Introduction

On this page we'll try to give you answers to the enquiries we most frequently receive by 'phone or e-mail. We hope that they will answer your questions and enable you to contact the appropriate NRFTA staff member if you would like to. Please select a question from the pull-down menu below:

1. I have some films and/or videotapes in my possession and am thinking about depositing them with an archive. What should I do next?

To start with, try and identify the moving image archive which would be the most appropriate place to receive them. There are four public sector national archives and eight English regional archives covering Great Britain (at present there is no regional moving image for Northern Ireland which accepts deposits). Their contact details can be found here. We are very happy to receive any film or television material which falls within our acquisition policy. If you are not sure if this is the case or need further advice as to who to approach, please feel free to contact us with your query. If you are interested in depositing material with us, please go to our information for depositors page for further details. If you are outside the United Kingdom, the Association of Moving Image Archivists, the International Federation of Film Archives or the International Federation of Television Archives might be able to help you find an appropriate archive to deposit your films with.

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2. I have heard that old films can be dangerous. Is this true?

Most 35mm film stock manufactured before February 1950 is produced from a substance called cellulose nitrate. This is very dangerous, mainly because it is highly inflammable. Nitrate film burns at a higher temperature even than petrol. Once ignited a nitrate fire cannot be extinguished, because the combustion process generates its own oxygen - a reel of nitrate film will continue to burn, even underwater! A nitrate fire also generates nitric acid fumes. These are highly poisonous and can be lethal if inhaled in sufficient quantities. If you have or suspect that you may have any nitrate film in your home, we suggest that you take it to a recognised moving image archive as soon as possible. Your household building insurer will almost certainly refuse to meet any claim arising from a house fire caused by nitrate being stored on the premises, and in some countries or states it is even a criminal offence to store nitrate on any premises which has not been approved for this purpose by the fire authorities. In the UK, the storage and handling of nitrate film is covered by the DSEAR regulations. There is also a Health and Safety Executive advice leaflet on the handling and storage of nitrate film.

You can use the following simple pointers to establish whether a film you have is likely to be nitrate.

• As a general rule your film can only be nitrate if it is 35mm wide, with perforations along both edges and was manufactured before 1950.
• The word 'nitrate' printed between one row of perforations and the edge of the film (see picture below) indicates that your film is likely to be nitrate, but if it was made between 1948 and the mid-50s the marking does not establish that beyond doubt.
• The word 'safety' printed between one row of perforations and the edge of the film (see picture below) indicates that your film is likely to be safety, but if it was made between 1948 and the mid-50s the marking again does not establish that beyond doubt.
• If your film is 16mm (which can have perforations on both sides or just one), it is almost certainly not nitrate. Small quantities of 16mm nitrate are believed to have been made in the Soviet Union and China in the '50s and '60s, but none is known to have been exported to the UK.
• If your film is 8mm or 9.5mm wide, it is not nitrate.
• If your film smells 'musty', like mothballs, it could be nitrate.
• If your film smells of vinegar, it is not nitrate.

Examples of 35mm nitrate film stock (left), which is highly dangerous, and 16mm safety film (right), with edge markings to identify the film base (this is quite faint and alongside the left-hand row of perforations on the nitrate example).

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3. I have some old films which I would like to get copied to video or DVD. Can you help?

Although we do have the means of transferring most film elements to the commonly used video and digital formats we are not a commercial facilities house, and therefore we can only transfer materials which are permanently deposited with us. There are a wide range of places which do offer this service, from self-employed individuals using improvised equipment to the post-production companies used by broadcasters which have professional telecine gear. Some of these operators do not have the specialist skills or equipment needed to handle old and fragile film elements safely, and going to a 'cowboy' could well result in serious damage to your unique film elements. In particular, be suspicious of those 'your old films transferred to video' advertisements in the small ad columns of local papers - check these people out before trusting your films with them. Contact details for a selection of companies which offer film to video transfer services and which in our experience have delivered quality work in the past (though please note that this does not guarantee that they will continue to do so in future) can be found here.

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4. I have some old videotapes in a format I don't recognise and have no working machine to play them back on. Can you help?

Probably not, sadly. We do not have the equipment needed to copy most obsolete videotape formats, and even for material which is deposited with us we normally have to send it to a specialist company for duplication. Videotape formats are superseded and become obsolete a lot more quickly than film, and also need more complex equipment to play back. For these reasons videotape obsolescence is a big problem for archivists. Your first step should be to try and identify precisely what format your tape(s) are. A number of websites contain information about videotape formats - this one is a useful starting point, and contains pictures of the different cassette types to help you identify the format.

