The End? Never!

… of Decomposition Week… and this piece of film.

Not the end of the story.

Thank you for joining me for Decomp Week! I had some great feedback off-line, so a big thanks to everyone who has been reading this. Nitrate Day had the largest number of views this week and with good reason. Intriguing stuff for the film and archive nerds among us. As I mentioned (several times) these films represent only a fraction of the film collection in the Byrd archive. The majority of the films are in good and preservable condition. The work I’m doing now is to help preserve these films by performing film inspection, needed repair, cleaning,  and rehousing, as well as reviewing content.

For more photos of the infamous representatives of the  collection, check out the flickr set here.

(my desk. because i know you weren’t wondering.)

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So far during this internship I have utilized several resources. Most predominantly for Decomp Week:

The Film Preservation Guide: The Basics for Archives, Libraries, and Museums. National Film Preservation Foundation. 2004.

Enticknap, Leo. Moving Image Technology. Wallflower Press: London, 2009.

“Film Preservation Handbook.” National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

“Handling of Processed Film.” Kodak.

Pincus, Edward and Steven Ascher. The Filmmakers Handbook. New York: Plume, 1984.

“Museum Handbook, Part 1: Museum Collections.” National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

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Curious penguin hopes everyone has a great weekend!!

Steenbeck(anator)

Earlier this month, the Polar Archives received this baby!

This is a Steenbeck viewing and editing table for 16mm film. While examining film on a set of rewinds is safest, this machine allows us to view the film on a small screen and hear sound, if there is any. This is infinitely more gentle than running film through a projector.

Some assembly was required, post-travel.

On behalf of the Polar Archives (and additional departments) I would like to give a great big Penguin-filled thank you  to Scene Savers in Covington, KY for providing this. It has certainly found a great home here.

… see the penguin?