Features

Something Old, Something New: Archival Research Online

In the olden days (three or four years ago) producers in search of film footage of a particular subject–say, Alfred Hitchcock–would call a series of archives to find out if they had any. If so, the producer/researcher would go to the archive to look through hours of videotape. If the project was about, say, the influence of Hitchcock’s films, this research might expand exponentially to include clips by other filmmakers and generic horror scenes. Archival research was a complicated, time-consuming affair, one that involved a producer/researcher working closely with an archivist to find the best possible footage. For an additional cost, the archivist could do the research and send a videotape of the found footage.