Milt Shefter | |
---|---|
Born | Reading, Pennsylvania, United States |
Education | Syracuse University |
Occupation | Film archivist and preservationist |
Spouse(s) | Joy [1] |
Parent(s) | Bernard and Ann [2] |
Milton R. Shefter is a Los Angeles-based film and media-asset archivist and preservationist. He is best known for the creation, design, and management of the extensive Paramount Pictures Asset Protection Program, [3] and for co-authoring the 2007 report from the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Digital Dilemma, as well as its 2012 followup, The Digital Dilemma 2.
Shefter was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. [2] He graduated from Syracuse University in New York. [4] He moved to California to work for Consolidated Film Industries, eventually becoming Vice President of CFI's Video Division. [5] He then worked at Bonded Services, an international media storage and distribution company, [4] where he created a computerized tracking system that enabled studios and other content owners to inventory and track their films, television programs, and other moving image assets. [5]
In 1987, Paramount Pictures retained Shefter as Director of Library Resources to build an archive to preserve Paramount's extensive library of motion picture and television programs. [4] [6] Paramount recognized that it needed “asset protection” when it realized that "all its holdings were in Los Angeles, and if a big earthquake came along, it could lose everything." [4]
Shefter created a plan and supervised the design and construction of a new four-story 40,000 square foot archive building on Paramount's Hollywood studio lot, featuring environmentally-controlled vaults. [4] [5] Several hundred thousand cans of film and tape, some dating back to Paramount's inception, were located worldwide, identified, bar-coded, and consolidated in this one central location. [6] Shefter also implemented a “protection-by-separation” strategy for archiving Paramount's valuable and irreplaceable film and video assets. [5] Mirror-image archival vaults were built at an underground facility in Pennsylvania and in London, England. [4] [5] [7] [8] This was the very first motion picture studio worldwide with a total Asset Protection Program. [4] [7]
Shefter has performed similar services for other major studios and other organizations with large libraries of moving images and recorded sound content in the United States and Europe. [4] [5]
In 1994, Shefter headed the Task Force on Public Awareness for the National Film Preservation Board, [4] [9] which led to the formulation of the NFPB's National Film Preservation Plan. [9] [10] Shefter was also on the original design team for the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center of the Library of Congress, located in Culpeper, Virginia. [9]
Shefter testified before the National Fire Protection Association for revisions in their storage standards on nitrate film. [11] [12] [13] According to his company website, he has also testified as an expert witness on nitrate film for the United States Department of Justice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. [13]
In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked its Science and Technology Council to study the state of digital preservation worldwide. [14] The Council created a Digital Motion Picture Archival Project, and appointed Shefter as its Lead. [15] Together with Andy Maltz, Director of the Council, Shefter co-authored and co-edited The Digital Dilemma, the very first "white paper" from the Academy. [9] [14] [15] Published in November 2007, The Digital Dilemma addressed the effects of digital technology on the motion picture industry. [14] [15]
The Digital Dilemma won the 2008 Outstanding Preservation Publication Award from the Society of American Archivists, the oldest and largest archivist association in North America. [16] [17] As a result of The Digital Dilemma, the Academy partnered with the Library of Congress on the Digital Motion Picture Archive Framework Project. [14] [18]
In 2012, Shefter and Maltz co-authored a follow-up report, The Digital Dilemma 2, produced in partnership with the Academy and the Library of Congress, and focusing more on independent filmmakers and small archives. [9] [14] [19]
Shefter is a former Governor of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. [5] SMPTE has elevated him to Fellow membership status, "awarded to individuals who have, by proficiency and contributions, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives in the motion-picture, television or related industries." [20] In 1992, Shefter received SMPTE’s Citation for Outstanding Service to the Society. [21] In 2013, he received The Archival Technology Medal from SMPTE "in recognition of his long-standing and continued leadership contributions to the motion picture and television industry in defining practices for the storage and archive of the industry’s film legacy and digital media content." [22]
Shefter is a past President of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, and served as Chair of the International Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations. [9] He served on the Library of Congress's National Film Preservation Board. [5] [23] He is an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, and directs and narrates their annual awards show. [5] He is also a member of the Writers Guild of America [5] and of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [3] [5]
The United States National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. The National Film Registry is meant to preserve up to 25 "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films" each year; to be eligible, films must be at least 10 years old. Members of the Board also advise the Librarian of Congress on ongoing development and implementation of the national film preservation plan.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a board of governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches.
