Abstract
While my colleagues’ piece “Resurrecting USIA: A Second Act at the National Archives” details the everyday, often invisible, work necessary to preserve and make accessible the films created or acquired by the United States Information Agency, some titles within this record group present additional challenges. A prime example is A Time to Play (1967; NARA Local Identifier 306.8364), which was first requested by researcher Brian Real in 2015. As laid out in “Resurrecting USIA,” we see a film’s first act as defined by its creator, while the second act is made possible by the archival and preservation work that expands access to the content. The third act is written by the researcher. Real’s request for A Time to Play [Figure 1] kicked off a series of regular procedures, but ended up requiring us to figure out a few new tricks in the course of making it available for its third act.
Recommended Citation
Amidon, Audrey
(2022)
"A Time to Play: Giving a Three-Screen Film Its Third Act,"
The Journal of e-Media Studies: Vol. 6:
Iss.
1, Article 9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1938-6060.A.482
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/joems/vol6/iss1/9
Figure 1: A Time to Play (1967), children play "Follow the Leader" Director, Art Kane. [NARA 306.8364]
ATTP-original-cans.jpg (1733 kB)
Figure 2: A Time to Play's (1967) original cans Before Real's request, NARA had physical possession of A Time to Play but staff had only completed minimal processing and the reels were contained in beat-up metal cans. The reference request triggered a string of preservation procedures in NARA's Motion Picture Preservation Lab, including inspection and re-housing. [NARA 306.8364]
ATTP Leader (for Scalar).jpg (1507 kB)
Figure 3: Leaders of three project prints for A Time to Play (1967) Close-up of writing printed into leaders of three project prints. Note that the order in which they were inspected is made visible by the increased dirt that transferred to the white cotton gloves.
Color correcting A Time to Play (for Scalar).jpg (1732 kB)
Figure 4: A Time to Play (1967), color correction process A scene from the projection reel (top left) is used for the image (top right) during inspection. Below, we the scene after color correction and in context. The color cannot be recovered fully from a badly faded print using our reference scanner and software, but it is balanced. [NARA 306.8364]
Three screens to one gif.gif (855 kB)
Figure 5: Merging three screens into one By simply using the layouter in our non-linear editing program, we can merge the three screens into a single image that simulates the original film. [NARA 306.8364]