The Academy Digital Preservation Forum

Welcome to a new online community dedicated to advancing the art and science of motion picture digital preservation! We invite you to explore original content, curated resources from preservation-minded organizations, and a brand-new, moderated discussion forum that we hope will inform, inspire, and lead to collaborative advancements in digital preservation of motion pictures.

Filmmaker Perspective: Debra Granik

What to Preserve

Director Debra Granik and cinematographer Michael McDonough discuss the evolution of digital filmmaking reflected in their twenty-year collaboration.

Why Well-Transferred Magnetic Masters Still Sound Wrong

How to Preserve

Sound expert and Endpoint Audio Labs founder Nicholas Bergh takes a deep dive into the "secret world" of Hollywood frequency standards prior to the 1980s.

Practical Cloud Archive

How to Preserve

The ETC’s Archive Working Group has released a new white paper, Practical Cloud Archive, an exploration of digital asset preservation challenges.

Digital Preservation and the Consumer

Cost of Preserving

A number of questions arise out of the need for digital preservation to maintain its relevance in today’s file-based, fast-paced environment as the entertainment industry seeks to continue supporting the delivery of digital content to clients and customers.

Our Preservation Pillars

Our mission is to be a forum for exchanging information, exploring innovative ideas, and developing best practices and tools. We see these as largely falling within three underlying areas of importance, which we refer to as our preservation pillars.

What to Preserve

In order to permanently preserve a motion picture for long-term use, it is critical to select the best assets for preservation. This pillar comprises issues related to matters of which assets to preserve and why.

How to Preserve

The archival field has descriptive and administrative standards in place, but technical standards and preservation methodology vary. Information shared relating to this pillar include best practices and recommended standards for preservation formats, workflows, file QC, file migration, file storage, file maintenance, and related topics.

Cost of Preserving

Information shared and discussions related to this pillar can include the costs of developing and building an infrastructure for a digital motion picture preservation program, and the cost of digitizing motion pictures and/or preserving the born-digital assets necessary to permanently preserve a motion picture.

Featured Discussion Topics

Director Debra Granik on the set of LEAVE NO TRACE, a Bleecker Street release.

What to Preserve

Filmmaker Perspective: Debra Granik

Director Debra Granik and cinematographer Michael McDonough discuss the evolution of digital filmmaking reflected in their twenty-year collaboration.

How to Preserve

Why Well-Transferred Magnetic Masters Still Sound Wrong

Featured image taken from The Miracle of Todd-AO, 1958 Why do well-transferred magnetic sound recording masters still sometimes sound “wrong” or fail to match a reference release print? In a new white paper on the subject, sound expert and Endpoint Audio Labs founder Nicholas Bergh takes a deep dive into the “secret world” of Hollywood…