Plan

Make a New Plan, Stan

Digital technology provides low-cost options for independent and amateur filmmakers and promises access and preservation in perpetuity. Unfortunately, the life cycle of digital materials is less than 10 years, far less than professionally preserved celluloid.

Digital files are at much higher risk of loss because electronic materials are:

• Not readable to the human eye.

• Completely dependent upon technology for access and display.

• Susceptible to hardware and software obsolescence, viruses and environmental disaster.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

• Make archiving part of the project plan for all new productions.

• Assign production staff the job of duplicating files and storing them in separate locations after each day of filming.

• Use consistent naming conventions or folder and sub-folder organization for each project and add metadata in post-production.

• Participate in a national digital archiving day: set aside one day per year to safeguard your work.

• Contact your local audiovisual archives for assistance.