Once you know the format the next step is to identify an individual or company who can transfer it to a current format. As with film to video transfers there are many options. These range from individuals and small companies who typically charge around £20 per hour of footage to transfer the more common obsolete formats (e.g. Betamax or V2000) to professional facilities houses which serve the television industry and can charge up to three figures for an equivalent volume. As a general rule, the more you pay the higher the quality of the result you'll get. A Google search may well help you to identify someone who claims to be able to handle your format, but as with film be on the lookout for cowboys - we suggest that you ask for references before entrusting valuable material with an individual or company you haven't dealt with before.

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5. What is the best way to store my home movies on film or videotape?

Try to keep them as cool and as dry as possible. Extensive research into the chemical properties of motion picture film suggests that the atmospheric conditions in which they are stored can play a big role in preventing decomposition. As a general rule you should aim for a temperature of between 10 and 20 degrees celsius, and humidity in the range of 20-40% RH. If you have to make a decision between low temperature and low humidity, keeping the film cool is probably the best bet. More information on maintaining private film collections can be found at this website.

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6. What is the best way to store my home movies on CDs or DVDs?

Whereas moving image film has been around for over 110 years and videotape has been in widespread use for almost 50, optical recordable media (i.e. CDs and DVDs) have only been used on a large scale since the late 1990s - less than a decade. Therefore we simply don't know how long the data stored on these media will last, and we don't know exactly what is the best way to store them. However, a lot of research has been taking place in this area recently. The concensus of opinion seems to be that, like film and videotape, a cool and dry environment is best - although in the case of CDs and DVDs, dry is possibly more important than cool. Recent research has also suggested that exposure to light can damage the chemical layer which carries the data. For example, this paper concludes that storage in a dark environment is as important as the atmospheric conditions. A US Government research agency published this guide for archivists and librarians working with CDs and DVDs in 2003, which we would recommend for anyone who is looking after substantial collections of these media.

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7. How can I view material from the NRFTA collection for personal or not-for-profit professional research?

To start with, by contacting us to discuss your requirements. We will then search our databases in order to determine if we hold material which is relevant to your interest or project. We do not have a catalogue which is searchable online at present, but hope to develop one in the near future. If we hold material which is relevant, you can come to view it at one of our offices (i.e. in Newcastle or Middlesbrough). In some cases it may also be possible to supply you with a viewing copy on DVD, but due to preservation and copyright issues we can't guarantee this in all cases. There is no charge for research visits except in the case of very large scale projects that involve viewing significant quantities of footage. We do charge for viewing copies. Please refer to this page for more information on non-commercial access.

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8. Why will you not provide viewing copies on VHS?

We made the decision to discontinue support for VHS as an access format at the start of 2006. This was mainly because the demand for VHS viewing copies had fallen below the level at which having bulk-produced copies of our published titles (e.g. Chemicals and Community) was financially viable, and the staff and equipment time needed to make individual copies was such that this activity was significantly reducing the number of access requests we were able to fulfil (a VHS tape needs to be recorded in real time, whereas an hour-long DVD can be copied in less than two minutes). Another factor was that the equipment and blank tapes needed to produce VHS copies are now more expensive than for DVD. Furthermore, the price of DVD players has now decreased to the point at which we don't believe that providing viewing copies on DVD only is denying anyone access to the collection on cost grounds - the major supermarkets now sell basic DVD players for as little as £20. We will, of course, continue to accept material originated on VHS (e.g. home movies which were shot using a VHS camcorder) for acquisition and preservation - we have only decided to stop supporting VHS as an access format.

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9. How can I license archive footage or stills from you for use in my TV production or commercial project?

As with private researchers, please contact us in the first instance. We will then search our databases in order to determine if we hold material which is relevant to your interest or project. We do not have a catalogue which is searchable online at present, but hope to develop one in the near future. If we hold material which is relevant, you can come to view it at one of our offices (i.e. in Newcastle or Middlesbrough). In some cases it may also be possible to supply you with a viewing copy on DVD, but due to preservation and copyright issues we can't guarantee this in all cases. There is a charge for this service. When you have identified the footage you would like to use, you may then need to obtain copyright clearance from the rights holder (we can help you do this in most cases), at which point we can supply copies of the material on broadcast standard videotape. Please refer to this page for more information on commercial access. You can also download our rate card which lists our charges for commercial services.

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10. Why can't I download films from this website?

We are aware that some archives and footage libraries - mainly commercial ones - are starting to make digitised versions of some of their holdings available online. We have decided not to follow that route as yet, and for two reasons. Firstly, the volume of bandwidth (of storage space on our server and of transferred data) needed to provide substantial amounts of footage in an acceptable quality for full-screen viewing costs more than we can afford. Secondly, the cost of the software and licences needed to stream moving image footage securely, i.e. to satisfy the copyright owners of our holdings that users cannot permanently download them for offline storage and subsequent copying - is also beyond our budget. We are, however, keeping this issue under constant review.

