Taking Stock at the National Archives -- Part 1

Hi all-
Today I want to share with you an article that was published in the Summer 2009 edition of Documentary magazine, the publication of the International Documentary Association. The title is, Taking Stock at the National Archives: Finding Footage in America’s Film Vault and was written by yours truly. I'm proud of the article itself and honored that the editor, Thomas White, thought enough of it to have it printed. So, here we go with the first of six parts.

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Taking Stock at the National Archives: Finding Footage in America’s Film Vault

There you are, working hard on your project, and you realize that the next scene calls for a medium shot of a pilot and co-pilot flying in a World War I Navy seaplane. “Oh great!” you say to yourself…or something slightly more colorful. “Whose idea was this?” Regrettably, you remember…it was yours. You know there’s no money in the budget to hire one of those big stock footage companies to research it for you, let alone pay the additional hundreds (if not thousands) of bucks in dubbing and royalty charges to cover those 15 seconds of narration. So, what do you do?

One option, of course, is to rewrite the scene. Or, you could find the footage yourself, costing you as little as the price of a videotape and some of your time. If you have a little more time than money, you can search through the thousands of motion pictures produced by or donated to the federal government and held within America’s film vault: the National Archives. Overall, there are more than 108,639 motion picture titles, and they are all available to help solve your stock footage problem.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has amassed one of the largest, historically rich documentary film collections in the world, thanks to the Federal Records Act. This, and other regulations, defines motion pictures made under the auspices of government agencies as federal records. Agencies are required by law to transfer their non-current and retired records to NARA. In addition, since it opened its doors in 1935, the National Archives has had the authority to accept donations of films that relate to America’s history from individuals, organizations, production companies and even the major television networks. As a result, NARA has acquired over 360,000 reels of film dating from the 1890s to the end of the 20th Century. In total, these moving images are part of the 350 federal and donated motion picture collections within the Archives. Approximately 95 percent of the films are in the safekeeping of the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch of the Special Media Archives Services Division, located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland. Those that remain are housed within the National Archives’ Presidential Libraries located around the country.

The collections held within NARA are part of a federal agency’s specifically assigned Record Group (RG). These RGs normally consist of textual (letters, books, documents), graphic (maps, drawings, posters) and photographic elements. If motion pictures are included within a particular RG, they predominately consist of edited documentaries. However, educational, informational, instructional and newsreel films make up large portions of the overall collection. There are also a few theatrical released titles as well. Most of these films were made, or acquired by, Uncle Sam and are free of copyright. They are also royalty-free. However, there are a small number of films that do have copyright or use restrictions––particularly within the Donated Materials Group (DMG) collections. The Motion Picture, Sound and Video Research Room staff is available for clarification and guidance.

Before I go any further, allow me to give you an idea of the vast scope of the motion pictures available to help you satisfy your stock footage needs. In the interest of simplification, I have divided the RGs containing film into one of three categories: Civilian, Military and Donated. Below is a sample of some of the film titles within each.

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Well, stay tuned for Part 2 in a week or so. If you are interested in this kind of research, please take a look at my book, America's Film Vault, at my website or on Amazon.com.
Thanks.
Phil
www.pwstewart.com