky Williams and Josephine Botting travelled up to Sheffield in late February to meet the latest BFI Film Academy cohort to tell them about the BFI National Archive (what we do) and what an archivist, curator or conservator’s role involves!
The specialist course, held over a week at the Showroom in Sheffield, gave 30 young people between the ages of 16 to 19 the opportunity to learn about film curation, archiving and pathways into the industry.
Despite having just got back from a trip to the ITV and Yorkshire Film Archive, the young people were really engaged and asked lots of great questions about film acquisition and preservation practice. We tasked them with coming up with ideas about how the BFI National Archive might adapt and change to new audiences and technology; and what a Screen Archive of the Future might look like. The group fully embraced the challenge set and came up with some well-considered suggestions which will be fed into ongoing discussions.
As well as finding out about what people do in their day-to-day jobs and having an insight into how the public can access the BFI National Archive collections – we also told them about the new trainee opportunities at the Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted (funded by the Heritage Innovation National Lottery) that will open for recruitment in April!
It was a great day and really amazing to see how enthused all the young people were to find out about what we all do…
Hoping to do more in the future to make more young people aware of the Screen Heritage sector and the opportunities available.
– Nicky Williams, Heritage Programmes Manager & Josephine Botting, Curator
The Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.