35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. The name of the gauge is not a direct measurement, and refers to the nominal width of the 35 mm format photographic film, which consists of strips 1.377 ± 0.001 inches (34.976 ± 0.025 mm) wide. The standard image exposure length on 35 mm for movies is four perforations per frame along both edges, which results in 16 frames per foot of film.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the media and entertainment industry. As an internationally recognized standards organization, SMPTE has published more than 800 technical standards and related documents for broadcast, filmmaking, digital cinema, audio recording, information technology (IT), and medical imaging.
Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the widest sense, preservation assures that a movie will continue to exist in as close to its original form as possible.
The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), founded in Hollywood in 1919, is a cultural, educational, and professional organization that is neither a labor union nor a guild. The society was organized to advance the science and art of cinematography and gather a wide range of cinematographers to discuss techniques and ideas and to advocate for motion pictures as a type of art form. Currently, the president of the ASC is Stephen Lighthill.
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David John Francis is a British film archivist. He was the second curator of the UK's National Film and Television Archive from 1974 until 1989, when he was succeeded by Clyde Jeavons. Francis went on to become the Chief of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division at the Library of Congress.
The United States National Recording Preservation Board selects recorded sounds for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The National Recording Registry was initiated to maintain and preserve "sound recordings that are culturally, historically or aesthetically significant"; to be eligible, recordings must be at least ten years old. Members of the Board also advise the Librarian of Congress on ongoing development and implementation of the national recorded sound preservation program.
Cellulose acetate film, or safety film, is used in photography as a base material for photographic emulsions. It was introduced in the early 20th century by film manufacturers and intended as a safe film base replacement for unstable and highly flammable nitrate film.
The Image Permanence Institute (IPI) is a university-based, non-profit research laboratory devoted to scientific research in the preservation of visual and other forms of recorded information. It's the world's largest independent laboratory with this specific scope. IPI was founded in 1985 through the combined efforts and sponsorship of the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Society for Imaging Science and Technology. Funding for IPI's preservation research and outreach efforts has come mainly from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional funding comes from generous donations made by corporate supporters. IPI provides information, consulting services, practical tools and preservation technology to libraries, archives, and museums worldwide. The imaging and consumer preservation industries also use IPI’s consulting, testing and educational services.
Paper prints of films were an early mechanism to establish the copyright of motion pictures by depositing them with the Library of Congress. Thomas Alva Edison’s company was first to register each frame of motion-picture film onto a positive paper print, in 1893. The Library of Congress processed and cataloged each of the films as one photograph, accepting thousands of paper prints of films over a twenty-year period.
Articles related to the field of motion pictures include:
Richard Crudo, A.S.C. is an American cinematographer and director. He is a 6-term past-president of the American Society of Cinematographers.
The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) is a color image encoding system created under the auspices of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ACES allows for a fully encompassing color accurate workflow, with "seamless interchange of high quality motion picture images regardless of source".
Edward Cronjager was an American cinematographer, whose career spanned from the silent era through the 1950s. He came from a family of cinematographers, with his father, uncle, and brother all working in the film industry behind the camera. His work covered over 100 films, and included projects on the small screen towards the end of his career. He filmed in both black and white and color mediums, and his work received nominations for seven Academy Awards over the span of three decades, although he never won the statue.
Ujwal Nirgudkar is a Technical Advisor for India’s National Film Heritage Mission and a chemical engineer by training. He member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, joining the Class of 2017. He is the first Indian to join the Academy as a member-at-large, having worked in the film industry for 36 years. He started his career at the Filmcenter Laboratory in Tardeo, Mumbai as a Technical Manager in May 1981. When the Filmcenter management closed operations in 2000, he joined Filmlab in Goregaon-East, Mumbai. He was initially appointed as General Technical Manager and took part in setting up a state-of-the-art film processing laboratory. He rose to the position of Technical Director on the Filmlab board of directors in July 2007.
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In recognition of his significant contributions to the Hollywood Section over a prolonged period of time and for his active participation in the arrangements for SMPTE national conferences.