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11. The BBC 'Creative Archive' project lets me re-edit material as I like. Why don't you allow this?

When people deposit their films with us, we make a promise, in the deposit agreement, to the depositors and/or copyright owners. We promise that we will only allow their copyright material to be shown in a way which is 'faithful to the conceptualisation of the original'. In other words, we will only allow footage to be re-edited and incorporated within another film or TV programme if this is done in a way which does not give a false impression of the style or content of the original. We believe that it is not ethically right to allow primary historical evidence to be deliberately misinterpreted, and occasionally we do not allow some proposed uses. Examples include:

• The producer of a programme dealing with the history of package holidays wanted to use a home movie showing holiday makers on the beach at Redcar in 1935, with a commentary stating that the arrival of cheap foreign travel ended the 'grim annual ritual' of family holidays at British resorts. As the film in question was shot on a holiday which was a very pleasant and positive occasion for the family which made the film, we felt that that it would be unfair for the footage to be used in this way.
• The director of a programme about child evacuees during World War II wanted to take some colour footage of Home Guard training exercises in Cumbria, digitally remove the colour and show it in black-and-white. This was because he believed that the general public would not believe that colour film really could have been shot during World War II, as a common perception exists that all film was black-and-white in those days. After negotiations, the footage was eventually included with the colour: a commentator introduced it, stating that 'This very rare film was taken using an experimental colour process.'

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12. How can I organise a public screening of films from the NRFTA collection?

The NRFTA regularly organises film shows in venues such as cinemas, arts centres, community centres, schools, colleges and museums. These usually take the form of an edited selection of excerpts from the collection, chosen both to represent the collection as a whole and to be of interest to the group or local community in which the shows take place. A member of NRFTA staff introduces each film and we can usually bring the technical equipment needed with us, given sufficient notice. If you are interested in the possibility of a show at your venue, please contact us for a preliminary discussion.

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13. My granny appeared in a feature film made in the 1930s. Do you have it? Can I see it?

Regional film archives don't preserve fictional feature films. If you are trying to find a specific film or television programme for personal reasons, it helps to have as much information about it as possible. In the case of a film, knowing the title, year (or approximate year) of production, country of production and the name of the director would help. In the case of a TV broadcast, most archives will need to know the title and the date, time and channel of transmission. If your relative appeared on local television in the North East or Cumbria we might have the programme you're looking for. If it was a nationally broadcast programme or a feature film then sorry, but we don't. In this case we suggest that you try the cataloguing department of the National Film and Television Archive.

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14. I am interested in working as a moving image archivist. What should I do next?

There are essentially two career routes for film and television archivists in the UK: in the public sector national and regional archives, or in private sector organisations which exist primarily to licence footage to broadcasters. Most archivists entering the profession now have a postgraduate qualification specifically in moving image archiving. There is one such course in Britain, which is a one-year, full time master's degree taught by the University of East Anglia. There are other similar courses taught at institutions in Europe, the United States and Australia:

• University of Amsterdam (taught in English)
• Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin (taught in German)
• L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, Rochester, NY, USA
• Tisch School of Arts, New York University
• University of California (Los Angeles)
• Charles Sturt University, Australia - Internet based distance learning course

A strong interest in the history, technology and culture of film and television is essential, as is a good first degree (ideally in a related subject, e.g. history). Moving image archiving is a relatively small field (there are estimated to be approximately 2,000 film archivists employed globally, of which around 150 are in the UK), and newly qualified film archivists often gain some experience working in related areas first, e.g. film, television or other sorts of archive or library work.

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15. Why does this site want to set cookies on my computer?

The ISP which hosts our website offers a service which records the date, time and originating IP address of each access event, and passes that data to us. This service needs to set a cookie on your computer in order to work. We can use this data to identify which country you are visiting this website from, but we cannot identify you by name. If you allow the cookie to remain on your computer and visit this site again later, we can also identify that you are a repeat visitor. We may use this data to report website traffic levels to our funding agencies in our quarterly or annual reports to them. If you are in any way worried about privacy issues, please feel free to use the 'block cookies' feature of your browser to stop this site from setting any on your computer: doing so will not affect the functionality of this site in any way.

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16. Why can't I open the PDF files I've downloaded from this site?

Probably because your version of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader is out of date. If you're getting an error message which says 'Bad encrypt file', that is definitely the reason. To find out what version of the Abobe software you've got, select 'Help - About' from the menu bar. If it tells you that you've got an older (lower number) version than 7.0.5, you need to update your software in order to open the PDF files available from this site. You can download the latest version of Adobe Reader free of charge from Adobe's website. If you're using a computer at work and you're not sure how (or are not authorised) to install or update software, ask your IT helpdesk or support person to do it for you. PDF files will increasingly be published in version 7 format as time goes on, so this is worth doing now in order to avoid problems in the future.

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