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Topic: Film preservation experts. Opportunities. Remuneration.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 11-17-2004 05:24 AM
Speaking as a film archivist...
In general I'd say that moving image preservation is a growth area. To start with, commercial studio and TV archives have seen demand for their holdings increase through media such as cable/satellite stations and retail video. Without their 'legacy content' having been preserved and catalogued properly, they can't exploit it. In the US, public sector archives have by and large been very successful in making the case for the staff and infrastructure needed to do the job properly, two key examples of which are the new preservation facilities currently being built by the Library of Congress and UCLA. In Britain and Europe the situation is a lot worse, with archives facing funding cuts and downsizing - so much so that I am actually contemplating trying to move to the US myself in the medium to long-term if an appropriate opportunity came up and it was possible to employ a non-US citizen, but that's another story.
I'm not really surprised that the Selznick School website urges caution about job prospects for film archiving graduates. It's still a relatively small field, estimated to employ around 2,000 people worldwide. Even within that field, there are specialities, e.g. film examination and repair, archival lab duplication, cataloguing, access work (including copyright negotiations) and so on - and most graduates coming off a film archiving masters' degree will want to specialise in one of them. I would certainly warn against expecting to walk straight out of school and into your first job. Some do, but most don't. In my case it took 18 months, during which time I worked as a projectionist while trying to keep up contacts and networking.
That having been said, I don't know of anyone who has done one of these programmes and not got into the job they wanted eventually. The degree alone will not get you there - gaining some experience, even if on a volunteer or intern basis, is important, as is going to conferences, taking part in professional development activities and networking with people. I would also suggest joining the Association of Moving Image Archivists if you're serious about working in this area. But a formal qualification in moving image archiving will be a huge help, not least because for anything above very basic entry level positions, having one is now pretty much mandatory.
As I mentioned in another thread, the Selznick School programme is an excellent one, but it's not the only one. NYU and UCLA offer similar courses in the US, while in Europe the Universities of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and East Anglia (UK - where I studied) are all well regarded and have a unique profile of strengths.
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