Inside the Archive #37: Firebreaks and Graveyard Shifts

Over two days in July, members of the BFI National Archive Access Team took part in a ‘firebreak’ – a temporary pause in business as usual activity that allowed us to complete some much needed auditing.

During this period we carefully surveyed boxes containing a mixture of materials across various formats. These ranged from videotape to audio media, including Betacam SP, DigiBeta, 1-inch, Hi8, VHS, and even a couple of 3.5” floppy disks. The audit involved recording key details, researching origins, and checking whether high-quality source or preservation materials were already held in the BFI National Archive.

The aim was to provide meaningful context to support the Collections Development team’s decision-making around potential acquisition – or, where appropriate, disposal – as well as to identify materials with potential for commercial reuse.

Many of these assets were relocated from the BFI’s Stephen Street premises many years ago and now form part of a broader mix of content generated over time by various internal BFI departments. This mix includes clip compilation reels, tape masters created by the early BFI Film Sales team for UK and international distribution, returned client copies of in-house telecine transfers, and off-air recordings returned after external use.

The work involved a lot of spreadsheet wrangling and research on the BFI Collections Database to try and identify as many titles as possible. It also involved a healthy amount of manual labour as the (very heavy) boxes needed to be returned to their home in the Mixed Media Vault (located at the John Paul Getty Jr Conservation Centre).

We couldn’t have done this essential work without the epic support from Curatorial Archivists Caitlin Lynch and Will Greenacre – a big thank you to them both. The work will continue but the dedicated time to focus on and document these collections has been valuable and will hopefully unlock more titles for public access. As a team, we came away with a much deeper appreciation of the Collections Development team’s work to date and their process – the time, expertise, and judgement calls involved in the assessment of material.

- John Carino (Archive Sales Operations Manager), Jo Molyneux (Archive Access Researcher) and Katrina Stokes (Head of Archive Access)

The Graveyard Shift is a public research event designed to enhance the BFI’s data and knowledge of copyright in our collections. On Monday 21 July, a group of cinephile sleuths joined colleagues in the BFI Reuben Library for the latest edition of the event, which focussed on the death dates of composers and musicians involved in filmmaking roles.

In the UK, film copyright generally lasts 70 years from the death of the director, screenplay and dialogue author, and composer. So, adding accurate death data to our database allows the BFI to know accurately which films are still in copyright, and which are out of it and can be used more widely.

We were delighted to welcome new and returning sleuthers (including a BFI Member who was over on holiday from Germany), all generously giving their time of a summer’s eve. BFI staff were on hand to help and take part in the detective work as a studious hush descended on the room.

Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we’ve updated and expanded the records of 248 composers and musicians in Axiell Collections. To give you an idea of the potential ramifications of this kind of work, these 248 musicians are listed as performing in over 3,000 moving image works in our database!

Odd as it sounds, researching death dates has its light moments – you find all sorts of curious things in obituaries, and learn about people and lives you’ve never come across before! Among our lists, we found Ina Ray Hutton, an American jazz singer who led one of the first all-female bands, the Melodears; Toumani Diabaté, a Malian kora player descended from 70 generations of musicians and a Grammy award-winner; and Dororthy Maynor, the first African American singer to sing at the inauguration of an American president.

• Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears – Medley
• Toumani Diabaté – Cantelowes live
• Dorothy Maynor sings You’ll Never Walk Alone

Fancy helping us update and expand our records? I’m pleased to confirm that The Graveyard Shift will return on 27 October for a Halloween Special! Keep your eyes peeled for further details.

- Louise McAward-White (Collections Data Manager), Molly Petter (Outreach and Engagement Coordinator) and Annabelle Shaw (Public Access Researcher)

The Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.